Evanston author Patti Sherry-Crews has earned acclaim for her book, “The Wizard of Odd” as this year’s winner of the Soon to Be Famous Illinois Author Manuscript Project.
Sherry-Crews is particularly proud of this honor because the 10-year-old competition is entirely run by librarians and other library staff.
“I love this contest,” Sherry-Crews declared. “I worked in a library for a long time and I support libraries. To have a contest that is run by librarians and judged by librarians is awesome.”
The author declared that her favorite job was working the circulation desk at the Wilmette Public Library.
This year 27 manuscripts were submitted to this contest which recognizes outstanding adult fiction that is self-published or indie-published, and supports local authors.
“The Wizard of Odd” follows Miles, a very successful voice-over actor.
“He gets roles because he has a very soothing, reassuring voice,” Sherry-Crews said. “He has a crisis so he flees L.A., leaves behind his long-term partner, to take a job on this sleepy little remote island as a house-sitter and a dog-sitter.”
His new home is named Todd Island but the locals all call it Odd Island.
Because Miles has such a soothing voice, the local islanders think he must be wise.
“People start coming to him with their problems,” Sherry-Crews reported. “He could care less. He’s a really selfish self-involved person. He becomes this agent of chaos on this sleepy little island because he’s giving people bad advice.”
Over the course of his time on the island, Miles undergoes changes.
Sherry-Crews began writing when she was 50.
“That was a present to myself – to sit down and write a book,” the 65-year-old said. “One of the first things I wrote was a historical Western romance. When I was a little kid, I would put myself to sleep with stories and this was one of the stories that would run through my head.”
That book, “Margarita and the Hired Gun,” was accepted by a small publisher that then asked for more in that genre.
“So I wrote two more,” Sherry-Crews said. “I also wrote some novellas for them for different anthologies.”
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She also created anthologies with other writers and contributed to a couple of blogs.
Prior to devoting her time to writing, Sherry-Crews had an Irish import store in Evanston and then was a stay-at-home mom. She also worked at a family business of caning chairs.
Sherry-Crews previously entered the Soon to Be Famous Contest several years ago. Her book, “The Lake House,” was one of three finalists. A couple of years later, she entered that same book in the competition and it made the top 10.
“The Wizard of Odd” had a long history.
10 years ago, Sherry-Crews and a friend decided to write a book together. They came up with the concept that was the framework for “The Wizard of Odd.” When the other writer decided to work on something else, Sherry-Crews got her permission to write the book based on their concept herself.
“It took me 10 years to complete it,” she said, because she kept thinking something was not right. She finally realized that she had been focusing on another character’s failed romance when Miles was really the most interesting character in the book.
“It comes to a happy resolution,” the author revealed.
As the winner of the competition, Sherry-Crews will receive free line-editing and cover design services for her book. If she decides to self-publish or indie-publish “The House of Odd,” it will automatically be a semi-finalist in next year’s Soon to Be Famous Illinois Author Manuscript Project.
Myrna Petlicki is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.