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by Christina Smith, East Peoria Times-Courier

An East Peoria librarian continues her passion for writing with the upcoming release of two more books.  “Working at the library (Fondulac) is my full-time job and writing is what I do for fun,” Sylvia Shults said.

Shults is a desk assistant, which means she checks out books and helps patrons with any questions. In September, she will have worked at the library for 10 years.

Her first four books were published through print on demand publishers, which only print copies after an order for a book is made and does not include any promotion for an author’s work.

Next month, Shults will release her first professionally published book, with the release of “The Dreamwatcher,” a horror novel, which is being published by Stonegarden.net Publishing.  “It is a story about twins, ghostly possession and illicit love,” she added.

Paul Allsopp designed the cover for “The Dreamwatcher,” Shults said.

Linden Bay Romance is releasing Shults’ book, “Timeless Embrace,” a trilogy of three romance novellas.  Copies will be available in E-book, or download format, Oct. 1, with printed copies available in early November.

“I was going to enter “Timeless Romance,” in a contest and contacted Barbara Perfetti, the chief publisher/managing editor, for Linden Bay, to ask Perfetti who did the amazing cover for my book in less than an hour,” she added.

When Shults was told Lori James and her son, Maxwell James, designed the cover, she decided to contact them and thank them for their work.  Lori told Shults the cover is the first one that Maxwell has worked on, since he just started interning under her this year. 

Inspiration

Shults published her first book in 2000, a time-travel romance set in ancient Egypt, which is called “Golden Horus.”

Shults’ other books include “Games of Venus,” an historical romance; “Voices in an Empty Room,” a collection of horror short stories; and “Price of Admission,” a supernatural romance.

“I like to write about anything involving history, music or dance,” she said.   Her love for history led Shults to get a bachelor’s degree in Classics, which includes Roman history, from Monmouth College and a master’s degree in Classics from Illinois State University in Normal.

“I’ve always been interested in writing and seriously took up writing in college, but I never thought that I could be one of those people who could be published and have their words out there for anybody to see. It feels really great to have my work published,” Shults added.

Writing process

“I get several of my ideas for stories from my dreams and I also do several, ‘what if’ scenarios in my writing,” Shults added.

While she was modeling for John Tuccillo’s portrait class at Illinois Central College one day, Shults got inspiration for a new approach to her writing.

“Tuccillo told his class that you don’t just draw circles for a person’s head and eyes, but that you have to start with the skeletal basics and build up from the base of a person’s skull. I thought, “Why can’t I apply that process to my writing?” she said.

This caused her to start with an idea and then outline the plot points that she wanted to include in a story.

“After I outline my main points, I go back and get into more details, then I continue to flesh them out before I actually begin writing. By using this process, my writing has become much better and fuller,” Shults added.

Other hobbies

Besides writing, Shults also enjoys spending time with her husband, Rob, reading, making wine, cordials and cheeses, gardening, playing the French Horn and recorder, cooking, baking, singing, doing jigsaw puzzles and spending time with her two dogs, three cats, pet rat and her pet miniature opossum.

A few weeks ago, she received her motorcycle license and now rides a Kawasaki KLR 250 to work every day.   Although she does not watch much television, Shults said she is a faithful CSI viewer.

In July, Shults will appear on East Side Community Television’s Community Focus program, which is aired on public access channel 22.  Beginning July 10, the show featuring Shults will air three times throughout the month.