About Sophie
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| Photo by Gigi Pandian |
Writers spend a lot of time in their heads. Novels must take root somewhere, and there is something about the writer's brain—call it a mental alkalinity level—that makes it especially conducive to the germination of stories.
The what-if landscape can be a delightful place, spawning the sort of fiction that warms the heart and shores up one's faith in humanity and encourages one to give life's battles another valiant effort.
My own mind is more often a place of turmoil and provocation and emotional voyeurism. My characters show up flawed and damaged, furious and vengeful, needy and voracious and uneasy. They've come to wreak havoc and their plans nearly always go awry. I don't know why my imagination is such a bleak and stunted place.
Strike that last sentence—consider it only the first of the many lies I'll tell you. I have some theories about how I got this way, but they are far less interesting than the stories that stagger out of the darkness.
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None of this will be apparent when you meet me. I'm a nice lady, the mother of two nearly-grown children, a former team mom and scout leader.
I grew up in the Midwest, a middle child in a family where books were prized and children were expected to amuse themselves. I studied computer science in college and went to work for an accounting firm. I got married, had kids, and quit my job to raise them.
All along, I wrote, sending short stories to Seventeen when I was in grade school and literary journals when I was in college. I wrote True Confessions and articles for parenting and women's magazines when the kids were little, but I was distracted by other things. I was a home-maker in the old-fashioned sense of the word—I made a home with my hands and my heartfelt hopes: sewing, cooking, decorating the house, building tree forts and having tea parties with stuffed animals.
And reading—I read to my children until they couldn't stand it any more; one of them allowed me to read to her most nights until she was sixteen.
None of that time was wasted, but one day I realized it was coming to a close, and it was time to do something else.
And here we are.
Interviews
The Booklist interview is up! Talking about Garden of Stones (December 2012)
Sophie chats with the BadAss Book Review Crew (December 2012)
Talking about Hanging By A Thread at Imaginary Reads (December 2012)
Fun interview at Jen's Book Thoughts—Five on Friday! (November 2012)
Sophie discusses Blood Bond at BOLO Books blog (November 2012)
Watch as Sophie discusses Garden of Stones (November 2012)
SUVUDU's Matt Staggs interviews Sophie (October 2011)
Urban Fantasy Investigations interviews Sophie (July 2011)
Sophie answers a Q&A at My Bookish Ways (June 2011)
Read Scott Montgomery's Book People interview with Sophie (June 2011)
Watch RT BookReview's Stephanie Klose interview Sophie (May 2011)
Listen to Harlequin's Jayne Hoogenberk interview Sophie (May 2011)
Sophie answers a Q&A at Mel's Random Reviews (April 2011)
Sophie shares her casting ideas for an AFTERTIME movie (March 2011)
Listen to Stephen Usery interview Sophie (March 2011)
Sophie discusses post-apocalyptic with Scott Phillips (January 2011)
Sophie shares how she came to write AFTERTIME (December 2010)
Listen to CJ West interview Sophie for Thriller 30 (June 2010)
Listen to Sophie's interview with Shannon Devereaux Sanford of WTBQ:
Read Rebecca Chastain's interview with Sophie (September 2009)Read Sophie's "Nerd Chat" with blogger Pop Culture Nerd (August 2009)Watch Keith Rawson's video interview with Sophie (August 2009)Read Linda Faulkner's interview with Sophie (August 2009)Sophie reveals her 6-Word Memoir (July 2009)
