Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Sydney Storm. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Sydney, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?

To be honest, I didn’t. I was a typical working woman, married with two kids and just trying to make a better life for us. I was never much of a writer to begin with. I mean, I scribbled a few words here and there, but it wasn’t something that garnered my full attention. My daughter was the one who got me started. I was doing something, and she came to me and said, Mom, you look bored. So, I headed to the nearest thrift store to find a book to read. Oddly enough, the three-book set of Fifty Shades was there for three dollars. I bought it and sat to read it.
Read the book five times. The first was out of curiosity. The second time was to look for things I might have missed. I waited for a week or two before reading it the third and fourth time, and by the fifth time, my brain clicked, and I thought, I could write something like this. But I wasn’t sure of what to write, where to start, or how to put my thoughts together.
I had given up on the idea and returned to my normal life. Funny when I think back on it. That’s how all books start. We see the Main character performing a mundane task that they seem to enjoy until a tiny hiccup alters their life, and they can’t go back to the way things were because they have experienced something new they never realized before.
My hiccup–I had left my grandmother’s house, heading home, and while sitting at a light, a young man crossed my path. In that instance, we briefly locked eyes, and I saw our entire lives together. I had to rush home to write it down. But writing it wasn’t enough; my fingers couldn’t write fast enough. I had to get a computer, so when I got paid, I bought myself one and thus began my writing saga.

Sydney, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Syndey Storm is my author name. My real name is Tracy Gilmore, and it wasn’t until getting into social media that I discovered there are literally thousands of people, both male and female, named Tracy Gilmore. So I decided to change my name to something not so common, but in doing so, I related myself to our country cousins down under.
My first book, Something Unexpected, didn’t reach the top of the charts. I had to learn how to create a cover, format my pages, and so on. These were things I didn’t realize I needed to know. I needed a following, a fan base, and a story so unique that readers would be raving about it for months. But I had no idea where to start, where to go or who to talk to. I needed help. Gaining friends on Social Media, through Facebook groups, chat rooms and watching videos, I began to learn things I hadn’t considered. Like needing an editor, a cover artist, and finding someone with a talent to help spread the word about my writing.
My first book was a contemporary romance. A story I felt very proud of. I spent time thinking outside of the box. I didn’t want my character to have such a boring existence. In the beginning, it’d be a typical day but then they’d have a hiccup and everything changed. I learned that research is important when writing a story. Even a fictional story needs a small amount of truth, or it has to make sense to the reader. Like saying that a character used a cell phone in 1887 when cell towers didn’t exist. The story would work if this was a futuristic time period or a paradox but to say that in a modern time period wouldn’t work. Research is important.
As I occasionally picked up a book and read it, afterwards, I was conflicted and needed to jot down what I’d do differently. Or rather, I’d read a story and somewhere along the line a voice would tell me things and I’d write them down. That’s when the floodgates really opened, and I was working on several stories at a time.
What sets me apart? I write off-the-wall antics and make my character suffer in ways that only an avid reader would understand. My damsels are not always in distress, nor are they always in need of saving. I have no qualms about killing my main character. If they were meant to die, they were meant to die. Just know that when I wrote their deaths, I cried the entire time.
What fans need to know…writing is hard.
Until you have established yourself as a writer and have stories lined up for miles, you will be working tirelessly to gain an auidence, to get a chance in the spotlight and it will be a brief moment but once you get there, its smooth sailing. For now, writing is hard.
You may want to write the way you think books should be written. No. There are rules. You have to follow the rules first before you branch off and even then you don’t want to branch too far.
What fans need to know about me. Im full of ideas, creativity and sarcasm. Sexual innuendos are my life and my mind being in the gutter is a daily chore.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

This isn’t a lesson I unlearned, I adjusted my learning.
In writing you don’t realize how often you may use a word or phrase. It’s common language to a writer, but to a reader, its annoying. For example when I wrote Something Unexpected, I kept using the word ‘something’. When I did a search for the word, I used it over 600 times in a 300 page book. That is insane. An editor told me to never say ‘something’ whatever it is, it has a name. A book, a chair, a blue sky filled with clouds. It’s not just ‘something’.
When discovering how to use and understand Microsoft Word better, I use the ‘find’ column as often as possible. When using the term ‘said’ it is suggested to alternate with other options. Don’t say ‘stand up, sit down or going to’ Say stand, sit or went.
I’d go whole chapters just saying ‘he, she or they’ when the reader needs to keep track of who is saying what and when. I know what happens in the story, but I have to keep in mind the reader doesnt. Descriptions are key. Show, don’t tell.
Showing is describing the scenery to have the readers imagination set the scene and then having your characters enter the moment. Telling is just that. You tell what happens and the readers imagination is left wondering what they missed.
Editing is important
No matter what you write or how you write, all of it needs to be edited. There are several layers to editing and each serves it own purpose. Such as I have problems with present and past tense. Editing will correct that. How a storyline flows, editing will help and character development, yeah editing is for that as well.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

The voices in my head won’t let me stop writing.
People may think I’m just a tad off my rocker when I say I write what the voices tell me, but every writer has their own way of how they write ideas and come up with storylines, and mine come from my voices. They speak to me in the strangest of ways.
Such as…when writing about Alex and Ashley from Hypnotik…which later became Sweet Poison, Alex’s voice woke me every morning at 4am. I had to write and keep writing until he was tired of talking. He gave both his and Ashley’s version. I still had a full-time job I worked as well, but Alex was very adamant about his time frame.
I wrote a sci fi novel after reading a time period romance and thought what would happen if aliens wanted to eat people.
I did a demon story where the demon has a conscience but is particular about his clothing.
My seven-foot-tall woodsman with a penchant for kidnapping.
A ferret that grants wishes and then I have my horror story. A retelling of Cinderella.
I also did a character biography. That was weird. I wrote it like a daily journal. The dates in the book were the days I spent writing and the writing is very weird.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://SydneyPStorm.com
• Instagram: [email protected]
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100008199614269
• Other: Sydney-Storm@BookBub
  Amazon@SydneyStorm
  TikTok@SydneyPStorm

Image Credits

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