DATE: Thursday, May 1, 1997                 TAG: 9705010037

SECTION: DAILY BREAK             PAGE: E1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: EMILY PEASE, CORRESPONDENT 

                                            LENGTH:  142 lines

BRACING FOR FAME: W&M PROF LATEST PICK FOR OPRAH'S BOOK CLUB

In her tiny apartment above the Pine Street Barber Shop in Richmond, Sheri Reynolds sits on her brand new couch, the one she bought after Oprah Winfrey called.

Reynolds, a soon-to-be ODU professor, is the latest author to have a book chosen for Winfrey's Book Club. After Winfrey's call, she knew she might meet the talk show host in her own living room, with its old sloping floors and piles of clutter. So the least she could do was to provide a place to sit and chat.

But, as it happens, Winfrey won't be climbing the steps above the Pine Street Barber Shop. Instead, she'll meet with Reynolds next week in a special hourlong interview in

Chicago, to be broadcast later this month.

Which is too bad, since a visit to Reynolds's apartment could have given the talk show some extra flavor. In Richmond, on the corner of Albemarle and Pine, in a building that used to be a Confederate hospital, Winfrey could have settled on the new white couch to talk with Reynolds, the plain-spoken 29-year-old writer from Conway, S.C.

Reynolds could have told her about life in Conway, the small tidewater town where her father still runs a sporting goods store and keeps his own cricket farm.

In the background, there would be the sound of Reynolds' constantly singing spice finches. And Winfrey's camera crew - if it could even fit into the apartment - would pan their cameras over the tiny room filled with books and papers and blankets and pottery straight out of the '60s.

It could have been an ``Oprah'' show to remember.

But time ran short, since it's the end of the semester at the College of William and Mary, where Reynolds has been teaching this year. Even after becoming the sixth author to be chosen for Winfrey's enormously popular book club - causing Reynolds' phone to ring nonstop - she still had classes to teach and papers to grade. She just couldn't let those things go.

So Reynolds will do the personal interview, which is traditionally a part of Winfrey's book-club routine, in Chicago. She's got a new brown pants suit hanging on a rod in the hallway outside the living room, ready for the occasion. She thinks it will look perfect - if only she can find the right shoes.

The interview, Winfrey has told her, will be intimate. Besides asking her how she came to write her second novel, ``The Rapture of Canaan,'' Winfrey will want to know about Reynolds as a person. She's even asked Reynolds to bring old family photographs and mementos - anything that might help her audience get to know her better.

The prospect of that interview, together with a videotaped dinner with Winfrey on Monday and the actual taping of the show on Wednesday, has given Reynolds a case of the nerves.

``Oh, I'm scared,'' she admits. ``I'm not a public person. I've always wanted my work to be recognized, but I'm not the type to be on stage.''

And what a stage. Each day, between 15 and 20 million viewers tune in to ``Oprah'' which is broadcast locally on WVEC, Channel 13, at 4 p.m. and 12:30 a.m. weekdays. Since Winfrey started her book club last October, those same viewers have rushed to buy the books the talk-show host recommends. For the authors, Winfrey's endorsement has caused their books to sell in numbers beyond their dreams.

For Reynolds, Winfrey's call rescued ``The Rapture of Canaan'' from being ``lost on the list,'' she says.

G.P. Putnam published the book in 1995. Its original press run, including softcover copies published by Berkley, was 40,000 copies. But until Winfrey called, the book had not been selling well.

Neither had Reynolds's first novel, ``Bitterroot Landing,'' also published by Putnam.

Sales were so poor that Putnam wasn't even interested in Reynolds' newest novel, ``A Gracious Plenty,'' which she completed last fall.

``Until Oprah Winfrey, I hadn't heard a word from my publisher since September,'' Reynolds says.

The Winfrey selection changed everything. Upon hearing that ``The Rapture of Canaan'' had been selected for the show, Berkley Books ordered a new printing of 950,000 copies.

Editors began calling, each of them anxious to publish Reynolds's newest novel. By the end of last week, Reynolds had interviewed 10 editors, meeting several of them in person and talking to others in hourlong phone calls from her apartment.

It was an exhausting, flattering experience. In the end, Reynolds chose Harmony, a division of Random House, to publish ``A Gracious Plenty.'' The book, she says, that ``contains my heart.''

Although she won't disclose how much Harmony will pay for the publishing rights, Reynolds admits ``they paid well.'' Once Putnam learned how much Harmony would offer, it offered twice as much, Reynolds says, but she said no.

``The editor at Putnam would have been a wonderful editor, but I didn't feel like she loved my book the way the editor at Harmony did,'' Reynolds says.

``At Harmony, my new editor was willing to publish it with nothing behind it, before the Oprah Winfrey thing. She worked the company and came up for it. How could I not go with her?

``Besides, Reynolds adds, ``I didn't want to be purchased.''

Now, although Reynolds says she still likes ``The Rapture of Canaan,'' she admits it isn't her favorite novel.

The story of a 14-year-old girl named Ninah who struggles to conform to the beliefs of her church, ``The Rapture of Canaan'' was chosen by Winfrey for its timeliness in the wake of the Heaven's Gate suicides.

But Winfrey may also have chosen the book because of its sensitive portrayal of the inner, spiritual struggles of a young girl. Winfrey is known to prefer women writers; all but one of her previous selections have been written by women. Winfrey is also known to comb book reviews carefully before making her selections. Most reviews of ``The Rapture of Canaan'' had been filled with praise.

Because the book deals with matters of sin and faith, Reynolds has been asked repeatedly to give her own views of God. The question makes her a little uncomfortable.

``I don't think I'm wise enough to do it,'' she says, ``but if I guess what I would say is that I believe the essence of God can be found in all things. In Jesus, yes. In churches, sure. In the beauty of a tree, definitely.''

Yet while the novel looks at one woman's search for her own faith, the book, Reynolds says, ``doesn't have my heart in it like my other two books. In that sense, I'm glad it's the book that's getting this attention. It will be easier for me to discuss. At least I doubt Oprah will make me cry, but you never know - she might.''

In two weeks, when all the publicity from her appearance on the show has calmed down, Reynolds looks forward to rolling up her sleeves and revising her latest novel.

Her new editor from Harmony plans to move to Richmond for the duration of the editing process. She may even sit on the new couch in Reynolds's Pine Street apartment to go over the manuscript.

Reynolds sees it as an opportunity to work - very hard - at making her work shine.

``I am so excited about that,'' Reynolds says. ``I want my writing to grow. I think I could get really good at it. I look forward to having someone challenge me - who'll say, `Why this word?' and `Why this sentence?' I'll relish it.''

After the revision is complete, the editor will take the book back to New York for publication, which is scheduled for the fall. By that time, Reynolds will be settled in at her new job at Old Dominion University, where she'll teach a graduate fiction course and undergraduate literature courses.

Until the call came from Winfrey, the ODU teaching position, a full tenure-track position Reynolds had been hoping for, was one of the biggest things to happen in her life. She says it still is.

``I can't wait to get in there,'' she says. ``I'm already friends with a lot of those folks. I love the energy there, and I want to contribute mine.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo

[Sheri Reynolds]

Photo BERKLEY TRADE PAPERBACKS

Sheri Reynolds, author of ``The Rapture of Canaan,'' will be

featured on ``Oprah'' later this month. KEYWORDS: PROFILE

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