What Obsessions – I Mean Skills – Does An Author Need? By Cheryl Hollon

Cheryl Hollon is waving hi! Thank you Writers Who Kill for inviting me to be your guest. 
 

I recently attended a workshop that invited the participants to take the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator test (MBTI). It was used to create three-dimensional characters as well as a tool to understand yourself an author. There are four principal psychological functions based on how humans experience the world – focus, intuition, feeling, and thinking. The test reveals which of these four functions is dominant for a person. They break out like this:

·      Focus:             Extrovert / Introvert

·      Intuition:         Sensing / Intuition

·      Feeling:            Thinking / Feeling

·      Thinking          Judging / Perceiving

I have taken this test multiple times and I typically score one of these two ways.

ENTJ – Extrovert, Intuitive, Thinking, Judgmental

                                      or

INTJ – Introvert, Intuitive, Thinking, Judgmental

My score depends on what phase of my focus personality I’m living with at the time I take the test. I’m also center-brained without the normal left brain/right brain dominance. What does this mean?

Let’s start with the fourth element, the thinking. I’m critically judgmental about my writing. I’m constantly revising my current WIP to make the current story better than the last book. Luckily, I have deadlines, or I would still be polishing the first book in my series. Would I like another pass? You bet – always.

As a recovered engineer, I fall into the thinking type rather than feeling first. That means that I approach my stories with structure and plot first, then lay in reactions and feelings after I am sure that the scenes that are left will stay. I’m the first to admit that it is tough for me to get the emotional journey right for my characters. When I begin to squirm in my chair – apparently that’s the right emotional level.

A strong sense of intuition has been my strength for as long as I can remember. This helps me make better business decisions. I’m not always right about those choices, but I have usually done a fair amount of research.

Scoring as both an extrovert and an introvert means that I have an unusual set of tools to use in this dream career of mystery writer. I’m equally comfortable out talking to strangers in crowded conferences or ensconced in my little writing shed pounding out the next book.

What’s your writing superpower? 

The Webb’s Glass Shop Mysteries featuring new owner Savannah Webb are set in St. Petersburg, FL. The series begins with Pane and Suffering, continues with Shards of Murder and Cracked to Death. The fourth book, Etched in Tears releases on November 28, 2017. It is available for pre-order at the following links:

Indiebound:  https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781496711755

Amazon:  https://www.amazon.com/Etched-Tears-Webbs-Glass-Mystery/dp/1496711750

Nook:  https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/etched-in-tears-cheryl-hollon/1125896984

When a famous glass artist is murdered at his own exhibit, deadly secrets are put on display, and it’s up to glass shop owner Savannah Webb to see through a killer’s cover.

Celebrated glass artist Dennis Lansing is returning to St. Petersburg, Florida, for an exhibit at the world-renowned Salvador Dali Museum. His unique style of embedding document images in his art is at the vanguard of contemporary glasswork. But as Savannah’s first boyfriend and a former apprentice to her father, Dennis’s return home has her reflecting on the past—a trip down memory lane that takes a dark turn when Dennis is found murdered at the museum with an old reference letter from her father in his pocket. A search through her father’s records sheds new light on Dennis’s history, but it seems his present life wasn’t so transparent either. Now, with a gallery of suspects to consider, it’s up to Savannah to figure out who fits the mold of a murderer.

About Cheryl:

Cheryl Hollon writes full time after leaving an engineering career of designing and building military

flight simulators in amazing countries such as England, Wales, Australia, Singapore, Taiwan and India. Fulfilling a lifetime dream, she combines her love of writing with a passion for creating glass art. In the small glass studio behind the house, Cheryl and her husband design, create, and produce fused glass, stained glass and painted glass artworks.

Cheryl is Vice President of the Florida Gulf Coast Sisters in Crime, a member of Mystery Writers of America, and Romance Writers of America. A mystery conference addict, she regularly attends SleuthFest in Florida, Malice Domestic in DC, Thrillerfest in NYC, and Magna Cum Murder in Indianapolis, IN . You will also find her at Left Coast Crime and Bouchercon, wherever they are being held.

Cheryl and her husband live in St. Petersburg, FL in a 1920’s Craftsman Bungalow.