[sdf_hero id=”sdf-row-1″ last=”yes”][sdf_col id=”sdf-col-1″ width=”2/3″][sdf_text_block id=”sdf-element-0″ module_width=”1/1″ top_margin=”” bottom_margin=”” text_alignment=”left” font_family=”” font_size=”” text_color=”” entrance_animation=”No” entrance_animation_duration=”” link=”” link_title=”” target=”” nofollow=”no” class=””]Award-winning writer and journalist, Joanne Leedom-Ackerman, chats with Writer’s Voices to discuss her gripping, new political thriller, The Far Side of the Desert. Set in various locations all over the world, the book follows two sisters, Samantha and Monte Waters, who are vacationing together in Spain and are awaiting the arrival of their brother, Cal. Leedom-Ackerman explains, “The story opens in Santiago de Compostela where there’s an annual Camino, a big festival, and these three siblings, one is Samantha who is a renowned international broadcast journalist, one is her brother, Cal, who is a diplomatic correspondent for The Economist… and then their younger sister is Monte who works for the state department in Cairo… they just decided to take a couple of days together to see each other and have a vacation… at the festival there is a terrorist attack and one of them is abducted and disappears… nobody knows what’s happened to this person, and the family goes into high gear to try to find her… and so the first part of the book is about that journey and the family coming together to do that and the person who, as it turns out, is deep in the Sahara Desert, and each character coming to terms with issues of their own… and there are other big events that happen… big events, both personally and then globally.”

As a former writing instructor, Leedom-Ackerman was often asked by her students how she knows when she’s done with a piece of work. “My answer to them was always, ‘When you’re published.’ Until you’re published, the book is always alive in your head and so I would go back and then I would rewrite, and I’d see new parts of it and I’d pull it together and in writing the next book, and the next, I became, of course, a better and better novelist along the way, and I could see how to edit and shape it, so any current writers or aspiring writers listening to this, just keep writing because you do get better and you do learn, and you do see things, and the book finds its shape and its voice, and it works…”[/sdf_text_block][sdf_image id=”sdf-element-1″ module_width=”1/1″ title=”” alt_text=”” image=”https://vch7348tts5.c.updraftclone.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Green-Quote-e1453672031762.png” top_margin=”15px” bottom_margin=”” entrance_animation=”No” entrance_animation_duration=”” image_alignment=”left” image_size=”sdf-image-md-12″ image_shape=”square” lightbox=”no” link=”” link_title=”” target=”None” nofollow=”no” class=””][/sdf_image][sdf_blockquote id=”sdf-element-2″ module_width=”1/1″ top_margin=”” bottom_margin=”” blockquote_alignment=”left” quote_icon=”yes” quote_icon_size=”fa-lg” blockquote_author=”Joanne Leedom-Ackerman” cite_title=”” cite_link=”” entrance_animation=”No” entrance_animation_duration=”” class=””]As a reporter, you’re looking at the world from the outside in, and what always interested me was the inside, with the people who formed what the news were and what that was inside, and that’s what led me to fiction.”[/sdf_blockquote][sdf_button id=”sdf-element-3″ module_width=”1/1″ top_margin=”10px” bottom_margin=”” button_icon=”fa-hand-o-left” button_icon_position=”icon-left-side” entrance_animation=”No” entrance_animation_duration=”” button_layout=”left” style=”link” size=”btn-lg” link=”https://joanneleedom-ackerman.com/” target=”_blank” nofollow=”yes” class=””]Learn more[/sdf_button][/sdf_col][sdf_col id=”sdf-col-2″ width=”1/3″][sdf_image id=”sdf-element-0″ module_width=”1/1″ title=”” alt_text=”” image=”https://vch7348tts5.c.updraftclone.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Joanne-Leedom-Ackerman.jpg” top_margin=”” bottom_margin=”20px” entrance_animation=”No” entrance_animation_duration=”” image_alignment=”left” image_size=”sdf-image-md-12″ image_shape=”square” lightbox=”no” link=”” link_title=”” target=”None” nofollow=”no” class=””][/sdf_image][sdf_image id=”sdf-element-1″ module_width=”1/1″ title=”” alt_text=”” image=”https://vch7348tts5.c.updraftclone.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/carolinequotes.jpg” top_margin=”” bottom_margin=”” entrance_animation=”No” entrance_animation_duration=”” image_alignment=”left” image_size=”sdf-image-md-12″ image_shape=”square” lightbox=”no” link=”” link_title=”” target=”None” nofollow=”no” class=””][/sdf_image][sdf_blockquote id=”sdf-element-2″ module_width=”1/1″ top_margin=”0″ bottom_margin=”” blockquote_alignment=”left” quote_icon=”yes” quote_icon_size=”fa-lg” blockquote_author=”Rabbi Sacks” cite_title=”” cite_link=”” entrance_animation=”No” entrance_animation_duration=”” class=””]The victims of terror are not only the dead and injured, but the very values on which a free society is built: trust, security, civil liberty, tolerance, the willingness of countries to open their doors to asylum seekers, the gracious safety of public places.”[/sdf_blockquote][sdf_image id=”sdf-element-3″ module_width=”1/1″ title=”” alt_text=”” image=”https://vch7348tts5.c.updraftclone.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/The-Far-Side-of-the-Desert.png” top_margin=”” bottom_margin=”20px” entrance_animation=”No” entrance_animation_duration=”” image_alignment=”left” image_size=”sdf-image-md-12″ image_shape=”square” lightbox=”no” link=”” link_title=”” target=”None” nofollow=”no” class=””][/sdf_image][/sdf_col][/sdf_hero]

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS