Falling for a fictional character from a book can be an endearing experience, but pursuing a man who may or may not exist, based on those flawless characteristics, is a whole other story.
That’s the premise of Finding Fraser, an Amazon bestseller, recently penned by Canadian author KC Dyer. Dyer will be in Jasper on Aug. 2 for a book signing at the Jasper Artist Guild from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
The protagonist of the story is a young woman named Emma Sheridan, who is disillusioned with her life and tired of waiting for the perfect boyfriend to step out from the pages of her favourite book.
While reading a book from the Outlander series, she falls in love with Jamie Fraser, a handsome 17th century Highland warrior from Scotland.
Selling everything, Sheridan sets off for Scotland to find her own version of “Jamie Fraser” only to run into a series of other characters and allies along the way.
“Everyone falls for Jamie,” said Dyer, about the Outlander character. “He’s a character that is very easy to love.”
Despite his charming characteristics, Sheridan discovers that finding someone that lives up to his standards is nearly impossible.
“It’s pretty much a series of epic fails all the way through,” said Dyer, who, chose not to spoil the end of her novel.
“There is a happy ending, but she does not find what she is looking for.”
As a published author of six young adult novels, this was Dyer’s first foray into the world of adult literature.
“Finding Fraser was a backburner project for me to go to for some comic relief,” said Dyer, explaining she has been working on a five-part book series since 2006.
In addition to it being her first adult novel, it was also Dyer’s first self-published book, an experience she described as “eye-opening.”
“Getting it published was more problematic because we sent it out and nobody wanted it,” said Dyer.
After being rejected several times, a friend and colleague suggested she try publishing the novel herself and to her surprise it’s been a huge success.
Since mid-May more than 30,000 copies of the book have been sold worldwide, making it Dyer’s first bestseller.
Despite the book’s strong reception in the U.S., it hasn’t done as well as she would like in Canada.
“My Canadian numbers are lower than my Australian numbers,” she said, explaining, she intends to spend the next month touring Western Canada to promote the book.
“This book has been a complete labour of love for me,” she said.
“I’m a Canadian author so I spend a lot of time writing books and being poor and so it’s really cool to have one take off like this.”
Paul Clarke reporter
@fitzhugh.ca
