About Sherri Turner Stone

Sherri Turner Stone was born Sherri Lynn Smallwood in Eastland, Texas on December 14, 1961. The child of a broken marriage, Sherri and two younger brothers were raised by her grandparents in Cisco, Texas. At the age of 12, Sherri, an avid reader, decided she wanted to be a writer and began dabbling in poetry. She found she was able to use her writing to express feelings she could not otherwise convey. Though she was unable to spend a great deal of time with her father, Larry Smallwood, she was greatly influenced by him. His long-time career as general manager and later publisher of the Alice Echo-News in Alice, Texas introduced her to the inner workings of journalism. (Larry Smallwood currently publishes the South Texas Traveler, a free monthly magazine distributed throughout Texas.)  

When her grandmother died of cancer in 1976, Sherri and her brothers moved to Burnet, Texas  to live with her mother and new step-father. It was during her years in high school there that she began to hone her writing skills. She was a writer on the school newspaper staff for three years and entered journalism and literary competition throughout high school. During her senior year, she placed 4th in the United Interscholastic League's (UIL) state competition for feature writing. She was awarded a scholarship by the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) for an essay written and recorded for the Voice of Democracy competition. During her senior year in high school, she also studied photography and developed a love for the art.

In 1983, Sherri went to work as a photojournalist for the Burnet Bulletin newspaper. During her time there, she wrote a weekly column featuring interesting people of the community. During that year, her first poem was published in the 1983 American Poetry Anthology.

She began a career in computers in 1986 and quickly moved into the field of technical writing—a career that she still enjoys today. She has worked as a senior writer for IBM and Dell Computers.

Sherri entered her first novel, Devil's Due, into competition in the 1994 annual writers' conference of the Golden Triangle Writers Guild. The book won in the Horror category and gained representation by the David H. Morgan Literary Agency. In 1995, her second novel, Witness Moon, placed second in competition in the Mystery/Suspense category. 

Sherri continues to write poetry, which is often inspired by love—the good and bad of it. In the summer of 2001, she traveled to Ireland and spent five weeks soaking up the atmosphere and doing some heavy soul-searching while looking for her Irish roots. She also enjoyed attending six concerts by her favorite artist, Van Morrison. Some of her poetry and photography is inspired by that trip and the emotions evoked by Van's music.

This Heart of Mine was published by the International Library of Poetry in Letters from the Soul. The same poem was also recorded on a three-CD set entitled The Sound of Poetry. The Far Away Sea was published in Patterns of Life in the summer of 2003. 

Sherri was nominated for Poet of the Year 2002 by the International Society of Poets and was  formally inducted into the Society as an International Poet of Merit and Honored Member in August 2002. Two of her photographs were also published by the International Library of Photography. "West Texas Sunset" was featured in Infinite Illusions last fall, and "Raindrops" appears this spring in Passing Memories.

After a few years of contemplation, Sherri is currently working on her third book, O'Malley's Legacy, a love story set in Northern Ireland at the height of The Troubles. She currently lives in England and is a member of the Limelight Players drama group of Solihull for whom she is writing a one-act play for competition next year. She has established this site to share her work with others and sincerely hopes that you enjoy your visit here.