Author Interview: Sharon Arpana Edwards

​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...

Penny: How would you sum up your author brand? What do you believe your books offer your readers?
Sharon: My writing has been described as engaging, uplifting, and insightful. Whatever I write, be it a book or a blog post, I strive to encourage my readers to have a positive outlook on life. When writing specifically for a faith-based audience, my primary goal is to inspire them to trust God in every circumstance, including in their suffering.  
The themes I have explored in my writing thus far are faith and suffering (in my nonfiction), and immigration and world travel (in my fiction). I have some experience in each area, though I wish I had traveled more and suffered less. But my trials make me a better writer and a more compassionate human being, so I can’t complain.

Penny: Does your Christian faith impact how you write, and if so, how?
Sharon: My Christian faith impacts every area of my life, and writing is no exception. Apart from what I write, how I do it is also affected.
The writing process includes getting the idea for the book, writing it, and editing it, and I have to trust God at each stage. After I get an idea and begin the book, I have to continue to trust Him to help me write it.
​With fiction, I need His help most in creating believable characters, interesting scenes, and a well-knit plot. With nonfiction, I have to trust Him to help me organize my thoughts and express them in a clear and engaging manner. At the editing stage, my faith gives me the courage to make the cuts needed. I am not overstating it. Courage is required! It’s not easy to let go of the passages you spent time and effort perfecting at the writing stage. But if the Holy Spirit prompts us to do something, we demonstrate our faith by our obedience. And that is true in all areas, not just writing.  

"But if the Holy Spirit prompts us to do something, we demonstrate our faith by our obedience. And that is true in all areas, not just writing."
- Sharon Arpana Edwards  

Penny: Tell us about your most recent book and what you love most about it?
Sharon: My most recent book is my debut novel, Gullible Travels, a fast-paced comedy with elements of fantasy. It was released a few weeks ago on April 29, which marked the 20th anniversary of my becoming a US citizen.
My protagonist Lemuelle is inspired by an international beauty pageant and embarks on a quest to discover which nations feel most superior and why, encountering a diverse cast of characters along the way. Sometime during the odyssey, she is shipwrecked on an enchanted island, where she bides her time in a literary manor named Plumfield Hall. Later aboard an ocean liner, Lemuelle becomes embroiled in a misadventure involving a handsome stranger, a celebrated detective, and a priceless stolen artifact. Her interactions with the publisher who later buys her travel journal form the subplot.
What I love most about Gullible Travels is that it was an answer to a prayer I had made in January 2023: “Don’t let me die without leaving the world a novel.” I had been struggling with serious health issues for almost two years at that point, and my leaving the world without leaving the world a novel was not outside the realm of possibility. I’d already begun three unsuccessful attempts to write a novel when I made that prayer. Later that year, I sensed the Holy Spirit leading me to stop writing and to do a 21-day fast and sometime in the third week, I heard these words in my spirit while praying: “Pick up that story again.” 
I immediately knew that the story was 'The Superiority Contest', which I had published in 2017 as a bonus story in the second edition of Pioneer Boulevard. This story was a comedy, so I was taken aback. Did God really want me to write a comedy instead of plowing through the devotional on suffering? 
As I was praying two days later, I again heard the same five words in my spirit: “Pick up that story again.” That was the confirmation I needed to get started. I initially thought I would give the original story a light edit and sell it as an e-book for $2.99. But as I tweaked the text, new characters and scenes began to reveal themselves. The 6,250-word story became a novelette, which turned into a novella and then turned into my debut novel!

Penny: Who is an author you love to read and why?
Sharon: Since I have just written a novel, let me talk about my favorite novelist, Dickens. I have learnt more about writing fiction from him than from any other novelist – specifically about writing comedy and creating colorful characters. Not that I will never come close to his genius, but my writing is better for having read Dickens and studied his craft. I am so indebted to him that I threw him into both my works of fiction!  
In Gullible Travels, Dickens appears as my protagonist’s tutor, Poe, the prodigious English novelist who has penned such works as A Liver Twist and Dumbo and Son. I chose to name him Poe in honor of my tutor at Keele, Joe Stretch. I think every aspiring novelist needs to read Dickens and have a tutor like Joe!
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Penny: Where should people go if they'd like to learn more about you and your writing? 
Sharon: For more information, please visit www.sharonarpana.com or my Amazon Author page.