Readers and Authors (and holidays too!)

I can't believe we are already nearing the end of December which means that New Year's is around the corner and we are into 2014…Wow!

The holidays are a good time to escape and read a book. It is a chance to exit out of your world for a little bit and enter into someone else's. There is nothing like curling up with a good book in front of a fireplace or by a Yule log image crackling from your television screen. :) 

When you open the pages of a new book or the contents load on your e-reader screen you are immediately transported into someone else's life. Whether the protagonist is registering for wedding gifts with her future sisters-in-law (such as the case with Becoming Mrs. Walsh). ;) Or someone is rushing off to a meeting, breaking up with someone, opening an invitation to an ex's wedding, whatever the situation—you are now part of someone else's life. 

It is both a unique experience to be a reader and an author. As a reader you are investing your time in characters and their problems, having a stake in their solutions or ways they think they will resolve something. As a reader you want to fully immerse yourself in the plot and characters. You wonder about the characters in between reading chapters. While cooking dinner you wonder if they are happy. Or if you are out, you look forward to getting home and finding out what happens next. At least that is how I feel when I am reading a good book. And when the ending comes, all good things do come to an end, ;) I wonder if the characters made the right decision, if they are truly happy. 

As an author, I find that when I am writing I too want to know what happens next! The only way to find out is to write it. I tried really hard in Becoming Mrs. Walsh to put both my reader and author hats on. As a reader, I wanted the book to be entertaining. I wanted people to feel like part of the Walsh family or enjoy being a spectator of their fabulous life. As an author, I strived to make the book move quickly, to keep readers engrossed all the way through. And of course to keep the story interesting. Most importantly, however, was that I wanted readers to enjoy spending time with the Walshes as much as I enjoyed writing them. The Walsh family deserves their own blog post, I will write about them in a separate post!

Thanks for reading the book! Feel free to reach me at any time: jessica@jessica-gordon.com.

Happy Holidays!