Mona Sedrak Archives - Tena Stetler

Jul 24th Interview Mona Sedrak Author of Gravity

Give a warm welcome to Mona Sedrak, author of Gravity. Pull up a chair, grab a drink of your choice from the cooler, a Chocolate Chip or Peanut Butter cookie from the plate, and let’s find out a little about Mona and Gravity.

Gravity is an interesting title. Give us some insight into this story.

Gravity is a heart-warming story of two individuals from remarkably differing backgrounds that are inexplicably drawn to one another, forming a strong friendship and falling in love–– despite the odds against them. The story depicts the beautiful Middle Eastern culture I was raised in and its many traditions as well as some of its challenges. Readers will identify with this story, no matter their background because it speaks to and awakens the human heart.

Gravity is about tolerance, acceptance, understanding, and forgiveness. Finally, it is a story of love and hope. When I started writing Gravity several years ago, I couldn’t have predicted how relevant it would be today. At the end of the day, I want readers to understand that although we may be different, as members of the human race, our similarities out-weigh our differences and love is the universal language that binds us.

What inspired this story?

I was born in Cairo, Egypt and immigrated to the US as a child. Still, I was brought up in a very traditional home. I had a strong family unit and a loving family, but I always felt torn. I was neither fully Egyptian nor American. There are many misconceptions about the Middle Eastern culture, and I wanted to write a story that shed light on many aspects of that beautiful culture from a fictional point of view. I am a romantic at heart, and thus, I couched what I wanted readers to know in a beautiful, heart-warming story with many twists and turns.

Why should we read this book and what sets this book apart from the rest?

This book is very special to me because it depicts the beautiful Middle Eastern culture I was raised in and its many traditions as well as some of its challenges. The story is one many people will identify with, no matter their background. It is a story of loss and love and a story of forgiveness and understanding. For readers who enjoy learning about other cultures and reading women’s fiction with romantic elements, this books for you.

What inspired you to write?

I have loved to write since I was a child. It has always been my outlet and my preferred method of communication. Writing fiction is especially rewarding because I enjoy getting lost in building characters and a world that may or may not be like mine. I can create a story that others will lose themselves in and forget their own worries for a while. I enjoy writing realistic stories with satisfying endings that make readers hungry for more and more.

What do you want your readers to take away from your book?

This book is very contemporary and timely. I want readers to understand that all people are valuable and should be treated with love, dignity, and respect. No matter your race or culture, our similarities out-weigh our differences. With acceptance and understanding, love can triumph and always should.

What’s your favorite thing about being an author?

I live in two worlds. By day, I am a college administrator, but by night I lose myself in my writing. Like my readers, I too need a break from the real world and by writing, I can do just that. Writing allows me a creative outlet I do not always experience in my day job and it is remarkably rewarding.

Tell us a little about Gravity:

After being shunned by her Middle Eastern family, medical assistant Leila Solomon struggles to build a life for herself and her child. Landscape photographer Aiden Stone built a career seeing what others miss, and the second he meets Leila, he is drawn to her unassuming beauty and fragile strength.

Leila cannot defy the gravitational forces pulling her toward Aiden and to the family who cast her out. To build a future with Aiden, she must face the past but is she strong enough to resist being pulled back into the family fold?

How about a sneak peak between the pages of Gravity?

Aiden stopped pacing. His brain once conjured an image of the perfect family––his family. He first pictured them as he sat on the beach with Leila, asking for her forgiveness after he stood her up. He searched his memory banks, recalling the image. His breath hitched as his brain hiccupped and the picture focused with such clarity his hands shook, and the crystal tumbler slipped from his fingers, shattering on the deck and spraying scotch across the wood.

Leila stood on the beach laughing with her gorgeous midnight curls flowing down her back, holding their boy’s hand. AJ’s green eyes danced as he grinned. With his free hand he grasped his little sister’s tiny palm––her wispy blonde hair tousled by the wind. Aiden closed the circle, holding Leila’s hand in one of his and Mia’s in the other. Each member of his family was unique. They didn’t resemble each other, but that fact didn’t matter because their hearts were in sync. The ties that bind were invisible yet strong as steel.

“Aiden? Are you there? Are you okay?”

As the image receded, Aiden blinked. But before the photo completely dissipated, a strong wind battered their circle, and the smile slid off Leila’s face. Their hands were torn apart, breaking their circle and fissuring their foundation. Blinking again, Aiden focused on the shards of glass surrounding him. He gasped for air.

No matter what either of them did, or how hard they resisted, gravity drew them together. But could the awesome force of gravity be defied?

Buy Links:

Goodreads: Books2Read Bookbub

About the Author:

Mona Sedrak lives in Cincinnati, Ohio and works as a university administrator and professor. Although she has co-published two academic books, she is now writing mainstream fiction and women’s fiction. She is an avid reader and is probably Audible’s best customer.

Writing and reading fiction is her escape from reality.

Mona lives with her husband of 30+ years, a geriatric maltipoo, and an Amazon Parrot named Pretzel. She binge watches too many shows to count and she loves fine brandy.

Website: https://www.monasedrak.com/

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Mona-Sedrak/e/B003VGUOZQ

Twitter: https://twitter.com/AuthorMSedrak

Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/MonaSedrakAuthor/

Goodreads:https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4563964.Mona_Sedrak

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/authormonasedrak/

It was wonderful having you with us today. Please feel free to stop by anytime. Good Luck with Gravity!

Posted in Authors' Secrets Blog and tagged Gravity, Interview, Mona Sedrak, Sweet Romance, Women's Fiction by Tena Stetler with 8 comments.

Oct 29th Interview Mona Sedrak Author of Six Months

Give a warm welcome to Mona Sedrak, author of Six Months, released today, October 29, 2018! Congratulations Mona!

Pull up a chair, grab a drink of your choice from the cauldron. Take your choice of a bat wing Chocolate Chip or Pumpkin, or Peanut Butter cookie from the plate, and let’s find out a little about Mona and her new release Six Months!

What inspired you to write?

I have been an avid reader since I was a child. Reading, in many ways, saved my life and sanity. I could escape my world and enter another and forget all my troubles. Soon I learned that I could do the same thing through writing and this time, I could create any world I wanted to. I loved expressing myself through the written word from a young age and still do. I find beauty in words and their various combinations. I find understanding of events and emotions through writing. I write because I am most happy creating a story others can lose themselves in

Did you tell friends and family that you were writing a book? Or did it take a while to come out and tell friends and family you were a writer?

Before I wrote fiction, I wrote academic texts. Some of my family knows I write fiction, others do not. With this book, I am using my real name and so the world will know, and I am proud of it.

Do you see yourself in your characters?

In every story I write, I see a bit of myself in my characters and a bit of my life in my stories. I think often a writer’s life and all the people they know and the experiences they have influences their writing. For me, it happens naturally.

What do you want your readers to take away from your books?

I want readers to laugh and cry and think when they read my stories. I want them to understand the strength of forgiveness and love and the beauty and great blessing that comes with good friends and family. Hopefully, they will find a little bit of themselves in my story and even though they may cry with some of my emotional scences, at the end, they will smile and feel hopeful.

SPEED ROUND FOR A LITTLE ADDED FUN:

Speed Round (one word only answer): Yep, I know torture for a writer!<evil laugh>

Favorite movie: Gone With The Wind
Favorite book: Sense and Sensibility
Last book read: Kristen Ashley – The Time in Between
Favorite color: Grass Green
Stilettos or flipflops: flipflops
Coffee or tea: Coffee
Ebook or audiobook or paperback: audio
Pencil or pen: pen

Favorite song: You Raise Me Up

Streak or not: not

Favorite dessert: crème brulee

Favorite junk food: Cheetos

Favorite thing to do to relax: read

Champagne or gin: champagne

Paranormal or Historical: paranormal

Wonder Woman or Top Model: wonder woman

Favorite TV show: Downtown Abbey

Hot or cold: hot

POV: third person

I’d die if I don’t have: coffee

Review or Not: review

Tell us a little about Six Months.

For twenty years, Mikala Jacobson had it all: loyal friends, a precious little girl, and a man who adores her. Then double tragedy strikes and her perfect world shatters.

Good friends, Rena and Jake are instantly by her side, protecting her from her husband David’s sordid secret life and his final drunken confession.

With their help, Mikala finds strength to rebuild and redefine her life. As her spirit and heart heal, she not only finds closure, but the beauty of a new love built upon an old friendship.

Buy Links:

AMAZON THE WILD ROSE PRESS BARNES & NOBLE iBOOKS

A sneak peek between the pages of Six Months.

Mikala raised her gaze to the heavens and raged. “Why? Why? Why?” With every word, she slammed her palms into the frozen earth. “Why did you have to steal my child? Why didn’t you just take me? Why did you give her to me only to reclaim her a few short years later? She was only a baby. She hadn’t lived a full life yet.” Sobbing, Mikala doubled over, her body wracked with pain. “Please, just take me to be with her. I can’t do this anymore on my own. I don’t want to. Please have mercy.”

She could beg all she wanted, but no one listened. Six months ago, her little butterfly flew to heaven. Never again would Mikala wake up to the melody of her sweet giggles or revel in the warmth of her tiny body as it settled against her own. Mikala couldn’t caress Molly’s pudgy cheeks, tickle behind her ears, or inhale her fresh little-girl scent after a bath. She couldn’t tangle her fingers through her wild mane of curls or get lost in those bottomless blue eyes that stopped most people in their tracks with their unusual color and their ability to see right through them.

Worst of all, Mikala didn’t know who she was. No longer was she a mother. She would never hear the word Mama coming from her daughter’s bow-shaped lips, giving meaning and worth to her life. Without her child, and without that title, Mikala was no one––no one special.

Mikala had lied to Molly. She didn’t catch her, hold her, or protect her like she’d promised on the day she was born. She could have and should have. But Mikala hadn’t listened to her internal alarm bell—the one that came as an added bonus the day she learned she was pregnant with Molly, and the one that warned when her precious girl was in trouble. Instead, she’d listened to all the people around her who loved her and Molly, but they had no clue what being a mother was.

“Wake up, wake up, wake up,” Molly had chanted as she bounced up and down on Mikala’s bed early one Saturday morning in mid-August. “It’s here. It’s today. Daddy says to get you up and get me dressed.” She dropped to her knees and crawled over Mikala, positioning her small body on top of her mother. Molly placed her head on Mikala’s breast as her itsy-bitsy fingers tiptoed their way to Mikala’s armpits and dug in.

Mikala smiled and grabbed Molly’s hands in one of hers as her other arm banded around the giggling girl and pulled her even closer. She breathed in Molly.

About the Author

Writing and reading fiction is her escape from reality.

Mona lives with her husband of 31 years, a geriatric maltipoo, and an Amazon Parrot named Pretzel. She binge watches too many shows to count and she loves fine brandy.

You can find Mona on social media sites below:

Website: https://www.monasedrak.com/

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Mona-Sedrak/e/B003VGUOZQ

Twitter: https://twitter.com/AuthorMSedrak

Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/MonaSedrakAuthor/

Goodreads:https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4563964.Mona_Sedrak

Email: AuthorMonaSedrak@gmail.com

Newsletter: https://www.subscribepage.com/h1a1s0

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/authormonasedrak/

Facebook Readers Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/MonasReaderGroup/

It was wonderful having you with us today. Please feel free to stop by anytime. Good Luck with Six Months!