Angela Hunt – Expect the Unexpected

The Joys of Binge Reading

For Easter 2024. Fiction set in Biblical Times. From New York Times bestselling author Angela Hunt comes a compelling new series set in the New Testament era.

Her latest book, Sisters of Corinth, is a captivating story of love, sacrifice, and the quest for power, set against the backdrop of ancient Greece.

Angela is a prolific author in a wide range of genres, from fiction set in Biblical times to historical fiction in other periods and contemporary romance

All About the Binge Reading Podcast

Welcome to the Joys of Binge Reading, the show for anyone who ever got to the end of a great book and wanted to read the next instalment. We interview successful series authors and recommend the best in mystery, suspense, historical and romance series, so you’ll never be without a book you can’t foot down.

You’ll find this episode’s show notes, a free ebook, and lots more information at The Joys of Binge Reading.com. And now here’s our show.

Hi there I’m your host Jenny Wheeler, and on Binge Reading today we present Angela’s fresh take on the Easter story. Two sisters – daughters of a top ranking Corinth magistrate – take up very different ambitions and life paths.

In this episode she tells why readers can always “expect the unexpected” in her books and talks about her latest series, featuring fledgling believers who came to faith through the teachings of the apostle Paul.

This week’s Giveaway – March Madness

Our free books give away is Mad March Mysteries, and that includes cozies and thrillers, whatever level of mystery your tastes might dictate. The offer is for a limited time as always, so get in now.

The offer includes Poisoned Legacy, Book #1 in the Of Gold & Blood mystery series

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And just before we get to Angela. A blatant appeal for your help in defraying the cost of producing the show. Buy me a cup of coffee on www.buymeacoffee.com/jennywheelx Like a little kiss, and you’ll just help me get through the day.

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And one more housekeeping reminder. If you enjoy the show, leave us a review, so others will find us too. Word of mouth is still the best way for others to discover the show and great books they will love to read.

Where to find items discussed in this episode

The Sisters of Corinth: (On pre-order) https://www.amazon.com/Sisters-Corinth-Emissaries-Book-Testament-ebook/dp/B0CTKQNM2S/

The Apostle’s Sister: https://www.amazon.com/Apostles-Sister-Jerusalem-Road-Book-ebook/dp/B09LWNJK4L/

Unspoken: https://www.amazon.com/Unspoken-Angela-Hunt-ebook/dp/B08LTXRJ8D/

Koko The signing gorilla: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koko_(gorilla)#:

Koko’s trainer Francine “Penny” Patterson: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francine_Patterson

The Bible Verse that inspired it: https://www.bible.com/bible/compare/JOB.12.7-12

The gladiator training arena: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludus_Magnus#:

What Angela is reading:

People Of The Book – by Geraldine Brooks, https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/1379961

Where to find Angela Hunt online

Website: Angela Hunt books.com

Facebook: Angela Hunt, novelist: https://www.facebook.com/angela.e.hunt/

Substack Newsletter: Angelahunt.substack.com

Introducing author Angela Hunt

Angela Hunt – fiction set in Biblical times – with five million in sales….

But now here’s Angela. Hello there, Angela, and welcome to the show. It’s great to have you with us.

Angela Hunt: Thank you. I’m delighted to be here. It feels so weird because for me it’s Wednesday, and for you it’s Thursday. I feel like we’re in a time loop or something.

Jenny Wheeler: Yes, that’s right. Just one of those things when we’re on different sides of the world. I’m in New Zealand and you are in Florida. That’s right. Isn’t it?

Angela Hunt: Yes, it is.

Jenny Wheeler: Great. Now you’ve written 165 plus novels covering a wide range of historical periods, mostly focused in biblical times. You’ve won many awards including a Christie Award, and you say your books are for people who “expect the unexpected.”

I wonder what you mean by that motto, which is at the top of your website. What can people expect when you say “expect the unexpected?”

Angela Hunt: One of my pet peeves when I read a novel is if I can figure out the end, especially when I’m still in the beginning and I will often flip to the end to see if my instincts were right.

And when they are, I just feel like what’s the point of reading this? And I remember once I was reading a murder mystery. I don’t even know if the crime – I think somebody had been murdered and a handyman walks in and the writer just happened to mention that he was left-handed.

I said: Oh, he’s the murderer then, and it’s going be proven eventually that only a left-handed person could have done it.

There was the clue right there, but it may as well have had like flashing lights around it. And I thought, okay, I’m not reading this one. Like I’m not even finishing this one. Yes.

Fiction set in biblical times preferred term

Jenny Wheeler: It’s funny because I have heard the criticism from people who aren’t believers about ‘what’s the point?’

We all know how the story of Jesus ends. So what’s the point of even investigating it? How do you keep it interesting when we do know how the story ends?

Angela Hunt: Most of my, it’s called biblical fiction but I really even hate the term because if it’s biblical, it should not be fictional.

I like to call it historical fiction set in biblical times, but that’s rather a mouthful, isn’t it? Anyway, my stories really aren’t about Jesus per se.

They are about people he met and what went on in their lives and how it influenced them. And some of them are fictional people. Some of them are mentioned in the Bible, but only briefly.

I love spinning their stories and those I hope, always have unexpected outcomes.

Jenny Wheeler: Yes, it’s interesting. I interviewed Tessa Afshar at Christmas as one of our Christmas authors, and she made exactly the same distinction.

She wanted her books to be seen as fiction set in biblical times, so you’ve on the same page there. I think it’s also that sensitivity about not wanting to assume things about real biblical characters.

We’re going to talk a little bit later on when we get into this about the Apostle Paul’s sister because one of the books you’ve published recently is The Apostle’s Sister and she is a real character, but she’s mentioned only in passing.

Telling the story of the apostle’s sister

I’m interested to hear you talk about how you build up a story around a character like that, but we will get to that.

The latest novel that we are focusing on at the moment is The Sisters of Corinth, and this is in a new series called the Emissaries. It’s the second in that series. Tell us a bit about the Emissary series. I think you’ve said they are a series featuring “fledgling believers who have come to faith through the teachings of the Apostle Paul.”

This is the second in the series. How many are you planning in this series for starters.

Angela Hunt: There are only going to be three in the Emissary series. I found myself a few years back. I started writing a lot of Old Testament stories, and then I moved into the intertestamental period – that 400 years between the Old Testament and the New Testament, mainly because I knew very little about it.

That was the time of the Maccabees. Cleopatra fell into that time span.

I wanted to know more about it. I was curious. I wrote four books set in that time period, and then I wrote another four books set in the lifetime of Jesus, where he’s just a peripheral character. And as you mentioned, The Apostle’s Sister was the last one in that series.

And then I thought, okay, if I am doing this chronologically, the next thing would be the Gentiles, because Paul took the gospel to the Gentile cities, and let me tell you, they were a lot rowdier than the Jews were.

I’ve just finished the third book and final book in that series. I handed it in a couple of weeks ago.

I was fascinated. I’ve written about Ancient Rome before, but it is just such a fascinating society and so much of it has come into our world and our system of government today.

So much survives them. So anyway, The Sisters of Corinth, what is that about? It starts out like a Cinderella story.

You’ve got this important new government official, he’s a senator of Rome and he’s going to be the chief, the governor of the province that Corinth is the capital of, Achaea, I think it was.

He’s going to be the governor. There’s a local magistrate who has two daughters. One is his stepdaughter, one’s his biological daughter, and he wants to marry one of those girls off to the governor’s son because that will put him in a very good and important position.

Worshipping Aphrodite had a creepy side

He’ll be like the governor’s right-hand man.

One of the daughters happens to be a new convert to Christianity. The other one worships the Roman gods, particularly Aphrodite, who she starts to worship when she decides she wants to get married the governor’s son, because Aphrodite was the goddess of love.

There’s a definite culture clash. And as it happens, wouldn’t he pick the sweet quiet one instead of the loud and flamboyant one? It’s really a rivalry story between these two sisters and everything they go through. It.

It’s like Cinderella, run amuck. If Cinderella had not fit her foot into that slipper.

Jenny Wheeler: That’s right. And with this character of Prima, you get some fascinating detail about the goddess Aphrodite and what followers of Aphrodite had to do.

I wondered how important that research side of things was to you and whether you enjoy doing it.

Angela Hunt: I did find it was a little creepy because, even the Bible says, those images of those gods, many of them were inhabited by demons.

And so the more a person gave themself over to the worship of this false God, the more they were opening themselves up to the influence of demons.

I enjoyed the research, but it gets, it really gets a little creepy at some point, and I don’t want to go too far into that.

Jenny Wheeler: And what kind of documents are there these days that give you some of that inside knowledge about that kind of thing?

Curse tablets in Ancient Rome

Angela Hunt: They have found these curse tablets you used to in Ancient Rome.

You could go to a certain shop and buy a very thin piece of copper or bronze, and you could write out with a stylus by pressing into it curses upon your enemies.

Then you offer that as a prayer to your chosen God, and then you wrap it up very tightly and put this curse tablet under your enemy’s bed or buried outside his house or something.

And so yes, my, my bad girl does that and many other things in an effort to win the love of the guy she wants to marry. She is a very bad girl.

Jenny Wheeler: You’ve done a tremendous amount of study. I think you’ve got a doctorate, haven’t you? I should be calling you Dr. Hunt.

Angela Hunt: Yes, I actually got two doctorates in, one in biblical literature and one in theology. I just love to study.

Jenny Wheeler: I asked myself, how on earth did you manage to do all that level of study and still write nearly a hundred and 70 books?

Angela Hunt: Oh, time management. Let’s chalk it up to that.

Jenny Wheeler: We’re going to ask you about a typical writing day when we get into this a little bit further. So maybe we’ll get a few tips.

Now you do also, as you’ve mentioned, take true historical characters like Paul or Priscilla or Aquila in these books that we are discussing, and you, also create the fictional ones, that satellite around them.

How do you balance that fact and fiction side of things, and how important is the historical accuracy to you?

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Logical, plausible and available key to story telling

Angela Hunt: I believe historical accuracy is very important. I try never, ever to contradict the historical record as far as we know. My fictional people are free to do whatever is A. Logical, and B. Plausible, and C. Available. I try to know everything in that society so I can plot out a rational course for the fictional characters and the historical people.

I try to keep them true to what we know of their history. But when you go that far back, a lot of times we don’t know exactly.

The book I just handed in was set in Rome during the reign of Nero, and of course, both Paul and the Apostle Peter were killed under Nero’s reign. And so I had to write both of those deaths and felt terrible doing it.

I felt like I was killing them all over again, but I took educated guesses as to what they would’ve been like and when they would’ve occurred.

Jenny Wheeler: And in The Sisters of Corinth also there is a key character that helps with the plot development, a gladiator.

Once again, I felt you got an insight into the culture of the time and the gladiators struck me as being a little bit like a matador or a soccer player in our time where he could have huge fame and riches and then almost instantly it could be taken away overnight.

That was also very interesting to me. Did you find that an interesting part to research?

Angela Hunt: Yes. I was always fascinated with gladiators. Even before the movie Gladiator came out, which was of course hugely popular, but it’s just – It seems so contradictory because first they were slaves. They had no personal freedom, so they had to do whatever their master said. But if a man was big and strong they might find themselves in the in the arena and going to the Ludus for training, et cetera.

Of course they were motivated, because if they didn’t fight to win, they died in the sand.

They were all highly motivated, yet the people idolized them, just like we idolize sports heroes today. The only difference is, and I hope it stays a big difference, is that we don’t allow our athletes to kill each other.

Although sometimes watching the fans in the stand, I wonder if we’re really that far away from what the Romans experienced.

All roads lead to Rome for the finale

Jenny Wheeler: And I get the sense, I’ve read it even in The Apostle’s Sister, although it’s not in The Emissaries series, and I hope we are not giving anything away, but I’ve got a feeling that things were going to climax in Rome.

The end of the Sisters of Corinth, we won’t give it away, but it does seem as if some of the characters in that book are going to be journeying to Rome.

And you get the feeling with Paul’s sister that she might be going to see her brother in Rome as well. So could we expect that in one of these later books, those characters are going to meet up.

Angela Hunt: When I was writing the third book, I brought back characters from Book one and book two, and they all meet together in Rome and some survive and some do not. But the Lord’s purpose works through it all. So that’s the important thing.

Jenny Wheeler: Yes. Now we’ve mentioned several times, The Apostle’s Sister. Tell us what we know of her from the biblical account, and then how did you go about creating a whole book around that?

Because we only know a tiny amount. There’s only a tiny hint of her existence in the Bible, isn’t there?

The apostle Paul’s nephew saves him

Angela Hunt: There’s only one mention of her and really there’s a mention of her and her son, who was Paul’s nephew.

But we also know that Paul was raised, he was from Tarsus. And by researching Tarsus, I realized that Paul’s family – of course they were devoutly Jewish and they were Pharisees and they were Roman citizens.

Paul had inherited Roman citizenship, which means that his family had to be in. in good favor of the governor of that area. They must have been held in high esteem.

Almost every Jewish young man of that social class would’ve gone to Jerusalem to study Torah under the leading rabbis. And so that’s what Paul did.

And Paul’s sister married a young man, so she also ended up in Jerusalem. All the Bible tells us is there was a point when Paul was arrested in Jerusalem and he was held at the prison there, the Fortress Antonia, and a bunch of. Zealots or the religious authorities took a vow that they weren’t going to eat until they had killed Paul.

And Paul’s little nephew, I don’t know how little he was, but Paul’s nephew heard about it, ran and told his mother, Paul’s sister, and she told him, you need to go tell the authorities.

They were able to tell the Roman guards who gathered around Paul and safeguarded him and took him to Caesarea and got him out of that hot bed of trouble in Jerusalem.

Paul’s nephew and his sister worked together to save Paul’s life in that situation.

I thought, okay, she’s there. We never really thought about Paul having a sister, so I thought she must have an interesting story. I decided I would take a stab at telling it.

An amazing favorite character

Jenny Wheeler: Yes, and you do get the feeling from that biblical account, even just that one verse, that the nephew probably was an adolescent. They probably wouldn’t let a kid into a jail and even to gather the news that he did either that bit of gossip, that he probably was old enough to be hanging around listening to male talk somewhere.

So probably early to mid-adolescence probably.

Angela Hunt: Yes.

Jenny Wheeler: Have you got a favorite time period? And also, is there any character that of these many books you’ve written that really impacted on you and has affected you even till today?

Angela Hunt: I do Ancient Rome just because I find it so fascinating and it seems so similar to even the era that we’re living in today. How people have pretty much put God aside and we’re more interested in seeking pleasure, and our ambition is running rampant. And we just seem like we have an awful lot in common with the Romans.

But my favorite character out of all my books is a gorilla It was years ago. The book is called Unspoken and it’s about a gorilla who speaks sign language.

Years ago, I read this verse in the Bible and it says, “ask the animals and they will tell you” – the gist being that they will tell you about God.

(Job 12:7 – Editor’s note)

I looked at my husband and I said, wouldn’t it be cool if this gorilla who spoke sign language could talk about God.

And he said, that’s the dumbest idea I’ve ever heard. And I said, alright, that’s it. I’m writing it.

And so I did, and I love that book. I love that character. She was very sweet gorilla and she spoke she had a sense of humor.

Of course, I based her on Koko that real gorilla who Penny Patterson taught to speak sign language.

I didn’t let my gorilla do anything that Koko had not or could not really do. So she was pretty literally based, but she’s my favorite character of all time.

Truly fulfilling the motto of the unexpected

Jenny Wheeler: Well that truly does fulfil the motto of expect the unexpected, doesn’t it?

When you first started writing, did you have any goal in mind and have you reached it yet?

Angela Hunt: No. I became a writer after I got married, just because my husband and I adopted our children and we worked so hard to get them that I knew I was going to have to work because my husband is a youth pastor and they traditionally don’t make a lot of money.

And I thought, okay, I’m going to have to help put food on the table.

I want a job, and I’d like to have one where I can work at home and enjoy these babies that I worked so hard to bring over.

I thought, okay, I’ve been an English major in school, and a friend told me I had a way with words and I thought, okay, I’ll try to write something.

For five years while my kids were little, I was writing magazine articles and catalogue copy and things I could write when the kids were sleeping in their naps.

And then I saw an ad in the back of Writer’s Digest magazine about a contest for unpublished children’s picture book authors, and I thought I’m an unpublished any kind of book author.

I got a book on how to write children’s picture books and I wrote up a script and sent it in and it won the contest.

So suddenly I was a children’s picture book writer. Who knew? It just grew from there. I went from picture books to middle grade books for kids, because my husband was a middle school youth pastor.

And after writing 20 or 30 of those, my editor said why don’t you try adult novels?

And I thought, okay, I’ll sure. It’s really been just a journey of walking through the doors that God opens.

I think being a writer is like being a builder. If you know how to use the tools, write a good sentence, a good paragraph, put a story together, then you can write anything. It’s just a matter of figuring out what you want to write.

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Angela Hunt’s typical writing day

Jenny Wheeler: That’s fantastic, Angela. Now we’ve mentioned time management and just hearing you talk, I see that your whole life, you’ve probably have had fantastic time management.

Tell us a bit about your typical writing day. I guess it’s different because your children are probably older, but how do you manage your time so effectively?

Angela Hunt: Yes, every season of life has always been different, but now my kids are grown and out of the house and my husband and I live in Florida and we have this weird home that’s got separate buildings.

It was built by an artist, and one building had his art studio and there’s a caboose on the yard and a workshop and then the house we live in.

I rent two of them out with as Air Bnbs. So, the first thing I do every morning is get up and if somebody’s checking out, I have to clean the Air Bnb.

Such a glamorous life. And I have chickens, so I have to go feed and water the chickens and collect the eggs and, but I’m usually ready to sit down and write after lunch.

Then I focus on my writing and give myself a quota every day of either so many words to put into the computer or so many pages to edit. I’m very structured, so I do what I have to do per day and then I say, okay, time to go play with the dogs or talk to my husband, or play with the grandkids who live nearby too.

It’s busy, but it’s fun.

A famous English Mastiff named Justice

Jenny Wheeler: You’ve mentioned the dogs, and you do have a famous dog, don’t you? Tell us about the dog.

Angela Hunt: Oh yes. My husband and I love mastiffs, English Mastiffs. And back in 2001 we had a boy named Justice who was 275 pounds.

One day I was watching Regis and Kelly, the TV show, and they mentioned it was going to be Dog Week and they were going to have Hercules visit on Friday, and he was the Guinness World Record dog.

I thought it would be fun to send them a picture of my dog and maybe they’d hold it up in front of the camera and that would be thrilling.

I did, I faxed it into their show and the next afternoon I got a call from the producer and she said, we want to bring you and your dog to New York and let you be on the show.

And I laughed and I said, my dog won’t fit in one of those crates they have at the airport. I said he wouldn’t fit and I wouldn’t put him underneath anyway.

And she said, no, we’ll buy him a ticket. He can ride with the people. And I said, really? Okay. So I was explaining this to my husband and as it happened, I was going to be teaching writing the next day in New Jersey, which is just over the bridge from New York City.

And I said, so we both have to go, and then after the show I’ll go to New Jersey and you can fly home with a dog.

And he said, why do we want to do this? And I said, because it’s a life experience.

So we went on the show. We took the dog. He wasn’t the heaviest dog in the world, but he did beat Hercules, the world record dog.

But they brought in a ringer from Jersey who was over 300 pounds. And he broke the scale at his vet’s office. But anyway, it was great. It was fun.

Justice, our dog, was this local celebrity for about a month afterwards. He was on TV shows and radio shows and we took him to schools and the kids just loved loving him.

He was just a big sweetheart. We’ve had nine mastiffs, but we only have them two at a time. That’s all we can afford to feed.

The oldest youth pastor in the world

Jenny Wheeler: That’s lovely. I gather your husband would not be a youth pastor anymore.

Angela Hunt: Oh, he is, he’s probably the world’s oldest youth pastor, but yes, he’s retired. He doesn’t work anymore, but he has an independent ministry and so he goes to work every morning, thank goodness, or I’d never get anything done. And he still works with kids as a volunteer youth pastor.

Jenny Wheeler: That’s wonderful. Look, if there’s one thing as the quote secret of your creative career, what would it be?

Angela Hunt: For me it’s never been about ambition or trying to write the Great American novel or anything. It’s just been that as a Christian, I see open doors as things that God has provided.

When there’s an open door I tend to walk through it and figure that if God doesn’t want me to do it, he’ll close that door.

For me, it’s just been a matter of walking through the doors that the Lord is open for me.

Jenny Wheeler: That’s wonderful. We do like to ask our authors about their reading taste, so tell us what you like to read and if you’ve got anything you’d like to recommend to our listeners.

Angela Hunt: Yes, I am a member of a book club and I started one in my previous neighborhood, because I knew I’ve stayed so busy, I wasn’t having time to read for pleasure.

I thought I’ll start a book club and that way I have to read a book every month because I’m the leader. I have to lead the discussion.

Then we moved and so I had to leave my book club behind. I started another one and we just finished, wait a minute, let me, what’s the name of the book? I wish I still had it on my desk. Oh, The People Of The Book by Geraldine Page. That’s it.

(Editor’s note – Geraldine Brooks, not Geraldine Page.)

What Angela Hunt is reading now

Jenny Wheeler: Yes, an Australian author,

Angela Hunt: Oh, that’s right, because the main character was from Australia. That’s right. Yes, I loved the book and, we had a great discussion about it.

Jenny Wheeler: Tell our listeners. I have read that book actually. It is a great book, but tell our listeners just a little bit about the setup.

Angela Hunt: It’s about a lady who is a book restorer. That isn’t quite right because she doesn’t restore a book, but she takes very old books, antiquated books, and she goes through them and tries to preserve them as well as she can.

And this particular book was a Hagada, a Jewish story that’s usually used at Passover, but it had illuminated art all around it, which is very unusual for a Jewish book as opposed to a Christian book.

And so in between the stories of this contemporary woman, you see the book through history, talking about how it came to be and who did the pictures and the history of the book through all these tumultuous periods in history. I love that. I thought it was fascinating.

What is next for Angela Hunt author?

Jenny Wheeler: What’s next for Angela as author? How many books do you actually aim to write in one year and what have you got on your desk for the next 12 months?

Angela Hunt: I’m putting together a proposal for a new series. It’ll be, again, historical. Then my agent wants me to revisit a proposal that’s I have sitting in a drawer about a contemporary series, but right this very minute, I have just started a newsletter for writers.

The older I get, the more I want to help other writers get started and to understand the business of writing.

I see lots of people writing on the internet and they’re writing all over the place, but they seem to be a little aimless in what they want to do with it or understanding a lot of the basic principles.

So if anybody wants to look at it, it’s just Angelahunt.substack.com and there’s a free version and a paid version.

And I’m trying to give little bite-size bits of information about the business of writing to help people, learn how to, it’s called write well.

Jenny Wheeler: Is that it’s a craft book, or do you do much marketing yourself?

Angela Hunt: A little. I’m active on Facebook and a little bit on Instagram, then I’m doing the Substack thing. But it’s really, the marketing part is almost just the necessary evil part, because I’m really more focused on communicating.

Jenny Wheeler: Yeah, look, that’s great. Our final question always is. Where can people see you on, find you online? As you’ve mentioned, can you give us those addresses? If they look up your name, will it automatically come up?

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Where to find Angela Hunt online

Angela Hunt: Sure. My website is Angela Hunt books.com. The substack newsletter for writers is. Angelahunt.substack.com and Facebook? Just type the search box. Just type Angela Hunt, comma novelist, because there’s lots of Angela Hunts out there.

Jenny Wheeler: That’s fantastic. And do you have much feedback from your readers?

Angela Hunt: Oh yes. Probably have the most feedback on my Facebook page because I post about everything from cakes, baking. I love to bake, so every Friday I bake a cake and put it online. And so everybody is giving tips and suggestions and, just a little bit of everything. I think I would be bored if I read a page where all the person did was talk about books.

So it’s just slice of life fun stuff. And there’s a nice, a very nice community of folks who stay in touch through that website, through Facebook.

Jenny Wheeler: Tell us just a little about that family. How many children did you have and where did you find them?

Angela Hunt: Ah, both of my kids are from South Korea and my daughter is, oh. She’s grown. She wouldn’t like it if I gave her age, but she is grown and has three children. So I have three grandchildren and then my son, he helps my husband in the youth ministry. So yeah, but they’re both from South Korea and just great.

We love them.

Jenny Wheeler: That’s wonderful. Look, thank you so much. You obviously, have the gift for living a really full life. That’s wonderful. Apart from the success as an author, you, you’ve rounded it out beautifully. Thank you so much for sharing that experience today and I hope that people will pick up your books and discover what you’ve got to offer there.

Thank you so much.

Angela Hunt: Thanks for having me, Jenny.

If you enjoyed Angela you might enjoy Tessa Afshar…

Reviewers use all sorts of adjectives to describe inspirational fiction author Tessa Afshar’s work. Words like whimsical, intriguing, romantic, prophetic, faith-filled, daunting, grace-filled, dangerous, redeeming, heart-pumping, heart-stirring, sad and joyful – all at once.

That’s Tessa.

In this episode from Christmas 2023 Tessa talks about her latest release, The Persian King, set in Babylon in the sixth century BC.

And she shares something of her remarkable life; at 14 years of age, speaking no English, moving from the Middle East to a British boarding school, and then becoming a Christian in her early twenties and completing a Masters in Divinity at Yale.

Best-selling romance author Debbie Macomber says of her work: “No one brings the Bible to life like Tessa Afshar.”

LISTEN TO TESSA

Next time on Binge Reading

Next time on Binge Reading. And remember that now in two weeks time. Our show is now fortnightly rather than weekly. And our guests to next time is acclaimed World War II novelist, Sarah Sundin and her latest book, Embers In The London Sky, which explores the war through the eyes of a mother, separated from her beloved child and a BBC correspondent who knows that reporting the truth may take him deep into the flames.

It’s a breathtaking novel that seamlessly weaves together, history, suspense, and romance in the tale that transcends time.

That’s next time on Binge Reading.

Finally, just that last reminder, leave us a review if you enjoy the show, so others will find us too. It’s really important to us to let folks know about great books. They’d love to read. That’s it for today.

See you next time and happy reading.