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thePeorian.com
Sylvia Shults was always
fascinated by history and by the
stories brought forth by historic
events.
She graduated from Mon-
mouth College with a degree
in history that had a concentra-
tion in Roman history and has a
master’s degree in history from
Illinois State University. “I was
always fascinated with the idea
that people lived hundreds of
years ago and lived basically the
same kinds of lives we do. Think
about it. The creature comforts
are different, of course, but they
had the same kinds of hopes, the
same fears,” she said.
Reading that, it probably isn’t
surprising to learn Shults enjoys
romance stories. But she is a little
deeper than that.
Indeed, it was when she de-
cided she wanted to start telling
her own stories, many of them
guided by her love of history,
that Shults realized her calling
was to chill, thrill and even still
the masses.
A Chicago-area native who
now makes her home in Pekin,
Shults is not yet a household
name among writers, but it may
not be long based on the recep-
tion many of her novels and other
writings have received.
“Eventually I believe my writ-
ing will pay my bills. People tell
me they love what I’ve written,
so it’s a matter of getting more
people to read it,” Shults said
recently. So to help keep food
on the table she works at the
Fondulac Public Library in East
Peoria. “That job also feeds my
book addiction, so it’s the right
job for me.”
Shults also serves as public-
ity director for Dark Continents
Publishing, an Illinois-based com-
pany that, as its name suggests,
focuses on horror stories. That’s
right up Sylvia Shults’ alley. Her
books are mostly of that genre,
but she also writes romance nov-
els. That’s not a normal pairing,
is it?
“My first love was always hor-
ror,” she said very matter-of-fact.
“But I entered a writing contest
once that included a romance
section so I gave it a shot. Found
out I was pretty good at it, too.
But you know, I will be the first
to admit there is really a very fine
line between the two. In romance
novels there is usually conflict,
but a difference is that it’s always
worth it in the end to go through
the conflict.”
But with horror novels and
ghostly writing, there is a dif-
ferent kind of fun, she added.
“Then, I pull out all the stops. I’m
not afraid to get my hands dirty
with horror writing,” she said.
Some of the titles of Shults’
horror stories are “Dream Watch-
er” and “Borrowed Flesh.” A col-
lection of her short stories is titled
“Voices in an Empty Room.”
Recently she published a
“mash up,” which Shults de-
scribed as taking a well-known
story and turning it into some-
thing a little different by includ-
ing fiction of another genre. Her
mash up is titled “Taming of the
Werewolf” and it has received
good reviews.
“That one is definitely a blend
of horror and romance. It was
a lot of fun to write. And I just
finished a rough draft of a novel
that will blend both genres, a
romance based in Salem, Mass.,”
she said.
From love stories to ghost
stories, books are a way of life
for author Sylvia Shults
By Paul Gordon