Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Welcome Sylvia Wheatley to the Mine!

Today I'm privileged to have independent author Sylvia Wheatley with me on the blog. She's produced several books in both fiction and non-fiction. As a special treat, Sylvia has agreed to make one of her titles Your Time or Mine available for free until the end of the day tomorrow (July 31, 2014). Read ahead for details.

Welcome, Sylvia! I'm so glad to have you with us today. Tell the readers a little about yourself and how you got into writing.
I was born in South Africa and brought up in a home where my parents loved the Lord with all their hearts. At nine years of age my mother told me I was not a Christian because they were. This made me think and I asked Jesus into my life. At twenty one I came to England and went to theological college.
  After college I trained as a registered general nurse and when I was trained nursed. I then married, had a daughter and became a district nurse. After that I became a teacher and later a chiropodist. I also became the minister of a church.
  I have always written, right from very young. Stories, articles, Bible studies, anything. To me writing is an intrinsic part of my life. I cannot imagine life without writing. My imagination is acute and I even dream stories though what I dream I do not usually write. 

How fascinating! I'll bet you have some fantastic stories from all your travels. Since you don't usually write about your dreams, what sort of books do you write and why?

Mostly I write novels and in all of them I like some excitement. Usually there is some medical aspect to a story though not always and there is always romance. My book ‘Why didn’t you tell me?’ is about soul winning and I am hoping to publish some other Biblical books soon, God willing.

I'm a huge romance fan myself. I can't seem to write anything without at least a touch of it somewhere. Discovering how it fits is always fun. What's your favorite part of the writing process?
The most favourite part of the writing process is actually writing because I never plan my books. An idea pops into my head and I open my laptop and start typing. Because I do not plan I find the process very exciting because I never know what is coming next. It just comes. It feels as if I am reading a book, not writing it. Once the book is completed I go back and add to it, subtract from it, try to make it as readable as possible.

That does sound exciting! Like an adventure with your characters. :) Writing seems to be full of adventures, including the publishing process. How did you decide to self-publish and what challenges/rewards did you experience with that?
I decided to self publish because going through publishers is a long and tedious process. It involves sending books to various publishers and waiting for ages to receive responses, even to having the book printed. Short articles are a bit different but even they take ages until you receive the final payment. There are many would be authors who probably never publish because of these difficulties and I have found from reading self published books that most of the ones I have read are good. 


What do you hope readers take away from your story?
I always hope people will enjoy the plot. I also want them to think about God and how necessary Jesus is to our lives. That does not involve preaching. It involves bringing it naturally into the story. One can clearly tell people of their need for Jesus in just a few words and then bring it up again later in the story. My book on soul winning is slightly different because it is about that subject but in that I try to make it as readable as possible, not preachy and with lots of stories.

Any last words to your readers?
If you like reading I invite you to read one of my books and make up your mind about it. Below are the links to my books and my web page. I am also on Facebook. I have a personal page and also an author page.

Don't miss Book 1 of the 'When Times Collide' series, free on Amazon for 2 days only! Get your copy now at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00KECYWI0. And make sure to leave a comment for Sylvia to make her feel welcome at the Diamond Mine.


Books by Sylvia Wheatley

Why Didn’t You Tell Me?
A book on leading people to Jesus

A romantic thriller set in East Germany and England
before and when the wall came down


A Christian romance set in Alaska and Great Britain
The first in the series ‘The Web of Lies’
A Christian romance and thriller
The second book in the series ‘The Web of Lies’

(Book 1 of a trilogy, ‘When Times Collide’))
This is a book about a young lady who accidentally discovers a
way to travel in time and travels back to just before the
first world war where she a friend who will change her life

(Book 2 of a trilogy, ‘When Times Collide’))
The first world war begins and Sylvia continues to travel back
in time while carrying on her own life in the year 2002


Web Page

10 comments:

Peggy Trotter said...

Hi Sylvia! So glad to have you on the Diamond Mine! I so love your way of writing. I'm exactly the same. Just open the computer and off we go! It's been a pleasure getting to know you!

Unknown said...

Awesome interview! I also write the same way most of the time. I find when I try to plot a story and guide which direction it will go I get bored with it. It's so much more fun to let my imagination shape a story as my fingers obey the commands. :)

Amryn Cross said...

Thanks so much for joining us, Sylvia. Sounds like we all have something in common in the writing process. Looking forward to reading your book!

Unknown said...

Hi Sylvia! Good to have you on the Mine, and to read your interesting writing process! I'm usually a 'seat of your pants' writer as well, though I did have an interesting experience re-working a fairy tale. That was kind of fun since I knew the basic story line and ending, but had a lot of fun fleshing out the story with my own imagination. Is it hard to write time travel stories? Lots of research? I'm excited to read yours as I've always loved time travel stories!

Sylvia Wheatley said...

Hi Nancy,
Thank you for your comments. The book did need a lot of research but I find that very interesting because history becomes alive. The history of the war, of course, is sad but there were so many brave people.
God bless you,
Sylvia.

Sylvia Wheatley said...

Hi Peggy,
Thank you. It is nice of you to comment. Happy writing.
God bless you.
Sylvia.

Sylvia Wheatley said...

Hi Peggy,
Thank you for your comments. Happy writing.
God bless you,
Sylvia

Sylvia Wheatley said...

Hi Misty.
I like your name. Thank you for your comments. We are very fortunate to be able to write because it gives us a lot of pleasure.
God bless you,
Sylvia.

Sylvia Wheatley said...

Hi Amryn,
Thank you for the blog and for everything.
God bless you,
Sylvia.

LiteOfTheNite said...

Welcome to the Mine, Sylvia. It's such an honor to have you. :)