Show and Tell Time
February 20, 2007 | Interviews
Good morning and welcome back, Sarah. Let’s treat our guests and start today off with a bit of Show. Take a gander at Sarah’s covers. The first is the print edition and the second is the e-book cover for NOT WITHOUT RISK. Aren’t these just the hottest covers you’ve ever seen? They’re great, Sarah, congratulations!
ST: Now it’s time for the Tell. What made you decide to be a writer?
SG: I always wanted to be a writer, just check my bio on my website. My sister wrote it for me and as she mentions in it, I was always carrying around notebooks and jotting notes into them. When I was younger I wrote poetry, which slowly segued into romantic fiction. Even as a young girl I was hooked on happily-ever-after.
It wasn’t until my youngest was born and spent so much time in and out of hospital that I began to write more than a few chapters of any one story idea. It was during that first year of my son’s life, as we struggled to keep him alive, that I took pen to paper (Yup, longhand) and wrote my first book from start to finish.
I’m happy to say that my son is alive and well and revels in driving me crazy on a daily basis. And that first book I completed from beginning to end? NOT WITHOUT RISK
ST: How long have you been writing?
SG: The oldest writings of mine that I have are from when I was five years old. My sister is six years older than me and she taught me to read and write at a young age.
ST: Do you find writing to be fulfilling? And in what way?
SG: I find writing to be the one thing that keeps me sane. It also frustrates me when I know what I want to say but can’t get it out of my head and onto the page right. Is it fulfilling? Yes, I guess it is. When it finally clicks and everything comes together. When the words flow and a few days, or months later you go back and read it with a smile on your face and that little voice in your head that asks, ‘I wrote this?’
ST: What’s a normal day like for you?
SG: Describe ‘normal’ for me will you? LOL. But I’ll give it a try. Ready?
ST: You bet.
SG: Then here we go;
Typical Weekday
1. Wake up at 5:30
2. Squeeze out from under 3 dogs (no, I’m not counting my husband as one)
3. Pour myself a Diet Coke ~ caffeine please!
4. Turn on laptop
5. Start a load of laundry
6. check email
7. Go upstairs and wake the kids
8. Collect glasses that are strewn around the house and load into dishwasher
9. Go upstairs and wake the kids
10. Pack lunches, sign planners, fill water bottles
11. Go upstairs and wake the kids
12. You get the picture; we’ll skip to after I drop kids at school when I finally sit down to write. If it’s winter, my husband crawls out of bed about now and interrupts my writing to talk. I love him dearly, but he has a knack for interrupting at the worst possible times.
13. At around 10:00 I start running errands, these vary from day to day, sometimes it’s running parts for my husband’s marine repair business, other times banking, post office, groceries, etc
14. Write
15. Chat online – usually for too long as I get distracted easily
16. Write
17. Pick up kids from school
You get the idea. I don’t have a set writing time and there are days that this is a problem. I’m going to have to get better at this in the future.
ST: Lady, I don’t envy you. lol. With your busy life how do you find time to write?
SG: I make time to write. If I didn’t, I’d never get any writing done. There’s always a story going through my mind that I’m usually jotting down notes about, but to sit down and write it out? I have to force myself to do that. There are just too many other distractions, too much else I could be doing.
ST: Then I think we’d better let you off the hook and let you return to your work. Thanks for taking the time this morning and we’ll see you bright and early tomorrow.
SG: Not a problem. I’d like to add that if any of the readers have questions, I’ll be checking back throughout the day and am more than happy to answer them.
ST: Enjoy your day everyone. See you all Wednesday morning!
