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Sara’s Year In Books

Sara’s 2025 Year in Books

Take a look at Sara’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.

Go to Sara’s 2025 Year in Books

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Dustin

1,131 books | 8 friends

Charles Ray

2,198 books | 672 friends

Ann-Marie

123 books | 4 friends

J.R. Barker

492 books | 161 friends

Jacqueline Hopkins

293 books | 954 friends

Serena Akeroyd

97 books | 2,601 friends

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48 books | 623 friends

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654 books | 646 friends

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Sara Stark

Goodreads Author

Born

Atlanta, The United States

Website

http://sarastarkwrites.wordpress.com/

Twitter

Sara_Stark

Genre

Women's Fiction, Fiction, Contemporary

Influences

Wm. Faulkner, Alice Hoffman, Stephen King, everyone I've ever read and ...more

Member Since

April 2012

URL

https://www.goodreads.com/nelliew

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Please note: There is another author publishing as Sara Stark. You may see her book (Leap Through Eternity) listed under my author page. I didn't write this book. The GR website admins were good enough to remove it from my author page.

I, now, return you to your regularly broadcast program.

Thanks!!

***

What can I say? Writing is an acceptable form of schizophrenia.

Sara Stark is Nellie Williamson's alter ego. Nellie grew up on a farm outside a small town in middle Georgia, but having been married to a Navy man for nearly fifteen years (and now divorced, thank goodness), she has lived in most parts of the US at one time or another.

Nellie has spent the past twenty-something years in the crazy and demanding world of Corporate America. So when t ...more

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Popular Answered Questions

Where did you get the idea for your most recent book?

Sara Stark Everyday I see something or read something, and I think, that would be a great story. For awhile I kept a list of story ideas, but it got to the point…moreEveryday I see something or read something, and I think, that would be a great story. For awhile I kept a list of story ideas, but it got to the point it was frustrating to note down another idea and not do anything with it. I’ve sat in movies and halfway through thought, if this doesn’t end the way I think it’s going to end, then I’m going to write that story.

With Couillon, I was under pressure to write a short story for a literary fiction class I was taking. On the web I had recently seen an image of Jesus and Mary painted in DayGlo colors, and in my head, I immediately saw that painting hanging in a voodoo shop in New Orleans. I love all things mystical and spooky. That image of the voodoo shop gave me the theme and led me to write the first section [20 pages or less for the class], the scene where Janice purchases the voodoo doll. I later turned that short story into a novella.

An Untold Want had no such immediate inspiration, no ah ha moment. I had finished my literary fiction class and helped form a short-lived writing group with some of the members of said class. They were all working on A Novel, and I thought I should be working on a novel too. Again, I love anything arcane. But for me, a novel can’t just be about witches or spooky stuff. Yes, there are a lot of novels out there about witches and ghosts, but I don’t write urban fantasy. I’ve tried to write genre, because it sells better, but I just don’t think that way when I’m writing. Then I thought about Alice Hoffman’s Practical Magic, and I decided to try my hand at a story like that. It ended up being nothing like Practical Magic, except it has witches, but that was the key factor in how An Untold Want started. I pulled the last name from one of my favorite songs, Ode to Billie Joe, but spelled MacAllister differently. I took the setting from Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. You don’t get spookier than Savannah. And from those key factors, I built a small town and an unhappy woman who is a bit too much like me.

For my latest project [working title: Twin Story], I decided that I did not want to invent another small town. It’s a lot of work to create a world, from the street grid to the geography [Is it a swampy area? What are the trees/flowers like? What does it smell like? What are the buildings like?] to the town’s personality/attitude. I’ve lived in Seattle long enough that I thought I’d try my hand at writing a novel based in Seattle. But my novels have to have that bit of the esoteric, or they wouldn’t be mine. So I decided to incorporate Native American mythology into it.

But the key factor, what really started the project was an article I read in the Weird News on some newspaper web site. I can’t tell you what the news story was because that would give away a large part of the story I’m working on. But those three things — Seattle, Native American mythology, and weird news — gave me the premise for my new novel. I’ve since read a lot about Native Americans, about the residential schools [which disturbs me greatly], about the different tribes, and about the myths especially those of Raven. I didn’t realize how different the Pacific Northwest tribes are, but I’ve grow to love the Native American mythology. I’m still now sure how I will pull it all together, but I’m working on it.

With that said, I should be writing the book instead of writing about it. I wish it were as easy as writing a blog post.(less)

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Combine Editions
Sara Stark’s books

Average rating: 3.74 · 39 ratings · 14 reviews · 7 distinct works

	An Untold Want 3.73 avg rating — 26 ratings — published 2013 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Couillon 3.77 avg rating — 13 ratings — published 2012 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Coloring Album Book 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Coloring Feeling Book 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Coloring Excited Book 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Coloring Normal Book 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Coloring Homework Book 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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155 posts
Sara Stark's Blog

The Year of Playing FreeCell

Depression has a way of flipping my perspective. When I’m in its grasp, it’s like no matter how hard I try to appreciate the beauty of the roses, I only feel the bite of the thorns. No, I don’t feel sad. No, I’m absolutely not suicidal. But there are times, like now, when I just […]

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Sara’s Recent Updates

Jan 05, 2025 11:10PM · like · view books

Jan 05, 2025 11:10PM · like · view books

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Quotes by Sara Stark (?)

“Seek within, for the answer cannot be found without.”
― Sara Stark, An Untold Want

tags: self-awareness

3 likes

“Instead it yanks on a worm wiggling in the loosened soil. Its feathers shimmer in the morning sunlight, a malignant green on black as it tosses its beak back, devouring the worm, and then it cocks its head to stare at her, its eyes funereal and questioning.”
― Sara Stark, An Untold Want

tags: crows, ravens

3 likes

“Time seemed to drag with dreamlike slowness, like a knife through cold honey, and the room took on a surreal golden sheen as if I was looking through that same jar of honey. Maybe at that moment, the sun shone just right though the grimy windows, but the woman, the shelves, the jars, everything in the room appeared in tones of gold and sepia, except for the painting behind the counter. From behind the shopkeeper's head, a fluorescent Mary and Jesus glared at me, their cartoon-like faces reproaching me for being there.”
― Sara Stark, Couillon

tags: dark, literary-fiction, new-orleans, voodoo, women-s-fiction

2 likes

See all Sara Stark's quotes »

Sara’s Quotes

“Beware of the man who works hard to learn something, learns it, and finds himself no wiser than before," Bokonon tells us. "He is full of murderous resentment of people who are ignorant without having come by their ignorance the hard way.”
― Kurt Vonnegut, Cat’s Cradle

46 likes

“Like so many Americans, she was trying to construct a life that made sense from things she found in gift shops.”
― Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five

1394 likes

“There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.”
― Ernest Hemingway

tags: good, writing

19425 likes

“Substitute 'damn' every time you're inclined to write 'very;' your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be.”
― Mark Twain

tags: humor, writing

9632 likes

“Fiction is the truth inside the lie.”
― Stephen King

tags: writing

5918 likes

More of Sara’s quotes…