Meet the Author: Shawna Rich!
Today I'm pleased to share an interview with you that I did with someone who is not only a very talented writer, but a great friend. I have known Shawna Rich for years, but until just a few months ago, I had no idea that she was also writer!
I've had the privilege of watching her take her manuscript through the process of Indie publishing. Being a new author myself, it has been great to be able to see the journey through someone else's eyes and to be able to offer occasional insight of my own. Shawna recently published her first book, called the Pandora Affect, and it is my pleasure to give you a peek at this amazingly sweet and gifted author.
Shawna, I'm so happy that you could be with us today. Welcome!
Good morning CE, thank you for inviting me to be interviewed for your blog! I just published my first book The Pandora Affect, so this is all very new exciting for me.
Tell us a little about yourself. What made you choose to be a writer and who are you when you aren't writing?
I grew up on a farm outside of Grace, Idaho and I have four sisters and four brothers. It’s a small town located in a beautiful valley surrounded by the Rocky Mountains. After graduating from Grace High School I got married and I have a son and four daughters. I was divorced and as a result I decided to go to college. It has been an on and off thing because I had other responsibilities, but I am within one semester of having a Bachelor’s Degree in Interdisciplinary Studies with an emphasis in Sociology and Folklore from Utah State University. I have been working for the past eight years as a Creative/Technical Writer for the Department of Biology at Utah State as well.
When I’m not writing I love spending time with my family. My 13 grandchildren are constantly surprising me with their imagination and wit. My time with my children is wonderful too. They are amazing, talented, funny and completely supportive of my writing. When I am with my family there are always adventures!
I have always loved writing and being able to tell a story. I was attending some classes at Utah State University and I was supposed to be working on a paper but I just couldn’t concentrate on it. My youngest daughter had just left home and I was suffering with Empty Nest big time. I decided to just write something fun that didn’t pertain to anything and 45 minutes later I had written four pages. The most shocking part was that I felt tons better, it was if the sun had just come out from behind the clouds! So every day I would come home from class, hurry and do my homework, and then reward myself for staying on task by adding to the pages. After a few months I had written over 100 pages and at that point I realized I COULD write a book. It took me about a year to finish it, but I never published it. That was 10 years ago.
What made you choose Indie publishing?
At the time that I completed Pandora Affect I had the option of having a really high priced company help me self-publish my book or I could send the manuscript to publishing houses. Neither of those options worked for me. I didn’t have a great deal of extra money lying around, and I had read many articles about how extremely difficult it was to get picked up by a publisher as a new author. As the technology has changed and electronic books have become so readily available, along with all the devices that can now handle them I started looking into it. I am a rather cautious person (that’s code for chicken) so I didn’t really act on it until this year. I had been writing other books all the way along and my children kept telling me I should self-publish through Amazon.
I have been very fortunate to meet some wonderful people along the way who have helped me immensely, including you CE. In spite of the fact that I was pretty clueless about the whole process the people that I spoke with at Create Space and Kindle were awesome and very helpful. I am so glad I chose to publish this way. I have total control of my book and how it looks. I am extremely happy with how it has turned out. Right now Pandora Affect is available on Kindle, and within the next two weeks it will be available in a print version.
Tell us about your book! Also, if you had to pick a character in your story that you relate to the most, which one would it be and why?
When I started writing my book I didn’t really have a theme or a direction in mind, but after a few days I realized that I was heading toward the whole mystery/thriller/conspiracy thing. I have to tell you that the first time I killed a person (in print only) I was so excited. I went to call my children and then realized that everyone was asleep. I do have to say that I am very much a pacifist and I hate violence of any kind.
The Pandora Affect is a story about a young woman (Hannah Jeffries) who lost her parents when she was young. She grew up on a farm in Idaho with her grandparents and when she went to college she chose to become a Biochemist like her father. After graduating she is hired by Willmore Pharmaceuticals to work on researching combining natural and synthetic chemicals to create medications with that are more effective with fewer side effects. After her fiancé unexpectedly dies from an asthma attack his attorney gives her a letter which alludes to some very bad things including the creation of a bioweapon which is called Pandora. This weapon targets the genetic weaknesses each person has causing that inherent problem to kill the victim and rendering any medications given useless. She learns about all the lies that have been told and also finds out about The Committee. They are a group hidden within Willmore Pharmaceuticals. She also discovers that her father had inadvertently done some consulting work for The Committee and had come up with an antidote after he realized what they were doing. The journals came up missing at the time of his death and no one has been able to duplicate an antidote. So the race is on for her to find the journals before The Committee.
If I had to be a character in the book it would probably be a combination of Harvey Andrews, and Chloe Manning. He is absent minded unless he is working and gets distracted easily. My family is constantly teasing me about being distracted from what I’m doing by finding some random fact that is interesting to me. Chloe Manning is very quick witted and sarcastic at times. She is also very compassionate which makes her life kind of complicated. I enjoy a good war of wits and I am quite sarcastic when I am irritated. I also aspire to have compassion for everyone I meet.
Do you have any advice for new authors? Would you encourage them to look at self-publishing?
I love writing! It’s so exciting to be able to create a story that brings others enjoyment. I tell everyone who will listen that they should write a story. Everyone has a story and sharing it helps not only the people who read it but the person who writes it. My advice to those who are thinking about writing is…DO IT! Don’t wait, all you have to do is write two or three pages every day or every other day and before long you have a book. Don’t let writing two or three hundred pages intimidate you. Break it down into small goals, but do it. Let your sparkle out for others to enjoy. There are so many possibilities and so much to share. Take a chance!!!
I would encourage everyone who is thinking about writing a book, in the process of creating their manuscript, or that has their book completed and sitting on a computer like me to self-publish. You control everything about your book, you can do as much or as little marketing as you want, it is completely yours. I love being an Indie Publisher!!! If anyone has questions I am happy to help, and if I don’t know the answer I bet we can find someone who will. You can email me at shawnarichauthor@gmail.com, or message me on Facebook. I am currently in the middle of building a website. I would love to hear from you.
I want to thank you for this opportunity to chat CE. I have enjoyed it very much!!
Thanks Shawna for the great interview and for giving us all us chance to get to know you better!
The Pandora Affect is available on Amazon.com. You can also find it featured on my Awesome Indies page, along with other great titles by Indie authors.
Blurb:
Until the untimely death of her fiancé Paul Drummund, the brilliant young biochemist Hannah Jeffries had never given much thought to the deaths of her parents and grandparents. After reading a letter left by Paul, her world is tossed upside down and she is thrust into a murky world of murder, lies, conspiracy and intrigue. Now Hannah must use all of her imagination and intellect to stop the secret committee from completing work on a lethal bioweapon, and she must race The Committee to get her father's research journals containing the antidote. Unsure of who she can trust Hannah must keep her secret while protecting those she cares about.
