​This month’s author interview is with Sharon Arpana Edwards. Sharon is an Indian born American I ‘met’ via the Advanced Writers and Speakers Association. AWSA is a member based organisation that equips and empowers women writers and speakers. I became a member after hearing positive reports at one of the writers conferences I attended in the USA and have really enjoyed connecting with lots of different writers. I find it fascinating how writers are influenced by their faith and life experiences. For Sharon, her writing has been directly influenced by her experiences as an immigrant to the US, arriving from Mumbai, India in 1999. Her first book, Pioneer Boulevard, is a collection of stories set in the Indian community of Los Angeles against the backdrop of the 2008 recession. Since then she’s written two non-fiction titles and has just released her first full length novel. She holds two MA’s, one in English (Pune, India) and another in Creative Writing (Keele, UK)! 
​I hope you enjoy this conversation with Sharon as much as I did...

I'm in the US at the moment. Perched in a rocking chair in the second floor bedroom of my friend's house. I'm in Texas, but I've just come from North Carolina, and before that I was back home in Australia. It's been a whirlwind couple of weeks of conference prep, travel, catching up with friends and now the down-time before another conference next week. I'm exhausted. But I'm also conscious that this is precious time. Time to take stock and stash my suitcase full of memories so I won't forget. 

Well, this month's author interview is someone you've probably already heard me rave about. That's because she's my Ella Shine co-author: Cecily Paterson!
I first met Cecily at an Omega Writers conference and one day we got chatting. Our books competed against each other in various CALEB awards (sometimes I won, sometimes she did) and over the years that competition obviously didn't hurt us because we became good friends. Although I work quite closely with Cecily these days on various fun Pet Sitter projects, I was still keen to interview her to find out a bit more about how she sees her writing and faith work together. Here's what she had to say...

Continuing my Author Interview Series, this month I'm interviewing an Australian author whose mantra is to write stories that encourage and inspire, engage and entertain!  Meredith Resce is no newbie on the Christian fiction scene, with more than 25 titles to her name, she writes across multiple genres and is also a generous supporter of the Australian Christian writing community! In fact, that's where I first met Meredith: at an Omega Writers conference, and have since had the privilege to work alongside her organising various events for writers. I've also enjoyed reading some of her novels. (Can I just put a plug in here for her Luella Linley series? They are such fun.) It was exciting to be able to ask her some questions about her writing, especially as she's launching a new book this month!

I'm heading to the USA soon, to attend two writers conferences and apparently, when you attend writers conferences in the States, you are supposed to bring business cards.
I've had business cards before. A few different variations. But apparently, according to the gurus of business cards and conferences (who knew there was such a thing?) it's good to have a card with a few features. For one thing, you are encouraged to include a head shot. This is so people can remember what you look like when they get home and are sorting through their stash of accumulated cards. I understand the reasons, but still...