BY VICKI GILHULA
The perfect Halloween read is a new book by a writer with Sudbury roots.
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Sheri McInnis |
Sheri (Goegan) McInnis grew up in the city and attended Sudbury Secondary School. That was long before she worked in television in Toronto and wrote Devil May Care, a novel about an actress who meets a television producer who is the ultimate Mr. Wrong.
Her heroine, Sally Carpenter, is a struggling actress when she meets Jack Weaver. Her life becomes so perfect after they start a relationship that Sally becomes convinced Jack is the devil.
Critics have called her book "Bridget Jones meets The Omen."
McInnis relied on her experiences working at CBC in Toronto when writing the book but set it in New York City.
She explains that if the television producer was the devil incarnate, he would be living in the most powerful country in the world, not Canada.
The American location hooked an agent in New York and soon a publisher at Simon and Schuster. The book, which sells for $36, was published by a Simon and Schuster imprint, Atria Books.
While her art may not reflect her life, she is married to a Canadian television producer.
She attended Laurentian University for a year before enrolling in the Radio and Television Arts program at Ryerson University.
Her early experience working in media included being a CKSO Radio Sunshine Girl.
At CBC, she did a variety of jobs including person-on-the-street interviews and responding to letters from the audience.
McInnis, 40, explains she always loved to write. Her parents divorced when she was five and she says she spend a lot of time in her imagination.
Like most writers, she didn't write a book to become rich, but she says she would like to at least make a living at it.
She won't see a royality cheque until after the new year and she isn't obsessing about book sales.
"I would like people to like my book. I don't have a desire to become famous," she says.
She is a fan of Stephen King, John Irving and Tom Wolfe.
McInnis was in Sudbury recently visiting old friends and her mother, Nancy Korpela. Her father and brother also live in Sudbury.
Devil May Care is available at Chapters and Coles.
