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Introduction
Holly Sheidenberger is a former theatre actress. Her experience in creating roles for the stage inspires her to write juicy characters that you love to hate.
She has lived in misty Seattle, sunny Los Angeles, and now makes her home in the Sonoran Desert of Arizona.
Holly is the wife of Hollywood composer and orchestrator Todd Sheidenberger and the mother of their four daughters.
Holly’s Books
Click on any book to be taken to their Amazon listing page to learn more!
Interview with Holly Sheidenberger
Q: Let’s get started with an introduction. Can you tell me a little about how you first got into writing and what it felt like publishing your very first book?
A: I decided to write my first novel on a whim. A few years ago, I was going through a rather stressful life event, and I heard myself say: “I’m going to turn this into a novel.” It just kind of fell out of my mouth. Though I’ve been a reader all my life, I’d never planned to become a writer until that moment. I had no idea how to write a project as big as a novel, and I was intimidated. Rather than writing about that event (which I still haven’t done!), I decided to write a different story, as a way of teaching myself how to do it. Five years later, I finally published it: my psychological thriller Related By Blood. Releasing it into the world was not only a great feeling of accomplishment, but a sense of relief!
Q: What are some of your favorite hobbies (other than writing)?
A: Most people don’t know that I am a skilled seamstress. I was thrown into a sort of sewing “bootcamp” as a teenager. My mom was obligated to make a bridesmaid dress for a wedding she was to be in, but was unable to sit for long periods of time due to a back problem, so she tasked me with helping her. The elaborately frilled, 1980s-style dress basically taught me everything in one garment: seams, hems, zippers, pleats, gathers, puffed sleeves, lace overlay, sweetheart neckline… The gown was a success, and I graduated from that to making outfits for myself, to working in my university’s theatre costume shop, to designing and making period-correct Victorian costumes to wear to dusty Old West festivals in California and Arizona. Most recently, I made matching Medieval gowns for all four of my daughters to wear to a renaissance faire.
Q: What book are you reading right now, or recently, that you’d recommend to someone?
A: Robert Greene’s 48 Laws of Power is fascinating. I’ve read it a number of times, and it never gets old. So much insight into human nature.
Ralph Waldo Emerson’s essays, especially his essay on Compensation, are deeply moving to me. I can’t describe them, reading them is like a transcendent experience.
Also anything written by Oscar Wilde, especially his poem The Ballad of Reading Gaol. Those opening lines cut deeply every time…
Q: What is your favorite strange food combination?
A: Apples and cheese. Sliced on top of sliced. The perfect snack.
Q: If you were to ask your friends or family, what would they say your greatest “Superpower” is?
A: If you asked me, I would say I have no superpower. So, I asked my daughters instead. My 14-year-old said, “Your ability to effortlessly deal with people.” My 11-year-old said, “Getting all the jobs done without complaining.” Maybe some of the best compliments I’ve ever received.
Q: If you could be any fictional character (cartoon, movie, show, book, etc), who would you be?
A: When I was in the third grade, a precocious kid in my class (who has since been elected to United States Congress, incidentally) brought a stack of abridged classic books to school – and handed them out. Assigned them, if you will. He gave me Little Women and told me to read it. I dutifully obeyed. And promptly fell in love with Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy. (Soon after, I read a biography of Louisa May Alcott, and fell equally in love with their namesakes Anna, Louisa, Beth, and May.) I’ve read Little Women several times over the years. I never thought too much about Marmee, until one day, it hit me… I AM MARMEE. I have become her. Somehow, I have ended up with a strong, handsome husband and four daughters as lively, sweet, mischievous, funny, and smart as the March girls. What a lucky lady.
Q: Can you tell me a little bit about your writing process? Note taking; favorite place to write uninterrupted; etc?
A: Nighttime is the best writing time for me, after my girls are in bed, and my husband is working (he writes music for Hollywood films and TV shows) or practicing his saxophones. I spend a lot of time plotting the structure before writing any scenes. When I do sit down to write a scene, I visualize it in my mind. Not exactly like watching a movie, though. I use my acting training to inhabit the characters, to kind of “play” each one in my mind. That way I can know what they would do and say, and why. I also let myself feel what they would feel in the moment, so I can transfer those emotions to the reader. For me, it’s very important that there is emotion on every page.
Q: Tell us a little about what inspired your latest release, Related by Blood.
A: As I mentioned earlier, I had decided to write a novel in order to teach myself to write. However, I didn’t yet have a story idea. One afternoon, my husband read me a news article about a true crime that was committed against someone that the criminal loved. It struck me as a fascinating idea for a story, but the motivation for the crime seemed too weak to sustain a full-length novel. (Truth is stranger than fiction…) So, I took the basic idea for the crime, changed the character’s motivation, and modified the ending. You’d never recognize the final book from the initial inspiration.
Q: What scene or moment from one of your books stands out to you the most that you love to tell people about?
A: I try to open my books with a compelling scene, complete with thrills, mystery, and plenty of emotion. When I read a book, I want to be sucked in immediately. I feel like I’ve achieved that in the opening scenes of both my full-length novel, Related By Blood, and my thriller novella, The Kinsman. Give them a try and see if you agree!
Q: What advice would you give to a new writer just starting out?
A: Learn structure. A novel is long. Structure helps you navigate the way through.
Q: You have 50 words or less to convince an audience why they should read your books. Go!
Thriller Readers: Your TBR is endless. New books come out every week. By authors you already know you’ll love. You love to try new authors, but dread the DNF.
You can finish my thriller novella, The Kinsman, in about an hour. Get hooked, and discover a new favorite author!
Follow Holly
Holly Sheidenberger is a former theatre actress. Her experience in creating roles for the stage inspires her to write juicy characters you love to hate.
She has lived in misty Seattle, sunny Los Angeles, and now makes her home in the Sonoran Desert of Arizona.
Holly is the wife of Hollywood composer and orchestrator Todd Sheidenberger and the mother of their four daughters.
Looking for book recs…
Adventures in Literature 
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