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We love it on this blog when our writer friends succeed! And so the Reds are delighted to bring back Sherry Harris, with the second in her delightful tag sale mystery series. She's got a problem that many of us can relate to...
SHERRY HARRIS: Seth Anderson, I’m looking at you. How you ended up being a secondary character with a name and reoccurring roll in my Sarah Winston Garage Sale series, I’ll never know. Well, I guess I sort of know since I wrote you, but I didn’t intend for you to be more than a nameless, one-night stand, a mistake Sarah made and regrets.
When I started writing Tagged for Death, the first in my mystery series, Sarah was recently divorced from her husband, CJ Hooker, who cheated on her. One night home alone and restless, Sarah goes to a bar, meets a guy, and...you get the picture. That was supposed to be the end of him. But somehow the nameless guy decided to text Sarah and call her, which meant he needed a name. I kept writing and found out Seth was the DA of the county where Sarah lives and where her ex is the chief of police of the small town they live in, which means CJ works with Seth when a major crime occurs. And since I write mysteries of course a major crime occurs.
I kept trying to ignore Seth, but it turns out he’s hard to ignore. A magazine has named him “Massachusetts's Most Eligible Bachelor” two years in a row. He grew up in swanky Beacon Hill and his family has a compound on Nantucket. After Sarah finds this out and realizes he’s often in the society pages and usually dates Victoria’s Secret models, she’s determined to ignore him. She wonders how he could ever be interested in her when he usually dates models.
The ignoring is going along swimmingly. Sarah’s busy running around trying to figure out who framed CJ for a murder. (He might be a schmuck, but she knows he didn’t kill anyone and may even be protecting her.) One day as she leaves the police station, after meeting with CJ who’s being held there, she runs into Seth on the steps. I hadn’t planned for him to be there, but of course it made sense that he was. Seth will be the one to prosecute CJ, and he has no idea Sarah has any connection to CJ since she now uses her maiden name. She’s happy to no longer be a Hooker. He pulls her aside and asks her to please answer the next time he calls her. Sarah, much to my surprise and hers, says she will.
By the time Tagged for Death came out I’d already turned in The Longest Yard Sale. Readers started asking me if Seth was in book two. The answer is yes. Whether I wanted him to or not, he has a mind of his own, and his mind is on Sarah and he keeps insisting on appearing in my books. Now that The Longest Yard Sale is out, readers are picking sides and have written to tell me they’re on Team CJ or Team Seth. Even my 88-year-old mother called saying she’d just finished The Longest Yard Sale and wasn’t sure who Sarah should end up with, but she was leaning toward CJ. Does Sarah make a choice? Well, let’s just say that book three, All Murders Final, has already been turned in. CJ is around and Seth Anderson still hasn’t walked off the pages either.
Readers: Do you have a secondary character you love in a series and would hate to see leave?
Writers: Do you have a character that unintentionally sprang to life?
Sherry Harris started bargain hunting in
second grade at her best friend’s yard sale. She honed her bartering
skills as she moved around the country while her husband served in the
Air Force. Sherry combines her love of garage sales, her life as a
military spouse, and her years living in Massachusetts as inspiration
for the Sarah Winston Garage Sale series. Read more at her website or on the Wicked Cozy blog.
Sherry will be giving away two books, so leave your email with your comment to be entered in today's drawing...
LUCY BURDETTE: Is there anything more fun than an absolutely brand new, first-time-out-of-the-box, debut author? No, we don't think so either. And so we are delighted to introduce our friend Sherry Harris, whose book TAGGED FOR DEATH came out a week ago.
SHERRY HARRIS: Thank you, Jungle Reds, for having me today. When I moved to New England, Hallie, Hank, and Lucy
were running the New England chapter of Sisters in Crime. I’ve been in their classes, benefitted from their generosity, and am one of the attendees of the 2009 Seascape which produced an amazing number of published authors, many of the attendees became good friends.
Like my protagonist Sarah Winston, I love to shop at garage sales, flea markets, and antique stores. When I pondered what I should write about for today, I started poking around my house. I realized 95 percent of what’s in here is second hand. I think the only new things are the electronics (because no one wants an antique computer or phone), mattresses (you can come stay without worry), and a couch with matching chairs (which considering I bought them in 2003 and they’ve moved three times, push the boundaries of “new”).
I didn’t really realize I had an aversion to new things until recently – it was a gradual process. But I love to think about where something came from: whose house did that painting hang in, how did this chair end up on the curb, and who looked in the mirror of that dresser. I heard if you light a candle, turn off the light, and look in a mirror the number of reflections will tell you how many people owned the piece. Frankly, it sounds a bit spooky to me and being a big fraidy cat, I’ve resisted the urge to try this.
My husband was in the Air Force, so having old things that came with nicks and scraps was an advantage with all the moves. One more ding on the table or a scrap on the bench wouldn’t really hurt anything. I do have a table I’m fussy about when it comes time to move. I bought it at a garage sale in Palos Verdes, California.
It’s a side table with barley twist legs, a serpentine skirt, and my favorite part – claw and glass ball feet. I was lucky to get it because I arrived at the sale late in the day. It had a sign on it that said “price firm,” which puts off a lot of people who expect to bargain at a sale. The table has a ring in the top where someone set something wet on it. But it was love at first sight for me so I paid full price (something I rarely do), loaded it into my friend’s car, and took it home. My husband had to warm to it, which he did when I pointed out an identical table (sands ring) in a store window in Solvang, California, for four times the price I paid.
When we were moving from Los Angeles to Dayton, Ohio, I went out to check on the movers and there the table, with its delicate glass feet, sat on the rough pavement. (Yes, I had a mini freak out, steam out the ears, cartoon bug eyes, and a thought bubble with all kinds of #$%^.) Fortunately, that all occurred in my head, but I insisted they bubble wrap the glass ball feet which they did reluctantly. Now when the movers arrive, I always double check the table before it goes out.
None of my pieces are priceless antiques (far from it), but my furnishings are a tale of our moves: a side table from Ohio, a bench from a flea market in Santa Cruz, a bed frame from Florida, a bookcase from Virginia, a painting from Massachusetts. Even our dining room table is special to me. My parents bought it in my hometown of Davenport, Iowa, at a garage sale (probably the only one they ever went to) of the mother of family friends. I like it because of that relationship and because it folds down to a size that works behind a sofa or opens to seat ten (twelve if we squeeze in).
So readers do you have an aversion to shiny new things or do you embrace them? Or do you mix them together? What’s the best find you’ve ever had at a garage sale?
Sherry
Harris started bargain hunting in second grade at her best friend’s
yard sale. She honed her bartering skills as she moved around the
country while her husband served in the Air Force. Sherry uses her love
of garage sales, her life as a military spouse, and her time living in
Massachusetts as inspiration for the Sarah Winston Garage Sale series.
Tagged for Death, first in the series, released last week. She blogs with the Wicked Cozies.
And Sherry is giving away a copy of TAGGED FOR DEATH to one commenter today!
SHERRY HARRIS: Seth Anderson, I’m looking at you. How you ended up being a secondary character with a name and reoccurring roll in my Sarah Winston Garage Sale series, I’ll never know. Well, I guess I sort of know since I wrote you, but I didn’t intend for you to be more than a nameless, one-night stand, a mistake Sarah made and regrets. 
I kept trying to ignore Seth, but it turns out he’s hard to ignore. A magazine has named him “Massachusetts's Most Eligible Bachelor” two years in a row. He grew up in swanky Beacon Hill and his family has a compound on Nantucket. After Sarah finds this out and realizes he’s often in the society pages and usually dates Victoria’s Secret models, she’s determined to ignore him. She wonders how he could ever be interested in her when he usually dates models. 
By the time Tagged for Death came out I’d already turned in The Longest Yard Sale. Readers started asking me if Seth was in book two. The answer is yes. Whether I wanted him to or not, he has a mind of his own, and his mind is on Sarah and he keeps insisting on appearing in my books. Now that The Longest Yard Sale is out, readers are picking sides and have written to tell me they’re on Team CJ or Team Seth. Even my 88-year-old mother called saying she’d just finished The Longest Yard Sale and wasn’t sure who Sarah should end up with, but she was leaning toward CJ. Does Sarah make a choice? Well, let’s just say that book three, All Murders Final, has already been turned in. CJ is around and Seth Anderson still hasn’t walked off the pages either. 
