UAE woman pens crime fiction set in Dubai

DUBAI: An Alabama-born woman who teaches journalism at Zayed University is all set to launch her fourth book at the Middle East Film and Comic Con next month.

Dedra Stevenson’s crime-fiction Desert Magnolia revolves around the trials and tribulations of American woman Daniella whose idyllic life in Dubai is shattered when her father is murdered in the US and her cousin has been named the prime suspect.

Relates to own life

Daniella believes her cousin has been framed. To prove his innocence she travels back to her home country where she has to reckon with relatives who had disowned her for marrying an Arab man. It is now time for her to dig up the skeletons that she had hoped to bury forever.

Curiously, the character of Daniella is borrowed heavily from Dedra Stevenson’s own life. Like the fictitious Daniella, she also comes from the US and has been living in the UAE for over two decades after embracing Islam and marrying an Emirati she met at an English-learning institute in Alabama. Now a naturalised Emirati with a passport and Kulasat Al Qaid (family book), Stevenson lives in Sharjah with her husband Hussain and four children.

“My first work The Hakima’s Tale Trilogy is about a young Arab-American girl who must protect the human race from the evil Blue Jinni and his followers.

But Daniella’s character is more realistic, says Stevenson, who’s also the co-founder of Women in Film and Television UAE, a non-profit organisation that aims to foster the professional development of women in the film industry and other television and media sectors.

Stevenson says her works are inspired by Middle Eastern folklore. I find it very fascinating and often use my imagination to wean it into my stories. Imagination makes anything possible. You can make your characters do anything and that’s why I encourage my students at Zayed University to experience the unbridled joy of fiction writing.

“I also tell them not to get discouraged by their first draft. It would surely have some flaws, but that should not stop them from writing. They should let the creative ideas flow.”