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Dear Reader,
What a treat to introduce today's guest author Tessa Afshar who was voted "New Author of the Year" by the Family Fiction sponsored Reader's Choice Awards 2011 for her novel Pearl in the Sand. Her novel, Harvest of Gold won the 2014 Christy Award for Historical Romance. Tessa was born in Iran to a nominally Muslim family, and lived there for the first fourteen years of her life. She moved to England where she survived boarding school for girls and fell in love with Jane Austen and Charlotte Bronte, before moving to the United States permanently. Her conversion to Christianity in her twenties changed the course of her life forever. Tessa holds an MDiv from Yale University where she served as co-chair of the Evangelical Fellowship at the Divinity School.
Tessa is really looking forward to talking with you. Be sure to send her an email welcoming her to the book club and when you do, you're also entered in a drawing for a copy of In the Field of Grace. She has 10 copies to giveaway. Email Address: [email protected]
Welcome Tessa Afshar...
LESSONS FROM SHERLOCK
The British love their Sherlock Holmes. They love him so much that they have actually built a flat on Baker Street in London that claims to be the home of this fictional character. So it's not such a shock that they would come up with another Sherlock Holmes television production. Sherlock is a contemporary retelling of Arthur Conan Doyle's famous detective stories. There are cell phones and cabbies and traffic jams and websites in this series. Personally, I can't get enough of it. There are several reasons for this delicious fascination.
As a writer, I see parallels between the techniques used by a popular television series like Sherlock and what makes for a satisfying read in a novel. Although I am comparing two completely different mediums, there are certain overlaps. Writers could pick up a lesson or two from our unstoppable detective that may mean the difference between a fan returning to your work a second time or regretting the time they spent with your work in the first place.
In my novels, it is important for me to develop imperfect characters that still manage to make you like them. Like Sherlock who is emotionally challenged, vain, and arrogant, my characters have plenty of imperfections. But hopefully, like Sherlock, you still manage to develop an affection for them, because unless you have a vested interest in these protagonists within the first few pages, you will put the book down.
The way characters communicate with each other is just as vital in a book as it is on film. Dialogue, while believable, needs to be absorbing. I write historical novels, but I don't see why I should write them with a heavy hand. How can you survive life without humor now or twenty five hundred years ago? I want my readers to laugh. I also want them to be moved to tears at the appropriate times. I wish to create a genuine movement in the heart. As a writer, it is my job to create the illusion of a relationship between my reader and my character. I feel that way about Holmes each week.
At one point in the series Sherlock Holmes comments: What it must be like in your funny little brains; it must be so boring!
The funny little brain of a writer cannot afford to be boring; it's the worst crime to commit as a story-teller. I don't produce internationally successful television programs, but I must still come up with believable plotlines that make the readers care about the outcome.
--Tessa Afshar
Email Address: [email protected]
Enter the 10th Annual Write a Dear Reader Contest. The deadline is approaching quickly. Find out about all the goodies, go to: http://www.dearreader.com/contest2014/index.html
Thanks for reading with me. It's so good to read with friends.
Suzanne Beecher
[email protected]
* This month's Penguin Classics book THE BIRD'S NEST by Shirley Jackson. Start reading now and don't forget to enter the drawing for your chance to win a Penguin Totebag: http://www.supportlibrary.com/bc/v.cfm?L=drclassqqxqB1AFE3FA7A33&c=CLASSICS
AUTHORBUZZ: AuthorBuzz authors are enjoying summer vacation this week, sipping lemonade and developing new story ideas. They will return next week.
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