Sara Mosier is a Nebraska author and poet, who received her BA in English from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Her writing focus is fiction and poetry, which she enjoys typing on an old 1950’s typewriter. She has poetry published in several issues of Laurus Magazine, Cocky-Tales anthology, and University of Nebraska Press’s 75th Anniversary edition of “Voices of Nebraska.” Her romantic short stories “Sparkling Human Conundrum” and “Summer Dilemma” can be found in the anthologies Love Dust and Salty Tales on Amazon. She was also recently published for her short drabbles in Oceans by Black Hare Press
Tell me about your writing process: schedule, environment, inspirations, magic spells, etc.
My schedule for writing varies; it all depends on when my muse strikes, but I would have to say that it’s mainly during the evening when my house is quiet. My inspirations comes from other books, poetry, and music. Music is probably my main source of inspiration, because I can hear a chorus and see an entire scene in my head. Troye Sivan has been a great writing tool as of late, given that the majority of what I write is m/m LGBTQ fiction.
Walk me through your submission / publishing process from “final” draft to final product, including who does what when, and marketing that you do as the author.
I usually always have a beta reader look over my work after I’ve combed over it a thousand times. I have three people who are my go-to betas: Jensen Reed, Melissa Snell, and Olivia London. They have helped me with countless short stories that I’ve seen published—that includes over-all plot and grammar. As to my marketing techniques, I promote on Facebook and my Instagram. Just recently I started a tumblr as well.
Talk about your support system online and IRL; who are your biggest cheerleaders? I mentioned all my betas in the previous question—they really are my biggest cheerleaders. Also my sibling Caleb and sister Jenna always read my short fiction. My Dad, although he’s not a fan of queer fiction (lol), has read all my published works, and I really appreciate that more than he knows.
How does life influence your writing and vice versa?
Well, things have been pretty stagnant lately while being in quarantine, but people I meet and talk to influence the shaping of characters. I tend to people-watch at coffee shops, parks, etc.
What do you love most about your creativity?
What I love more than anything is when an idea pops into my head so suddenly and so fully that I get butterflies in my stomach. When a character comes to life right off the page and I feel as though they’re a real person that I created—it’s the best feeling when that happens—also when I dream up locations and I can see them clearly in my mind’s eye.
Erin was born in Missouri and moved to the
East Coast in 2007. She holds an A.A.S in General Studies with an
emphasis in Police Science, a Certificate of Education from Germanna
Community College and a Bachelor’s of English, Linguistics, and
Communications from the University of Mary Washington. She enjoys
writing, acting, dabbling in the stock market and cryptocurrencies,
and playing instruments. An introvert to the core, Erin
self-identifies as a doughnut enthusiast and in her free time if
she’s not price shopping for lye, she enjoys long walks in dark
forests carrying her favorite shovel.
Tell me about
your writing process: schedule, environment, inspirations, magic
spells, etc.
Most of the time I
write between phone conferences with various celebrities while I’m
traveling on my private jet. I find that it’s the optimal place to
write, up in the clouds, on my way to a tropical coast. Joking…
I can’t say that I
have a process. I write. That’s pretty much it—one word and then
next and the next. I never force myself to write; I don’t keep a
set schedule or judge myself on the plethora of days and times I
should be writing and I’m not.
On warm days
(spring, summer, early fall) I have an outdoor spot where I write. It
serves as fantastic inspiration, but I won’t say where it is.
As far as magical
spells go, the fairies keep stealing them. Every single time I
concoct a new one those thieving little jerks come along and take it
from me. So, I would be more than happy to divulge the spells, but I
no longer have them. Perhaps interview the fairies. They will tell
you…maybe.
Walk me through
the publishing process as an editor of anthologies, from soliciting
submissions to marketing the final product.
I wouldn’t call
the publishing process ‘walking’. The better term would be
stumbling. It’s not an easy feat. Publishing an anthology would be
my excuse for turning to alcoholism. But really, I think it’s a
matter of being very clear on the submission call…VERY clear in
terms of what I’m looking for, what I expect in terms of
formatting, word count, content, etc. Doing this seems to help.
It’s working with
a large number of artists, all with different tastes, styles, and
trying to combine everything into a single volume; it can be fun and
challenging particularly because it is multi-genre. I’ve really
been fortunate to have worked with extremely talented authors and
poets which has helped make publishing both “Cocky-Tales” and
“Rejected” wonderful experiences.
Marketing is always
a tough one. I approach it a bit differently. I don’t do what they
call “link drop”. I’ve always worked to build a relationship
with my audience from participating in real-life events to going
Facebook Live, I appreciate everyone who takes time to leave a
comment or follow my page, and I enjoy interacting with them as much
as possible. When I market an anthology, I want my audience to also
get to know the authors here and there—bios are important to me. I
loved posting the rescue pet photos that a few of our authors had
sent in.
Talk about your
support system online and IRL; who are your biggest cheerleaders?
I feel like I have a
larger support system online than in real life. Per the last
question, I’ve taken time to try my best to build genuine
relationships and express my appreciation because, wow(!), sometimes
the interaction blows my mind! I’ve made a number of great online
friends who are also authors or aspiring authors, and they are
wonderful.
In real life I
wouldn’t say I necessarily have ‘cheerleaders’. Although, I’m
not opposed to cheerleading uniforms (i.e. Dallas Cowboys…anyways,
that wasn’t the question. Was it?) I have a handful of friends,
and I think if I ever wanted to quit writing, they’d probably try
to talk me out of it, lol.
Purchase series at Amazon
How does life
influence your writing and vice versa? Feel free to share anything
you want about When She Walked Away. Also, blatantly exploit this
opportunity to advertise all your freelance work.
I think every piece
of fiction is sourced from bits and pieces of reality. My life
influences my writing in significant ways. While the experiences
don’t exactly parallel, I think there’s parts of me in overall
situations or traits in characters. If it wasn’t personal on a
certain level, I wouldn’t write it.
When I write I also
find I’m discovering myself. Maybe not in the initial piece, but
once I am finished and I step back and see the complete picture, I
find something new within me that I hadn’t recognized. Art is cool
in that sense.
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What do you love
most about your creativity?
It’s a good way to
escape. My creativity allows me to process situations in abstract and
escapist dynamics; otherwise, I don’t know that I could deal with
some things through the lens of “normal society”.
Author Extra:
Tell us how you get acting roles! Don’t leave out the unglamorous,
hard work parts.
Luck? Accident? I
turned down my first role two times. I felt I was gracious and polite
about it, having recognized the opportunity to be involved in
something as big as Netflix, but it wasn’t where I thought I wanted
to go in life. Finally, I ended up taking it.
After that, I
decided I’d do some background roles. I only ever meant to stand in
the background as ‘popcorn eating patron number 137’, but at my
second job which was “Unmasked”, the director pulled me and gave
me a speaking role. Then and there I made an important decision:
Nothing is worth doing if it doesn’t scare the hell out of me.
Acting is practice,
practice, practice…it’s investing time and finances into the
craft. It’s driving to audition after audition, most are spur of
the moment. It’s coming home from the gym, sweaty, at ten o’
clock at night, changing my shirt, putting on makeup, fixing my hair,
and self-taping an audition or several.
It’s rejection
after rejection, and sometimes you don’t even hear that “no”.
What I do is submit and move on. Dwelling and checking email every
second of the day is like concrete. It holds you back. Submit, move
on, move forward, let go, because if it is meant to be, it’ll
happen. And when I do hear a “yes” (YES!) it is so worth it, the
entire process is worth it.
