By Denise Marsh

“What is love?” artists use this theme for visual art, dance, theater.  While poets capture its essence in spoken word.    Romance Novelists give us a picture of what life could look like in a different environment, giving us aspirations, fantasies, glimmers into someone else’s life.  No matter the artistic expression, we can all agree that the concept of Love or being “in love” is prominent in our culture.    Since March is National Book Month, what better time to discuss an amazing author who happens to write all about the subject of love.   

 I am pretty sure that I first met Sheila at one of author Heidi Hess’s “Read It Write It” Festivals a few years ago, and yet if feels like I  have known her forever.  The one thing I do recall from our first meeting (and every meeting after)  is that she possesses the most magnetic, vivacious personality;  others cannot help but smile when they are around her.  Sheila is also very passionate about writing and creating unique characters that capture our attention in her books.   I have several of her books and always look forward to new releases.  Now it’s time for us delve into what Sheila describes as “ A Fowler Universe”.   

AW: When did you first begin publishing books? What inspired you to begin this venture?

SF: I started writing mainly because of Covid.  I needed an outlet because I was having really weird and vivid dreams.  My first book, Meet Virginia was published in November of 2020; this book became a catalyst to keep writing.  This was the start for me, and then I kept writing and ended up with 25 books!

AW: What are your main genres?   How many books have you published currently?

SF: I write Cozy Mysteries and Contemporary Romance.  I have twelve Cozy Mysteries in a series that take place in the Florida Keys.  I love this series because you have to solve a mystery in 150 pages which is  a very cool thing.  I’ll have to get you one of those to read!  I also have Contemporary Romance which are the first stories that I started writing; these are anything that takes place “today”.  I don’t write any Historical Romances because I like to be “in the now.”  Then, I do a series of Romantic Suspense Thrillers.  I have three of them out right now and am writing a fourth one as we speak – my next BIG series!  I also do a Sports Romance, which is a big deal right now.  So, I have just hit 27 books in total.

AW: Are any of your books offered in Audio format?

SF: I have five books that are available in an Audio format.   Three of which all have a sports focus: Instant Replay,  Clear the Bases and Hearts of Ice.  I also have one Contemporary Romance in audio form, Two Hearts Beating and my Romantic Thriller,  Royal Entanglements.

AW: Are any of your stories autobiographical? 

SF: Yes!  Niagara Falling is autobiographical; it highlights my love story with George, my husband.  George was married before and the main character, Michael was married before.   George is older than me and that’s kind of the story line here. If you have an older man and a younger woman, it is called “age gap” romance. If you have a romance with a woman being older than a man, it is called “May/December” or “Reverse Age Gap.”   I had to learn all of this for my book. 

AW: Your Book Covers are quite interesting, especially the steamy ones with the models. How did this all come about?  How did you meet the models?

SF:   So, the first book, Instant Replay was Keith Manecke. I had seen Keith on the cover of a friend’s book. I thought it would be neat and cool to have him on a cover of one of my books, so I started following the photographer, Christopher John.  I told him that I’d love for Keith to be on one of my book covers and I’ve never done that before.  I asked, “what should I do here?”  And, he went over everything with me.  We actually became really good friends, and I’ve used four of his covers now. I am so excited that I have that because it truly brought “new life” to the book.  If you look at it, it  just makes it more real with a real person. 

AW: What is your favorite Contemporary  Romance book that that you’ve written? Favorite Cozy Mystery?

SF: ohhh (excitedly)… Definitely Meet Virginia, as it is my first…So, you know how you feel about your “first”, right? As for the Cozy Mystery, it is . . .

One Way Out because that started that whole genre for me. I wrote it because my mom said, “Why don’t you write a book about the Keys?”  And I was like, “I can do that!”  So, I made up my own “Key” in the Lower Keys and I came up with the tagline for all of those books: “Mystery, Romance, and Key Lime Pie”.  I make good Key Lime Pie. And also, Cheesecake.  It started from the first book where the main character makes the Key Lime Pies.  I just adore his character.  There’s an interesting backstory – pure terror and pure love between him and the main female character.  I really enjoy that he’s a single father and he’s also a chef. I have a chef in my first book too!

AW: Which books have been Bestsellers, so far?

SF: I’ve had two. My Baseball book, Clear the Bases and my Hockey book,  Hearts of Ice.

AW: Where do you get the ideas for your books?

SF: I get a lot of stuff from my dreams, which are pretty vivid.  George can attest to this as he is used to me getting up in the middle of the night, hearing me say, “I have an idea” and then charging up the computer to write.  I have an outline of what the book is supposed to be, but I do stray from it, from time to time.  It is definitely based on my dreams.  I dream about those characters all the time. It’s kind of funny because once you write them down, you start to dream about the characters.  I always say to people that I kind of have a “Fowler universe” – a lot of  my characters are in the same universe.  These characters come back in other books and its fun for me.  I say, “so and so is from One Way Out or from the Sports series.”

AW: You are a big sports fan!    You have mentioned on social media that you enjoy Hockey, Baseball, and Football, which obviously widens your demographics for readers.  How have you incorporated these major moments and events in sports into the plot of your books?

SF: I absolutely love the Super Bowl!  I wrote it into my first book for fun.  The Miami Dolphins got incorporated into the World Series in my book because they are my favorite.  I figured that if I “put it out into the universe” maybe they would win (laughing).  It was all about Football.  I did the same with the next book, Clear the Bases. It was about Baseball and people would say, “wow, I never knew that about Baseball…”  I wrote about it because it was one of my first favorite sports.  When I was a kid, I lived in Detroit during the 1980’s when the Detroit Tigers were HUGE and they won the World Series in 1984.  But then I moved down here and I had to find a new team because I couldn’t root for Detroit when I’m all the way down here.  So, I was lucky that in 1993, when the Marlins came here, I could root for them.  So, George and I have been fans of the Marlins since then and we’ve been to a few games. We even went to the 2003 World Series.  I wrote about two different World Series and that’s a big deal!

I remember what it was like being there at the World Series, so there are a whole bunch of stories in the book about that.  In the book, there’s a guy watching the girl play because my story is about the first female pitcher in the Major Leagues.  

I had some male fans who told me that because they loved Hockey, they bought the book, Hearts of Ice.  In the book, the female lead is a figure skater and he’s the Hockey player. I also love Figure Skating!  Men showed an interest, and so there were reviews on my book on Amazon and Good Reads.  It is different to get a review from a man vs. a woman. I have observed that Women’s reviews are more emotional while men tend to be more analytical.  I love hearing a different perspective on my books.  I also love hearing men say, “That’s really cool about the Miami Dolphins or the Florida Panthers” because I wrote it from a Fan Perspective.  And, if a male is reviewing it, they can also say, “I got to read a Romance book too”.  

AW: How can people contact you?

SF: Here is my Link Tree information

https://linktr.ee/rockafowlers

AW: What author events do you have coming up in the near future?

SF: I have a Spring Break Book Bash (see below) for the community I live in.  I did it for the first time last year and I cannot wait to do it again.  It is a lot of fun talking to people, sharing  our writing with others and networking.  I like to support other writers and make connections with different genres like Romance, Mystery, Paranormal, Memoir, Autobiographies, Children’s Books, etc. 

AW: Do you have anything new book plans for the future?

SF: I’m working on a Summer Anthology; stories based on summer romances and that will be out in July. See the Anthology. I’m one of five authors on the project.

Sheila Fowler is an author to watch and follow.  The act of writing and sharing stories is as instinctive to her as breathing. If you pick up one of her books, you will “feel” her vibrant imagination, enchanting characters, and dip into a wide variety of genres.  With Spring around the corner, it’s time to dust off those Romance and Mystery novels or get some new ones from the “Fowler Universe”.  I promise you that you won’t be disappointed! In conclusion, I hope that one day you will also have the honor of meeting this author, as it will be a day you won’t forget.  What are you waiting for? It’s time to READ!