Sherry Jones's Blog
RSS
Feb.21.2012
Have I created a monster? Last night, Blanche de Castille – the White Queen of France and the evil mother-in-law in my forthcoming novel “Four Sisters, All Queens” – tried to kill me.
I...
Continue Reading »
2 comments
Feb.18.2012
Here's a question for all those folks who say to me, "I want to write, but I can't find the time." What do you expect from me? Sympathy? Hand-holding? A motivational speech?
Remember Danny DeVito as Owen in Throw Momma From the Train? "A writer writes," was his mantra. That's what I tell people....
Continue Reading »
10 comments
Dec.21.2011
Dear Reader,
For the new year, I'm offering five advance reading copies of "Four Sisters, All Queens," my forthcoming historical novel about four sisters in 13th-century Provence who all became queens. To enter, simply go to my website and sign up for my email newsletter. (I only write one a...
Continue Reading »
Dec.19.2011
Blog, blog, blog! Lots of writers are blogging their fingers to the bone, and for what? In hopes of stimulating sales of their books, that’s what. But — is there a better way to hook readers into your work? Read my post on HuffPo Books and find out!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/red-room/...
Continue Reading »
6 comments
Oct.19.2011
It’s National Love Your Body Day, the day in which girls and women are invited to reject the media hype about how we are supposed to look -- and embrace ourselves with all our lumps, bumps, scars, and flaws.
I love my body, and its every aspect, from head to callused toes.
My...
Continue Reading »
Oct.11.2011
Am I ever glad that self-publishing wasn't easy back in 2005, when I was writing my first novel, "The Jewel of Medina." Why? Because of that elephant in the room: the aspect of self-publishing that no one talks about.
You can read about it here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/red-room/sherry-...
Continue Reading »
5 comments
Jul.18.2011
The first literary agent who read the manuscript of my first novel snapped it up. Don’t hate me, though: She turned it down the first time she read it, plunging me into despair.
Why did Natasha Kern reject my first submission? As so many first-time authors have done, I sent her my first draft....
Continue Reading »
Jun.17.2011
I’m going to miss Slut Walk Spokane today. And I feel bad about that. Because, after a lifetime of shame and denial, I would so love to march down our streets in my skimpies and proclaim myself a sexual female with pride and unabashed joy. I love sex. I enjoy it most in the context of a committed...
Continue Reading »
May.22.2011
Like internet dating, self-publishing is something I always swore I would never do. Like internet dating, it seemed an act of desperation, the last resort for writers who couldn’t get published in any other, legitimate, way.
Then news that an Oakland, California religious group had predicted the...
Continue Reading »
20 comments
Apr.12.2011
Why do women wear the veil? The answer is simple. Hegemony. Patriarchal Muslim culture tells women that they should hide themselves from the eyes of men, and women buy into the notion. It's as misguided as the wearing of high-heeled shoes, or, in China, foot-binding (banned in 1912), both of which...
Continue Reading »
Mar.23.2011
A'isha bint Abi Bakr married the Prophet Muhammad when she was nine years old -- too young to consent even had she been asked, which she was not. Her mother carried her into the bedroom, set her in his lap, said, "May you have a long and prosperous life together," then walked out...
Continue Reading »
Feb.17.2011
The sexual assault of CBS reporter Lara Logan during her coverage of the revolution in Egypt is reprehensible. Her courage, for daring to make her story public, is laudable, drawing attention as it does to the contemptuous treatment of women in Egyptian society.
During the two weeks we spent in...
Continue Reading »
Jan.30.2011
There is a face in Egypt -- on billboards in Cairo, on the side of a building in Alexandria, in the lobby of our hotel in Aswan -- that wants so badly to be the official face. It's a benign face, slightly smiling, even bland; a timeless face, wearing neatly combed hair and a jacket-and-tie...
Continue Reading »
Nov.26.2010
For Thanksgiving this year, I celebrate the legacy of A'isha bint Abi Bakr, the youngest and favorite wife of the Prophet Muhammad who became the most famous and influential woman in Islam. Her courage, heart, and pluck inspired my novels, "The Jewel of Medina" and "The Sword of...
Continue Reading »
Nov.26.2010
In 52 years of marriage,Vladimir Nabokov wrote hundreds of love letters to his wife, Vera.
This I find touching, even moving. But surprising? Hardly. Nabokov was a writer, after all, and no doubt he expressed himself most perfectly via the written word.
He was also, as anyone...
Continue Reading »
2 comments
Jones can make a plot dance.”
—The Los Angeles Times
About Sherry
Author of two published books of historical fiction with a third, "Four Sisters, All Queens," scheduled for publication May 1, 2012 by Simon and Schuster's Gallery Books.
Best known for the internationally best-selling "The Jewel of Medina" and its critcially...
Connections
Causes Sherry Jones Supports
ACLU, Save Our Wild Salmon, Greenpeace, Spokane Mother and Children's Free Restaurant, Mercy Fund, public radio, Slow Food USA
Sherry’s Favorite Books
Vanity Fair, Music and Silence, The Satanic Verses, A Secret History of Love, Victory over Japan, Restoration, The Brothers Karamazov, The Hidden Hand,...
Sherry is a fan of
