2020 - 08/2020 Meeting

Page Created: 01/14/20. Last Updated: 09/2520.

SARAH PORTER

BOOKS:

Lost Voices (Lost Voices # 1)

Waking Storms (Lost Voices # 2)

Twice Lost (Lost Voices # 3)

Tentacle and Wing

Never-Contented Things

Vassa in the Night

When I Call Your Shadow

SOCIAL MEDIA

Website.....https://www.sarahporterbooks.com/

FaceBook..........https://www.facebook.com/SarahPorterAuthor/

InstaGram..........https://www.instagram.com/sarahporterbooks/

Twitter................https://twitter.com/sarahporterbook

MEETING DETAIL

Meeting Date: August 8, 2020.

Meeting Site: Zoom Video Conference.

Attendance: 27.

Meeting Program: Talk / Q & A with Young Adult Fantasy Author.

Newsletter Account

Writer Sarah Porter is the author of eight middle grade, young adult, and adult fantasy novels: the middle grad Lost Voices mermaid trilogy LOST VOICES, WAKING STORMS, and TWICE LOST, and TENTACLE AND WING from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and NEVER-CONTENTED THINGS, VASSA IN THE NIGHT, and WHEN I CAST YOUR SHADOW from Tor Teen.

Our speaker had a troublesome childhood. The family moved around a lot and she never really fit in. She was labeled a slow learner until someone handed her a copy of THE HOBBIT. It was a life-changing experience. There was finally something interesting to read and her teachers realized that she was actually rather bright. Even so, she was never a good fit in the school system until much later in life. Our guest dropped out of high school and drifted until the time was right for her to return to academia and ultimately obtain a MFA. She has run a number of creative writing workshops in New York through the Teachers & Writers Collaborative.

Becoming a published author was no easy path for Ms Porter. She wrote a number of unpublishable novels while learning the writing craft. At one point she was about to give up and commit to a mundane career. Her boyfriend / future husband told her, "I do not work this hard so you can be a receptionist. Write a book!"

She did, and this one clicked. It was LOST VOICES, the first in a mermaid trilogy about desperate, lonely young women who throw themselves into the sea to drown and instead transform into ageless and fearsome mermaids.

Enter a stroke of fortune. A friend connected with a woman through online dating. The woman was about to leave the agent biz for a different career. Her friend pleaded with his date to look at Sarah's work. She did, and passed along the manuscript to someone else in the agency.

Our speaker wrote TENTACLE AND WING, another middle grader, for HMH before writing VASSA IN THE NIGHT for an older, young adult audience. The story is set in Brooklyn where the with Baba Yagg runs a local convenience store. The book is based on a Russian faerie tale and was published by Tor Teen.

Sarah said the bloom is off the rose in the Young Adult market. The public and the editors have become much more conservative in their purchasing. This has been particularly tough for writers like her who push the edge. Her editor is having her rewrite her current book to move it out of the YA category and market it as an adult fantasy.

More information about the meeting will be posted to the club website at 2020 - 08/2020 Meeting. Our thanks to Sarah Porter and to everyone who helped with the event, particularly Carol Gyzander.