Meet Author Sheila Athens

Shout-out to my fellow novelists and the camaraderie and community created by the Women's Fiction Writers Association

Meet Sheila Athens, career author of Smart Southern Women’s Fiction!

I met Sheila Athens in a virtual author program long before I hugged her at the Women’s Fiction Writers Association conference in Chicago last fall. It was almost surreal, seeing her standing there and knowing that I knew her but having never stood in the same place ever before. I did a double-take, then realized it was Sheila and said, “Wow!” and hugged her.

Although our competitive capitalistic society creates a dog-eat-dog sense of entrepreneurship, it doesn’t have to go that way. And since I became a WFWA member, I saw how fulfilling and supportive work can be.

Sheila is one of many authors I’ve met through WFWA who are encouraging, supportive and believe there is enough opportunity for all of us. It’s refreshing, frankly. We’re all writing books and hoping for great sales and audiences and book deals and all the things, and yet we post about each other’s launches and shout-out on socials because we are truly happy for each other.

Ok, so on to today’s feature: an interview with Sheila Athens!

Sheila Athens writes smart fiction set where the South meets the Sunshine state. Her stories are about women seeking to find the peace we all deserve—whether they’re battling an external foe or an internal one (or both). Readers are drawn to her work because they believe that everyday heroes can make a difference in our world. Read her full bio here.

I asked Sheila about her first memory of writing. Here’s what she said:

“When I was in elementary school, I wrote plays to be performed by the neighborhood kids. My garage was “the stage” and the moms would sit in lawn chairs in the driveway to watch us. I got frustrated when the moms chatted when they should have been paying attention to the play. I think I liked writing because it allowed me to enter into a different world. It allowed me to explore without really going anywhere.”

She loves writing fiction “because it allows me to explore feelings and motivations and other psyches that are different from my own. More specifically, I write Southern women’s fiction. The South is a quirky and complex place to write about, and women provide an endless stream of character, relationship and story possibilities.”

I read Sheila’s first novel, The Truth About Love, after I won it in a newsletter contest she ran. (Brilliant marketing move, my friend!) I was traveling at the time (what else is new?) to visit my son who was studying abroad in Budapest, and I can still remember what it felt like to be in this Eastern European hotel all alone with nothing to do but explore a foreign city full of culture and great food and I couldn’t tear myself away from her book! I blazed through the alluring story, which kept me turning pages to see what would happen next.

Sheila’s newest book (her third novel!) is Neena Lee Is Seeing Things, which is about a 56-year-old travel writer trying to get her career on track after a series of setbacks. She receives an assignment to write about the 25th anniversary of the death of John F. Kennedy, Jr., which takes place this year (July 16, 2024). She travels to Cumberland Island, the remote Georgia Island where he was married in a private, paparazzi-free wedding, and while there, she runs into JFK Jr.’s ghost, who asks for help in finding his wife.

Here’s Sheila again: “I knew I wanted to write about something a bit otherworldly. Then one day, I was driving down the road and saw a sign for Cumberland Island (which is near where I live). That immediately made me think of JFK, Jr’s wedding there, which gave me the idea of having his ghost return to the island.”

She had to decide “whether to set the book in the Greyfield Inn, the island’s only hotel. I originally set the book there, but in the eleventh hour, I made up a separate inn, and moved the story there. That also necessitated some other changes within the story.”

This is why I say writing is 80% revision!! So much more time is spent fine-tuning, finessing and sometimes, drastically changing the story to make it better and ready to go out in the world!

With three novels in the world (and I’m sure more to come), I asked Sheila what she considers the hardest thing about being a career author.

“The hardest thing is that it’s about so much more than writing books,” she said. “You’re your own marketing team, graphic design team, accounting team, etc. You’re an entrepreneur who wears ALL the hats. I don’t think people talk about that enough with beginning writers who hope to one day be published.

But that’s also the thing I love most about it. I love being in charge of everything and making all the decisions. I love seeing the big picture—from story idea to seeing the book on bookstore shelves or on online retailers.”

I couldn’t agree more!

Like so many authors, Sheila’s had other lives that eventually led her to the writing path. She shared a story about when she was in her early 40s and having a tough time in corporate America, working as a VP of Human Resources. She faced some pretty challenging corporate politics, which caused her to take a high-level look at her career.

“What do I want to be when I grow up?” she asked herself.

“The answer that came to me was that I wanted to write fiction,” she said. “My husband was supportive. Then the very next day, I was driving to work, listening to the local NPR station as usual and a commercial came on about a writers’ festival the very next weekend on nearby Amelia Island. It felt like a sign from the universe! I attended the festival, where I learned about the group that would become my first writing group, and the rest is history.”

Sheila’s debut novel was published two days after her 53rd birthday. It is never too late to start writing!

Her advice to aspiring authors:

“Don’t spend seven or ten years on the first book you write,” she said. “Write one book, then write another, then another. Each book will teach you new lessons and make you a better writer, so don’t spend a lot of years rewriting the same book over and over.”

Two more things about Sheila:

1. I love her tagline: Smart Southern Women’s Fiction. It’s clear, to the point, you know what you’re getting. And she knows what she’s writing. Brilliant.

2. She’s got a 4th book coming out in September!! Check it out here.

A Little Podcast Love

Thanks to the Dear Midlife Podcast for featuring me and also to the indomitable Wendy Valentine for having me on the Midlife Makeover Show. These women are incredible, and it was an honor to be in conversation with them!! Please show support by listening to the episodes and sharing widely!

Build Your Writer Confidence!

Announcing a new webinar designed to build writer confidence and help you handle self-doubt. Scheduled for June 22 on Zoom, there’s room for you. I promise you’ll leave with a renewed enthusiasm and tools to handle those inevitable moments of self-doubt that ALL writers face.

Learn more & register here.

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Love Always, Lynne