SEPTEMBER GUEST: Author Sarah Elle Emm On How She Became A Writer

Author Sarah Elle Emm

I’ve always been drawn to blank paper. I’m not sure when it began, but my first memory of wanting to write was around age seven. And I am thirty-six-years old. I remember being a little girl and wanting to create something, anything, on blank pieces of paper. I wasn’t sure what to create, but typically I tried to write poems, at least in the beginning. My mother spent a lot of time writing when I was young, which of course influenced me as well. I have vivid memories of walking down the stairwell and seeing her typing away on her typewriter or actually writing with a pen on a yellow legal pad. I knew she was working on short stories and whatever came to her writer brain, but I didn’t really care what she was writing. I just felt this immense pull to what she was doing. I wanted to write something, too. That same year, when I was seven, I asked her if I could use her typewriter. She enthusiastically set it up for me, gave me a quick tutorial, and left me alone to write. I remember admiring the blank paper in the typewriter and feeling so happy. I made it a few sentences in, and suddenly I realized I didn’t know what was going to happen next in my story. It was a lot more difficult than my seven-year-old self had imagined. Plus, my friends were all outside playing, so naturally, I decided to hold off on the novel. After that first attempt, I mostly stuck to writing poems and eventually, my mom encouraged me to write in journals, which I really enjoyed.

As I got older, I was so focused on figuring out what to do with my life, I guess I never considered becoming a writer as an obtainable or realistic goal. I was interested in so much, and traveling was my number one priority. In college, I enrolled in every study abroad program I could while I studied German, Spanish, and earned a business degree. Still, I kept travel journals on the side. I wrote a poem here and there. I think I had to write so many papers in college I couldn’t imagine actually attempting to write a novel, but it still lingered in the back of my mind. When I was twenty-two and living in Germany, I tried again to write a novel, but I only made it about ten chapters in before I walked away from it. Still, I’d made it farther than I had at age seven.

It wasn’t until my late twenties that I finally felt I was ready to write my first book. I was a new stay-at-home mom, and while it could have been the sleep deprivation that made me go for it, suddenly I was ready. One day while my daughter was taking a nap, I pulled out my laptop and started typing a story. And I didn’t stop. Whenever she was sleeping, nap time or after her bedtime, I worked on my book. I really didn’t have anything else to do anyway. My husband was always at work, I had no family around where we lived, and the couple of friends I had nearby were single and worked a lot. So maybe not having an adult to talk to just finally got to me. Still, that was okay because all at once, I was writing, and it felt so good. Plus, I could wear my sweatpants and t-shirt, even pajamas if I wanted to. In between nursing and doing laundry, I let the writer in me out.

Eventually, I wrote a second novel. Along the way, I realized my first novel was just a practice. It had been the warm-up I needed to get started. Over a few years, I tried to find an agent. I collected rejection letters like they were going out of style. I went back to work in my husband’s restaurant for a year and forgot about my dream. But no matter how I tried, I couldn’t fight the desire to write and always went back to it. I wrote two more novels, and then one day my sister, husband, and mother all randomly suggested to me that I start a blog. I am not sure if they had conspired to get me to do it behind my back, but for whatever reason, I took their advice. Within six months, I had a nice following on my blog, and I began submitting my novels again. I finally landed my first publishing contract for a women’s fiction I had written.

I’ve lived in seven different cities since I became serious about writing. I’ve had my ups and downs and learned a lot along the way. My daughters will always come first, before my writing. Still, I’ve had five novels published since those nap-time writing sessions began, and no matter what happens next, I can look in the mirror now and say this journey has been worth it. Part of me wishes I had been braver and made myself write that first novel sooner. Part of me knows it had to unfold naturally.

I don’t know where this journey will lead. But I am taking it one day at a time and living in the moment. Whatever the case, I have accepted who I am. I am a writer. It always comes back to pieces of paper. My desk is covered in blank paper, notebooks, and a computer waiting for me to create whenever I feel the urge. Just like when I was a little girl, they still beckon me to write. And I don’t think it will ever go away.

Sarah Elle Emm is the author of the HARMONY RUN SERIES, a young-adult fantasy and dystopian series, released in May 2012 by Winter Goose Publishing. (PRISMATIC, May 2012, OPALESCENT, February 2013, CHATOYANT, September 2014, NACREOUS, August 2015) Her debut fiction novel, MARRYING MISSY, was published by Bird Brain Publishing in October 2011.The books in HARMONY RUN SERIES are currently on Kindle sale at $1.99 each. You can also try your luck with a Rafflecopter giveaway and win

• 1  $10 Amazon GC
• 1 Signed Copies set of all the 4 Books in the Harmony Run Series
• 3  Signed Copy of a book of their choice from the Harmony Run Series