Interview Sherry Derr-Wille

by

Rhobin Courtright

1) Your family is mentioned so many times in previous interviews and seems an important aspect of your writing. Would you mind updating readers on what has happened with you and your family?

Our twin grandsons will soon be turning three and talking up a storm. As for the other grandkids, they are all doing well in school. Morgan is in cheerleading, Vaughan loves basketball, Miles keeps getting different belts in Karate and Steven and Alex are just enjoying being kids. As for us old folks, we just keep plodding along.

2) Your new book with Wings, Kate Armstrong: Over-The-Hill Coed, is another Encore L'Amour story along with your previous releases Coffee, Tea or Love and Her Tenant. The title of this new book sounds intriguing. What gave you the idea for this story?

I was at a Fourth of July party a couple of years ago and one of the women was telling how, after her divorce, she went back to school for her degree. She was surprised when one of her teachers was a guy she went to high school with and another wrote her cryptic notes on the blackboard. She ended up marrying the note writer and has been happily married ever since.

3) Why do you like writing about older heroines?

They certainly have a lot more problems than the 20 something heroine. There’s not the risk of pregnancy, but they have older children and all too well-meaning friends to contend with. They also aren’t looking for love, or Mr. Right for that matter, and are surprised when both come wrapped in one package.

4) What can you tell us about the main character Kate?

Kate went to college and in her senior year experimented with sex. When she told her lover she was pregnant he denied it. Of course, being pregnant put a crimp in her plans to get her degree. With only three credits to go, she was too sick to finish. After that she spent her time raising her daughter, alone. The only time love bit her she was within days of her marriage when he was killed in a car accident. Of course she’s leery of marriage, love, etc. Going back to school certainly wasn’t her idea. She had to go back for her job. As a gift her boss signs her up for a course in romantic literature, without knowing that her professor would turn out to be the jerky jock from high school who gave her fits.

5) How about her love interest?

Denny went to high school in Minter and then on to become a professor at the University of Wisconsin. When his wife died, he could no longer remain in Madison and asks to be transferred to an outlying campus. Little does he know he’ll be retuning to his hometown. What makes him special? Denny loved his first wife with so much passion that their marriage was like reading one of the romance novels she so loved. She was the one who hooked him on romantic literature and pushed him to teach the class. While his students thought it was a sucky class that would guarantee them an A, he knew it was much more. Reading romance was one of the best things he could think of to put a kick in any marriage. His regret is that they could never have children. When he asked to be transferred, his fear was teaching the children of his high school friends. He never thought he would be teaching one of the kids from his graduating class, and the person who put a crimp in the grading curve to boot. He’s intrigued with Kate from day one and finds himself writing cryptic notes on the blackboard that he knows she will understand. It had been the way the kids in his class communicated without the teacher knowing they were passing notes. (Example K A M M F D--Translates to Kate Armstrong, meet me for dinner.)

6) Does this story take place in Minter, Wisconsin, too?

I have far too much fun with Minter to take my over-the-hill gals anywhere else. Is Minter a real place? Minter is a combination of Milton, where I went to high school and lived for 30 years and its nearest neighbor, Janesville, where I live now. Milton is a town of 6,000 and Janesville has 60,000 souls, give or take a few. Both are located within 25 miles of the Illinois border, in South Central Wisconsin. Java Lane is in reality Jody’s Gourmet Coffee Shop, Minter Motors is Hembrough AutoGroup, Minter College is U-Rock, a two-year college that is an extension of the University of Wisconsin and then there is Alfrescos restaurant. It is located at the Midway Motor Lodge out on Highway 26 and is one of my favorite places to go to eat. It is exactly like I describe it and the owners know it is mentioned in every one of the Minter Books. In future books look for another of my favorite restaurants HHFFRRRGGH’S. No I didn’t forget the vowels. It is the initials of all of the owners of the restaurant when it first opened.

7) If not, is it what you consider a typical representation of a town in Wisconsin?

 I can’t speak for all towns in Wisconsin, but it is certainly a good combo of Milton and Janesville. I write what I know and I know both of these towns intimately.

8) Have you always lived in Wisconsin?

I was born in Mercy Hospital, right here in Janesville, more years ago than I care to remember. I was raised for the first ten years on a farm just south of town and then moved to one east of town. I went to Milton High School and married my high school sweetheart two days after graduation. After that we lived in Milton until moving to Janesville in 1998, to help out my mom.

9) Do you like it?

I must, I have no desire to move and I don’t know anything else.

10) Does your home location ever impact on your stories other than those with a Minter setting?

A lot of my stories take place in and around Wisconsin and northern Illinois. Becky’s Rebel takes place in central Illinois, but the farm is definitely the one where I lived for the first ten years of my life.

11) Do you ever travel to locations where you want a book setting to take place to get the 'feel' of the place?

Only by accident. I visited the restaurant in A Precious Jewel, when I went to a wedding there and was surprised to see the restaurant I had dreamed up in my head. I did do research for a couple of books in Door County. I also used to be a travel agent and when one book called for my characters to come from Norway and travel to England, I had been there and seen that.

12) You write in an amazing assortment of romance related genres. Do you ever run out of plot ideas?

At times I wish I did. At present I am working on six stories with a lot more of them clamoring to be written. While I was off work for eight months, I completed six manuscripts.

13) Do any of the stories share characters?

I have several series where the characters show up again and again. Becky’s Rebel and Bosslady, the Minter series, the Outlaw series and a series of books based on a band of Indians who roamed the central Illinois area five hundred years ago. They are no particular band, but are based on the people I have met at the Wildlife Prairie Park in Peoria Illinois when I go down for the Blessing of the Buffalo Grounds each April.

14) Ever want to write outside of the Romance category?

I have two family epics out there with a new series along those same lines coming out in the fall. That one follows the residents of a small town in Montana from 1867 to 2006.

15) I've noticed your life experiences reflect in your stories, and writing is a full-time job, but do you have any hobbies or other obsessions that enter your story settings?

I also work full time, or did until the dealership I worked for was sold. I’ve just started a new job and withholding judgment on how well I like it. As for hobbies, I knit and crochet, attend Indian Pow-Wows and am very active in my church. I Do Not Do Housework. I have the same theory about that as Joan Rivers, why clean when I have to do it again six months later?

16) What new writing projects are in the works?

At present I am working on six new books, two of them for Wings. With Kate Armstrong: Over-The-Hill Coed coming out in April, and Hello, Do You Know Me? scheduled for June, I’m working on The Preacher Takes A Husband and Winters’ House to add to those wonderful gals from Minter.

17) Do you have anything still in the dream stage that you'd like to accomplish in your writing?

Eventually I want to write the story of my grandmother who was sold as a bondservant when she was orphaned at the age of three. I would also like to see my books made into movies, but of course, wouldn’t we all? My biggest goal is to be able to write full time, but even with 28 books in print, I can’t support myself so I just keep working and writing.