Q&A with Sheila Roberts

  

Photo by Robert Rabe

 

 

Sheila Roberts is the author of the new novel Have Yourself a Merry Little Meltdown. Her many other books include A Little Christmas Spirit. She lives in the Pacific Northwest. 

 

Q: What inspired you to write Have Yourself a Merry Little Meltdown, and how did you create your characters Jordan and Charles?

 

A: Good question! Every book I write starts with an idea, a concept. Then I create the characters to fit it.

 

For example, when I wrote A Little Christmas Spirit, I wanted to pay homage to Dickens and his amazing story A Christmas Carol. But I thought, what if, instead of my Scrooge getting haunted by three ghosts, only one comes to him. And what if he’s a widower and that ghost is his wife, who’s determined he’s going to find his Christmas spirit?

 

For this to happen my modern-day Scrooge had to be grumpy, and he had to have given up on life. And his wife had to be sweet, the one who always made the holidays happen. (Like so many of us women do!) Once I had the basic version of who those people should be then I was able to flesh out the characters.

 

For Jordan and Charles, their story started with “What if?” What if a woman wrote a Christmas book based on her over the top family and too late realized it was a mistake? Enter Jordan, who has always been a reader and filled countless journals, a woman who always had a bit of a dream to be a writer.

 

As for Charles, I knew Jordan needed a love interest who understood her, so I gave them a history. As friends. And who better to understand a writer’s dilemma than a bookstore owner, right? So I gave Charles a bookstore.

 

Slowly, as the story went along these two got fleshed out, and so did her family. And that family had to be over the top and easily recognizable in a book. And I had great fun coming up with crazy family memories to bring those characters to life.

 

Q: How would you describe Jordan’s relationship with her family?

 

A: Loving and close. Which of course, makes her feel like such a traitor for putting all their embarrassing moments out there for the world (and worst of all, the whole town) to read.

 

Q: What are some of your own traditions for the holiday season?

 

A: Like Jordan, I have a very close family. And Christmas Eve is a big deal for us. There is always tons of food, laughter, games. Someone reads the Christmas story from the Bible. And there is carol singing. We go through all the classics. Sometimes, just like in the book, there’s even a game of dark tag.

 

Another favorite tradition involves getting together to bake Christmas cookies. Which, of course, we must sample. Calories don’t count when you’re with family.

 

Q: How would you compare the bookstore in this novel to the one in Love on the Shelf?

 

A: Charles’s bookstore is certainly just as friendly, but it doesn’t carry exclusively romance novels. It certainly has enough to keep a guy inspired though. And the store carries all the popular holiday novels. (Except maybe not Jordan’s. She hopes!)

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: Right now I’m preparing to launch a historical novel I wrote with my husband come spring. Castles, a crazy king and a mysterious death – how does that sound? ☺

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: I will be serving up a lot of fun on my Facebook, Instagram and TikTok channels and I hope readers who can’t join me in my appearances in Washington State will join me on one of those platforms. It’s going to be a fun holiday season!

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with Sheila Roberts.