Sara Zarr
Sara Zarr
Sara Zarris an American writer. She was raised in San Francisco, and now lives in Salt Lake City, Utah with her husband. Her first novel, Story of a Girl, was a 2007 National Book Award finalist. She is also the author of Sweethearts and Once Was Lost. All three are published by Little, Brown...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionYoung Adult Author
Date of Birth3 October 1970
CountryUnited States of America
nice book reading
One of my favorite authors is Robert Cormier. He was a devout Catholic and a very nice man, which might not be the impression you get from reading his books.
opportunity interesting doe
When the reader and one narrator know something the other narrator does not, the opportunities for suspense and plot development and the shifting of reader sympathies get really interesting.
struggle awful obscure
There's a lot that is awful. That's the struggle of getting old. To make sure you don't let what's hard...obscure the beauty.
jobs character writing
My first job is to write the characters as full and authentic people as well as I can.
passion discipline violin
I played the clarinet, and my sister played the violin... If wed had the discipline and the passion, maybe we could have been good.
jesus california san-francisco
I grew up in San Francisco in the 1970s. We were part of a church that belonged to the California Jesus movement.
girl book firsts
My first published book, Story of a Girl, was the fourth book I wrote.
thinking years people
I wouldn't say I'm stuck in my adolescence, but I think, like a lot of people, I carry my teen years with me. I feel really in touch with those feelings, and how intense and complicated life seems in those years.
christian writing fiction
I wanted to be free to write the way I wanted to write, and my impression of Christian publishing, at least in fiction, was that there wasn't room for what I wanted to write.
mother thinking yelling
I don't yell back at my mother. When I'm angry or scared or upset, I don't yell. I stay quiet. I've seen how she is, how she would get with Kent and with me and with other people, life if someone at the pharmacy got in the wrong line or asked too long a question, or if someone on the bus accidentally bumped her. I've watched her my whole life, the way people react to her. It doesn't actually help you get what you want, yelling and being like that. It only makes people think bad of you.
mean way different
It's just so out of control. Life, I mean. The way it flies off in all these different directions without your permission.
artist hands creative
Your greatest creation is your creative life. It's all in your hands. Rejection can't take it away; reviews can't take it away. The life you create for yourself as an artist, may be the only thing that's really yours. Create a life you can center yourself in calmly as you wait for your work to grow.
character writing stories
I didn't 'decide' to write YA, per se. But every time I thought of a story, it featured characters 15, 16, 17.
character research might
I don't like to do too much psychological research because it might turn a character into a patchwork.