’23 and Me

| Sharon Arpana Edwards

2023 has been one of my most challenging years to date. But guess who’s never fazed by a challenge? Guess whose power is made perfect in our weakness so we can confidently declare, “When I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Cor. 12:10)?

While writing this blog post I finally realized why I have faced so much opposition this year, from seemingly random injuries to longstanding health issues flaring up, from financial difficulties to doors that refused to open…

I couldn’t figure out why these attacks kept coming no matter how much I prayed and stood on God’s Word by faith. But when I began writing this blog post it struck me that my trials of 2023 were directly related to the fact that I’d just written a book on Job!

After the publication of There Once Was a Man Who Suffered: The Book of Job in Limericks in November 2022, I heard of another author who experienced trial upon trial when he began writing on Job, the Bible’s book on suffering. And yet he lived to finish his book, and I have lived to write this blog! The Lord is truly faithful!

Hardback edition (2023)

My good heavenly Father made sure 2023 had its share of blessings for me. Here are three highlights from the year that was.

One, I made my first-ever trip to New York, to attend my oldest niece’s graduation from Columbia Law School on May 15. The reunion was extra special because I was seeing my family for the first time since Mummy’s passing in May 2021. Manhattan gave us some fine weather, well befitting my niece’s dedication and hard work.

With family in New York, New York!

Two, at the NRB Convention in Orlando, also in May, I unexpectedly met Nick Vujicic, who graciously allowed me to read this limerick from the prologue to There Once Was a Man. It is referring to those who can only offer pat answers to our suffering. Also known as Job’s comforters.

They’ll remind you that millions of folk
Are sick, all alone, and flat broke
If your mood is the same
Eventually the name
Of Nick Vujicic they’re sure to invoke.
With Nick Vujicic & Dear Sisters at NRB2023

Three, June 29 marked my first decade as a published author! The Tenth Anniversary Edition of my first book, Pioneer Boulevard: Los Angeles Stories, was unfortunately delayed by six months, but I’m grateful it is now on Kindle and in paperback. This commemorative edition includes a bonus Q&A section with book insights and writing tips.

To celebrate these first ten years, the paperback will be available at a special price of $10 for the first ten days of its life. Offer valid in the US through Sunday, January 7. Grab a copy for the aspiring writers in your life!

If you do buy any of my books, I’d be grateful for published reviews, word-of-mouth publicity, and podcast interviews. And if you can help me with a tax-deductible gift, please visit the donate page of this site.

Thanks, and I wish each of you a fruitful and faith-filled 2024 in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ!

(c)2023 by Sharon Arpana Edwards. All rights reserved.

A Tenth Anniversary Edition

| Sharon Arpana Edwards

Today I celebrate ten years as a published author! I had hoped to release a commemorative edition of my first book to mark the occasion, but a hand injury decreed otherwise. God being rich in mercy, the hardcover edition of my latest book is now available on Amazon.

I’d be grateful if you could buy a copy of this new edition, or the previously released paperback, and leave a review on Amazon. That will introduce me to new readers—something every author needs! You may also want to check out my award-winning 100-day devotional.

If you decide not to purchase either book but would like to make a donation to my ongoing writing and ministry, here are the links. Thanks in advance, and now let me share a memory from the day I became a published author.

With my godson on June 29, 2013

I remember June 29, 2013 as though it were just last month. In fact, I’ve forgotten what I was doing on this day last month, but the events of that career-defining day from a decade ago are printed like a paperback in my memory.

One of these memories appears in the preface to the tenth anniversary edition of Pioneer Boulevard. If everything goes according to Plan B, as I am praying it will, the book will be out in July.

June 29, 2013 was a scorching Saturday in Los Angeles, with temperatures soaring well above 100 degrees. A friend who had driven 70 miles to attend the book launch wagged an accusatory forefinger at me and said, “You had to pick the hottest day of the year.”

“I’m from India, remember?” I replied, trying to ignore the moist beads trickling down my neck and back, and wishing I had worn a white cotton dress like my friend. Having never launched a book before, I was new to this—a pioneer, like my characters—and it reflected in my attire.

As I recollect how uncomfortable I was in my formal black dress and the new sandals that pinched, I am reminded afresh that being a pioneer is not always a comfortable experience. It’s usually the exact opposite, in fact.

If I could relive the day I became a published author, I would definitely wear a summer dress and sensible shoes. And there are myriads of things I would do differently in the decade since. Most of these things I will never be able to redo, so I only ask God to grant me the serenity to accept what I cannot change, the courage to change what I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

Something I long ago realized I could and should change was the order of the stories in this book. The first edition had opened with “A Thirtysomething Secret,” which I see as an introduction to the world of Pioneer Boulevard. My esteemed tutor in England, novelist Joe Stretch, shared this opinion, and I was sure my future readers would agree with us. Imagine my surprise when more than one reader remarked that the book should have opened with a different story.

With their genial feedback ringing in my ears, I decided to begin this edition with the story that seems to be a favorite with readers. Originally placed third, “Crocodile Tears” also happens to be the first I wrote chronologically, as well as the one from which I have quoted in the afterword to my latest work, There Once Was a Man Who Suffered: The Book of Job in Limericks.

Another change is the addition of a Q&A section at the end. These are questions I have actually been asked, mostly at author talks held at public libraries and such, but sometimes in private conversations too. My answers shed light not only on these ten stories but also on my writing process and writing in general. If some aspiring writer should find them helpful, I shall consider my labors rewarded.

—Sharon Arpana Edwards
Los Angeles, Calif.
June 29, 2023

(c) 2023 by Sharon Arpana Edwards. All Rights Reserved.

The Day of Second Chances: A Letter to My Mother

| Sharon Arpana Edwards

My dearest Mummy,

When I started writing my letter to you on this day last year, I did not know where to begin. But today I know exactly where to begin. I guess that itself is a sign of progress, and I know you’ll be happy. You’d never want me to stay trapped in my grief. You’d want me to make the most of this life I still have. I can’t say I’ve made the most of every minute of these last two years, but read on. Continue reading →

The Year of the Forgotten Dream

| Sharon Arpana Edwards

As long as the Lord lends me life, I will remember 2022 as the year of the forgotten dream. This dream was to write poetry, though I little dreamt I’d write a whole book of it!

As a lifelong lover of English literature, I’d have been content to compose a few good poems. One Christian “Kubla Khan” and some sonnets like “Chapman’s Homer” and “On His Blindness” and “Death, Be Not Proud” and “Sonnet 33” would have sufficed.

My standards were high, but my dreams weren’t big enough. Certainly not as big as God’s dreams for me.

God’s dreams for us are always bigger than our own.

This is not wishful thinking or heresy. It’s biblical. The apostle Paul tells us that God “is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think” (Eph. 3:20). And Jesus Himself said, “Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom” (Luke 12:32).

What could be bigger than the kingdom of heaven? What could outvalue the “pearl of great price,” that inestimable treasure to obtain which the merchant sold everything he had?

Nothing. Not even a whole book of poetry.

In Kindle and hardback

Even so, a whole book of anything was the impossible dream a year ago.

When 2022 dawned, I had not published a book since The Blessing of Melchizedek Devotional was released in November 2016. For half a decade, I’d only produced a handful of blog posts, a couple screenplays, a few worship songs, and the odd limerick. I enjoyed writing it all, but my career as an author seemed to be over.

Whether the world had written me off or whether it was awaiting my next bestseller with bated breath, I cannot say. All I know is that I myself had no energy or inspiration for a new book—and I’m the kind of writer who needs both to get started. Once I begin, I rely more on grit and grace.

As I mention in the introduction to There Once Was a Man Who Suffered, I was very ill when I got the idea for the book. My grief over my mother’s death eight months previously had found its way to my physical person. For a whole week in January I lay in bed drifting in and out of sleep, at times wondering if the illness was going to be my last.

In this feeble, febrile state, God gave me the biggest surprise of my life! This surprise—the idea to tell Job’s story in limericks—is all the more special because it showed up on my younger nephew’s birthday.

Three days before, my friend Theresa stopped by after church to check up on me. Revived by her concern and the appetizing soup she’d cooked, I began telling her the story behind my first screenplay. She listened with interest and without interrupting (God bless her), then suggested I consider writing a new book.

I winced internally. Although I told Theresa I’d pray about it once I recovered (a promise I meant to keep), I winced because I realized that my dearest reader would not be reading my new book.

The Lord has since shown me that I wrote the book precisely because Mummy would not be reading it. The book emerged out of my grief for her.

The story behind my new book reminds me to trust the Lord with other dreams I have forgotten or given up for dead. Which reminds me of Abraham, who believed that God “gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did” (Rom. 4:17).

“He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform. And therefore ‘it was accounted to him for righteousness’” (Rom. 4:20-22).

(c) 2022 Sharon Arpana Edwards. All Rights Reserved.

Beholding and Holding God’s Promises

| Sharon Arpana Edwards

When the proof copy of my new book arrived last week, one of the first people I texted was Rabi Maharaj, author of one of my all-time favorite books, Death of a Guru. His response to the cover image I’d sent was heartwarming.

Apart from warming my heart, Rabi’s text reminded me of the process of obtaining God’s promises. And it is a process. The Bible makes it clear that God’s promises Continue reading →

Some Cloudy Day

| Sharon Arpana Edwards

A few minutes after noon today, I picked up my phone to see a message from a friend that began, “The sad day has finally come. Queen Elizabeth II has died.”

As I was coming to terms with the news, I remembered that one of my first thoughts this morning was of England. Some hours before the queen took her final breath, all the way across the pond I was thinking of the land over which she had reigned so long and so well. Continue reading →

So Much to Say: A Letter to My Mother

| Sharon Arpana Edwards

My dearest Mummy,

Unbelievably, today marks one year since you left. There’s so much to say, I hardly know where to begin. Maybe I’ll start by telling you I am fine.

I mean, I am fine today. I have not been fine every day since May 5, 2021. My grief has literally made me sick.

The doctors ordered a bunch of tests to rule out heart trouble, but I could have told them I had heart trouble without the tests.

Broken-heart trouble.

I thought I knew what it’s like to lose a parent, but my grief for you has been unlike anything I’ve experienced before. For one thing, when I lost Papa I still had you.

I’ve never felt as alone as I did in the weeks after you left. But after my Father’s Day blog post the Holy Spirit spoke clearly to me from one of Jesus’ sayings in the Gospels. You’ll be glad to know I’ve held on to that word by faith all these months.

I just realized something about the verse the Holy Spirit had given me a few hours after your funeral. I didn’t know why I was being prompted to use Psalm 139:18 for my most heartbreaking Facebook announcement, but it resonated somewhere deep inside. Today, on this first anniversary of yours, I’ve finally made the connection.

It was also about not being alone!

Last year we had a memorial service on your birthday. As I was putting together a montage of your life for a video that week, I came across a picture of your wedding ceremony. You both are standing and the veil still covers your face, so perhaps it is just before your vows.

Your head is bent and I can’t read your emotions behind that veil. Maybe you’re nervous and happy and sad all at once. But my goodness, you look beautiful! You’re wearing that white Benares silk sari I loved, holding a wispy bouquet that almost reaches to the ground.

I can’t remember the bouquet, though. Did you give it to one of your sisters, hoping they’d be next? Or maybe you threw it away? You never liked fake flowers, so that wouldn’t surprise me.

My friends sent me some gorgeous fresh flowers in the days after you left. There were pale blue hydrangea, multicolored tulips, and red and white roses, three of each. You would have loved them all. I dried the roses and tulips, and saved the ribbons around the hydrangea.

I don’t need dried flowers to remind me of you. They’re to remind me of the kindness of friends in the saddest days of my life.

As for how our heavenly Father has been looking after me, I can’t even begin to count the ways. But you already knew He would. You had an unshakeable faith in Him, thanks to your loving earthly father. Life gave me a very different dad, but that story ended well as you know.

And because of the Lord’s mercy, this story ends well too. The story of this year since you left.

I still cry.

I still call your name at night.

I still reach for my phone to talk to you.

There’s still so much to say.

I still have a ways to go, but I’m getting better. The love of our Father, the wounds of our Savior, and the presence of our Comforter are steadily healing me.

And now the story of the new year begins. As a sign, today is the National Day of Prayer.

You know how much I’ve loved prayer since childhood. But I’m sorry to tell you, in this last year I’ve often regretted spending those precious moments of our last earthly conversation praying for you instead of thanking you for the gift of life and faith and your sacrificial love.

But on this National Day of Prayer, I am putting that behind me. Today I am choosing to be thankful that in those final hours of your earthly life we were together in our Father’s presence, as we’d been so often in the past. It was His gift to us.

Someday we’ll once again be together in our Father’s presence. There’s so much to say, and we’ll have all the time to say it.

Until then, as Little Fellow used to say, I love you beyond Pluto!

Sharon

PS – Last year on this day, I found this while going through your Facebook photos. Seeing the date made me weep last year. Maybe next year, if the Lord lends me life, it will make me smile.

(c)2022 Sharon Arpana Edwards. All rights reserved.