Wanda B. Campbell

Meet the Author

Sherri Lewis’ writing was put on hold while she attended Howard University as an undergraduate, then medical school at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. After working almost fifteen years in the medical field, Sherri left her position as a staff physician at a Georgia Department of Corrections’ Women’s prison to pursue writing and ministry full time.

Sherri is co-founder of the Faith-Based Black Fiction Writers of Atlanta with Essence Best-Selling author Tia McCollors. Selling My Soul is the anticipated sequel to Sherri’s debut novel, My Soul Cries Out. She lives in Atlanta, Georgia.  Visit Sherri online at www.sherrilewis.com.

My Soul Cries Out was an intense novel. What inspired you to write a sequel?

Intense is a great way to describe My Soul Cries Out. To be honest, dealing with such a painful, sticky, taboo issue was so difficult, when I finished writing the book, I never wanted to see or talk about those characters again. But everyone that read the book had unanswered questions. EVERY single email I got and any feedback from My Soul Cries Out always ended by saying that I HAD to write a sequel. So I have to admit that my readers inspired me to write Selling My Soul.

Were any characters in Selling My Soul inspired by your recent travels to Africa?

Not at all. I often say that Selling My Soul is a case of life imitating art. When I wrote the book, I had never traveled to Africa. It had always been a dream of mine, but I hadn’t done it yet. I got all my information and research from several missionary friends who had been on trips to Mozambique. Also from books I’ve read by my missionary shero, Heidi Baker, whose mission base is the focus of the book. Selling My Soul was completely written and edited before I ever set foot on African soil. The crazy part was when I came back, I experienced a lot of the same emotions and thoughts that Trina had on her return from Africa. I wrote it before it even happened.

Who are your favorite characters in Selling My Soul? Why?

Trina’s mother, Moms, is one of my favorite characters in the book and she was a lot of fun to write. She’s full of fire and is hilarious, in spite of the fact that she’s “ate up with cancer”. She loves her daughters fiercely and wants the best for them in life and even though she’s not perfect, and not even saved for most of the book, she’s a beautiful person. I also LOVED Gabe, Trina’s love interest. I love writing wonderful male characters to honor the godly men in my life and show the world that there are some beautiful black men out there. And of course Trina is my absolute favorite in the whole book. It’s hard to write a whole book if you can’t connect on a deep level with your main character. She has a huge heart and she’s full of God and struggles to do what’s right for everyone involved in the story, even to the point of selling her soul.

About the Book 

When Trina Michaels steps off the plane after her two-year missions trip in Africa, she realizes that other than longing to see her mother and her best friend, her heart aches to fly back to the place that now feels more like home than anywhere she’s… ever lived. And to the man who’s stolen her heart.

Her dream of a quick return to Mozambique fades within hours when Trina discovers that her mother has been diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. Trina is forced to go back to her job as a publicist to cover her mother’s health costs.

She’s assigned a damage control client, Bishop Walker, a megachurch pastor accused of covering up a church sex scandal within his church involving the molestation of young boys. Representing him could cost Trina her most valued friendship, the love of her life, and her soul.

 

View the blog tour schedule and read an excerpt at http://bit.ly/SellingMySoulBlogTour .

 

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 13th, 2010 at 4:06 pm and is filed under Bookends. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.