Author Q&A: Sharon Buchbinder

Today we're interviewing paranormal romance author Sharon Buchbinder.

Buchbinder has been writing fiction since middle school and has the rejection slips to prove it. 

A retired RN, professor, and dean of a business school, she can be found writing, walking her pugs, herding her black cats, or breaking bread and laughing with family and friends.

SADYE: How did you come to see yourself as a writer, and what inspired you to seek publication?

SHARON: When I was a child, I made up a LOT of stories. My mother didn’t like many of my stories, and called me a liar. As soon as I could write, I wrote the stories down—and was no longer punished.

I submitted stories when I was in middle school to various magazines — and even to The Man from U.N.C.L.E. And, yes, I really do have the rejection slips.

SADYE: Tell us something about your writing process that’s unusual or that you haven’t revealed before.

SHARON: I do a TON of research before I dive into my writing. It is part of my nature as an academic and as someone who wishes to speak with an authentic voice when writing.

I also have sensitivity readers. When I wrote Eye of the Eagle, despite growing up as a Child of a Deaf Adult (CODA), I had two deaf readers review it and incorporated their feedback into my story.

SADYE: What message or theme would you like readers to take away from your work?

SHARON: Identity is the thread in all of my stories.

How do we define ourselves in the world and in our relationships? Do we shrink true ourselves to fit other people’s beliefs or do we stand up for who we are and for our beliefs?

Readers will find my stories reflect this thread in themes of belonging vs. outsider status, found family vs. biological ties, and the collision of modern life with family tradition.

One reader said, “The tone of her books is a comfortable mix of cozy small town plus romantic tension, plus supernatural wonder.” I loved that statement, as it really sums up my work.

SADYE: What advice, as relates to your writing career, would you give your younger self?

SHARON: Read the genre you want to write.

Learn your craft. Take courses. Go to conferences. Be among other writers.

Write and publish your best story for your genre.

If you are self-publishing, pretend you are the biggest publisher in the world and you are submitting to them.

Again, if self-publishing, find a great editor who knows how to work in various publication formats.

Publishing is a business. Read your contracts, understand royalties, and learn to use spreadsheets.

Promote your work without being a jerk.

Don’t respond to reviews — except to say thank you!

Participate in and submit to contests. The feedback will help you grow.

Be patient! Overnight success in this business is rare. Don’t be fooled by those who say you must make it big by a certain date. It is your life, your story, your timeline.

SADYE: What experience in your past or general aspect of your life has most affected your writing?

SHARON: Some might say I was a weird kid who stayed weird. They would be right!

Paranormal events have played a role in my life since childhood. I have always accepted this alternate reality that many others do not experience or recognize. Their disbelief doesn’t dismiss my psychic experiences: dreams that come true, that I think of someone — and that person calls, and that I knew my sister was pregnant before she did.

In the 1970s, while a psychology major at the University of Connecticut, I participated in telepathy experiments using the now famous J.B. Rhine Zener cards and other images. My “hit rate” as a receiver was statistically greater than chance occurrence.

I lived in a haunted duplex in college and could hear the ghost who lived there (my brother. a Green Beret Vietnam vet, could see her).

Curiosity and pragmatism took me down the paths of psychology (BA), neuroscience (MA in psychology), nursing (AAS) and, finally, public health (PhD).

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Learn more about Sharon Buchbinder on her website, where her books can also be purchased, and follow her on Facebook, BlueSky, Instagram, and Substack.

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