Episode 110
Behind the Pages: Sharon M. Peterson on Her Creative Writing World -110
In this engaging episode of Author Express, Kathleen Basi hosts Sharon M. Peterson, whose romcom The Fast Lane has been lauded for its wit and heartfelt moments. Sharon reveals the most interesting fact about her small town, discusses her unique writing process, and shares an amusing anecdote about her inexplicable fear of poodles. Listen as Sharon talks about her inspiration for characters, touching on real-life experiences and how she navigates writing disabilities authentically. Tune in for a blend of humor, sincerity, and literary wisdom that will inspire both readers and writers alike.
Sharon M. Peterson writes romantic comedies that will make you laugh. Readers have praised her books, not only for their humor, but for her ability to write relatable, memorable characters you’d want to be friends in real life. Sharon has always used humor to deal with the messy, hard things that life throws her way. Her favorite quote, from Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, is: “It was her habit to build up laughter from inadequate materials.” Life has given her lots of inadequate material. As a mom to four children, including her two sons with autism, there are often challenges (and more than a little chaos). Being able to find humor in hard situations is her superpower. Laughter in the middle of tough times is, at its core, hope. Not all is lost if we can find a way to smile through it.
Her roots are in women’s fiction so her romcoms are full of messy families, emotional character arcs, and lovable side characters. She also doesn’t believe the best love stories are about perfect size twos and billionaires. For her, the real romances are the ones we see every day. We all have a love story to share, and she loves exploring how us real folks fall in love. And the best part? These love stories always have happy endings. Both romance and humor are essentially about hope—hope for a better day, a new future, in the here-and-now. Hope has been a driving force in Sharon’s life, and she loves to share that with other people through her stories.
Her debut novel, The Do-Over, was released in August of 2022 (Bookouture) and while it’s never been a best seller, it has steadily won over the hearts of readers. It’s being translated into five languages and was recently released as a trade paperback with Grand Central. She’s released two other romcoms, The Fake Out and The Fast Lane, over the last two years.
If you would like to see her on a daily basis, check her out on Instagram at @stone4031 or visit her website at www.sharonmpeterson.com. Her books are available in paperback, on audiobook, and in Kindle Unlimited. You should definitely read them.
Support your local bookstore & this podcast by getting your copy of her debut novel The Do-Over and romcoms The Fake Out & The Fast Lane at Bookshop.org.
A little about today's host-
Author and musical composer Kathleen Basi is mother to three boys and one chromosomally-gifted daughter. Her debut novel, A SONG FOR THE ROAD, follows a musician on an unconventional road trip. Bestselling author Kerry Anne King writes, “In a novel filled with music, heartbreak, and surprising laughter, Basi takes us on a journey that encompasses both unimaginable loss and the powerful resilience of the human heart.”
Meaty, earnest, occasionally humorous, and ultimately uplifting, Kathleen’s fiction highlights the best within ourselves and each other. She writes monthly reflections on life, writing and beauty on her newsletter. Subscribe at https://kathleenbasi.substack.com/.
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Learn more about our hosts, the guests we've had, and their books -
Transcript
NOTE:
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Kathleen Basi [:Welcome to Author Express. Thanks for checking us out. This is the podcast where you give us 15 minutes of your time, and we give you a chance to hear the voice behind the pages and get to know some of your favorite writers in a new light. I'm one of your hosts, Kathleen Bassey. I'm an award winning musical composer, feature writer, essayist, and, of course, storyteller. Let me tell you a little about today's guest. Sharon M. Peterson is a former middle school teacher and has the personality to prove it.
Kathleen Basi [:One of her favorite quotes is from Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath. It was her habit to build up laughter out of inadequate materials. She strives to tackle life that way and create characters who do the same. Her first book, The Do Over, was called Pure Delight by New York Times bestselling author, Kristin Higgins. It's slated to be translated into 3 languages, which is 2 more than she knows how to speak. She lives in Washington with her husband and 4 children, including 2 autistic sons. She has 2 cats, 1 dog, 1 tattoo, and an intense fear of poodles. Don't ask.
Kathleen Basi [:Sharon can usually be found hunched over her computer creating characters and stories she hopes you'll love as much as she does. Sharon, welcome to Author Express.
Sharon M. Peterson [:Thank you. Thank you for having me.
Kathleen Basi [:It is, I am so excited to have you here. I've been wanting to have you on for a long time. I'm so glad we finally made it happen.
Sharon M. Peterson [:Yes. Mostly, that was my fault.
Kathleen Basi [:But, you know, you have a little bit going on in your life, so we're not gonna fuss at you about that. We start with everyone by asking you to tell us what's the most interesting thing about where you are from.
Sharon M. Peterson [:Okay. Well, we moved here to Longview, Washington almost 3 years ago, and I would say the most interesting part is that we have squirrel bridges. It's like there's a lake in the middle of town, and then over the streets this the roads and there's houses, and then there's bridges across it. Then they all have little names like Nutty Bridge and stuff like that.
Kathleen Basi [:So that squirrels don't get hit?
Sharon M. Peterson [:Yes.
Kathleen Basi [:That is really interesting. Although, I have to say I've never actually seen a squirrel on one of them. And then every summer, we have a squirrel festival here, which is a kind of a big deal.
Kathleen Basi [:You just never know what you're gonna hear from people. That's definitely very interesting. Kudos to you. I'm dying to ask you about the poodle, but I will, I will refrain. You know what? I'm gonna cheat.
Sharon M. Peterson [:Okay?
Kathleen Basi [:Other people would find it hard to believe that a person might have a fear of poodle, so please tell us about why you have a fear of poodles.
Sharon M. Peterson [:Well, according to my mom, some something happened when I was little, like, 3 or 4. We were over at a friend's house or her cousin or something, and they had, like, a a large black standard poodle, and it snapped at me.
Kathleen Basi [:Oh, yeah.
Sharon M. Peterson [:And ever since then, it's like a visceral fear of mine. I see a poodle, and I have to, like, walk across the street away from it. Oh. The little ones aren't as bad, but the big ones used to be creepy crawlies.
Kathleen Basi [:I don't know whether to say that's hilarious or sad.
Sharon M. Peterson [:It's a little both.
Kathleen Basi [:I lived in the country, and I rode my bike down the road all the time down the gravel road, and people didn't always keep their dogs in. And I actually got bit on the leg by a a see, it was a black lab, I think. I have made friends with dogs. I've made peace with dogs. Let's put it that way. But I will never be a dog fan. So I can understand that.
Kathleen Basi [:Yeah. Okay. So here's a question for you. Brace yourself. If you could have dinner with any 4 people, living or dead Who would they be?
Sharon M. Peterson [:Okay.
Kathleen Basi [:What would you chat about and what would you have for dessert? The most important part.
Sharon M. Peterson [:This is a horrible question. Okay. Who would I want? I probably want, like, a grandparent or something. I don't know which one. I didn't know any of them, so I think that would be interesting. Maybe someone on my mom's side like my grandma or grand maybe my grandma. My sister, who has passed away, I would totally invite her. And I know I'm supposed to say famous people here, but I You don't have to say famous people.
Kathleen Basi [:I was actually just thinking how much I love the fact that you're focusing on the small and intimate because so many of us go in different directions when we think about something like that.
Sharon M. Peterson [:I think I wouldn't be able to get through a meal, like, at all if it were someone I was like Yeah. Like you know what I mean? Yeah. Maybe like a Jane Eyre would be interesting or not Jane Eyre. Jane Austen. Jane Austen. Right? Yes. That would be an interesting conversation for sure.
Kathleen Basi [:Jane Eyre would be as well for that matter.
Sharon M. Peterson [:Yes. That's true.
Kathleen Basi [:And I don't know.
Sharon M. Peterson [:It's maybe where I'm at right now. Maybe, like, Betty Smith who wrote or Dodie Smith. Betty Smith who wrote A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. She just might be interesting. I think she kinda gets overshadowed by Harper Lee sometimes, and I love A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. So I think it'd be interesting to talk to her also.
Kathleen Basi [:That's very cool. So what do you serve for dessert if you have this group of people around?
Sharon M. Peterson [:Oh, cheesecake.
Kathleen Basi [:Cheesecake. What kind?
Sharon M. Peterson [:I just like good New York cheesecake with maybe some strawberries on top, but I like it plain without lemon. Some people put a lot of lemon in it. I don't like that.
Kathleen Basi [:I like a good plain cheese or vanilla cheesecake too, although I do like lemon in mine. Okay. So let's switch over and talk about your book a little bit. Tell us about the book. What book are we talking about today? And tell us about it in a sentence.
Sharon M. Peterson [:Well, my latest book is The Fast Lane that came out in June. And I wrote down my one sentence summary because you did tell me I was gonna have to do that, and I'm terrible at it. When Allie agrees to convince her black sheep brother to attend a family wedding, she finds herself on a 2,000 mile road trip with her brother's best friend, a man she's been pining over for years.
Kathleen Basi [:Man, she's been pining. What could go wrong? What could possibly go wrong?
Kathleen Basi [:Well, as you know, I wrote a road trip book as well. So I love the idea of a road trip here. So what made you want to write a road trip book?
Sharon M. Peterson [:Well, I mean, it's, one, being a romcom, it's that forced proximity. Like they're stuck together, and so something has to happen. I also really love to write, like, friends they call it friends to lovers or friends to more stories because I love when they have a lot of back history because I think it lends itself to falling in love much more naturally than, oh, look. We met 6 days ago, and we're getting married or something like that.
Kathleen Basi [:Mhmm.
Sharon M. Peterson [:And I just think a road trip, a lot of hijinks there. You know? And they go from Texas to Oregon, which is a road trip I have been on a few times. It's very long.
Kathleen Basi [:Yeah. I would imagine.
Sharon M. Peterson [:So it was fun writing. Although keeping the days straight and making sure, like, I had to go online and map the whole thing out on.
Kathleen Basi [:Right. This sounds very familiar.
Sharon M. Peterson [:I'm sure you had to do this too. Yep. And then I had to like, when I finished it, I had to go back and label all the chapters what day they were on.
Sharon M. Peterson [:I had to start from the end and work forward because I kept getting myself Yeah. But I can't props to the people who write to dual timeline because I don't think I could do it.
Kathleen Basi [:Calendars. You need calendars.
Sharon M. Peterson [:Yes. For sure.
Kathleen Basi [:So is there a character that you identify with most closely? Do you identify with all of your heroines? I guess, is a good question.
Sharon M. Peterson [:As writers, I think that there's always a little bit a part of us in our main characters, just a little bit, something that we identify with. Especially since I write first person point of view, like, I tend to once I start writing, I really feel like I'm in their head or in their voice. You know?
Sharon M. Peterson [:So Ali is the main character, and she has epilepsy, which my oldest son has also. He inspired me to write her that way. And I would say, probably relate a lot to her mom too who's a little bit overprotective of her.
Kathleen Basi [:Special needs moms can get that way.
Sharon M. Peterson [:Yeah. Yes. We can. And so, you know, I, of course, exaggerated it with her because you can do that with a rom com. But I had a reader, like, write to me afterwards, and she was like, does the mom do you think the mom has ADHD? Because she really hyperfixates. And I was like, well, she's probably based on me, and I have ADHD, so it makes sense.
Kathleen Basi [:There you go. Things that you're representing and you don't even know it when you're writing.
Sharon M. Peterson [:Yeah. Right?
Kathleen Basi [:Yeah. I love that you wrote a character with epilepsy and wrote her as someone who refuses to be defined by that too. Because you have a child with epilepsy, did you have to still do a lot of research?
Sharon M. Peterson [:I did. I actually there is an epilepsy group on Twitter that I followed for a few years, and I reached out to them and said, hey. I'm looking for some people to interview that are about this age and with a similar diagnosis. So he said, write, you know, write a tweet and I will retweet it and we'll find you some. And I had lots of volunteers and there were 2 women that I mean, I sent them a bazillion questions and they were so kind to reply to them and didn't tell me, Sharon, don't ask that. That's too personal or anything like that. And so I tried really hard to make it as authentic as possible. I think that's always the scary part for me is, like, trying to write from a disability point of view or something like that and wanting to make it as authentic as possible.
Sharon M. Peterson [:So I really could not have written it without their help.
Kathleen Basi [:Right. Well, kudos to the world. Readers and writers are some of the best people.
Sharon M. Peterson [:Amen. Book people are awesome.
Kathleen Basi [:So let's talk a little bit about your writing process. She laughs. Okay. So before we got on, I will just say that Sharon was telling me that she's on deadline, and she is going to rent a hotel room in a couple weeks to go try to to power through. So it is hard in a family situation, especially when there are needs. So I'm gonna ask, what part of writing brings you the most joy?
Sharon M. Peterson [:When it's done?
Kathleen Basi [:Let's keep it real here.
Sharon M. Peterson [:No. People always ask, what is the part of the process you hate the most? And I'm always like, the part that I'm working on right now. That is the worst part. You know, there are some writers that just, like, get energized by writing. You know? And I think for me, it's always been more of a almost slave like. Like, I really have to work at it to get the words out. Like, much like now I'm talking. So my process is I don't outline, which is probably to my detriment.
Sharon M. Peterson [:But I do think about the characters a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot. I think I do a lot of writing in my head way before I ever write anything. And then when I get stuff, that's what like, I just back off and I have to it doesn't look like I'm doing anything or I'm doing something dumb, like playing a mindless game on my phone. But all the time, I'm thinking about it and what needs to happen next, and how do I make that work? So that's a big part of my process is I see everything in almost like movie clips in my head. So I have to make the movie in my head first before I write it down, I guess.
Kathleen Basi [:So are you one of those people who picks, celebrities, like, and this is what they look like? No. Okay. Me either.
Sharon M. Peterson [:In fact, that's probably the hardest thing for me is finding people that look like the characters in my head. I'm not good at it at all.
Kathleen Basi [:Interesting. Okay. So as we start to wrap up here, I wanna ask, what is the best place for people to find you if they wanna go one place?
Sharon M. Peterson [:I would say Instagram. You can Sharon M. Peterson, search for me there. And, yeah, you can find me in other places, but that's probably where I'm most active these days.
Kathleen Basi [:And Sharon is hysterical at all times except when she's extremely authentic and vulnerable. So she is a person you want to follow. I will tell you that. Thank you. Alright. So tell us, in closing then, what book or story is inspiring you the most these days?
Sharon M. Peterson [:One of my favorite books, top five books of all times is the best Christmas pageant ever. Oh, it's a good book. It's such a good book. And by Barbara Robinson. It is amazing. I reread it every year. I read it to the kids. Still cry over that ham every year.
Sharon M. Peterson [:I think about that book all the time. I don't know what it is about it. I think it's just a really hopeful read. And the characters are, of course, hilarious, but also, you know, they tug on your heart a lot. And I love books that come through the eyes of a child, like To Kill a Mockingbird, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. I think there's just they tell a story more simply, and they don't have all of these years of judgment and opinions. They're just still trying to figure everything out.
Kathleen Basi [:And that gives them a freshness. Mhmm. Yeah.
Sharon M. Peterson [:Yeah. So this time of year, a tree grows in not a tree grows in Brooklyn.
Kathleen Basi [:But you've mentioned that one twice of now.
Sharon M. Peterson [:And that's also like, I think I found that book in high school and read it on my own, and I just really loved Francine. I think I identified with her a lot as just being you know, I was very poor growing up, and my father was a drug addict, and her father is a drunk. And she still loves him, but she also sees that he's doing these bad things. And so I think I identified with her a lot, and it made a big impact.
Kathleen Basi [:Those are great suggestions. And you have inspired me at the end of November to pull out the greatest Christmas pageant ever with my kids this year.
Sharon M. Peterson [:You know, it's a movie.
Kathleen Basi [:And it is a movie. Yes.
Sharon M. Peterson [:Yeah. It just came out. Yes.
Kathleen Basi [:And everybody listening to this in January can just say, oh, and hang on to the holidays a little bit longer.
Sharon M. Peterson [:There you go. Perfect.
Kathleen Basi [:Thank you so much for being with us, Sharon.
Sharon M. Peterson [:Thank you so much for having me.
Kathleen Basi [:Thanks for joining us today. Reviews help other people to find us, so please take a minute to give us a rating and leave a few words. We'll be here again next Wednesday. In the meantime, follow us on Instagram at authorexpresspodcast to see who's coming up next. Don't forget. Keep it express, but keep it interesting.
