Sherri Lewis' Blog

Selling My Soul – When Life Imitates Art

You know how they say art imitates life? Many authors, myself included, write books based on their life experiences. I’ve had an amazing thing to happen recently where life has imitated art. I wrote a book about a missionary returning from Africa before I ever set foot on the continent. I based her experiences on those of missionary friends I met in church. They shared their stories and I tried to recreate their experiences with re-entry – returning to America after being in another culture for a prolonged period of time.

Little did I know that in a little over a year, I would be traveling to Africa and experiencing that same thing. In re-reading the book after coming back, it’s almost scary how much of what I imagined the character would feel was exactly what I felt. Even scarier, the main character’s mother was sick when she returned from Africa. As I sat in the hospital with my father watching him cheat death last summer, I felt some of the same emotions I had written for my character. One of the procedures my dad had was exactly as I had described it in the book. That was really scary. And if this is a case of life imitating art, I hope I end up with the gloriously happy romantic ending. 

Of course, Selling My Soul isn’t so much about Trina’s return from Africa. After all, it is the sequel to My Soul Cries Out. So I HAD to answer some questions my readers felt I left them with. Like, what happened to Monica and Kevin? What happened to their friends Alaysia and Khalil and David and Nakia – did they get married? What happened to Trina – she just disappeared to Africa and fell off the face of the earth. And most importantly, what ever happened to Bishop Walker and those dirty deacons? Was justice ever served?

Of course you’ll have to read the book to get all the answers to those questions. You could read Selling My Soul without reading My Soul Cries Out first, but I have to say, you’d enjoy it more as a sequel. You really need to HATE Bishop Walker to get the full enjoyment out of Selling My Soul. 

You can pre-order your copy of Selling My Soul on Amazon and Barnes and Nobles’ websites. The book will hit the shelves on February 23, 2010. I hope you enjoy the story!

In addition to sharing my fictional account of a missionary returning from Africa, I want to share my real life account. Stay tuned to my blog (which I’m REALLY going to keep up with now – I promise!) to hear my stories and see pictures and videos of my two trips to Cameroon.