INTERVIEW: Sheri T. Joseph Says Create Characters You Care About

Welcome to the Tuesday Author Interview with Christina Boyd for the Who, What, When, Where, and Why.

CHRISTINA: I met Sheri T. Joseph at the Chanticleer Writers Conference in Bellingham in April 2025. We sat next to each other at the Awards Banquet. What fun we had to hear our names announced as winners in our respective categories, she in Global Thrillers. She is friendly and kind, and I was thrilled to get to know her better through this interview. Her debut novel, Edge of the Known World, won first in a couple of categories.

What comes first: plot or characters?

Sheri getting her creative game on with a reading at Babylon Salon in San Francisco. (Photo courtesy of the author.)

SHERI: Plot and character are hopelessly tangled. Growing up, I was affected by stories of the kindertransports in WWII and had an image of one of those young girls in my head. Many years later I heard in a lecture how Hitler had tried to develop a blood test to detect Jewish and Gypsy children who looked Aryan enough to hide in the open with German or Polish families. Such a test was not possible back then, but what if Hitler had modern science and tech? I started counting other events where people who did not stand out by physical appearance, perhaps even unaware of their own background, would have faced deadly consequences. What if in the Rwandan genocide, the Hutu militias had a screening test to detect Tutsis? Serbs and Bosnians, Chinese in wartime Japan, too many slices of American history?

It seemed to me that while technology keeps advancing, people do not. A recent hack into 23AndMe stole information on accounts with Ashkenazi and Chinese ancestry to sell on the dark web. And China already does DNA surveillance of ethnic minorities.

Suddenly, that girl in my head was trying to navigate a precarious near future where genetic screening tests meant that she could no longer hide in the open. Hello, Alex Tashen! Hello plot!

CHRISTINA: Fascinating how you came to your story. Ever since I was a child, I have read everything I could about the Holocaust. Those who know me know how the memoir Mischling Second Degree by Isle Koehn affected me deeply as an adolescent and remains a book I still recommend to young and old alike. Your novel seems so timely!

Who was your favorite character to write, and why?

SHERI: Dark anti-heroes are the most fun, and Strav Beki is a particularly complex one. Strav is twenty-seven of Mongolian British descent, a daredevil athlete, and a hyper-articulate polyglot diplomat who straddles the modern world and traditional steppe. He is optimistic, pig-headed, stubborn, emotional, arrogant, conservative, deeply loving, and morally flexible when not grounded by Eric, his beloved adoptive brother. The secrets of a brutally failed hostage rescue a year earlier have left Strav raging inside, ashamed, reckless, and destructive. He fears turning into a monster and fixates on Alex as his salvation. But Alex has her own secrets.

Edge of the Known World: A Novel by Sheri T. Joseph

CHRISTINA: I am looking forward to reading this book. Truly.

When did you first think you had a book to write, and how did you start? 

SHERI: I was lucky to grow up in a house crammed with books, where the favorite expression was, “You could look it up!” I was reading what in hindsight were overly adult books at a young age, and in third grade won a writing contest with a poem about a flea and a fly getting drunk in a saloon. Seriously.

Being a trial attorney is a blessing and a curse for writers—you learn to craft persuasive stories for judge and jury, but the law still demands very linear thinking. I went back and took a series of writing courses with fantastic professors, from poetry to short stories to novels, and found my creative voice.

CHRISTINA: Favorite contemporary author:

SHERI: I love the authors who don’t give a damn about genre, have big imaginations, take risks, and explore complex ideas as well as feelings. They perform that magical shift from heartbreak to humor in a flash. Most importantly, they create characters you care about. A short list includes Margaret Atwood, George Saunders, Mark Helprin, David Eggers, Emily St. John Mandel, and Kazuo Ishiguro. Patrick O’Brien’s “Master and Commander” series is a master class and stole several years of my life. And I’m in awe of Jennifer Egan—the last scene in The Candy House, seamlessly moving a family through time, just pierced my heart.

CHRISTINA: So many of my favorites too. I loved Patrick O'Brien's series! Loved.

Were the characters in the book inspired by people from your real life?

Packing for an awards ceremony - Ziggy does not approve. (Photo courtesy of the author.)

SHERI: Each character is modeled on a real person in my life (like my philosopher father) but quickly evolves into a compilation of many people and traits. I think that my original affection for them, even when they do bad things, makes them feel alive and authentic. But if they stayed too close to the real people I care about, I could never let anything bad happen to them!

CHRISTINA: What’s more difficult to write? A love scene or a love letter or something else?

SHERI: Love scenes are huge fun to write! Though the spicy ones can get you in trouble. My daughter (adult) is a great actress, read the book many times, and claims to love it. When the audiobook was getting produced, I asked her if I could pitch her to the publisher as the narrator. Her snap response was “No way am I reading my mother’s sex scenes out loud.” Lesson learned.

CHRISTINA: That is hysterical!

Thank you so much for sharing your story and craft tips. I hope we meet again. Best wishes to you in this Wild West that is modern-day publishing.

Sheri T. Joseph, author

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Sheri T. Joseph grew up in a New York beach town until her family relocated to San Francisco. She holds a bachelor’s degree from UC Berkeley and a JD from UC Law San Francisco. She is passionate about the need for housing and serves as executive director of a nonprofit corporation that supports creation of affordable housing for families, veterans, refugees, and vulnerable populations. She’s also a trustee for Homeward Bound, a provider of homeless services and housing. Sheri and her husband have three adventurous children and live in Tiburon, California. This is her debut novel. You can connect with Sheri via social media and her website.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Edge of the Known World, by Sheri T. Joseph

Published by SparkPress, distribution Simon & Schuster.

In a not-so-distant future where 23AndMe-style genetic tests are used for surveillance, Alexandra Tashen carries a secret ancestry that would get her deported to a likely death. When her adoptive father disappears, she embarks on a risky, often comic search that ignites a love triangle, creates international havoc, and tests the boundaries of family and moral obligation.

The novel is a USA Today Booklist Bestseller, and won the Gold Medal for Best New Voice: Fiction at the Independent Book Publishers Association Awards. It is also the 2024 American Fiction Awards Winner in Best New Fiction, Political Thriller, and General Science Fiction; First Place Winner in the Chanticleer International Book Awards for Global Thriller; and a current finalist for the  Foreword Indie Award for Science Fiction.