A Part of Life

When I started writing Echoes, I had only a basic premise in mind. I didn't know how the book would be shaped, and I had no idea that it would become the first in a series.

I also hadn't realized that one of the main themes throughout the series would be death. In each book, someone dies--a main character or someone else who has an impact on a main character. As in real life, death is a constant presence.

I was reading my draft of the final book, Silence, to my husband yesterday. He thought it interesting when Joshua said that death is a part of life. It sounds odd, but no one can deny it.

As a writer, I'm careful in how I handle death. It must be a natural part of the plot. I don't have gratuitous violence, and I don't enjoy stories containing that. I show different types of death and different responses from those who survive. As in real life, there are many ways to die and many ways to mourn.

Because of the deaths, I've been teased that I'm writing a soap opera. I'm not. People live. People die. What I want to do is accurately portray life. Sometimes a family will go for years without a single death. Then there may be two or even three or more in close succession. And death is always present. Muslims are told to remember this, and not to fear death.

We have a life before birth. Then we have the life we know. Something comes later. No one has returned to tell us how it is. This is something we must each learn. And it is absolutely a part of life.