Pop Culture Personality Quiz: Cerella D. Sechrist

Author Cerella D. Sechrist wraps up her week of guest blogging with a special version of the Pop Culture Personality Quiz (inspired by Entertainment Weekly). Each of these questions was designed to give you a closer look at the woman behind the stories and to grant a glimpse into what inspires her (and perhaps what does not)! Be sure to stop by her blog and let her know how much you’ve enjoyed her time here, and don’t forget to pick up a copy of her book, Love Finds You in Hershey, Pennsylvania.
 
Remember, today is our BIG GIVEAWAY! Be sure to read all the way to the conclusion for details on how you can enter to win. Winners will be posted on this blog, Saturday, February 6.
 

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What book do you wish you had written, and whose career would you like to have?    I wish I had written Liz Curtis Higgs’s Lowlands of Scotland series. Placed in eighteen century Scotland, the books are an updated historical telling of the brothers Jacob and Esau. Higgs did a brilliant job transferring the Biblical story into 1764 Scotland. I was reading it, thinking, “Brilliant! Why didn’t I do this?!?” LOL
 
I’d love to have Ted Dekker’s career. He’s innovative and well-established enough that he gets away with whatever story he puts out there. Not all of his books are favorites of mine, but I have a great respect for the way he weaves plots, conjures theories and settings, and surprises you with unexpected lessons. He is the most unique writer, and yet he pulls most of his ideas off with pure panache.
 


Have you ever written a fan letter?    The one and only fan letter I ever wrote was to Charlie Schlatter (see Tuesday’s post about Pop Culture Favorites). I had to have been 11 or 12 years old. After I sent it, I was completely mortified that I wrote it in the first place. I think I even sprayed some cloying perfume on the stationary before tucking it into the envelope.
 
I never sent another one.
 
 
What piece of pop culture memorabilia from your childhood do you wish you still had?    When I was about three or four, I had this insanely COOL Strawberry Shortcake cardboard dollhouse. It was about four stories high and outrageously colorful. I absolutely adored it.
 
It disappeared during a move, and I never saw it again. I’ve been heartbroken over its loss ever since.
 

What do you consider your geekiest possession?
I recently purchased a Disney Pocahontas PEZ dispenser. In my defense, I was with a six-year-old at the time, and she insisted I get it to accompany her Belle PEZ dispenser.
 

What is your biggest guilty pleasure?
Mia Bella Candles. My mom became a distributor of these natural wax candles several years ago, and she has us all addicted. I don’t feel like I’m at home unless I have one burning. My favorite scents are Eucalyptus, Japanese Pear and Snowberry Pine.
 

What one interest do you refuse to apologize for?
Food. I love the variety, the cultural aspect, the creation. Mostly, I love the history of it. It took me awhile to realize that when I set out to research historical time periods for novels, the very first thing I wanted to learn about was what the people in that era ate.
 
I grew up in a family where food was the center of many of our holidays and gatherings. We had ‘corn day’ where all the extended family would gather to husk, boil, shell and freeze corn for the year ahead. As a kid, there was nothing better than summer days sitting on the cool of the basement floor, gnawing on denuded corn cobs while the adults chattered above you.
 
Then we had ‘cookie baking day’ where the same crew would gather, the day after Thanksgiving, to bake over 80-dozen cookies. The kids were in charge of the sand tarts — with colorful egg wash dyes, we’d paint the tarts, inserting little edible silver dragées for eyes and decorations. The adults would constantly chastise us for sneaking into the living room, where all the cookies were stacked to cool before they were bagged. It’s too much temptation for a child.
 
Yes, I come from a family that probably eats too much, and it’s resulted in my being a little rounder than I want to be. But I can’t be sorry for it, and I won’t apologize. Food brings people together, and it’s an art in its own right.
 
 
What is the most embarrassing song on your iPod?
My brother, Caleb, should answer this one. He is a music connoisseur. He likes to provoke me by playing the first three notes of any given song and making me guess what it is. Yes, he’s one of THOSE. So when he was home for Christmas, I made the mistake of letting my iPod lay out, and he began scrolling through it. I winced at his tone when he said, “Cerella? Seriously? BB Mak?”
 
It’s a good thing he didn’t scroll any further to encounter Hilary Duff’s “So Yesterday.”
 

What is the song that makes you dance any time you hear it?
“Love Addict” by Family Force 5
 

The movie you watch every time you see it on television?
Zoolander. Because the people in it are really, really good-looking.
 

The last awesomely bad movie you got sucked into on cable?
Probably something of the Jackass nature. I know those boys need to grow up, but I have a secret crush on Johnny Knoxville, so… I’m usually suckered into it by his presence long before my good sense catches up with me.
 

What is your favorite awesomely bad movie?
Pauly Shore movies would be at the top of the list. I know, I know… but he’s just FUNNY, even in his awesomely awfulness. My two favorite films of his are Son-in-Law (“Thank God I’m a country boy!”) and Encino Man (“stone-age Tupperware”).
 
 I would say he’s an acquired taste, but his best awesomeness was back in the 90s. If you didn’t acquire the taste back then, you probably never will.
 

 

Name the movie that always makes you cry.
Many years ago, my sister and I bawled for thirty minutes solid (gushing, endless tears) after we watched the movie Sommersby. No lie. And it was our fourth viewing of it, too! LOL! My mom was honestly concerned about us. When I mentioned this question to her, the first thing she said was, “Well, there’s always the times you watched Sommersby…”
 

When do you talk back to the TV?
This would imply it would have to talk to me FIRST, which it never has. =D
 
I don’t usually talk to the TV, but I do gasp on occasion. You know, if someone is unexpectedly hit by a bus, Cerella is the one in the corner that draws in her breath sharply and causes everyone to look her way…
 

Which five items will you take with you on the 3-hour tour that shipwrecks at an uncharted island?    A machete, waterproof matches, toothpaste, the entire Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon, and a volleyball. (Preferably a Wilson, but a Voit would do in a pinch.)
 

When you go on your big publicity tour, what items will you demand for your dressing room?    Gourmet coffee, chocolate-covered strawberries, a serenity fountain, my own personal masseuse and high-speed internet…
 
When can we make this happen? =D
 

Lastly, choose just one:
 

 
It’s been a great week, and I hope everyone has gotten to know me and my writing a little bit better. Thank you, Jules, for featuring me!
 

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In honor of the release of Love Finds You in Hershey, Pennsylvania, Cerella is giving away this amazing gift package inspired by the book and its sweet story.

 

• Autographed copy of Love Finds You in Hershey, Pennsylvania (personalized to the winner, if you choose)
• A handcrafted journal made out of recycled materials — created with book pages and featuring a stencil design
• A bookmark made from a Hershey’s Chocolate Bar wrapper
• An angel suncatcher, in honor of Sadie’s restaurant, Suncatchers
• A votive candle — Chocolate Kiss scent — in a glass votive cup
• A copy of Briar Cox’s CD Letters to Myself (mentioned in Wednesday’s post under Currently Listening)

 
To enter* for your chance to win, leave a comment here and answer for yourself one of the questions from the Pop Culture Personality Quiz above. The contest will remain open until Saturday, February 6, at 5:00pm EST. One winner will be chosen by random number generator, and that winner’s name will be posted on this blog Saturday evening, February 6.
 
*One additional entry may be earned by mentioning this post via Twitter. Be sure to return here and add your Twitter post link to a second comment so it will be counted as an entry.
 
*One additional entry may be earned by leaving a comment on Cerella’s blog via this link.
 
Thank you to everyone who stopped by this week and participated in this celebration of Cerella and her debut novel! Be sure to visit her blog to stay up to date with all the happenings surrounding Love Finds You in Hershey, Pennsylvania. You can also find her at her official website, as well as Facebook and Twitter.
 

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The Influence of Pop Culture

Guest blogging this week is Cerella D. Sechrist, author of Love Finds You in Hershey, Pennsylvania. I know that Cerella is quite influenced by pop culture in her writing and other creative endeavors, so I asked her to spend some time today speaking on just how various mediums affect her craft. As you can imagine, this is a subject dear to my own heart, and I’m thrilled that Cerella is willing to take some time to share her musings with you, as well.
 
Be sure to read all the way to the end for details on TODAY’S GIVEAWAY. I think you’ll absolutely love it!
 

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I believe that art bleeds into itself, and one medium has a definite effect on another, a reverberation of feeling and experience. Art is never something that just happens. It is affected by everything that has come before in the artist’s life   every experience, every moment, every heartbeat and tear and gesture. If we are the sum of our experiences then art is our reflection of that culmination.
 
That being said, here are a few ways I feel other artistic mediums and outlets have had an effect on my own ‘art’.
 

MUSIC: There’s this episode of the television show La Femme Nikita where the title heroine is undercover and asked what type of music is her favorite. It is a tension-filled moment in which she must answer without a misstep — if she gives the wrong reply, they will know she is a spy. So she answers unexpectedly that there is no answer — she does not listen to music. The terrorist questioning her demands to know why this is, and she coolly replies, “Music evokes emotion.”
 
I have a limited musical ability. I can read music, I play a little piano, and I sing fairly well (mostly if I’m harmonizing with someone who sings much better!) But I value music, for that very reason — it evokes emotion in us. Films and television would be flat, dull things without the sweeping swell of piano, the mournful resonance of violins, or the reverberating bass of a drum. Music moves us in ways we cannot define. Without words, without imagery — it compels us to cry or frown or sigh.
 
It’s because of this that I employ a large collection of instrumental movie soundtracks when I write. When I touch upon the right song, I will simply put it on repeat and let it play for HOURS while I write a particular scene, carving out with words the emotions the music is stirring within me. Music moves and inspires, and our lives would be a pale echo without a soundtrack to back it up.
 

VISUALS: For me, writing is a visual experience. I want to SEE it. It comes from growing up in a culture where so much is visual these days, with film and television and the internet. We have become a people who judge books by their covers — even the best among us are prone to it on occasion. Even though I’m a writer, I’m no different in this.
 
So when I set out to tell a story, I need to be able to watch it in my head before I can transfer that vision to paper. I cast the major players in my books with actors who fit the part, and I’ve even been known to hang up photos of my dream cast around me as I write. At times, I’ve even gone so far as to choose photographs of houses or rooms to set certain scenes. This can be particularly helpful when writing historicals — if I’ve visited a historical site with a house that fits the one I want my characters to live in, I’ll use those photos as a diagram for the layout of the home in my story. It’s not a bad thing, in my opinion; it keeps me consistent, grounds me in my own descriptions and rules and makes the setting a tangible place.
 
I gravitate to photography far more often than paintings. Maybe because photography gives me a solid visual image to work with. A photo often tells less lies than a painting, which is rendered according to the artist’s personal lens. That’s not to say I don’t value paintings, especially employing them when writing historicals, but when telling modern tales, I trust the camera more.
 

UNEXPECTED MEDIUMS: When I began writing Love Finds You in Hershey, Pennsylvania, there was one thing for certain I knew my main character, Sadie, was passionate about: food. Obviously, I understood this. I love food myself — texture, taste, visual appeal, history. I’m a foodie.
 
But as I learned more about Sadie, she pressed something upon me: to her, it isn’t just food. It’s ART. And I realized this is true. Art is not always obvious. It’s not just painting or composing or drawing or crafting words. Art is creation. We are all artists, in one form or another — some of us just have slightly less obvious mediums.
 
I began to look at food differently, seeing it through my character’s eyes instead of my own. It changed my perceptions of what art can be.
 
There’s a scene in the novel where Sadie surveys the dining room of her restaurant, noting the suncatchers that decorate the mirrored walls and the flowers she’s placed around the room. It reads:
 

…the effect was magnificent — a soothing atmosphere of the suncatchers’ brilliant, jeweled colors and the flowers’ soft, transparent light. Sadie sighed with contentment. This was what a dining experience should be: ambiance, texture, flavor, and comfort.

 
It’s such an insignificant slice of the book — only a few sentences. But I learned more about Sadie in those lines than in anything I had written up to that point. She enjoys cooking for people because it’s rewarding; it is creation, and it moves others without them even realizing it. I began to have a sense of what food is: something that warms us, brings us together, satisfies and delights.
 
If that’s not art, I don’t know what is.
 

These are just a few of the things that continue to shape and develop my own craft. But all this just nicks the surface of the way the arts define each other. For this reason alone, a Creator God makes perfect sense to me — we create, as we were created. In every age, through every season, we mold and craft, build and compose, draft and call forth. It’s what we do. Part of who we are. It’s in our DNA and genetic makeup.
 

With that said… Go on. Get out of this interview. Create something. =)
 

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TODAY’S GIVEAWAY is special treat. Cerella has graciously agreed to offer one lucky winner a $5.00 gift certificate toward a purchase at the Chocolate Fiction Etsy store. You can find all kinds of handcrafted literature-themed gifts, including a candy bouquet for readers and the most adorable little petaled magnets made from the pages of old books!
 

 
To enter* for your chance to win, leave a comment here and tell us what influences you the most in your own creative endeavors. Comments will close tonight, Thursday, at 11:59pm EST. The winner will be chosen by random number generator and posted on this blog.
 
*One additional entry may be earned by mentioning this post via Twitter. Be sure to return here and add your Twitter post link to a second comment so it will be counted as an entry.
 
*One additional entry may be earned by leaving a comment on Cerella’s blog via this link.

 
Be sure to join us for one more day with Cerella during which she’ll take a special version of the Pop Culture Personality Quiz. It promises to be a lot of fun! And don’t forget that we’ll be giving away another prize to one lucky winner — and we’ve saved the best for last!
 

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one word: heart

Guest blogging this week is Cerella D. Sechrist, author of Love Finds You in Hershey, Pennsylvania. I asked Cerella to participate in my One Word series from This Girl’s Journey, and I think the results are fabulous! Two takes on one simple word. So much fun!
 
Don’t forget to read all the way to the end for details on TODAY’S GIVEAWAY!

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It’s one of those words that get bandied about.
 
Take heart. Have a heart. Where the heart is. The way to a man’s heart…
 
You can be heartbroken, heartless, sick at heart, hardhearted or have a heart of gold.
 
We try to get to the heart of the matter, have a heart-to-heart, wear our heart on our sleeve and seek our heart’s desire.
 
We’ve even created an emoticon for it:
 
I <3 you.
 
And perhaps the very worst thing that can happen to an individual soul is to lose heart.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

There’s a wonderful book, written several years ago by Brent Curtis and John Eldredge entitled The Sacred Romance: Drawing Closer to the Heart of God. Early on in its chapters, the two authors make a profound statement: “In the end, it doesn’t matter how well we have performed or what we have accomplished – a life without heart is not worth living.”
 
We are a people who ache much of the time. We live our lives by disillusionment or distraction, depending on the day. For most of us, life is a series of blessings that we take for granted — riches piling up around us, physical needs generally met… and yet we lack the ability to be content.
 
We are losing heart.
 
So if it’s true, that a life without heart is not worth living, how do we maintain — in a world rife with misplaced hope and misbegotten dreams — our hearts?
 
There are, of course, many solutions to be tried: twelve-step programs, diet fads, self-help books, therapists, medications, charities, churches, relationships — take your pick. For a people with so many options, you’d have thought we’d have found something patent by now for this wasting disease of sick-heartedness.
 
So maybe the solution is simply — to employ another cliché — a matter of this: trust your heart.
 
My sister calls it gut instinct — the things she knows not with her mind or body but some place deep within. She jokingly says it’s her tummy talking to her. I think it’s something more than that — I think she knows when to trust her heart. 
 
In a society where it seems someone else wants to think for you, to define what is true or trustworthy… how refreshing would it be if we just learned to trust our own hearts to guide us? 
 
Yeah, I know. It sounds like something out of a Disney movie. But maybe that’s not so bad. After all, as children, we seem to have a better sense of our hearts, of believing that our lives can be whatever we wish. We’re more inclined to trust our instincts.
 
Maybe that’s what it means to take heart — believing in our own abilities to discern truth from illusion and trust that at our soul’s core, we have the sense of something more, something deeper, something that goes beyond this life and gives us a promise, a taste, of things to come.
 
If, as the Bible says, we lose our lives to find them, maybe we must also begin to lose our hearts in order to take them back, to trust them. It’s worth a shot anyway.
 
With a holiday approaching that focuses on matters of the heart, I would encourage you to use Valentine’s Day to seek your own — to trust its intuitions.
 
Do the one thing that matters: Take heart.

heart image designed by graur razvan ionut
 
 
One Word is a regular series at This Girl’s Journey. The series was derived from the list of inspiration words gathered on Ali Edwards’s blog and from the concept of writing about one word.

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TODAY’S GIVEAWAY is a delicious batch of chocolaty goodness! One winner will receive Fair Trade items including Hot Cocoa Mix, Dark Chocolate and Milk Chocolate bars, in addition to Hershey’s Kisses to celebrate Cerella’s book, Love Finds You in Hershey, Pennsylvania.
 
 
To enter* for your chance to win, leave a comment here and tell us One Word that describes your hope for 2010. Comments will close Wednesday at 11:59pm EST. A winner will be chosen by random number generator and posted on this blog by Thursday morning.
 
*One additional entry may be earned by mentioning this post via Twitter. Be sure to return here and add your Twitter post link to a second comment so it will be counted as an entry.
 
*One additional entry may be earned by leaving a comment on Cerella’s blog via this link.
 
Come back tomorrow to read Cerella’s musings on the influence of pop culture upon her craft and join us for another fun giveaway!
 

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Pop Culture Favorites of Cerella D. Sechrist

Guest blogging this week is Cerella D. Sechrist, author of Love Finds You in Hershey, Pennsylvania. In keeping with the spirit of this blog, Cerella agreed to list her own favorites in Pop Culture for us. The two of us share a great love of movies, music, literature, television, and, yes, celebrities, and we spend many emails discussing the finer (and lesser) merits of our favorites. It has bonded us for over a decade now, and I am thrilled that she agreed to share some of those interests with you. It’s even more appropriate that we feature this today, on Oscar Nominations Day!
 
Don’t forget to read all the way to the end for details on TODAY’S GIVEAWAY! It’s one of my favorite gifts to create for friends, and I’m so happy to have the chance to offer it to readers this week in celebration of my friend Cerella.
 

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Cerella is Currently Reading:
Rumors by Anna Godbersen, the second book in her series The Luxe. It’s been described as Edith Wharton meets Gossip Girl, and that’s pretty accurate. It’s got enough teen angst to keep you giddy, but it’s classy enough to make you feel rather posh and high-society while reading it. (And the covers are absolutely brilliant!)
 
Next up on my To-Be-Read list is Sophie Kinsella’s Twenties Girl, Nancy Moser’s Just Jane and Scott Westerfeld’s Extras.
 

Currently Watching:
TNT’s Leverage. If anyone reads this blog regularly, they’ll know Jules paid me to say that.
 
Seriously, though, I was a fan of the original show (BBC’s Hustle), and while the Brits usually do it better on this type of thing, I think Leverage has far surpassed what Hustle accomplished. The stunts alone are enough to keep you tuning in — it’s a great ‘group’ show, where you can share it with most members of the family (depending on their ages!), as well as friends or couples. It’s just plain FUN.
 
I’m also anticipating the final season of Lost. And for anyone who is interested in whom I’d most like to be stranded on the island with:    In terms of survival, I think I’d choose Locke. Yes, he’s a little crazy, but he’s lively. And I just don’t trust Jack entirely. (His controlling instincts remind me too much of myself, I think. We’d probably harpoon each other in a matter of hours.)
 
Wait, scratch that. I’d trust Sayid more than I’d trust Locke. Yeah. Definitely Sayid, for survival.
 
In terms of entertainment, I think I’d choose Sawyer. Because the bantering would be too much fun, and I’d love to see what nicknames he’d come up with for me.
 
In terms of just listening to him talk, it would be Desmond. I’d make him read to me from one of Sawyer’s books so I could listen to that Scottish accent all day long.
NOTE: Cerella, when you go looking for Desmond, he’ll be with me. Jus’ sayin’ — Jules
 

Currently Listening to:
That song featured on the Dear John movie trailer — “Set the Fire to the Third Bar” by Snow Patrol with Martha Wainwright. This song is ADDICTIVE. I love it. Look for it to show up on one of my future book soundtracks because it has all the makings of a ‘must play in the background’ track.
 
Speaking of book soundtracks — I’m currently loving the CD “Letters to Myself” by my friend, Briar Cox. He was gracious enough to allow me to feature one of the songs on my novel’s soundtrack. It’s the coolest thing ever to find songs you think fit a scene in your book, and it’s even BETTER when you know the person who wrote them. His music is exactly what I would love to hear if my book were made into a movie. Hey. You never know. =)
 
I highly recommend checking out his CD, available on iTunes, not just because he’s my friend… but because he’s good.
 

Celebrities Currently On My Radar:
Ben Barnes — WHEN will Dorian Gray arrive in the United States?!?
Gemma Arterton — I first noticed her in the mini-series Lost in Austen, before her brief role in Quantum of Solace. I think she’s going places.
Dakota Fanning — The girl’s cute, and I think she’s working her way toward some decent acting chops. I’m just hoping she’s not the next Kirsten Dunst.
Amy Adams — Is there any role this girl can’t play???
Shia LeBeouf — Who knew the geeky kid from Even Stevens would turn out to be such a hottie?!
Ryan Reynolds (pictured, right) — Because he’s been on the radar for years, and I love that he’s becoming more and more well known. Anyone remember Berg from Two Guys and a Girl?
 

All-Time Favorite Book:   Are you kidding me? I only get one? LOL!
Let me break it down another way instead:
 
Book that makes me laugh out loud more often than any other: Confessions of a Shopaholic (or any of the Shopaholic series books) by Sophie Kinsella. You think you know materialism? You don’t have a clue.
 
Book that makes me think the most: The Holy Wild by Mark Buchanan. Hands down, Buchanan wins my award for author with the most talent for verbal imagery.
 
Book that made me weep the hardest: Mark of the Lion Trilogy by Francine Rivers. You will never be the same. Ever.
 
Book that made me want to go back in time: Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
 
Book that made me fall in love with the Wild West: Ride the Wind by Lucia St. Clair Robson, along with Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry
 
Book that pleasantly surprised me by its depth: The Host by Stephenie Meyer
 

Favorite Individual Character:
It all comes down to the characters we can’t forget — the ones we want to be or that we wish could be our best friends. The ones that live the life we’d like to live with the courage and tenacity we’d love to see in ourselves. For that reason, I’d have to say my favorite character is Elizabeth Bennett from Pride and Prejudice. It took her awhile, but she eventually mastered her pride, won her man and learned to handle life’s grievances with dignity. And a witty way with words is always to be admired in my book!
 

Favorite Genre:    Historical sagas, Young Adult, Classics
 
Favorite Author(s):   Diana Gabaldon, Sophie Kinsella, Mark Buchanan, Margaret George, Francine Rivers, Ted Dekker and Edith Wharton
 
All-Time Favorite Film:
Like potato chips — you can’t have just one. Here’s a sampling:
 
Favorite Western: 3:10 to Yuma
Favorite Civil War: Gone with the Wind
Favorite Car Movie: Gone in 60 Seconds tied with The Fast and the Furious
Favorite Heist film: Ocean’s 11
Favorite Spy: Spy Game and Casino Royale
Favorite Historical: Last of the Mohicans, The Patriot, The New World, King Arthur, Cutthroat Island
 
Favorite Sci-Fi: Pitch Black, Children of Dune
Favorite Trilogy: Pirates of the Caribbean
Favorite Disney: Pocahontas, Alice in Wonderland, The Little Mermaid
Favorite Pixar: A Bug’s Life and Bolt. Okay, so Bolt isn’t technically Pixar, but it has the same feel, IMO!
 

Favorite Actors:   A handful of long-running faves:
 
Ladies: Sandra Bullock, Angelina Jolie, Bryce Dallas Howard, Charlize Theron, Claire Danes, Meryl Streep, Glenn Close, Liv Tyler, Gina Torres, Joan Crawford
 
Gents: Owen Wilson, Vin Diesel, Karl Urban, Colin Farrell, Ioan Gruffudd, James Frain, James Purefoy, Russell Crowe, Steve McQueen
 

Favorite Film Genre:    Action/Adventure, historical epics, blockbusters, and classics of the 40s and 50s
 
First Celebrity Crush: Charlie Schlatter in the TV series version of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.   I was 11.
 
Celebrity crush that endured the longest:
Scott Bairstow. It began with finding him in the TV series Lonesome Dove and ended approximately ten years later when he was convicted of assault charges. (It was just too much for me, and he sort of drifted off the radar after that!)
 

Favorite Television Series (past or present):
I cannot even begin to narrow this one down. Lonesome Dove — both the series and The Outlaw Years; The Magnificent Seven; Legacy; Lost; Leverage; Battlestar Galactica; Alias; Heroes; Two Guys and a Girl… The list just goes on and on and on… LOL
 

Favorite TV Character(s):
Right now, it’s probably Eliot from Leverage. Being that Eliot/Christian Kane is a constant source of email trivia from Jules here, I can’t help but be interested in this character. Since she shares with me all manner of background on the actor and his development of said character — along with YouTube videos and analyses of the fight scenes, I’m sort of compelled to take an interest in this guy!
 
I think what I like about Eliot is that even though he’s the ‘tough guy’, I’m usually laughing at him. (I would never tell him that, though. He’d probably body slam me for saying so.)
 

Favorite TV Genre:    Doesn’t matter, so long as it has a compelling premise and an engaging cast. I’ll watch anything from sci-fi to drama to crime shows to comedy. It just has to be a story well presented.
 
Favorite Musician or Group:    My top ten (in no particular order): Matchbox 20, Rob Thomas, Jewel, Melanie Doane, Vertical Horizon, Lifehouse, Sara Bareilles, Good Charlotte, The Fray, Dido
 
Favorite Musical Genre:
My family has always been exceptionally well-rounded when it comes to music, and I was raised to appreciate a wide range of genres. I’ll listen to just about anything, be it folk music from the seventies (Ian & Sylvia), musicals (Chicago, Newsies), old school jazz (Nina Simone, Chet Baker), country (Keith Urban, SheDaisy), classical (Vivaldi), bluegrass (Alison Krauss), punk (Good Charlotte), world (Loreena McKennit), pop, rock, etc. I’m most fond of listening to instrumental movie soundtracks when I write.
 

Favorite Album or Song:
You know how there’s often one album that just strikes at the right time in your life, when you need it most, to carry you through? For me, it’s Melanie Doane’s Adam’s Rib from several years ago. I’ve played it so many times, my sister refuses to listen to it anymore. She won’t let me play a single song from that album while in her presence. More recently, The Fray’s current self-titled album also indicates it’s going to have the same hold on me that Adam’s Rib has for so many years.
 

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Inspired by Cerella’s extensive list of
pop culture interests, not to mention our shared love of movies in general,
TODAY’S GIVEAWAY is a movie-themed gift package!
 
One winner will receive a box of goodies that includes a $10.00 gift card to Blockbuster, Confetti candy-flavored popcorn, and some of Cerella’s personal favorite cinema treats.
 
To enter* for your chance to win, leave a comment here and tell us the name
of your first Celebrity Crush. Comments will close tonight, Tuesday, at 11:59pm EST. The winner will be chosen by random number generator and posted on this blog Wednesday, February 3.
 
*One additional entry may be earned by mentioning this post via Twitter. Be sure to return here and add your Twitter post link to a second comment so it will be counted as an entry.
 
*One additional entry may be earned by leaving a comment on Cerella’s blog via this link.

 
Be sure to come back tomorrow when Cerella takes on the challenge of writing about One Word. And there will also be CHOCOLATE!
 

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Author Interview :: Cerella D. Sechrist

Chef Sadie Spencer has learned that in life, as well as in food, sour balances sweet. After returning to her deliciously charming hometown of Hershey with a young daughter in tow, Sadie has managed to rise from the ashes following the death of her husband, the passing of her mother, and the dissolution of her career as a TV chef. With the help and encouragement of her best friend, Jasper, she opens a restaurant and looks forward to savoring the sweet side of life. That is, until a handsome Russian entrepreneur arrives in town, apparently intent on opening up his own restaurant in direct competition to hers. Sadie becomes obsessed with honing the one skill she’s never had — creating desserts — to keep up with her adversary, and in the process, she finds a love that’s simply icing on the cake.

 
In Sadie Spencer, author Cerella D. Sechrist has created a heroine that women can truly relate to. Sweet, sassy, fiercely independent yet childlike in many ways, Sadie is a joy to read, and the novel’s setting of Hershey, Pennsylvania, just adds to the delicious nature of this funny and touching romantic comedy.
 
I am honored to have Cerella guest blogging for me this week, sharing personal stories, creative inspirations, and a love for pop culture that rivals my own. We begin the week with an introduction in Cerella’s own words. Join us all week for more from this (very dear friend and) truly talented author of Love Finds You in Hershey, Pennsylvania. — Jules (aka Nolatari)
 

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I’ve heard the average time you can expect to wait before you see a book in print, once you start the publishing journey, is ten years. It took me thirteen, so that sounds about right.
 
I LOVED stories when I was a child. I think it began with my mom, who consistently read to me when I was young. She’s a theater-arts lover, and every storybook became a full-on production. (What that woman can do with Dr. Seuss, I can’t even begin to describe.)
 
But it made stories live and breathe for me, and I was hooked at a very young age. Time went on, and I embraced chapter books. My parents could barely keep me in reading material.
 
Like any child, I was enamored with the considerations of what I’d be when I ‘grew up’. I had a list of possibilities at the ready: a lawyer, a singer, a nurse, an archaeologist, a marine biologist, etc. Then, one night when I was ten years old, I happened to watch a movie in which the heroine was… a novelist.
 
It clicked. These stories? These fascinating characters and heart-stopping adventures I’d been reading about? They began somewhere, bloomed in the mind of a real, live person.
 
To my story-loving mind, I couldn’t think of a better way to spend my life. So I approached my mother and announced to her that I had made the final decision on my life’s ambition: writer.
 
My mom smiled, as most mothers would, and promptly dubbed it a phase.
 
She was wrong.
 
I never once wavered, never once said I would be anything else. Throughout my teens and twenties, I kept at this pursuit. I read up on the publishing industry. I studied style and craft. I went to work at a bookstore to learn more. I honed my grammar skills. I consumed any and every genre imaginable to become well-rounded.
 
I wrote my first book when I was 16 years old and started submitting it for publication at 17. Thirteen more years and several manuscripts later, I finally received a contract offer for my romantic comedy, Just Desserts (now published as Love Finds You in Hershey, Pennsylvania).
 
When I told my brother, the first thing he said was, “Congratulations. I know it’s been a long time coming.”
 
When he acknowledged that — the wait, the struggle, the journey — it wasn’t until then that it became real, and I finally cried.
 
My mom stopped calling it a phase, by the way, around the time I was thirteen.
 

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I think the most important discipline you can have with the writing process is to try to put some words on paper every single day. On very good (and very rare!) days, I may be able to put as many as 4,000 down and others, it’s as few as 100. But even a handful of words is a step in the journey to completing your story. You can’t share what you haven’t finished.
 
Establishing the habit of sitting down every day to write is difficult enough, but what do you do when it’s just… not… in… you? Ah, the fickleness of the muse — that rare and elusive creature.
 
It’s taken me years, but I’ve learned to gauge my moods in this regard. There are some days when it requires just reading back over what I’ve already written to re-establish my rhythm with the story. Other days, I might review my casting and pull up photos of the actors I have in mind for the roles to get my mental image back. Occasionally, I’ll utilize the soundtrack I’ve compiled and just listen to some of the songs while trying to re-imagine the scene that’s giving me difficulty. (Like playing the movie version in my head.) Some of the writing in self-help books can be very inspiring, too, but at some point, you have to put the books away and get back to it.
 
There are also days when I just know I need to step back for a bit because I’m overwhelmed and too close to the story. On those days, I reluctantly walk away from my desk and try not to feel too guilty about indulging in something else during my writing time instead.
 

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I like things to be organized — I’m a bit of a neat-nick in this regard — so usually everything is nicely filed where I can lay my hands on it when I need it. (It seems I’m unique in this as a writer. I’ve heard most writers have workspaces that are cluttered with research, plot bits and facts they’ve scribbled down.) I try to keep all those things neatly assembled because I work better in a clear space — it’s a Zen thing, I guess!
 
But I do love the visual aspect of writing. Because, though it doesn’t seem like a visual craft, for me it definitely is one. I have to be able to SEE my story as if it were playing out in movie form, so I usually have images at the ready to nudge me along in the process. I may have photos of my ‘dream cast’ (actors who could play each character’s part) hanging up, and I’m often playing some sort of mellow soundtrack as I work, to help me through the emotion of each scene.
 
The ‘what if’ is my favorite part of the writing process — that’s where the story is first born. People often ask where writers get ideas, and writers often answer, “Everywhere.” And that’s true. But additionally, for me, it’s a matter of prompting… I have a thought, and then I start wondering about it. WHAT IF… there’s this single mom who owns a successful restaurant? WHAT IF… she’s good at everything except one thing? WHAT IF… she can’t create desserts, and it drives her absolutely insane? WHAT IF… someone comes to town who’s GREAT at desserts, and she’s suddenly got a rival?!?
 
And so it builds. My favorite part is the possibilities — the blank canvas. I’m not generally intimidated by that at all. From there, it’s getting to know the characters. I love to meet new people, so when I have a fresh set of characters waiting to introduce themselves, I’m ridiculously happy.
 

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Like any journey, when you’re starting out, it’s new and exciting with lots of possibilities and adventures ahead. But once you’re halfway through, the newness has worn off, and the destination is so far ahead. Sometimes I have to slog my way through that difficult middle section to reach higher ground. It’s always a challenge to keep the story interesting the whole way through. Most people give up in that middle part. It’s hard, and it’s not always fun anymore. Fortunately, I love the challenge of writing, so I eventually strap myself into the seat and get back to it.
 
I also love variety in my writing. I know they say if readers like a story, they want to see that same story from an author, just told in different ways. But as a reader, that’s never been my feeling. I think if you’re a good writer, you can tell me different stories that I’ll love as much as the first one where I discovered you — because a good writer is capable of that.
 
I would get bored if I told the same story over and over. And I’ve come to find that the best way I grow as a person is when my characters are struggling with the same issues that I am struggling with. It forces me to work through them so the character can, too. I’m counting on having plenty of issues for many books to come. LOL! =)
 
I’m fairly adventurous when it comes to writing — I’ll try my hand at just about anything. However, there are definitely some genres that I feel are more of a challenge than others. To me, the most difficult story to write would probably be a historical mystery. Well-told mysteries are tough enough and then to throw in the historical aspect? Yowza.
 
Being a glutton for punishment, I’ll likely attempt it one day.
 

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I started out writing historical fiction because I’m a lover of that genre and of history itself. For years, I focused on historical storylines — pirates, westerns, Civil War, etc. But I wasn’t selling, and I was growing weary. In a fit of pique, I decided I would write something completely opposite of what I had been writing up to that point. I decided to come out of the historical drama period for a bit and try something else. A modern-day romantic comedy. I was both uncertain and excited about this — again, the ‘what if’ kicked in, and that was exciting! So I asked myself what I would like to read if I was going to be the person reading this story. I have a foodie streak, so a story revolving around food seemed like a fun bet. Then I gravitated to desserts because I thought they would be a lot of fun to describe and use as a theme. From there, it wasn’t so hard to set it in Hershey, which is less than an hour from where I live in southern Pennsylvania.
 
What I love most about Love Finds You in Hershey, Pennsylvania is Kylie, Sadie’s precocious five-year-old daughter. She made the story something lighter than it might have otherwise been. In the book, there’s a part that describes her smile as being like a suncatcher — it can light up a room with color. For all her hilarious antics, Kylie gives her mother hope. Because she loves Sadie unconditionally, as only a child can. Sadie can’t mess up so much that Kylie stops loving her mom. And Sadie can push everyone else away and make a destructive mess of all her other relationships, but she has a responsibility to Kylie that keeps her from doing irrevocable damage.
 
Kylie made me see the world (and Sadie) through a child’s eyes, and that’s a rare thing when you’re all grown up.
 

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In writing the book I learned that what I can and cannot do does not define my self-worth. Like my character, Sadie, I sometimes want to be something I’m not — to be better at things than I really am. But there is such great peace in knowing that who I am and what I can do is enough. That doesn’t mean I don’t challenge myself to be better — it just means knowing my limitations and accepting them. I had to struggle through this in order to get Sadie through it as well — that who I am and what I’m capable of right now… is enough. And it doesn’t define my self-worth if I can’t be anything more than this. I still have value.
 
At one point, I would have said that true success is being well-established enough as an author that I can do it full-time, without having to work another job to make ends meet. I’ve been humbled enough to learn that true success is one reader, only one, who laughs out loud or cries because they can relate when they read a story I’ve written. Not the amount of books you sell, nor the number of people who read them. Just one person, even if that one is only me, who walks away from a story a little bit better for having experienced it.
 

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In honor of the release of Love Finds You in Hershey, Pennsylvania we’ll be giving away some FUN GIFTS EVERY DAY this week.   Today’s prize is an autographed copy of the book itself, personalized to whomever you choose!

 
To enter* for your chance to win, leave a comment here and tell us your favorite literary genre. Today’s contest will remain open until the end of the day, Monday, at 11:59pm EST. One winner will be chosen by random number generator, and that winner’s name will be posted on this blog Tuesday, February 2.
 
*One additional entry may be earned by mentioning this post via Twitter. Be sure to return here and add your Twitter post link to a second comment so it will be counted as an entry.
 
*One additional entry may be earned by leaving a comment for Cerella on her own blog via this link.
 
Be sure to join Cerella again tomorrow when she shares with us her All-Time Favorites in Pop Culture. And don’t forget about our Daily Giveaways!
 

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