Strange but True: Tales from Authors with Sherrill Joseph

How being gutsy paid off for author Sherrill Joseph!! Sometimes you just have to be brave enough to ask ....

In this episode of Strange but True: Tales from Authors mystery author Sherrill Joseph lets us in on the most ambitious, perhaps gutsiest thing she’s ever done as a writer…reaching out the daughter of a late, legendary Hollywood actor. Here’s how that turned out …

Strange but true: the most ambitious (gutsy) thing I’ve done for my writing by Sherrill Joseph

One of the most ambitious, perhaps gutsiest, tasks I have undertaken as a writer is that after researching an address, and with fingers crossed, I contacted the daughter of a late, legendary Hollywood actor. My goal was to ask if she would provide a praise quote for the back cover of one of my kids' mystery books. In it, I spun a mystery around elements of her father's life and movie career. Two months passed, and no reply. The cover designer's deadline arrived. So, with a deep sigh, I gave up, finalized the book's back cover, and published the book minus her contribution. 

Within one hour of publishing--no kidding!--I received an apologetic email from her explaining her willingness to help and the reasons for her delay in responding, which were understandable. I was over the moon thrilled! All that time nervously awaiting her reply miraculously melted away. My next step is to mail her a hardcopy of the book so she can read it and do a back-cover praise quote if she wishes. If she does, the back cover and acknowledgment page will be redone, followed by re-uploading the files to my various publishing platforms. But those are small prices for this stellar praise quoter's participation. Fingers still crossed!

Research Rabbit Holes and the Strange Things I’ve Learned

I happily go down rabbit holes while researching. One never knows what lurks there! That happened when I researched different types of cobras for my Book 1, Nutmeg Street: Egyptian Secrets. After wading through the usual reptilian details, I asked myself some critical questions, dug deeper, and discovered that Egyptian cobras' venom has very different components from Indian cobras'. So, herpetologists can tell what kind of cobra the venom comes from via phylogenetic analysis. I also learned that properly stored snake venom can remain potent for one hundred years! My newfound knowledge led me to locate and contact a venomologist--yes, that's his title--at the University of Queensland, Australia, for verification. These findings became springboards for richer plot points and the detectives' sophisticated unraveling of the book's mystery! 

In Book 5, Jacaranda Street: Gravestone Image, copious research about Edgar Allan Poe resulted in the crux of the mystery: that Poe had a real-life enemy who defamed him posthumously. So, I carried that idea into this century and revolved my mystery around it with a call to action to readers to help dispel the damage Poe's reputation suffers to this day.  

In Book 6, Upas Street: Shocking Specter, I learned who Dr. Frankenstein's "electrician" was in that 1931 movie, the history of the monster's neck bolts, or electrodes, and that the "monster" Boris Karloff was a kind, gentle Englishman who loved roses, animals, and children, contradicting his movie image. He even served tea to his cast and crew during filming breaks! These elements, including an imaginary Karloff tea set, appear in the book. 

I’ve even taken research trips for my books! For Book 4, Saffron Street: Island Danger, I traveled to O'ahu (Somebody's got to!) to gather critical information at the Pearl Harbor National Memorial. My four detectives are increasingly accepting long-distance cases, so traveling for accuracy in setting details will be vital and upcoming.

Sherrill Joseph was a shy kid whose friends came mainly from books. Her hero Nancy Drew taught her to seek adventures and help people near home. Convinced early on that she was an architect in a former life, Sherrill was receptive to the magic of her Southern California neighborhood's historic Craftsman and Spanish houses. To this day, she still dramatizes those old "castles," filling them with mysteries and exaggerated occurrences. Once retired in 2013 from teaching kids for thirty-five years, the child in Sherrill created the award-winning Botanic Hill Detectives Mysteries series so other children could gallop with her and her four sleuths down dusty passageways and climb endlessly winding staircases after clues to capture the bad guys and solve the mystery at hand. Please come join them and their standalone adventures!

Follow Sherrill adventures here on Substack or on her website, Facebook, or Instagram.