Reality or Fiction?

I've been having fun writing 'Beauty for Ashes' but I realised how easy it was to get absorbed in fiction that you forgot reality.

As a young girl, I would escape into dreamland as I read pages after pages of romantic novel until I heard my mum's voice calling and I land (unhappily) back to real life.

Beauty for Ashes is the story of a young woman who had dreams of a home and family but the journey became a long and bumpy one. Her story reminds me of some of my experiences and sometimes it seems as if fiction meets reality. I get so absorbed in the story that I actually feel the physical pain that Tola was going through. There are times that the emotional pain is too much, that I would not be able to write anymore for days.

I wonder if other writers have this fiction meets reality experience. I hope that when the book is out, readers would feel the emotions of the characters. It would definitely make it all worthwhile.

I am also discovering that as a writer, I am more comfortable writing about what I know and relating experiences in my world. I am setting myself a challenge to include in the book, a section about a place I don't know and people that I am not familiar with. I guess this means I have to do some research. I will share how I get this done in a future blog.

I hope you enjoyed the last extract from the book, do drop me a line and make my day. You never know, I might name a character after you!

Shalom.

Adeola