Sarah Varland Interview

Q: How did you get your start writing fiction and what genre do you predominantly write in?
A. I’ve been writing seriously since 2004. I had been making up stories for years before that, but that was the year I sent my first query letter and had the publisher ask for a synopsis and sample chapters. They ended up saying no to that story, but I was so encouraged and it pushed me to keep writing. In 2005 my dad took me to my first American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW) conference (I was nineteen so my parents didn’t want me driving there and staying alone. Lol. Thanks for coming, Daddy!), which really helped me learn more about writing craft and writing as a career. I’ve been to more ACFW conferences, all very valuable, and those have helped on my writing journey. I got my first contract with Love Inspired Suspense in 2012 and my first book with them came out in 2014. I write romantic suspense and I love it.

Q: What does your writing space look like?
A: I don’t really have one writing space! I spend a lot of time writing in the lounge at my gym because I can brainstorm while I workout and then get some of my ideas out right away. I also write on the living room floor using the coffee table as a desk so I can see the mountains (through the back door windows). When I’m on a deadline and really trying to crank out the word count I write at a small desk in my room, or at a local coffee shop. All of these usually involve listening to music through my headphones.

Q: In this busy world, how do you find time to connect with God and how does this impact your writing?
A: What I’m learning in my relationship with God impacts my writing GREATLY. I can’t even write spiritual threads into a synopsis when I write one because I don’t know exactly what my characters will learn until I’m writing it because it’s what I’m learning. The issues may change, so that it’s not the exact thing I’m dealing with by any means, but the basic concepts are very similar. Connecting with God is definitely a challenge in how busy life is. Lately I’ve been trying to read my Bible before my kids wake up, and while it’s not something I’ve done as consistently as I’d like to, I’m thankful for God’s grace and hope to make it a more solid part of my routine. I’ve also been learning to pray more throughout the day, to really talk to God sometimes, which has been good.

Q: What part of a writing career do you find most difficult?
A. For me, the most difficult part of writing as a career is the marketing aspect. I’m not the most well organized person, so keeping track of blog posts is sometimes a struggle (I’m so thankful to the Suspense Zone for being so gracious with me despite my lateness sometimes!), and that’s one thing I’m working on. To be super, super honest, I also have a difficult time knowing how to self-promote when I feel like I’m just a normal person. Haha, does that make sense? Some authors do that so naturally, even on social media, and I’m still figuring that out. The writing, that’s the easier part. Which is fine, because that’s the part I love. And I can handle the rest because of that.

Q: Would you tell us about your current book release SILENT NIGHT SHADOWS?
A: Sure! Silent Night Shadows opens with Claire Phillips almost getting kidnapped because she’s been sitting on the roof of her apartment at night, painting some strange lights she sees in the ocean, and she’s accidently seen some criminal dealing she shouldn’t have seen and now they’re after her. She teams up with Nate Torres, a Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent from her past, to try to figure out who’s behind the shady events in her town before she ends up dead.

Q: Where did you get your inspiration for this story?
A: You know, it was so long ago I don’t remember exactly where this story began. I think I came up with the basic concept because I was trying to come up with a series of books that were all titled “Treasure Point S_____” My first in this series was Treasure Point Secrets, so I’d planned for this one to be Treasure Point Shadows. I needed to think of a story that would fit with “Shadows” and started thinking of the drug trade as a suspense thread, something shadowy, you know, and then got the basic concept from that. My editor ended up asking for different titles, and I love Silent Night Shadows, so it worked well, but that’s where the story idea came from!

Q: Tell us a little about your main character and how you developed him/her.
A: For the hero, I wanted Nate to be sort of a bad boy, but with a sweet side (creative, right?? 😉 ), but I also wanted him to have more depth. I had to work a lot on getting to know him as a character, coming up with details about him was more challenging than it has been for other heroes in the past, but I enjoyed the process. Claire is a secondary character in my June 2016 release, Cold Case Witness, so she already “existed” in my storyworld, but I had to figure out what makes her tick. I talked to my sister some, and that brainstorming helped me, since Claire has some characteristics from each of us (as does her sister Gemma), and I also found out a lot about Claire as the story progressed, as I did about Nate. And yes, my husband would laugh if he read this. I am, for the record, aware that I am the one who invents these characters, but sometimes I do feel like I “discover” things about them even though I’m the one making them up as the story goes along. =D

Q: What did you enjoy most about writing this book? Least?
A: Silent Night Shadows was one of the most challenging books I’ve ever written. It needed an extra round of edits compared to some of my other books and realizing how extensive those would be (with a pretty tight timeline) was a little terrifying. That was the least enjoyable part, wondering if it would even come together. What I enjoyed most was the development of the characters, especially the heroine. I see a lot of myself in Claire, although she’s not “me” and our issues are different, but I identify with her on several levels and I loved getting to work through some of my own feelings/challenges in life through her.

Q: What is the main theme or spiritual message of this book?
A: The main message of the book…I could see how there could be several, but the main one would be trusting God and not letting fear be in charge of us.

Q: Would you share with us what you are working on now?
A. I’m working on a couple of things at the moment. I have another proposal in with Love Inspired Suspense that I’m waiting to hear back on, and I’m also working on a contemporary romance that may be written just for me, but it’s been fun to work on brainstorming for.

Q: If you could have dinner with 2 people, who would they be?
A. Famous people? Regular people? That’s hard to say. My family is super important to me, so eating with them is really all I could ask for. =) However I have a lot of friends I’d love to eat with sometime if I could, and if I could pick two famous people it would probably be two authors. Robin Jones Gunn would be one of them, for sure.

Q: Do you have a favorite hobby?
A. I love hiking! It’s definitely one of my favorite hobbies although I didn’t do as much as I wanted to this summer and now most of the mountains here have snow on them. I enjoy the hiking process, the exercise, and most of all the view from the climb and the top. There’s something really special to me about standing on a mountain, looking out over other mountains and realizing that I am so, so small and God is so, so big.

Q: What is the most rewarding thing you have ever done?
A. Raising my boys (well, I’m still raising them since they’re only 4 and 6) is without a doubt the most rewarding thing I’ve ever done, and what I consider my greatest accomplishment. I am so thankful for them.

Q: Where can readers find you on the internet?
A. The best place to find me online is facebook.com/sarahvarlandauthor. I’m working on figuring out Twitter, @sarahvarland.