My historical fantasy, River Witch, went from being a finalist in The Wishing Shelf 2024 Awards in the adult fiction category to a Gold Medallist. Thrilled! Read more here.
Writing for readers
Cheryl Burman grew up as the child forever reading on her bed. But as this was Australia, she was also often tempted outside to the beach and the yabby creeks near her suburban home. When she moved to the Forest of Dean, UK, she followed the likes of Tolkien, Rowling and many others in being inspired to write.
The Forest is a place chock-a-block full of history, legend and myth, and there is much to draw on. Cheryl does so, as well as on her own childhood in Australia.
Because she likes to switch focus from time to time, she brands herself a multi-genre author, that is, she writes what she feels like. As a devout Narnia fan, she started with fantasy for the middle graders (books the mums, dads, grannies etc also enjoy) moved to historical fiction with her novel Keepers (2021) and its subsequent spinoffs (2023 and 2024), and then combined the two into historical fantasy with River Witch (2022).
She has recently released her dual timeline sequel to River Witch, The Herbalist’s Daughters, which was a Top New Release and a Bestseller in its category.
Find all of Cheryl’s books here.
The greatest pleasure she receives from her writing is when people tell her: ‘I loved your book.’ It gets even better if they leave a review saying so!
The Herbalist’s Daughters – out now!
Can the past be truly redeemed?
In 1997, Mara Ash discovers among her mother’s possessions the beautifully illustrated 19th century nature journals of a man called Aaron Appleby.
Mara’s search for Aaron takes her from Australia to the Forest of Dean in England on a journey where she will discover much more than her past.
The standalone sequel to the award-winning River Witch
Book 2 in The Wise Women Series
‘Another beautiful and very readable Cheryl Burman story, intriguing from beginning to end.’ Reader review
Read Chapter One here.
Take a look at this Coffee Pot Book Club post to find out how real life, current and historical, inspires Cheryl’s writing.
Stay in touch!
Follow Cheryl on FaceBook to stay in touch with news and views. And to hear about new book releases, follow her Amazon Author Page. More links below!
And other things too…
Cheryl also ventures into short stories and flash fiction. Some of these pieces, together with novel opening chapters, have won prizes and commendations. Take a look here to read (and in some cases, listen to) a selection of flash fiction. Dragon Gift , her slim collection of stories with myths or fairytale themes includes several prize winners, as does her later collection of historically based tales, Who can believe in witches? and other stories. Find them here on her Books page.
Cheryl is married with two grown children, and was, until May 2022, slave to a border collie who published his own book, Sammy’s Walks – highly rated by locals and visitors to the Forest alike, and their dogs. Sammy’s passing brought a flood of responses from his friends all over the world – he had a large number of them and he will be very much missed. As Cheryl Mayo, Cheryl re-published a fully revised Sammy’s Walks at the end of 2024
To get the full story
If you’re interested in the longer version of how Cheryl came to write, go here to Elaine Carnegie’s blog post where she was kindly allowed to write about herself in some detail (what a temptation!). Or listen in to this podcast she did in May 2022 for Jo Durrant’s Beautiful Universe podcast.
The rest of the writing life
Writing may be a lonely process, but writers need the support of other writers. Being a member of Dean Writers Circle has given Cheryl that support, and her writing has improved tremendously since sharing with and learning from the group. She has also found brilliant support and made wonderful friends via Twitter’s #writingcommunity.
Keen to ensure the next generation of Forest writers, she is a founder of Dean Scribblers, a small group of volunteers whose aim is to encourage the creative writing spark in young people in their community. Spending time with kids in classrooms is brilliant, and she has seen some imaginative and emotive work from 10 and 11 year olds and younger.
Cheryl is also on Goodreads, BookBub, AllAuthor and is a member of the Independent Authors Network (IAN)
Check out her Amazon author page – so friend/follow her/ask a question/leave a review!
Or contact her on [email protected]