Mike Sherer – m.sherer@yahoo.com
@mikewsherer
https://www.facebook.com/mike.sherer.7140
I was born and raised in Mason, Ohio, twenty miles north of Cincinnati. At the time it was a small farm town, although it has grown into a city. I didn’t move far, now residing next door in West Chester. I have written fiction in different forms my entire life, from song lyrics when I was a teenager to publishing my first novel in 2016. In between, I have written short stories, novellas, stage plays, screenplays, and more recently a travel blog (American Locations). My very first published work was a record review column I wrote for my college paper. John G. Thomas produced the movie ‘Hamal_18’ from a screenplay I wrote. It was released direct to DVD, and is available on Amazon Prime. My mystery/fantasy novel ‘A Cold Dish’ was published by James Ward Kirk Fiction. My novella ‘Under A Raging Moon’ was published as a stand-alone by World Castle Publishing. My mystery/fantasy MG novel ‘Shadytown’ was published by INTense Publications. My paranormal suspense novel ‘Souls of Nod’ was published by Breaking Rules Publishing. I have had 3 other novellas – ‘No Way At All’, ‘Dummy’s Dummies’, and ‘Midnight Feedings’ – published. I posted my adventure novella ‘Clans’ on Readict. I also posted my supernatural novella ‘The Dead Sister’ on Kindle Vella, which is still in beta. I have published 24 short stories.
A photo of me with a poster from the movie “Hamal_18”, which was taken at the cast and crew screening at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood.
I would love to hear from you:
email – m.sherer@yahoo.com
Twitter – @mikewsherer
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/mike.sherer.7140
Featured Author Mike Sherer
Featured Interview With Mike Sherer
Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I was born and raised in Mason, Ohio, which is within the Greater Cincinnati Metro Area in the southwest corner of Ohio. I have settled in West Chester, Ohio, about 10 miles distant. I enjoy traveling across the US, and have detailed camping trips across the country on my travel blog American Locations: https://mikesherer.org. I especially enjoy long hikes in the wilderness while on these trips. I have published 3 novels, 4 novellas, and 20 short stories, plus 1 screenplay that was produced into a movie. It was released direct to DVD & now is available on Amazon Prime.
At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
The first books I read in my pre-teen years were science fiction. That’s all my older brother ever read, so they were laying around. I have since broadened my range to all kinds of fiction, especially horror, fantasy, and suspense, and nonfiction, especially history and science. I began writing song lyrics in my teen years. I progressed to short stories, screenplays, and finally novels.
Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
Thomas Pynchon, Robert M. Persig, John Updike, Neal Stephenson, Robert Jordan, Neil Gaiman, Margaret Atwood, Joyce Carol Oates, Ray Bradbury, Philip Roth, Bernard Cornwell, Elmore Leonard – to name a few.
Tell us a little about your latest book?
In my paranormal suspense novel ‘Souls of Nod’, published by Breaking Rules Publishing, five members of a soul family gather to carry on a conflict that has been repeated since the dawn of time. One of them will murder another member of the group, and there is seemingly nothing any of them can do to stop it from happening. It is app. 67,000 words. In 2010, Hester has recently married Paul and moved into the house he previously shared with his former wife Flo, located in a suburban Ohio neighborhood decimated by the real estate crash. Many of the houses stand empty, and Hester has encountered ghosts in some of them. Paul scoffs, but neighbor Chanti and husband Clay have seen them, too. Hester learns from them and others about violent deaths that have happened on this land that had once been a prosperous farm, killings involving people who seem strangely familiar. Chanti tracks down Millie, an old woman who appears to know what is going on. Millie tells her about a soul family of the five ancient elements: fire, air, water, earth, and the void. In each incarnation each member of the soul family can be either man or woman, husband or wife, brother or sister, father or daughter, mother or son, or totally unrelated, or any combination of these. No matter how they are incarnated, each generation the five souls are drawn together to carry out the violence they seem destined to commit. In this latest incarnation the gathering is complete when Paul’s ex-wife Flo returns. Will they continue the age-old cycle of violence they seem doomed to commit? Or will this time be different, allowing the soul family to advance on its path to Nirvana?
Connect with the Author on their Websites and Social media profiles
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Written by Barbra Dillon, Fanbase Press Editor-in-Chief
Fanbase Press Interviews Mike Sherer on the Novel, ‘Under a Raging Moon’
The following is an interview with Mike Sherer regarding the recent release of his latest novel, Under a Raging Moon, from World Castle Publishing. In this interview, Fanbase Press Editor-in-Chief Barbra Dillon chats with Sherer about the inspiration behind this story, his creative process in bringing the story to life, the impact that the story may have with readers, and more!
Barbra Dillon, Fanbase Press Editor-in-Chief: Congratulations on the release of your latest novel, Under a Raging Moon, by World Castle Publishing! For those who may be unfamiliar, how would you describe the book’s premise, and what inspired you to tell this story?
Mike Sherer: The premise is that when a pregnant single mother is attacked by demons intent on her destruction, a “guardian angel” comes to her rescue by possessing her 12-year-old son. What inspired me to write this story was that I wanted to explore the relationship between mother and possessed son. Early on, the son is mortally wounded, and the only thing keeping him alive is the spirit possessing him. This spirit is trying to protect the mother from the attacking demons while keeping the boy alive, while the mother is trying to deal with this adult spirit in her son while fleeing for her and her son’s lives.
BD: What can you share with us about your creative process in bringing the horror novel to life, and what have been some of your creative influences?
MS: My process is to loosely outline the plot points, then rush non-stop through the first draft, then go over and over and over the story until I am satisfied. But each revision has a specific purpose. The second draft will be to check for plot holes and inconsistencies. The next draft will be to develop character. The next draft will be to fill out scenes with richer descriptions. The final draft will be to check for grammar. There are usually many more drafts than these, but this is the way I work. Get it quickly down on paper, then go back to enrich the story. My creative influences: Edgar Allen Poe, Robert Bloch, Clive Barker, Shirley Jackson, Richard Matheson, and William P. Blatty.
BD: At Fanbase Press this year, our #StoriesMatter initiative endeavor to highlight the impact that stories can have on audiences of various mediums. How do you feel that Under a Raging Moon’s story will connect with and impact readers, and why do you feel that this story was important for you to bring to life?
MS: I hope to impact readers by setting my stories in the real world with real people. I try to avoid exotic settings and fantastic worlds. I believe grounding incredible stories in reality makes them more frightening. Are you more concerned with what goes on in Transylvania? Or in that run-down house at the end of your street? Are you more frightened of zombies eating your brains? Or of that not-quite-right neighbor roaming your streets at night? I tried to ground this story in the reality of a small-town suburban community and inhabit it with real people dealing with real problems even before the scary stuff starts. I want to show that real life can be much more frightening than monster mash-ups in abandoned castles or haunted Victorian mansions.
BD: Do you foresee expanding the novel into subsequent books or even into other entertainment mediums, if given the opportunity?
MS: There is definitely a sequel potential. Without giving away too much, the story ends at an interesting place that begs to be continued. I would love to see this filmed. I wrote a screenplay that was filmed by a producer in LA and released direct-to-DVD: Hamal_18. It is listed on the ImdB site. That was an amazing experience I would love to undertake once again. I worked closely with the producer on the screenplay, he involved me in the casting sessions, then invited me to the premier at the Egyptian Theater on Hollywood. A fascinating process.
BD: Are there any upcoming projects on which you are currently working that you would like to share with our readers?
MS: My MG paranormal adventure novel, Shadytown, was released by INtense Publications on January 27th of this year. The publisher provided great support. I am currently securing interviews for it. If any of your readers would be interested in reviewing it, I can send them a PDF file. Just be aware it was written for a young reader; it is nothing like Under a Raging Moon. That is definitely an adult story. Shadytown is available in digital and paperback formats at Amazon. Also, I have a horror short story, Campground Host, that will appear in the April issue of Scribe Magazine, which is published by Breaking Rules.
BD: Lastly, what is the best way for our readers to find more information about Under a Raging Moon and your other work?
MS: Email is the easiest most direct way to reach me: m.sherer (at) yahoo (dot) com. Links to all my published works, and my travel blog (American Locations), are posted at my WordPress site. I’m also on Facebook and Twitter: @mikewsherer. I also have an author page on Amazon.
I was interviewed by Sandy Little, organizer of MidPointe West Chester Library’s Read Local Indie Author Fair 2018:
Local author: From books and blogs to a screenplay, there’s “no better way to spend my free time” than writing
Local novelist, movie screenwriter and blogger Mike Sherer of West Chester doesn’t worry about meeting deadlines.
He doesn’t need them.
“I don’t need motivation to write,” attests the Mason, Ohio, native whose earliest attempts at writing — song lyrics and poetry — were encouraged by his mother.
Instead, he says, “I need motivation to pull myself away from the computer and pry my fingers off the keyboard…”
Recently Sherer was one of many local authors who greeted the public at MidPointe Library’s ReadLOCAL event at its West Chester location. Booklovers were invited to the free program to chat with area authors about their works and get autographed copies.
Sherer’s first published work was a “record review column in the Georgetown College newspaper, which I wrote at age eighteen during my one and only semester there,” he recalls. “That was enjoyable as it gave me access to the college radio station to choose from among their albums to review. And I got to meet the DJs and sit in while they broadcast.”
Today the author describes his works as “unique in tone.”
His published novel, “A Cold Dish,” tends toward the “harsh and ruthless, it being a revenge tale,” he says. “The novel I am attempting to publish, ‘Souls of Nod,’ is not nearly as violent or as cold-hearted. My middle-school novel, ‘Shadytown,’ for which I’m seeking representation, is much more light-hearted as it’s written for a younger reader. But all three share a common theme of taking place in the borderlands where the physical world and the spiritual world mesh.”
The “unique” description also applies to Sherer’s thirteen published short stories and three novellas “with another short story and another novella under contract to be published,” he says. “My favorite genres are science fiction and horror, although I enjoy attempting other types of writing.”
Sherer’s love for the written word in all forms led him to the movie screen.
One might assume that some personal connection with movie producers in the West Coast led to the making of Sherer’s screen thriller, “Hamal_18.”
But that would be wrong.
“Writers no longer need to be headquartered in L.A.” to promote their screenplays, Sherer explains. “You could write a screenplay anywhere and then e-mail it to producers…There’s a site on the Internet where producers post the kind of screenplays they are looking for and you reply with a brief description of yours.”
“Definitely there are differences” between writing a novel and a screenplay, Sherer says. “…Novels are meant to be internalized while movies are meant to be experienced, two totally different concepts. In a novel you can put anything on the page, while in a screenplay you can only write what can be seen or heard. A screenplay is mostly dialogue with minimal description.”
After submitting his screenplay, Sherer was contacted by a producer who requested a hard copy of his riveting tale about a police detective who becomes “an expert at catching online predators” after his “teenage daughter was murdered by someone she met online.” The film depicts a veritable “a cat-and-mouse game over the Internet” as his two characters “taunt one another which leads to a shocking face-to-face confrontation.”
Sherer sent the hard copy. Several months later he received a contract by email.
The producer later told Sherer that he had received so many screenplays that his wife and grown daughter were also reading them. “His wife read mine first and recommended it to him,” Sherer recalls. “Then he read it and selected my screenplay from among hundreds…
“A month later I flew out to LA for a week to go over the screenplay with him line by line. I also got to see the call-back auditions, which was interesting. A year later when the movie was finished, I flew back out for the cast-and-crew screening of the movie at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood, which was fun. Then it was released direct-to-DVD. It was a great experience.”
“Happily retired” after a 40-plus-year career at a Sharonville, Ohio, company, Sherer also finds time to blog about his former job as well as about the trips he and his wife have taken around the country in their motorhome.
His job-related blog, entitled “Flanging,” consists of 100 posts “stretching from before I started at Brighton Corporation in 1970 to my retirement in 2016,” says Sherer, a longtime flanger operator. “I describe the people I have worked with and my line of work in a metal fabrication plant that specializes in the manufacture of tank vessel ends.”
He also writes “American Locations,” a description of the journeys he and his wife have taken around the country in their 23-foot motorhome. “Since 2017 we have taken four memorable trips, and we plan to take many more.” Sherer says. “…The most unusual experiences I enjoy are the great hikes I get to take through beautiful wild landscapes.”
Does the author follow a routine while writing? How does he get “published”?
“I always have ideas percolating in the back of my mind while I’m working on something else,” says Sherer. His writing routine consists of the following : “I’m always at my desk in the corner of my basement. That way there is only a blank wall before me, no distractions. And my mind works best early in the morning.”
The most challenging part of the writing process, he says, is “the rewriting…Once you type ‘THE END’ on your first draft, you are really just beginning. You go over and over and over whatever you are writing until you are sick of it. But I continue doing so until I can read through it without finding a single thing I want to change.”
Sherer’s process for getting published involves a subscription to Duotrope, “a website where publishers post the kind of material they are seeking,” he says.
“I submitted a short story, ‘Death and Beauty at 70 MPH,’ to a publisher who had listed there,” he recalls. “Not only did he want to publish the short story in his horror anthology, but he noticed in my letter that I had written a novel and he had so enjoyed my writing he wanted to see this also. So I submitted ‘A Cold Dish’ and he published it.
“That’s one reason to write short stories,” Sherer advises fellow authors. “It gets your work out there, which can lead to bigger and better things. All of my short stories and novellas I have had published have been through Duotrope.”
When all is said and done, for Mike Sherer “writing is not about the money. I sincerely enjoy writing and can think of no better way to spend my free time…Except maybe taking a good long hike.”
To follow Mike Sherer, link to:
Website: www.mikesherer.wordpress.com
Twitter: www.twitter.com/MikeWSherer
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mike.sherer.7140
For information about “Hamal_18” link to: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0424131/?mode=desktop&ref_=m_ft_dsk
From the North Rim 