To celebrate my fortieth year of being published, I’m inviting other authors onto my blog to talk about their writing journey. My first guest is Sheila Riley, author of historical novels and sagas.
Sheila Riley was a ladies hairdresser for over thirty years before she put down her scissors and picked up her pen to write short stories in popular women’s weekly magazines. She then went on to pen longer projects, and a family saga writer was born. Sheila is a member of the Romantic Novelists Association, The Society of Authors and the Society of Women Writers and Journalists. She is also a proud member of the Liverpool History Society.
Welcome to my blog, Sheila. Happy New Year! ☺️
Hello Karen, Happy New Year! Thank you for hosting me on your blog, especially at the beginning of 2025 when there is so much potential ahead of us.
It doesn’t seem twelve years since my first novel was published under the pseudonym of Annie Groves. I was invited by Annie’s agent/publisher to complete the last two novels in the Article Row series. I wrote Only a Mother Knows, and A Christmas Promise, after the original Annie Groves sadly passed away.
I then created the Empire Street series, also under the Annie Groves pen name, which I am proud to say went on to become best sellers. However, I wanted to write under my own name and left Harper Collins to join a new publishing house.
In 2019, I am thrilled to say, I was the first author to be signed by the brilliant and forward thinking Boldwood Books under my own name. They published my first novel in the Reckoner’s Row series, A Mersey Orphan in 2019, which tells the story of Evie Kilgaren who is forced to return to her family home to take care of her younger siblings when, in 1947, the coldest winter in history, their mother does a moonlight flit. The start of this gritty family saga is set against the backdrop of Liverpool’s dockyards.
I am delighted to say that since then I have written seven more novels, all of which have become bestselling family sagas set in and around the port of Liverpool, which brings me up to date at the start of this brand-new year.
My eighth novel published by Boldwood Books is Family Ties on Beamer Street, issued on 3rd January. Family Ties is set against the backdrop of The General Strike when Peggy and Dar Tenant’s dream of security and respectability is shattered, when he is involved in a devastating accident on the docks, and Peggy’s world crashes around her.
As summer days turn to winter the overwhelming struggle begins to take its toll, forcing Peggy to swallow her pride, as the good people of Beamer Street come to her rescue, and to seek help from her formidable sister, Violet, little knowing that Violet holds secrets that have cast a dark shadow over Peggy’s whole life.
I am now in the process of writing book four in the Beamer Street series, working title; Binding Threads, even though I didn’t intend to write more than three. However, readers are already asking for more – if only I could write as fast as my readers read – also, the Beamer Street characters refuse to go quietly. So, what am I to do?
It is a great honour to know my stories are enjoyed by so many people and that is something I never take for granted. I wish you all a fabulous 2025. Happy Reading.
Love and hugs, Sheila xx
What an amazing writing journey, Sheila! Thank you for sharing that with us.
Sheila’s latest novel: Family Ties on Beamer Street is out now.
Her books to date;
ARTICLE ROW SERIES
Only a Mother Knows 2013
A Christmas Promise 2013
EMPIRE ST SERIES
Child of the Mersey 2014
Christmas on the Mersey 2014
The Mersey Daughter 2017
Winter on the Mersey 2017
Reckoner’s Row Series
The Mersey Orphan
The Mersey Girls
The Mersey Mothers
THE DOCKSIDE Series
The Mersey Mistress
The Mersey Angels
The Beamer Street Series
Finding Friends on Beamer Street
A Safe Haven on Beamer Street
Family Ties on Beamer Street
You can contact Sheila here:
Blog http://my-writing-ladder.blogspot.co.uk/
Newsletter bit.ly/SheilaRileyNewsletter
Karen King 