Note about the episode. Sarah’s pronouns are they/them/theirs. There are a few slip ups during the episode, so please mentally insert the proper pronouns where needed. Thanks!
Island grown, born and raised. Finished their first novel at 15. Published a children’s book, with many more stories shared and stored, unpublicized. Sarah Sanborn (they/them) isn’t stopping; and is just getting started. They are a fantasy/sci-fi writer and photographer, which is why their interview involved dragons, zombies, and gargoyles.
Island residents may also recognize Sarah when working outdoors at Venture Out, a local nursery. Use some common sense, though. Asking them for an autograph is probably best when their hands aren’t holding a forty-pound potted plant.
Sarah’s most recent book is Waking Winter, which has a whimsical cover of a small human (gnome to be specific) softly poking a big dragon with a stick. This may be March, but this children’s book will be back in shopping style in a few months. These years do come around again.
Many members of the Whidbey writing community came here from elsewhere. Because Sarah is from here, the idea of a writing community is a natural environment. That’s an interesting perspective on finding support on and off the island, including online.
If you want a shorter introduction to some non-children’s work, click over to Instagram where several of Sarah’s poems are posted.
And, if you just want to be introduced to what they have to say, listen to the interview that includes steampunk, zombies, gargoyles, and of course, dragons.
Writing on Whidbey Island (WOWI) episode 44 – Sarah Sanborn – Author, Waking Winter
Contact:
Sarah Sanborn on Instagram
Sarah Sanborn on Facebook
Waking Winter on Amazon
We also talked about the value of talking to other members of our writing community. Writing does not have to be a solo venture. Fellow writers can provide insights into how readers perceive a book. The author may have one intent, but readers may find something else that is not obvious to someone who wrote, edited, and repeatedly read the book before it was published. Bicycling books may appeal to RV owners. Travel books may appeal to people from countries that weren’t visited or even mentioned. 
This podcast has become an unplanned, informal, yet possibly useful resource built from the contributions and interviews of dozens of members of Whidbey Island’s writing community. Book store owners can bring some reality to expectations. Librarians can point to overlooked resources for research or even funding. Writers from your genre undoubtedly have encountered surprises, the good ones the bad ones and the weird ones. Successful and failed campaigns are useful as long as we learn from them. And, of course, writers can support writers simply by listening to frustrations or understanding otherwise obscure celebrations. (You finally found the right font!)
Nature photographer, author, and presenter Amy Gulick kindly took a recent afternoon for a WOWI interview with Tom and myself. Having spent time in Alaska studying the ecology and wildlife, she has made sense of the heavy sciencey-stuff and presents it in her books, such-as “Salmon In The Trees”.
Writing On Whidbey Island 