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Getting to Know Your Presidents!

Today we meet Sherri Stone

1. Where do you live? Marianna, Florida

2. How long have you been a Word Weaver? I joined WW Destin in January of 2018

a) What chapter are you President of?  I am president of WW Marianna, which got started in May of this year

 3. How long have you been writing—or when did you feel God was calling you to be a writer? I have always written in one form or another. When anything happens in my life, or I learn something new, my first thought is to write about it. I self-published my first book in 2015. It was a great bucket list accomplishment. 

4. What do you like to read? I’ve read a lot of non-fiction lately, but I love to get lost in fiction stories, especially romantic suspense, sometimes a little paranormal stuff. If I’m desperate, I’ll read a cereal box or toothpaste tube. I love to read more than I love to eat, and that’s saying a lot! 

5. What do you write? I started out writing romantic suspense, and have some ideas for more stories, but I’m also working on some non-fiction projects as well. One of those is a textbook for social workers in hospice and home health about self care. 

a) If you are published:

1. First book?  Sacred Ashes, the first book in a 3 book trilogy 

2. How many written?  2 down, last one to go 

3. Newest book? I recently published a compilation of Facebook posts from right after Hurricane Michael 

6. Where’s your favorite place to write? In my office at home. It’s my nest. Quiet, pretty, and there’s a tree right outside the window that attracts lots of birds, which is a double-edged sword since I often get distracted by them. 

 7. If you have a dedicated writing space, describe it for us. It’s small and cozy (read crowded). I have a large, old wooden china cabinet that I use for books. It has glass doors and takes up one whole wall in my office. My desk is small, but just enough. I covered some cork boards with pretty material that has a French country look. They are mounted on the other walls and are my inspiration boards. They hold quotes, and cards, and cartoons about writing, and any thing else I like to keep in sight. And of course, there’s cross-stitch. I have a saying in vinyl on one wall with the verse from Esther 4:14: Perhaps this is the moment for which you have been created. I let it remind me when I worry about what I’m writing or how “successful” it will be, that God has a purpose for it. Mine is not to worry. Mine is only to be obedient. 

8. What’s your ideal writing routine (time of day, with or without a beverage, snack to get to the finish line, etc.) I wish I could say I had one. Working on that. I like writing in the mornings the best, though. That is when I’m freshest and feel the best. Snacks tend to slow me down since I stop writing to eat – a lot! If I have a snack it’s probably Dove dark chocolate with almonds and a Dr. Pepper. To be perfectly honest, though, I’m not at all picky. It has to be quiet, since I’m easily distracted. No TV, no music, even instrumental, and my phone is on vibrate and away from me. I love to write when I’m alone in the house. 

9. We all have several authors we love to read so I won’t make you pick a favorite—but what has been your favorite book this year and why? (Great story, impactful, educational, etc.) This is the hardest question of all! I love reading biographies of everyday people just doing their jobs, and seeing how God is using them in the world. Earlier this year I read Handcrafted, by Clint Harp (of Fixer Upper fame). He’s the one who makes all those beautiful tables and things for Joanna Gaines. He has a great story of stepping out on faith and being faithful with the gift God gave him. Love that kind of stuff! It doesn’t hurt that I’m a big Joanna fan. 

10. What’s one piece of writing advice you’d like to share with other Word Weaver members? (Maybe something you wished you would have known as you began writing.) I think it’s important to have a balance between knowing the way things usually work, and understanding that God has his own way of doing things. Just because your writing path doesn’t look like everyone else’s doesn’t mean it’s wrong, or won’t be effective. Trust. Be willing to follow a little pig trail when everyone else seems to be on a major highway. The gift of writing is one that God will always use to bring you closer to him FIRST. What gets put on the page is an outpouring of that relationship. 

 Bonus:  If there is anything else you’d like to share about you or your writing journey that I have not asked in the above list – feel free to add it! I don’t know if this will speak to anyone but me, but my biggest struggle with some of the non-fiction ideas I have is that they’re not new or unique. Sometimes I worry that it will be just one more book in the pile. I try hard to remember that while others have written about these things, I have a unique voice. Not better than anyone else, just unique. God has a plan for what he prompts me to write. Read 2 Kings 5. Naaman had leprosy and was told to wash in the Jordan River. He didn’t want to because it was not something spectacular or hard to do, but his servant convinced him, and he finally did it and was healed. It wasn’t the water, it was his obedience and the power of God. We may feel that our writing is so ordinary and common that it can’t possibly matter, but if God says it does, the only good choice for us is to write. God will take care of the rest. 

Sherri Stone is a home health social worker by day, and a writer by whatever time she can fit it in. She has self-published two fiction books, and one compilation of posts following Hurricane Michael. She enjoys reading, eating, and cross-stitch, and is trying her hand at greeting cards and watercolor painting. She lives in Marianna with Jeff, her husband of twenty-one years, and the four-legged master of the house, Riley. It is her sincere wish to live the words of Erma Bombeck so that one day she can say, “I used everything you gave me.”