Interview with Christian Historical Fiction Author Sharon Wilharm and a Giveaway!

Welcome to Readers Write to Know! I asked you, my readers, what questions they would ask their favorite authors if given the chance, and the authors visiting my blog answered them! This week, I’m so pleased to have Sharon Wilharm as my guest. I always think of Sharon as a filmmaker first, because that’s what she focused on when we first met. But she is a woman with many talents and is so inspiring for Christian women creatives out there! I loved her interview, especially learning how she organizes her stories. Plus, she’s giving away a copy of her latest release! Read on to see how you can enter to win!

Tell us a little bit about yourself: Through the years, I’ve worn many hats—author, speaker, Bible teacher, podcaster, radio host, and filmmaker. The common thread through each of these is women and storytelling. I love to tell stories that inspire and encourage women in their walk with the Lord. I’m especially obsessed with women in the Bible. I’ve studied every single one of them and have found whatever someone’s going through, there’s a Bible woman who’s gone through a similar experience. I’m the author of Women of Prayer, a 10-week Bible study about praying women in the Bible, and The Amazing Crab Alley Revival, a loose retelling of Lydia in the Bible. I’m also the host of All God’s Women podcast and syndicated radio show heard daily on Moody Radio Network and Faith Radio Network.

Tell us about your current release.

The Amazing Crab Alley Revival is my debut novel. It’s a Southern historical story about Victorian church ladies. It’s set in 1897 in Port Royal, Florida, which is a fictional town, but it’s inspired by Apalachicola and the other small towns along the Forgotten Coast of Florida. It’s where my grandparents lived, and I always thought it was such a cool place because time seemed to stand still.

Have you always wanted to write a book? I loved writing from a young age, but didn’t give it much thought until I got married and my mother-in-law was a writer. When I was pregnant with morning sickness that lasted all day, she suggested I use the time to write a book. For reasons I’ll never understand, I decided to write a dating book. Someday Your Prince May Come; So What Do You Do in the Meantime? Surprisingly, two different big publishers took an interest, but neither ended up publishing it. It wasn’t until 2021 that I finally got a book contract, this time for a Bible study about women in the Bible.

Do you have your plotline and character development already laid out before you begin writing a book, or do they develop as you write? Though I always loved the idea of being a novelist, God had other things He wanted me to do first. One of those was to work with my husband to fulfill his dream of making movies. I wrote seven screenplays that we produced, something I had no idea how to do beforehand. I had a screenwriting book that suggested index card plotting, and I found that really worked for me. So that’s what I do now with my novel writing. And even though there are programs to do it digitally, I still prefer the actual paper index cards that I can write on and spread out and move around. In fact, next to my computer right now is my stack of cards that I’m using for my current project.

What is your preferred method of writing? (computer, pen and paper, etc.) I start with the idea just rolling around in my head for a while. I do my best thinking while driving, so for a week or more, I’ll just be tossing around ideas and figuring out logistics of how it might work. From there, I use a notebook to start writing character sketches and plotting out the character plot points. Next, I move to index cards, my favorite step of the process. I include a ton of notes on each card, including the POV character, the plot point, the date the scene happens, a brief description of what happens, and notes that remind me to incorporate different senses. Once I complete cards for all the plot points, I finally move to the computer where I use Scrivener to do my writing.

How did you make the initial step into writing your first novel? What were some of your major roadblocks, and how did you overcome them? Over the years before we started filmmaking, I wrote a ton of partial books, but I’d always reach a point and realize my story wasn’t big enough for a full book. That’s where index cards came in handy. I learned not to waste a lot of time working on something only to discover it wasn’t going to work. The Amazing Crab Alley Revival started off as Lydia’s Legacy, a turn-of-the-century story based on Lydia in the Bible. Originally, it was set in Tennessee, but it wasn’t working. Then I moved it to Florida, and it began to come together. Once I got the right title, it seemed to fall into place.

Who were some of your favorite authors as a child? (Book series, maybe?) I was a voracious reader, reading every moment I could, but two books stand out to me. The Pink Hotel because of its quirky characters, and Harriet the Spy, because I loved the way she observed the people around her. I think both books inspired my love for writing. As a young adult, I was introduced to Grace Livingston Hill. I think her books have influenced me the most as a writer.

Which of your characters most reflects your personality? I’m definitely Lydia in The Amazing Crab Alley Revival. She knows the rules but isn’t afraid to speak her mind and do what needs to be done. I tend to be an over-the-top kind of person, so I’m drawn to bigger-than-life characters.

How hard is it to come up with names for your characters? What are some of the sources you use? Naming characters is one of my favorite things about story writing. I spend an awful lot of time at the Social Security website where they have the top 200 girl and boy names for each decade. I start my way at the bottom and work my way up, looking for names that spark an idea. I also have a character naming book that includes names by origin and meaning. I look for names that are plausible but are a bit quirky and unique, especially for minor characters. I sometimes will play around with a name for a long time until I get the right one. Once I get it right, the characters seem to take on a life of their own.

Find Sharon Wilharm online:

Website: sharonwilharm.com
Amazon author page: Sharon Wilharm on Amazon
BookBub: Sharon Wilharm on BookBub
Goodreads: The Amazing Crab Alley Revival on Goodreads
Facebook: @sharonwilharms
Instagram: @sharonwilharmstoryteller
Pinterest: @sharonwilharm
Substack: sharonwilharm.substack.com