Essays
Published Essays
November 27, 2012
Finding True Love, Finding a Literary Agent
The Millions
Your [literary] agent relationship is akin to a marriage.
April 26, 2012
Men Of War Are Conflicted Characters
Huffington Post Books
In my novel The Baker’s Daughter, four chapters are from the perspective of a Nazi officer. Writing these was no easy task. For those four chapters, I slipped on the psyche of a soldier dedicated to his country’s code.
April 14, 2012
Huffington Post Books
I live and have lived all my life in active battle readiness. Ready for orders that a family member must leave for some threatening place and may not return. Ready for him to take up the oath, “Duty, Honor, Country,” and all the inner contradictions that come with it.
March 14, 2012
The Divining Wand
All of that changed the day my mom put a blank page on the table and handed me a pencil with the instructions, “Write it down, Sarah. Write down what you’re feeling.” I can still vividly see that clean, white paper and smell the newly sharpened pencil shavings.
February 3, 2012
Writer Unboxed
The on-sale date of an author’s book is akin to a birthday. And like the bearing of a child, I’ve noticed the way in which we commemorate the occasion often falls into one of two camps: the Father’s versus the Mother’s celebration style. Both are noble outpourings of devotion and not at all particular to author gender.
January 27, 2012
The Significance of Settings: Bee Mindful
Beyond The Margins
One season yielded markedly different flavors from the next. One place from another. To say that the environment was a trivial factor would be unthinkable. Likewise with my stories. I’m merely the bee buzzing from stem to stem collecting as much as I can carry.
January 26, 2012
The Journey is as Great a Story as the Destination
Great Thoughts: Travel Thursday
Flight has always been a mind-blowing concept… I firmly believed that we walked through an enchanted maze until we reached the nest of a colossal bird with a stomach full of seats, á la a Flintstone’s cartoon.
January 25, 2012
Brava! with author Beth Hoffman
I thought I’d take a moment to highlight a couple of men in my book. Specifically, the fathers. Although they don’t take center state, both of my protagonists, Reba and Elsie, are deeply affected by their fathers, and both of their fathers are profoundly transformed by war.
July 5, 2010
The Millions
Being a reader is like playing tricks with time. You turn the page of the fictional story while an hour of your own passes. The characters breathe, laugh and cry, and so do you. When you finish their tale, you close the book and set it aside, dreaming of their ever-after, while stepping out into yours.
June 22, 2010
The Heart is Not a Size Blog
Across the border in winter, Juarez families burn trash to keep warm. Smoke rises liked dirty cotton candy spun heavenward in hot plumes. Driving around the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP), you smell it before you see it. Ripe and burnt, it assaults. You wriggle your nose, hold your breath, circulate your car fan and press on the gas pedal to get away, pass the unpleasantness.
May 13, 2010
V: Lizard Aliens as a Social Reminder
The Millions
The latest TV hit: a 2010 sci-fi remake of a 1980s sci-fi hit, itself an adaptation of a 1935 novel warning against the growing threat of fascism. We live in a world where history repeats itself; where old ideas cloak themselves in various contemporary skins and pretty packages for each budding generation.
April 22, 2010
The Baby-Sitters Club is Back, Baby!
The Millions
Given the current YA vampire and fantasy craze, I wonder if novels staked in the normal can find the ardent following they did with my generation. Will young readers with an acutely developed taste for bloody bites and wizard wands be captivated by the story of industrious teenagers facing the universal travails of growing up?
February 26, 2010
Joy of Cooking: A Novel Experience
The Millions
The truth is, I read cookbooks like novels. Cover to cover, page by page, the dedication, the acknowledgments, the indexes: I devour everything.
May 20, 2009
El Paso Magazine
The thriving German community on the Tex-Mex border is a delightful surprise, especially for a girl who lived in Deutschland as a child. Here I spotlight my time with the German locals at Marina’s German Bakery in El Paso.
Featured Author Interviews
February 2012
Featured author interview with BethFishReads. We had a Thursday Tea party, and we both brought baked goods.
Featured author interview on The Pencil Box’s “Someone’s Awesome Nightstand.” Come over to my bedside, take a peek, and ask, “What’s that?” with Victoria Loustalot.
January 2012
Featured author interview with fellow Hokie, Kathy, on BermudaOnion’s Weblog and I wore a VT snuggie.
Featured author interview with the lovely Caroline on Caroline Leavittville Blog to discuss our love for the color red, motherhood, and more.
Featured author interview. The Debutante Ball asked quirky, fun questions plus my poetic answer to the question: “If you were an animal, what kind would you be and why?”
Featured author interview with Laramie G on The Divining Wand.
June 2011
Featured author interview with El Paso Times.
January 2011
Featured author interview with Barely South Review
July/August 2009
Featured author interview with Faith, Hope and Fiction.com
September/October 2009
Featured author interview with AltDaily.com
October 20, 2009
The National Day on Writing
Sponsored by the NCTE
Listen to me chat about writing here
Sarah’s Your Health Monthly Family Column
March 2009: Family Column — Healthy Roots
February 2009, Family Column — A Pox at Your House
January 2009, Family Column – Interview with Dr. Mehmet Oz
December 2008, Family Column — Mayhem on 34th Street
November 2008, Family Column — To Flu or Not To Flu?
October 2008, Family Column — Will Mommy Be Okay?
September 2008, Family Column — The Gateway Drink
August 2008, Family Column — Back To School Supplies: Steroids?
July 2008, Family Column — Acne Attack
June 2008, Family Column — The Goldilocks Syndrome
May 2008, Family Column — My Precocious Child
July 2008, Passport to Health — Cover Feature
