This last Saturday I was asked to come to my friend’s book club and speak to them about my latest book, Second Chance Ranch. They had selected it to read and were going to discuss the book.
This was a first for me and so exciting to hear readers talk about how the book affected them and how they related to the situations in the book. One lady identified with my foreman, Ollie. He had cancer, but didn’t want the heroine to know about it since her situation was so dire. The hero discovered the man’s cancer (he was throwing up behind the barn), but Ollie asked him to keep the secret from the heroine. This woman at the reader group had also survived cancer. She understood Ollie’s reasons, but thought he should’ve told the heroine.
It thrilled me to hear to how the readers connected with the characters and story. The healing our books provide shouldn’t be discounted. And our readers identify with our characters in ways we can never imagine.
Posts
Leann, what a wonderful experience. We write books;send them out and never hear from even a fraction of those who read them. So glad you were blessed. It makes it all worthwhile!
ReplyDeleteIt's so nice to hear from readers that they were touched by the story or that some struggle the character dealt with helped them. That's a big reward of this job. Or maybe I should say labor of love. :)
ReplyDeleteAs a reader I would agree we do identify with characters and often it can be a secondary character that affects us even more than the main ones. I will look out for this book it looks good.
ReplyDeleteIt was a fun day. Sometimes, it's scary how real these characters are, but if they aren't real to me, they won't be real to the reader. But sometimes, you don't want a shrink around you when discussing your characters.
ReplyDelete