SEELIE KAY: Postcards from The Ledge: This week in The Loft: KD Sherrinford!

Joining me today in The Loft is Extasy Books colleague KD Sherrinford. An award-winning author, KD writes historical romantic mysteries and cozy mysteries. She is best known for her Sherlock Holmes and Irene Adler series. The first novel in that series, "Song for Someone," was recently short-listed at The Chanticleers International Awards for Romantic Fiction. KD started writing until after she retired from her career as a real estate agent. She lives on the Fylde Coast in the UK.

Author KD Sherrinford

S: Good afternoon, KD. It's always a pleasure to have you as a guest on "Postcards from the Ledge!"

Why write romance?

KD: I never set out to write romance, but I wanted to develop the relationship between Sherlock and Irene, which involves romance. So I decided to go with the flow, and I'm so glad I did. Theirs is not a Mills and Boon romance. It's a slow build-up, described by Jon Oshiro in "The Sign of Holmes" as an endearing look at an enduring love.

S: Personally, it's hard to keep romance out of my stories, even when the story is primarily suspense or paranormal. It just makes my characters more human.

Do you outline the plot for your stories before writing?

KD: I'm a pantser writer, but that said, I had to do a lot of outlining, especially for "Song." There was a fair amount of historical research, getting times, places and dates right. Interacting with fictional characters and real-life people was all part of the fun. For instance, Irene meets Agatha Christie, Sherlock and Watson, Arturo Toscanini, the cast of the opera Silvano, at La Scala and the composer Mascagni and his wife Lina.

S: It is important to take notice of certain facts or character traits. Readers do notice when you slip up!

What do you write first—the blurb or the book?

KD: I wrote all three books in my series first, then the blurbs at the end. My editor at Extasy Books guided me on that. She's amazing.

S: I also wait until I have finished writing. Early on, I realized that the blurbs written in advance never matched the final books.

Have you ever attended a writer’s retreat?

KD: I plan to go to a literary retreat with my stepdaughter and her mum at the beginning of December. We booked a log cabin with a wood burner and hot tub in the heart of Sherwood Forest. I plan to finish some serious writing and catch up on my reading. My TBR list is overflowing.

S: How do you get reviews?

KD: I have a street team of dedicated and loyal Arc and Beta readers. They tell me if they think anything is wrong. I also have lovely followers from the UK, the USA and Canada. And a lovely lady from Italy, Benedetta, who helps with the Italian translations. She lives in Lucca and is a soprano. She used to sing in the junior chorus at La Scala.

S: What inspired "Song for Someone?"

KD: I was inspired to write "Song for Someone" after my visit to the Sherlock Holmes Museum in London and Neil Sedaka's classical concert, Classically Sedaka, performed at the Shaftesbury Theatre in London. He wrote original lyrics to a selection of classical melodies and performed them with the London Philharmonic Orchestra—wonderful, inspirational, thought-provoking stuff.

S: Now there's a blast from the past--Neil Sedaka. I haven't heard anything about him in years.

Is there anything special you would like people to know about "Song for Someone?"

KD: There are a few characters in "Song" I loosely based on people I knew who have now sadly passed. For example, the two villains from London, Ron and Earnest. Although not villains in real life, they were old friends of mine from my illicit nights spent at the old Preston Greyhound Stadium in the seventies and eighties. The music director at La Scala, Robert, was named after another friend who was very close to my heart. "Song" is dedicated to my late sister, Sue, who died suddenly in May 2022.

Here's the blurb--

Charlotte Sapori has led a wonderful life, safely tucked in the bosom of her family. Her mother, Irene Adler, is a renowned opera singer, while her father, Lucca Sapori, does important government work that frequently takes him away from them. Charlotte is close to her older brother, Nicco, and they are both doted on by their parents. All is well until her mother receives an unexpected diagnosis, which shakes the family to its core.

Knowing herself to be dying, Adler confesses to Charlotte things that have been long kept from her, telling her to find and read her diary. A distressed Lucca Sapori tells his daughter to read his as well. And by the way, Lucca Sapori is not his real name. in fact, she may have heard of him-he is the world-famous detective Sherlock Holmes.

Charlotte finds both diaries and plunges into the hidden world of Irene Adler and Sherlock Holmes as she discovers what brought them together and how they managed to stay together for thirty years despite having to battle the odds.