tagged with: novel writing

Browsing through the internet, I came across a list of authors’ blogs and I decided to pause in my scrolling and see what other authors were writing about. You guessed it, I was looking for ideas. I found an author who wrote on a subject I heard other authors talk about and even participated in. The subject was what makes an author successful. Now, if you are a reader, you know who the successful authors are, and if you are a writer you know that too.

But how do you define success as far as your writing goes? Is it when you sell your first million copies or when you sell your first thousand? Or is it when you get on the New York Times Bestseller list? The author of the blog said another author complimented her on helping her with another business, then asked how come she was not a megastar in the writing world.

Naturally, the author was taken aback. Which brings me to the title of this post A Book Goes Home. A few weeks ago I visited Trinidad and Tobago, my homeland and I took a few copies of my debut book Coming Out of Egypt. I wanted to do something I should have done years ago when the book was first published — donate them to the San Fernando Carnegie Library which is featured in the book.

I was surprised to see all the changes that had taken place over the years. The building I visited used to be the only lending library in San Fernando and it was stocked wall to wall with books. It has now been transformed into a reference library and the lending library has been moved to another location.

But what shocked me was the response I received from the assistant librarian when I introduced myself. He said, “Oh, we know you, and we know your book.”

I said, “You do?”

He said, “Yes, we know this book.”

I didn’t press him, but his reception — feigned or not — made me smile. He invited me to wait so I could meet the head librarian who was out on lunch. When I told him I was in a bit of a hurry, he wrote her name and number on a paper and gave it to me so I could call her. Later, when I spoke to her on the phone, she sounded just as happy to meet me as her coworker had.

So, is that success? I would say, yes. Are the 5-star reviews on my sales page a measure of success? Yes. When someone meets me and says how much she enjoyed my book, that to my mind is success. I know that many writers, yours truly included, struggle to sell books. On any given day, someone is giving a course or a webinar on how to sell more books so we could one day qualify for the world’s definition of success. But for many that definition remains an elusive dream.

Someone said, “Sir, there will always be a man more handsome than you; lady, there will always be a woman more beautiful than you. Stop comparing yourself to others.”

I leave you with this quote borrowed from the writer’s blog: The measure of achievement is not winning awards. It’s doing something that you appreciate, something you believe is worthwhile. I think of my strawberry soufflé. I did that at least twenty-eight times before I finally conquered it. — Julia Child

What is your idea of success? Leave a comment in the box below

Angela writes contemporary Christian women’s fiction. She is the author of four novels and one Christian non-fiction book and has written for devotionals and anthologies such as Chicken Soup For the Soul and Guidepost.

If I were to answer this question, I know immediately what I would say, “It holds my interest.” If I were to delve a little further to determine why it holds my interest, I think the answer I may come up with is the character/characters. It’s like remembering your favorite movie. What made you like it, tell others about it, want to see it again? The character/s captivated you.

Character – And so it is with any book I read. I want a protagonist who is relatable, interesting, and likeable. This does not mean you will like everything your character does, however, you may find the character’s actions justifiable. Which brings me to another point.

Motive – A character’s motive in the story should be tied in with either her intrinsic (internal) or extrinsic (external) needs. For example in my first novel Coming Out of Egypt, Marva the protagonist kills her father just before the story begins. What could be her motive for carrying out such a heinous act? Readers later discover that the killing was accidental and occurred during the process of Marva trying to rescue June her younger sister from their father’s abuse (external). Her internal needs were always to escape his abuse and forge a new life for herself and June. This brings me to the next important element:

Plot – This action on Marva’s part sets the plot into motion. Everything that follows is as a result of that first spur-of-the-moment decision. By this time the reader is either rooting for Marva, turning the pages to see what happens next, or she has tossed the book aside, thinking it a waste of time. I am happy to report that Coming Out of Egypt has not had one negative review. Everyone has had only positive things to say about her and about the book in general.

Marva is the star of the show. The other characters follow her lead, either to support her or to attempt to throw her into prison. Like Elizabeth Bennett (Pride and Prejudice), Katniss (The Hunger Games), and Jane Eyre, Marva captures the image of a young woman willing to take risks and stand up for what she believes in.

If you have not yet read Coming Out of Egypt, you should do so now, while the price is just .99c. And while you are at it, why not get the other two books in the series, In the Wilderness and In the Promised Land.

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As a writer, I always thought I was the only one that feels anxious about my work—you know, like whether it makes sense, how would it be received and sometimes I even feel anxious, or guilty, that I’m not writing enough. But recently I received an email from an author I subscribe to that helped me feel a little better about myself. She also felt anxious—not about the quality of her writing—but about hearing her writing read back to her. She had just completed her first audiobook, so I guess it was natural for her to feel a bit anxious.

Out of curiosity, I decided to google what makes writers anxious or what kinds of tigers are lurking near the keyboard. I found a lot— from writing quality, genre, sales and even algorithms. While it helped to know that other writers have their tigers, it didn’t get rid of mine.

Oh, I haven’t yet told you yet what I worry about. Can you guess? My book’s cover. As an indie author, I’m pretty much on my own. I come up with the story ideas, flesh them out, publish them and market them. While doing all of that does bring some tigers, coming up with the cover brings the biggest one of all. Bigger than a tiger; more like an elephant.

Every time I’ve written a book, I tremble when the time comes to choose a cover. And now the fifth time is no different. In fact, the elephant loomed even larger this time. I had to get it right. Perfect. Flawless. Grabworthy (another way of saying Irresistible). So I researched book designers and book covers ad infinitum, signed up with some Facebook groups and finally found a designer who designed books in my genre and who suited my budget.

I think part of the difficulty in finding the right cover is that most of the novels that are coming out are in every genre but women’s fiction, the genre I write in. Anyway, once I’d settled on a designer, I drew her into my habitat. Fortunately, she is a very patient soul and she stuck with me through the five revisions I requested.

Of course, my writer’s group deserves a great deal of the praise for the way my cover turned out. The first mock-up did not meet my expectations. I didn’t even share it with my group. Again I felt anxious. I immediately felt my description had failed to convey what I wanted. I tried again and again, until I finally got something I thought I could live with. Once my group had approved it, I breathed a sigh of relief.

Now that I’ve decided on my cover and I’ve read those posts about writers’ anxiety, I’ve come away with one truth—my cover will never be perfect. There will always be covers more appealing more than mine. I will suffer some angst when I come across a cover I think should be mine, but that’s life. I can only give myself and my readers the best I’m capable of.

So, drop me a line and tell me what you think of the cover of my latest book Love, Lies, and Grace shown above. Is it grabworthy? Will you buy the book because of its cover? I (anxiously) await your comment.

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Today, I am happy to bring you an excerpt from A Greek Cat, a novel by Moshe Karasso.


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Novel, life story
Date Published: September 18, 2019

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“A Greek Cat,” by Moshe Karasso, artfully unfurls the incredible story of the son of a once wealthy, now impoverished Jewish family living on one of the Greek Islands.

In a spectacular feat of juggling, time is diverted forwards and backwards, between childhood and old age, presenting readers with a wide spectrum of events, people, and island vistas.

Karasso offers readers a glimpse into the lives of fishermen and their families, and, later in the novel, into the everyday culture of German Nazis both inside and outside their homes. All of these are recounted in the first person by a remarkably resourceful narrator who eventually loses his sanity.

Looking at this book in the broader context of Existentialist literature, one cannot help but compare it with the works of French writer Albert Camus, whose grasp of the absurdity of existence liberates man from the hope of a perfect human morality that demands life at any cost.



About the Author

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Born in Istanbul, Turkey in 1933. Married with three children. Lives in the Tel Aviv area of Israel.
Writes primarily essays and poems.
This is his first work of fiction.


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Excerpt – Childhood

On the island where I was born, there was a long pier that bisected the small and enchanting port into two. On either side, the fishing boats would drop anchor in the protected harbor, its green brackish water spotted with gasoline stains. The sunbeams that struck the water fractured into a thousand hues, and the seaweed and fish carcasses that floated on the surface rocked languidly with the waves. Sometime the smell of fish was so sharp that the island’s cats would rest on their haunches like sphinxes, inhaling the scent and waiting.

When the sun started to set and the boats were preparing for their evening fishing expeditions, the decks would light up with dozens of bright lanterns, and the hum of the motors would mingle with the fishermen’s shouted goodbyes. On stormy days, the drunken masts would sway this way and that, almost crossing each other. Sometimes a breathless boy would burst out of a side street and scan the twilight for his father’s boat. He would identify it almost immediately by its silhouette, and if the boat he was looking for was already on its way out of the harbor, he would run down the pier alongside the boat and call out to the fisherman. Then the boat would slow down and edge up to the pier, and the fisherman would scold the child for his tardiness. The sack of food would be expertly thrown from the boy’s hand towards the boat, and, after flying over the water for a second that seemed to me an eternity, land in the fisherman’s sure hands.

During a phone conversation with a friend yesterday, I asked as casually as I could, “Did I ever tell you I’m a writer?”

Now, this is a friend, mind you. Someone I’ve known for decades and I’m now telling her that I’m a writer. Better late than never, I guess. Anyway, just as I expected, my friend told me she’s not a reader, but she did ask a few questions, which I was hoping for.

After asking me what my book was about–I told her it was actually a series of three books–and gave her a brief synopsis of the books. Then she wanted to know how I was able to sit down and write three books.

I explained it was not difficult because the first book was based on a true situation I knew of when I was a teacher back in Trinidad. For those of you who never heard the background to Coming Out of Egypt, here it is in brief:

It was rumored that two sisters attending the elementary school where I taught were being abused by their father. Their mother had died, and the girls lived in a secluded home with their father. They appeared very shabby, were isolative and did not do well in school. We, the teachers, had no legal authority to do anything in that society during that time period, and I transferred from that school without knowing what became of those girls.

So much for the background. How did I write the book?

1. The idea. It was easy for me to get started because I had the basic idea – the above synopsis – but the ending would be different. Instead of transferring from that school to another, the teacher would stay there and try to help those girls out.

2. The characters. I already had the protagonist – the older sister. Her younger sister June would be the second most important character. Then I added another character– the teacher–and I gave her a name. If there’s a protagonist there would be an antagonist. Guess what? The teacher’s boyfriend, a detective,  became the antagonist.

3. The setting. I already had that too. A rural village in Trinidad.

4. The plot. That is what happens in the story. How do these characters act on this idea in this setting? The pieces began to fall into place. The girls would go to school, the teacher would teach, and the detective would … He would have to find something to detect. Right? More ideas.

In order to make the book interesting, I had to throw in a few more elements. So I threw in some romance–the teacher and the detective, Marva and her boyfriend and even June has a boyfriend or rather, boyfriends. Then I included some police work –our detective is a hard-working guy–so we give him a crime to solve.

By this time I had an idea what I wanted the title to be. The real village where the girls lived is called Egypt Village. Egypt in the Bible represents a place of bondage. Since the book was being written from a Christian perspective, I used the story of the exodus of the Israelites out of Egypt as a metaphor for the story of these girls’ journey out of their bondage, and thus came the title Coming Out of Egypt.

This whole process may sound easy or complicated depending on how you look at it. However, if you are going to write a book, I would suggest you become familiar with the craft by doing the foll.:
1)Begin reading, if you are like my friend –not a reader.
2)Take a few courses–online or at a community college or some such place
3) Join a writer’s group and
4) Start writing

If you enjoyed this blog post, I will suggest two things:
1. Buy the Book
2. Sign up to join my mailing list. You will be the first to know about my giveaways, special offers from time to time and updates from other authors.

In the spotlight today is An Open Window, a debut novel by P. B. Harrison. Enjoy!

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Fiction
Publisher: URLink Publishing
Published: November 2018
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Born in a drafty house, Jessie, the firstborn of Mary and her abusive husband, Bill, was born for better things. Throughout her childhood, she tells stories that enable her to escape into her own made up world. She cares for her siblings and manages to establish lifelong friendships. As a teenager, her parents divorce, and Jessie begins to experience days without the need to weigh every action or word. She no longer fears the night or the soft footsteps that once came to her bedside. Because of her capacity for forgiveness and compassion, Jessie refused to be a victim. Later, she is reunited with a high school friend who becomes the man who makes her frightening memories dissolve into distant shadows that hover at the outer fringes of her mind but are rarely allowed in. As a wife and mother, Jessie again turns to storytelling, not as a way to escape her father’s cruelty but to entertain and teach her children. She introduces them to characters that leave them wanting more but appropriating what they have.
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About the Author

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P.B. Harrison loves to write. An Open Window is her first book. She is married with one son, three stepchildren and five grandkids. She’s an avid outdoors person. She is retired in South Alabama and is presently working on her next novel.
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Upmarket Commercial/Women’s Fiction
Date Published: January 3, 2019
Publisher: Acorn Publishing LLC

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Let pilot Tris Miles lift you up, and fly you to new heights with her inspiring story of love, ambition and the meaning of success.
R. D. Kardon’s debut novel puts you in the cockpit with Tris Miles as she navigates the challenges of integrating an all-male corporate flight department in 1997. Tris encounters harassment, marginalization, and backstabbing on her journey to becoming a jet captain. 
____________________________
It’s 1997. Women stand beside men in combat and fly fighter jets. Pilot Tris Miles is not content with her job as a First Officer for tiny Clear Sky Airlines. She wants to be a Captain—the only way she knows to prove her worth as a pilot and atone for a deadly mistake.
To further her career, Tris accepts a prestigious job with Tetrix, Inc. But her dream of becoming pilot-in-command twists into a nightmare.
As the company’s first woman pilot, she encounters resistance, marginalization, and harassment on a daily basis. Fortunately, Tris has one thing her co-workers can’t deny—skill.
When Tris finds herself in a crippled airplane thousands of miles from home she must prove she can lead. With her career on the line, can Tris earn the respect she’s been craving? And if this is the end, can she find the strength to forgive herself?
About the Author

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Robin “R.D.” Kardon was a litigation attorney before beginning a twelve-year flying career as a corporate and airline pilot. She holds an Airline Transport Pilot certificate and three Captain qualifications. Her travels took her all over the world in every type of airplane from small single-engine Cessnas to the Boeing 737. Robin earned her B.A. in Journalism and Sociology from NYU and J.D. from American University, Washington College of Law. A native New Yorker, Robin now lives in San Diego, California with her beloved rescue pets. , a work of fiction inspired by her own aviation experience, is her first novel.
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EXCERPT 1

TRIS LOST ALL visibility as the airplane pierced a thick slab of fog. She slid her focus from the miasma outside the cockpit window to the flight instruments in front of her. They were her eyesight now. She trusted them. They told the truth.
She scanned the gauges and smiled. Tris heard their silent language; woman and machine entwined in the exceptional conversation of flight.
“Clear Sky Two-Five-One, cleared for the approach,” the Columbus, Ohio approach controller announced over a scratchy connection. Tris nodded to Captain Danny Terry, sitting two feet away in the left seat. His jaw clenched as he worked the radios on their last flight of the day.
“Gear down,” Tris commanded.
The landing gear groaned and clicked as they lowered into position. Locked on final approach, the turboprop glided toward the runway, a concrete slab somewhere below them. Its twin engines spun in sync on the airplane’s wings. Tris monitored every bump and twitch of the plane. She answered each with a tap of the controls.
Flying is a series of small corrections Tris nudged the yoke to bank the airplane left, the plastic coated steering column cool beneath her hands. She thought of all the ways pilots measure movement: degrees of heading, feet of altitude, ticks of the clock. Always counting up, down, until the next critical moment. As Clear Sky 251 slid toward the ground, Tris counted down.
Then she saw the flash. Just for a second, an amber warning light flickered.
“Danny, check the gauges. We had a caution.”
“Five hundred,” the airplane’s synthesized altitude alert announced. Tris checked the altimeter. So close to the ground and they still had zero visibility through the late-summer glare.
“I don’t know,” Danny said as he scanned the gauges. “Wait. It’s the oil pressure on number one. The needle’s going crazy. It could be nothing, just a blip.”
Or the number one engine could be about to fail.
“Ok.” She’d need full power on both engines to climb if they couldn’t land—and she might not have it.
“Nothing in sight.” Danny squirmed forward in his seat to catch the first glimpse of runway lights. His breath grew more labored with every foot of altitude they lost. He wouldn’t see the runway until the very last second, if at all—right when Tris would decide to land the plane or thrust it back up into the soup.
“Roger.” Tris stayed focused and in control. As seconds passed, the plane slid lower, lower, in a stable descent. The only sounds were the whir of spinning dials, the click of needles, the white noise of flight. Tris eyed the altimeter, her hands soft but firm on the power levers.
Danny’s hand twitched behind hers; a backup. He strained to see the runway. Decision time loomed a few feet away.
The caution light blinked again. Tris had to keep her eyes on the navigation gauges. The closer the airplane got to the ground, the more sensitive those indicators became. If she strayed off course, even a little, she’d lose all guidance and have to climb, or else there was no telling where they’d hit the ground.
She felt Danny’s hands move closer to the controls, protecting them in case she faltered.
She didn’t. Tris saw the runway, dead ahead.
“I’ve got it,” Danny said quickly as he
keyed the mike. “Columbus Tower, Clear Sky
Two-Five-One, runway in sight.”
“Roger, Clear Sky Two-Five-One, Runway Two-Four, cleared to land, wind two-five-zero at three knots.”
“Landing,” Tris said. She looked outside, blinked to focus, and kept the plane moving straight along the runway centerline, edging toward the earth. The altimeter registered field elevation just as the plane’s rear wheels softly touched the ground.

How is the new year treating you so far? Are you taking things in stride? Or are you still wondering where 2018 went? As for me, I’m trying to cope with the chaos 2019 has brought into my life. My fridge is in the living-room, my microwave is on the TV stand and plugged in next to the fridge. My stove and dishwasher are squeezed somewhere near my dining-table, and boxes are piled almost to the ceiling.

No, it’s not a scene from my current work-in-progress, neither am I moving. It’s just a matter of taking care of some water damage in my kitchen, which has left me feeling sick and disoriented, to say the least. But in spite of eating out of paper plates, and eating things I don’t normally eat, life goes on. Right? Right. So, I just finished typing The End to my latest book and uploaded the final chapter to my critique group. Yay!!!

I began working on this manuscript twelve years ago and had to set it aside time and again for various reasons and was only able to work on it consistently this past year. Shows what you can do if you just stick with it. I feel great about myself because I accomplished this under very trying circumstances. So, want to know what my latest masterpiece is about? Remember the Golden Girls sitcom? The four middle-aged women who sat around eating ice-cream and sharing secrets? Well, my new novel is something like that, except that there are three of them and they are too figure-conscious to eat ice-cream very often. And that’s all I’ll say about them for now.

Remember to grab a copy of each book in my Egypt series or whichever one you haven’t read yet and tell your friends about them. And when you have read them, please leave a review on Amazon. You can find them on my my Amazon author page here.

Thank you and happy reading!

Have you ever wondered how an author comes up with pages and pages of content that keep you absorbed for hours or even days? How do they edit it so it’s error-free and worthy of being read? In this guest post, J. F. Pandolfi, author of Mr. Pizza, a mainstream novel, takes us behind the scenes and shows us what his writing and editing process is like. Enjoy!

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Mainstream Fiction
Date Published: August 3, 2018
Publisher: L&A Publications

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Most people make at least one really harebrained decision in their life. Just ask Tony Piza. Deciding he needs a “paid vacation” for a year after college, Tony lands a job teaching at a Catholic elementary school. Talk about the Moby Dick of miscalculations. His pathetic effort is making him look bad, crimping his love life, and leaving him feeling guilty. A new approach, fueled by his irreverent humor, makes him a hit with his students. But it riles the powers that be. A showdown seems inevitable. Whether he can survive it—well, that’s something else.

My Writing Process—Still a Work in Progress

by

J. F. Pandolfi

Writing fiction pretty much involves coming up with a beginning, a middle, and an end. But it’s how we choose to get from one phase to another that can be all over the map.

In writing “Mr. Pizza”, my first novel, I synopsized every scene before penning the first word of the first chapter. Some people are just more comfortable planning every step of the journey upfront. In my case, I think that resulted from having practiced law for many years, which has a tendency to induce chronic anal retentiveness. That said, during the course of writing there were times when the story decided it wanted—even needed—to veer off the pre-determined path. Those detours turned out to be the most exhilarating part of the experience for me.

So for my new book—a sequel that takes place twelve years after the first book ends—I decided to toss out the old game plan. I knew the general storyline I wanted to pursue, but that was it. I just started writing. I’m currently about a quarter of the way through my projected page count. Has it been unsettling? You bet. Like being adrift on a raft in open seas. Or how I felt when my parents took away my pacifier when I was eleven. (What, like you don’t have any issues?) Another thing that required getting used to was taking time after a chapter to figure out what comes next. Other than those occasional detours I mentioned, I didn’t have to deal with that in writing “Mr. Pizza”.

On the whole, I think the occasional angst, and the sometimes lengthy post-chapter interludes, have been a fair trade-off for the excitement of making new discoveries as each chapter comes into focus. But that may change as I get deeper into the book. I’ll have to see. If I find it’s turning out not to be the ideal route, I’ll tinker with some hybrid middle ground.

Another subject I wanted to touch on is: revising your work, i.e. self-editing. It’s something we all need to do, more than once, before having a professional editor take a look. There’s a theory that says you shouldn’t edit on-the-fly. Get through your first draft, then go back to the beginning and start editing. Supposedly, editing as you go disrupts your artistic flow.

But I need to do my first edit of a chapter as soon as the chapter is done. It has to feel right to me before I can move on. I don’t think it’s blocked up my creative aqueduct. (Although I’m not a psychologist, neurobiologist, or plumber.) I’ve also found there’s a practical benefit to how I work. If you change something substantive in a chapter, it could impact a subsequent chapter. By editing each chapter as I write, I can limit—to a degree—that potential domino effect. I may make additional changes when I re-edit, but they’re usually not as significant.

Writing doesn’t lend itself to one-size-fits-all. Explore the self-editing process until you find the method you’re most comfortable with.

Keep writing, and good luck!

About the Author

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J. F. Pandolfi went to Fordham University as an undergrad, then taught at a Catholic elementary school before attending Fordham Law School.
Practicing law certainly had its moments, but to call it “utter euphoria”—well, that was a stretch. Plus, the voices that had taken up residency in his head (rent-free, the deadbeats) kept insisting that he share his writing with the world. An award for his flash fiction piece, “Psychology for Dummies”, convinced him that the voices might be on to something. And so he called upon his fond memories as a teacher, which served as a backdrop to his debut novel, “Mr. Pizza”.
J. F. also briefly believed he had won the New York City Marathon. Alas, it turned out to be a dream, apparently brought on by an acute case of restless leg syndrome.
A staunch supporter of the fight to eradicate adult illiteracy, J. F. was accorded a Special Recognition in Literacy Award for his efforts.
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Here is an interview I did with Ndeye Labadens, author of How to Crush Social Media in Only 2 Minutes a Day and moderator of the Ndeye Labadens Book Club.

In this interview, I talk about how I came up with the title for the first book in the Egypt series, Coming Out of Egypt and other behind-the-scenes information of my debut novel. Some of it you may already know if you read my blog regularly, but regardless, I invite you to grab a cup of your favorite beverage, (tea, anyone?) pull up your chair and enjoy.

My name is Angela Joseph. I am the author of one non-fiction book Women For All Seasons and the Egypt series, three fiction books. I am also a blogger and freelance writer for health and wellness sites.

What’s the story behind the title?

The story behind the title goes back to the time when I was a teacher in Trinidad. Two sisters attended the school where I taught, although neither of them were my pupils, and it was rumored they were being abused by their father. They lived in a secluded home in a place called Egypt Village. Coming Out of Egypt deals with the journey of two sisters who lived in the same locale and were abused by their father. I have also used the Biblical story of the exodus of the Israelites out of Egypt as a metaphor for the turbulent journey of these two sisters out of an abusive childhood.

Why did you write this book?

Stories of sexual abuse are in the news every day. It is neither obsolete nor pertinent only to third world countries, yet victims of sexual abuse do not receive the help or attention they deserve. I wrote this book to inspire and encourage women, as well as men, who have been sexually abused and let them know that they have self worth. That they too can “come out of Egypt” and find love, understanding and forgiveness.

How do you keep the reader attention?

I keep the reader’s attention by pacing the plot points in such a way that the reader wants to know what happens next, but at the same time doesn’t skip over any part of the narrative. For example, a high-tension scene where Cicely’s father tells her fiancé that Cicely was a nightclub dancer in an attempt to break them up, is preceded by a tropical rainstorm in which she is almost marooned on the beach. The reader can feel the tension building. I also sprinkle cultural titbits throughout the novel that give them a glimpse of Trinidad culture and add depth to the story.

How did you come up with this book idea?

The idea came to me when I saw TV personalities like Oprah Winfrey and popular televangelist Joyce Meyer and others talking openly about their experience with sexual abuse. I thought if these women could “come out of Egypt” to become who God created them to be, then anyone, with God’s help, could do the same. So, I decided to rewrite the story of those two pupils I knew in Egypt Village.

What publishing elements do you most enjoy and most like to avoid, and why? (e.g., design, marketing, formatting, etc.)

Once the ink has dried, I wish I could wave a magic wand and make all the rest involved with publishing disappear, but unfortunately that is not case. So, while I don’t enjoy any of them, I get some satisfaction when I see even my limp marketing efforts bear some fruit. I strictly avoid design and formatting. I tackle editing with a vengeance because I know how important that is.

What’s next on your writing journey?

I am currently working on another women’s fiction set in Georgia. It deals with three friends and their secrets. I also have a fun, romantic novella that I started some time ago that I would like to complete. In addition, I will continue blogging and freelancing for health and wellness sites. I will also continue to promote Coming Out of Egypt and the other books in the series, In the Wilderness and In the Promised Land.

Where would my audience find your book?

Just click the image below.

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