Sarah walked in to Marco Island Writers and stole everyone’s heart. She is a breath of fresh air among most of us grey haired (if we were honest – only L’Oreal knows for sure.) To my great surprise, Sarah was anything but a novice. Tell the readers a little of your background.
Sure. When I was an undergrad, I took several creative writing courses. I took two or three poetry classes, one fiction, and one creative nonfiction course. I majored in English and had a creative writing minor. After undergrad, I earned my Master in Fine Arts in Creative Writing. I took two years of creative writing courses and finished my degree by writing a thesis that was a full-length book. My first book, The Other Summer Girl, was not my thesis but I did get started on it while in grad school.
How long did it take you to write The Other Summer Girl?
From first starting the book to pressing Publish on Amazon, it took about a year and a half – I wrote the first 60 or so pages while I’m grad school, took almost exactly a year off from writing The Other Summer Girl, and then finishing writing and editing in six months.
Tell us aboutThe Other Summer Girl.
If I could say which shelf in the bookstore my book would appear, I’d have to say Young Adult. Some might consider this YA Romance, some might say just YA, and others might consider it New Adult (NA) because the protagonist is a freshman in college.
I do think that my book would speak most to a YA audience because I feel like it speaks to the issues a freshman might experience – homesickness, social anxiety, love, being in a new place, growing up and so on. When you’re a freshman in college, you are technically a new adult but I think there’s a blurred line between this YA/NA genre labeling. Melanie Collier, the main character in The Other Summer Girl, is very much a young adult – yes, an older young adult but still a young adult – when she enters college. Her naïveté and social hesitations make her a character that I think a lot of high school students could look to and get an idea of what college is like – I wish there had been a book like mine or like Rainbow Rowell’s Fangirl when I was freaking out about leaving home and being in a whole new town. It is my hope that the YA audience will connect with Melanie on some level and be able to go on this college journey with her. I am working on the sequel, The Fall Of Us (working title), that will be out by late summer.
Let’s talk about writing style. Do you always right in the same POV?
I started writing The Other Summer Girl in 1st person and discovered that I wanted the story to be told with more uninhibited observation, so I moved it to 3rd person past tense. I felt like 1st person, especially in present tense, didn’t offer the reflective distance I was looking for the main character to have. I also feel like the 3rd person/past tense gives the story the feel that the character can make it through her social struggles in the end and that there is a summer after that first year to regroup and grow and move forward.
I sometimes write poetry in 1st person, and I think I will experiment with 1st person in future novels. But for now I like the 3rd person POV.
Sarah, what makes you tick? In other words, why do you write?
I write for many reasons but if I had to choose I would say because there’s something about it that fulfills me. When write a sentence or paragraph or scene of dialogue that just clicks and reflects exactly what the feeling is for that moment, it makes me happy and I hope that others can gain something from my story if it’s something as simple (and amazing) as just enjoying the story.
My favorite place to write is anywhere that serves fresh coffee and a has large windows. But there are those nights, especially when I was finishing The Other Summer Girl, I wrote on my big comfy couch with my laptop into the early hours of the morning. I also have to play music while I write – there’s something about it that makes the writing flow easier.
I hope you all will check out my debut novel, The Other Summer Girl, available for 99 cents on Amazon. If you want to learn more about the book and read some of my blog posts, head on over to my website: sarahdtowne.com
In addition to writing, I am also an editor. I co-founded E&E Literary Services with my mom; we work with writers on developmental editing, copyediting, and proofreading. We also have been beta readers and can help you with your social media creation and management. If you would like more information, you can visit our website eeliteraryservices.com or email us ateeliteraryservices@gmail.com
Writing Under Fire 