Sarah McCoy
As a novelist, I consider myself a perpetual student of the craft. I learn so much with each book world and cast of characters. From the research and creative process to the editing and revising, writing a novel is like a master class in narrative invention. I come away knowing so much more than I did from the start—so many nuanced techniques and lessons that I didn’t yet know or have a full grasp of utilizing when I began my writing career.
My first novel, THE TIME IT SNOWED IN PUERTO RICO, is a precious gem to me because it radiates the passion I have for my Puerto Rican heritage and the earnest yearning I had to become a published author during the writing of it. I was inspired by my Puerto Rican mommacita and the stories I heard growing up with my two titis and abuelita. Strong, admirable women who influence so much of my formative years--personally and creatively!
My second novel, THE BAKER'S DAUGHTER, was inspired by an experience I had. I'd just moved from Virginia to El Paso, Texas, and went to a local farmer’s market. There I met an 80-year-old German woman selling bread. I was completely smitten by her, and all that I imagined she might have experienced in her life. While picking out my brötchen, I asked how she came to be in El Paso. “I married an American soldier after the war,” she replied. It was a lightning moment. Elsie, my 1945 protagonist, was born. My memories of living and traveling in Germany served as my imaginative landscape and fueled my hunger to research the country and its people during those last awful months of World War.
My latest novel, THE MAPMAKER'S CHILDREN, began with a sentence being spoken …“A dog is not a child,” the woman, Eden Anderson, kept saying. And it was the way she said it that wouldn’t let me be. Confident, irked, and yet, deeply wounded by the very words she spoke. I couldn’t shush her no matter what I did. Months of hearing this over and over in my mind nearly drove me insane! So in an effort to cure my banshee insomnia, I wrote the sentence and its corresponding scene in the journal. I realized then that the sentence was echoing through and out the front door of an old house—the house in New Charlestown calling me to solve its Underground Railroad secret. A mystery set between Eden in present-day West Virginia and Sarah Brown 150 years ago.
The “spark” for each of my novels has come to me differently. Author friends tell me how they are consistently inspired through one particular medium: a visual image, historical character, political agenda, time frame, emotional struggle, color, food, etc. I can’t say that I have one. I guess my Muse likes to throw her bolts in various forms or maybe I'm a lint brush for random bits of story fodder floating through the universe. ;)
I'm now working on my next (fourth) novel. The inspiration came in 2010 from a freak discovery in an unusual place that I'd never been before and haven't returned since. It's almost as if story angels fatefully guided me to it. I've spent the last 5 years researching, getting to know the characters, getting to know their ties to contemporary real life-- CrockPot simmering, as I jokingly describe it to Twitter friends. I'm a slow-cooker writer. I find that makes the most toothsome book meal. I'll spend the next year or more writing and immersing myself even deeper as the narrative blooms on the page. I can't wait to share more of that--hopefully later this summer or early fall!
Yours truly,
Sarah
My first novel, THE TIME IT SNOWED IN PUERTO RICO, is a precious gem to me because it radiates the passion I have for my Puerto Rican heritage and the earnest yearning I had to become a published author during the writing of it. I was inspired by my Puerto Rican mommacita and the stories I heard growing up with my two titis and abuelita. Strong, admirable women who influence so much of my formative years--personally and creatively!
My second novel, THE BAKER'S DAUGHTER, was inspired by an experience I had. I'd just moved from Virginia to El Paso, Texas, and went to a local farmer’s market. There I met an 80-year-old German woman selling bread. I was completely smitten by her, and all that I imagined she might have experienced in her life. While picking out my brötchen, I asked how she came to be in El Paso. “I married an American soldier after the war,” she replied. It was a lightning moment. Elsie, my 1945 protagonist, was born. My memories of living and traveling in Germany served as my imaginative landscape and fueled my hunger to research the country and its people during those last awful months of World War.
My latest novel, THE MAPMAKER'S CHILDREN, began with a sentence being spoken …“A dog is not a child,” the woman, Eden Anderson, kept saying. And it was the way she said it that wouldn’t let me be. Confident, irked, and yet, deeply wounded by the very words she spoke. I couldn’t shush her no matter what I did. Months of hearing this over and over in my mind nearly drove me insane! So in an effort to cure my banshee insomnia, I wrote the sentence and its corresponding scene in the journal. I realized then that the sentence was echoing through and out the front door of an old house—the house in New Charlestown calling me to solve its Underground Railroad secret. A mystery set between Eden in present-day West Virginia and Sarah Brown 150 years ago.
The “spark” for each of my novels has come to me differently. Author friends tell me how they are consistently inspired through one particular medium: a visual image, historical character, political agenda, time frame, emotional struggle, color, food, etc. I can’t say that I have one. I guess my Muse likes to throw her bolts in various forms or maybe I'm a lint brush for random bits of story fodder floating through the universe. ;)
I'm now working on my next (fourth) novel. The inspiration came in 2010 from a freak discovery in an unusual place that I'd never been before and haven't returned since. It's almost as if story angels fatefully guided me to it. I've spent the last 5 years researching, getting to know the characters, getting to know their ties to contemporary real life-- CrockPot simmering, as I jokingly describe it to Twitter friends. I'm a slow-cooker writer. I find that makes the most toothsome book meal. I'll spend the next year or more writing and immersing myself even deeper as the narrative blooms on the page. I can't wait to share more of that--hopefully later this summer or early fall!
Yours truly,
Sarah
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