Sherri Stewart – Story Behind the Story – Part 1 of 1

Shannon here: Sherri Stewart shares the inspiration behind her latest Mystery Romance, Tricks and Treachery. Comment or answer the question in this post to enter the drawing for winner’s choice of a digital or print copy. Deadline: April 1st, 11:59 pm central time. Here’s Sherri:

I’ve always found it therapeutic to write about real problems from my life or from my work. There’s something about writing fiction that allows me to reprocess the real event into a story and find a more agreeable outcome. I did this with my first book, Come Out of Hiding, where I wrote about a real legal case I worked on that didn’t turn out the way I wanted it to. With my fictional lead character, I could rethink the case and invent a better ending.

I also write books that commemorate people who mean a lot to me. It’s a way of preserving their memory after they’re gone. My mother had the best stories. Outrageous things always happened to her. Like the time when she checked into a San Francisco hotel, and the hotel manager mistook her for the First Lady, who was also staying at the hotel. Imagine her surprise when they took her to the penthouse, filled with fresh flowers, bottles of wine, and a stack of mail written to Pat Nixon. When dementia began to steal my mother’s memories, I knew it was time to write a fictional book about her while she could still tell her stories. Thus, The Good Little Nurse.

But with my newest book, Tricks and Treachery, I wrote about my youngest sister, whose life has not been easy due to choices she made, but also to circumstances that have really been hard on her. Just a few years ago, her boyfriend of thirteen years died of cancer. My sister, who is disabled and cannot work, lives alone and is lonely, so she became involved with a man she’d met online while playing Words with Friends, whom she texted with several times a day for years. He promised to come and marry her. She even bought a wedding dress, but something always came up on the oil rig he worked on, and he never showed up.

As her sister, I could tell Robert wasn’t real, and I had a sneaking suspicion he was stealing money from her—the little she had—but she always evaded answering my questions. It was as if she was in a trance, and even though she had doubts about things he’d say that didn’t ring true, she was holding on to the hope Robert was real and coming to marry her.

I received my sister’s permission to write her story, so most of the details about Robert and their relationship came right from her. In the story, her older sister is sure that the man is not the rich man he purports to be but lives overseas somewhere. And this is his job—to defraud vulnerable women out of their money. So her older sister intends to expose this man who is stealing her sister’s heart and money, so she hires a scam hunters company to find Robert and expose him. But in the process, she gets scammed.

While my own sister’s story isn’t finished yet, I wrote a happy ending for her, so there’s real romance with a man who loves her just the way she is. And not only that, the older sister also finds love.

Question for Readers: Have you ever tried to solve your sibling’s or family member’s problem and it backfired?

About Sherri: Sherri Stewart is woman of faith who loves all things foreign and different, whether it’s food, culture, or language. A former French teacher, principal, attorney, and flight attendant, her passion is traveling to the settings of her books, sampling the food, and visiting the sites. She savored boterkoeken in Amsterdam for A Song for Her Enemies, crème brûlée in Paris for its sequel, What Hides behind the Walls, and shoofly pie in Lancaster for Tricks and Treachery.

A widow, Sherri lives in the Orlando area with her dog, Lily, and her son, Joshua, who always has to fix her computer. She is a freelance fiction editor and is a member of Word Weavers International, Association of Christian Fiction Writers, and the California bar. As an author, editor, blogger, speaker, and Bible teacher, she hopes her books will entertain and challenge readers to live large and connect with their Savior. Join, chat, and share with her on social media. Learn more & connect:

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About the book – Tricks and Treachery: Was she her sister’s keeper? Leah was all the family Brynn Kingston had left, and she’d made that promise to her mother before she passed away to take care of her little sister. But when she learned Leah was engaged to a man she’d met online—a man who probably didn’t exist at least in the form he presented online—Brynn knew she had to expose the scammer before her sister’s small nest egg was gone. But then she met the scammer face-to-face. Best-laid plans.

Was he his brother’s keeper? Although Ben Fisher had been shunned by his community and his parents, he stayed as close as he dared so he could keep an eye on his family—his ailing father who depended on his younger brother, Samuel, to run the farm, and Sam himself who spent a few afternoons a week helping out in Ben’s office. But when Ben discovered someone had stolen his identity, he had to get to the bottom of it before he lost his psychologist license.

Can’t wait for the drawing? Worried you won’t win? Interested in Sherri’s other titles?

Get your copy/copies now!

Tricks and Treachery              Sherri’s Books

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