Featured Interview With Sara Preston
Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
Hey all! My name is Sara Preston I was born, raised, and live in Indiana (no I’m not backwards and I don’t believe in the laws passed by our Governor). I am happily married to my husband Dan. We’ve been married for five years now. We have three children two girls and a boy. We have a dog named Loki. He’s a border collie/corgi mix.
I write contemporary romance novels with a realistic twist to them. If you’re looking for fairy tales, you won’t find them here. My characters deal with real life issues in my books. I run a critique group on facebook called Critique Me. I love helping people with their writing, because if it wasn’t for the people who helped me, I wouldn’t be where I am today.
At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
My parents read to us at a very young age. They got tired of kids books at a pretty young age, so they started reading us chapter books instead (Tarzan, The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings). I was between seven and ten when they started reading chapter books to us.
I started writing in Junior High. We had read Old Yeller in my literature class and my computer writing teacher assigned us to bring Old Yeller into modern days and bring him on vacation with us. So I combined my love of TV cop shows at the time with Old Yeller and we went to New York and ran into the characters from NYPD Blue. Ha! It was awful, but it was my first attempt at a story and it’s only grown from there.
Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
My love for reading started out with fantasy. I love Tolkien, Terry Brooks, Raymond E. Feist. I found the romance genre around the same time I started writing. I fell in love almost immediately. My first romance novel was Night and Day by Carole Buck. I found it in one of my mother’s desk drawers and read it by flash light hiding under my covers. I spent many a night up until three in the morning reading romance novels by flashlight.
Eve Gaddy and Susan Mallory are two of my favorites in the romance genre. Also Amie Thurlo does wonderful romantic suspense novels.
A couple of new authors I have to mention because I really do love their work. Deb Julienne writes hilarious romantic comedies that everyone should read. And Wendy Oleston writes Sexy Christian Fiction. I usually don’t read Christian Fiction, but hers is worth the read.
Tell us a little about your latest book?
My book If You Only Knew is a labor of love. It is loosely based on my relationship with my husband. The situation in the book is made up, but my main male character has a lot in common with my husband. It took me about two years to write this book.
Instead of telling you what I think of my book, I want to share what my good friend Amber Root wrote about the book. Amber writes a serial on FB called Tears of the North.
Character critique for Julian: I must take a moment to congratulate you on your ability to write believable male characters. He is sexy. He is charming. He is mysterious. He is passionate. He is also frustrating, pig headed, stubborn, inconsiderate, and, at times, emotionally abusive. This last characteristic is, I believe, the issue of his that you resolve in your novel with the introduction of Liza into his life. He learns that he does not have to be a mean, insensitive, ass in a can to be respected and strong. He is a beautiful mess and I salute you!
Character critique for Liza: As a woman I can identify strongly with Liza. She is, at her core, every woman in the world. She is beautiful, loving, supportive, intelligent, independent, and here, empowered. I have noticed that Liza’s biggest troubles emerge when she gives some one else the power. First with her bosses, then with Julian. You also bring us to Liza when she is at a low point. We think she can get no lower. But you show us that is untrue. Things can, and do, get worse for her. But you show us through Liza, with Julian’s help at the end, that they do get better. Liza is the quintessential woman living a horrible, wonderful life. Thank you for sharing her.
The Story: I went into this expecting a romance novel. I expected a beautiful woman would be having awesome sex with a gorgeous, sexy, charming man. I expected that their problems would be mole hill small and made into Mount Everest. You, you beautiful, cheeky angel, gave me a window into a real life and a real love. You gave me real people to care about with real problems to agonize over. You gave me no promise of happily ever after, but a continuing struggle for love and family that sings the song of modern life loudly and proudly. Prince Charming gets his princess knocked up and then shows he deserves the crown for staying around for the long haul. Julian and Liza make each other better people and I love that. But I also love that you didn’t give me a saccharine sweet happy ending but a promise of “let us face this world together”. Give me more. I love it!
If I had one criticism it is this: not everyone is a case worker. If you can express your case work examples within the story more, and have them less as a stream of consciousness from Liza that would be fantastic.
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