Author Interview: The Beloved Daughter by Alana Terry

Describe your book in five words or less.
North Korean suspense novel

How did the ideas for your books come to you?
North Korea has been on my radar for years as a result of its human rights abuses. Eventually I decided to take my passion and turn it into a novel.

Is there a message in your novel that you want readers to grasp?
I’d like my readers to understand that even today people are suffering under oppressive political regimes. I think it expands our horizons when we learn about what’s going on in other parts of the world.

What is the hardest part of writing for you? What's the easiest?
The hardest part of writing is when I get stuck in a section that needs a lot of editing. I can sometimes get stuck in that place and it takes a lot of will power to get out. What I love the most is the initial first draft, when the writing comes freely and I don’t have to worry (yet) about the finer details.

What's next for you? Are you currently working on or have plans for future projects?
I definitely want to write more suspense novels, but I’m not sure if those will take place in other countries like The Beloved Daughter or if they will just be contemporary suspense set in the US.

Why did you choose to write for specific genre?
I like to read suspense, and so I guess it just made sense to start writing it. I also enjoy historical fiction, and even though The Beloved Daughter takes place in contemporary North Korea, it helps readers learn about people in another setting. In that sense, it’s similar to historical fiction as well.

What's it like hearing that readers are eagerly awaiting your book's release date?
It’s encouraging for me to know that readers are interested in more of my suspense novels. It helps me feel motivated to write more, but it’s also a little intimidating. I’m constantly worrying if whatever I publish next will be as well-received as The Beloved Daughter has been.

What is one question that you've always wanted to be asked in an interview? How would you answer that question?
When I interview others, I always like to know what aspects of their own personality they’ve put into their characters. In that sense, I’d say that the protagonist Chung-Cha is like me in that she struggles with issues of faith when she’s faced with suffering. The Old Woman, a friend that Chung-Cha meets in prison, possesses a wisdom and grace that I hope to have in my old age.

What was your road to publications like?
In a word… long! I wrote The Beloved Daughter several years ago, submitted it to the Women of Faith writing contest last year, and finally published it a few days after the contest results were announced. After being named one of the winners, I guess I figured that the book did have the merit and appeal to deserve publication.


About the Book:

In a small North Korean village, a young girl struggles to survive. Catastrophic floods have ravaged her countryside. But it is her father’s faith, not the famine of North Hamyong Province, that most threatens Chung-Cha’s well-being.

Is Chung-Cha’s father right to be such a vocal believer? Or is he a fool to bring danger on the head of his only daughter?

Chung-Cha is only a girl of twelve and is too young to answer such questions. Yet she is not too young to face a life of imprisonment and forced labor. Her crime? Being the daughter of a political dissident.

“The Beloved Daughter” follows Chung-Cha into one of the most notorious prison camps of the contemporary free world. Will Chung-Cha survive the horrors of Camp 22?

And if she does survive, will her faith remain intact?

“The Beloved Daughter” won second place in the 2012 Women of Faith Writing Contest.
alanaterry.com/the-beloved-daughter.html">AUTHOR’S WEBSITE| AMAZON
Book Trailer:




About the Author:

Alana Terry is a homeschooling mother of three. “The Beloved Daughter” is her debut Christian novel and won second place in the Women of Faith writing contest. Alana is also the author of "A Boy Named Silas," the story of her son's complicated medical history and "What, No Sushi?" a children's chapter book about the Japanese-American internment.

Visit her website at www.alanaterry.com or connect with her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/aboynamedsilas