So, who am I?

Sarah E. Glenn loves mystery and horror stories, often with a sidecar of humor. Several have appeared in mystery and paranormal anthologies, including G.W. Thomas’ Ghostbreakers series, Futures Mysterious Anthology Magazine, and Fish Tales: The Guppy Anthology. She is the Web Maven for the Florida Gulf Coast Chapter of Sisters in Crime, and also serves as Editor-in-Chief for Mystery and Horror, LLC.

Sarah developed strong ideals from her parents, a salesman turned missionary and an activist turned social worker. Despite their tutelage and a short stint as a classical languages grad student, she still loves Kolchak, superheroes, geek fandoms, and pop culture.

Her great-great aunt served as a nurse in WWI, and was injured by poison gas during the fighting. After being mustered out, she traveled widely. A hundred years later, “Aunt Dess” would inspire Sarah to write stories she would likely not have approved of.

Shaddap already! What's the giveaway?

On December 5th and 6th, the Kindle version of Murder on the Mullet Express will be free. Also, if you comment on my blog post with the word "snowbirds," you will be entered into a drawing for the new audiobook version of Murder on the Mullet Express!

Oh, wait. You won the drawing, but don't want an audiobook? We can negotiate sending you a print copy of MOME, or one of the other books in the series. Write me at sarahglenn 63 @ gmail.com minus the spaces.

And now ... the interview!

1.          What inspired you to start writing? I began readingat a very early age. I loved stories. Loved, loved, loved them. I couldn’tthink of anything nobler to do (not sure where humor came into it). My earliestwritings were continuations of the stories I loved (aka fan fiction), which Idrew as well as wrote. I began with horses (big Black Stallion fan),moved to Betty and Veronica, and eventually to The X-Men, where Iintroduced my own characters.

In college, I was introduced tofantasy. I shifted to prose inspired by Roger Zelazny’s world of Amber, but developedmy own plots and characters. I do enjoy other worlds, whether science fiction,fantasy, or historical.

2.          What did you want to be when you grew up? A witch,an astronaut, an alien, a superhero, a spy, an actress, and an author. Thebeauty of being an author is that you can be all of these people and more.

3.          What genres do you write? I started with horror andparanormal tales, but my interest in mysteries developed over time. People’s secretsand hidden motivations are fascinating. Zelazny’s first Amber series (the firstfive novels) starred Corwin, who woke up with amnesia in a private hospital andbroke free. His first question was “Who am I?” The hospital’s records led himto his sister, who was not forthcoming. A brother, one of many, shows up. He’sin trouble, and offers to help Corwin take the throne. Turns out Corwin hasbeen missing for longer than their father. The family has been betrayed by oneof their own, and Corwin must discover what is going on.

Meeting Gwen sharpened myinterest in mysteries as a genre. She is a long-term Agatha Christie fan. I’dread several of my grandmother’s Perry Mason books, but mostly watched my detectiveson television. Together, we discovered Anne Perry, Donna Andrews, CatrionaMcPherson, Janet Evanovich, Louise Penny, and the Elizabeth McPherson series bySharyn McCrumb.

4.          What advice would you give to a new writer, someone juststarting? Write what inspires you. Don’t “write to market.” By the time youfinish writing a story in a popular trope, the readers will have moved tosomething else. Plus, you will have wasted your energy on writing something youdidn’t love. Writing is something that comes from the self, like any creativeendeavor.

5.          Plotter or pantser? Oh, I pants my way through thebeginning of everything I write. I have tried outlining first, but it takes thelife out of the process for me. I usually have to write 30,000 words of a bookbefore I figure out what the real story is. Then I outline, usually with thehelp of a calendar.

I don’t write in chronologicalorder; I write the first scene that appears in my head. Eventually thenarrative grows into a scene and sequence pattern, and the plot takes form. Atsome point, I have to move a block of story because I realize it should havehappened earlier in the tale, and then retrofit things so it looks like it wasthere all along.

6.          Do you listen to music while you write? My co-authorcan only write in silence. My imagination rides music like a horse. When I’mwriting in a specific historical period, I listen to music (with earbuds) fromthat era. It helps set the mood, and in some cases, the attitude of theculture. The popular music of the 1920s is more rambunctious than the compositionsof the French Romantics and Impressionists, even though they aren’t far apartin age. Life has a soundtrack, as far as I’m concerned.

7.          How did you convert your book into an audiobook? ScottEllis of Scott Ellis Reads spoke to our Sisters in Crime chapter a few years ago. One of our dreams hasbeen having audiobooks, so when we reconnected with him earlier this year, wedecided to go ahead with him.

We sent Scott sample materialfrom Murder on the Mullet Express, and he sent us audio from differentnarrators who work with him. Even though the primary characters were mostlyfemale, we chose him for his facility with the different accents and general tone.

Scott guided us through theprocess with ACX, which is owned by Amazon (so far, Amazon has provided us thebest bang for our buck for the series). I claimed our book on ACX, and extendedan offer to his company (we had agreed on the rate by then).

He posted his reading of thefirst chapter quickly, and we made comments. We also met with Scott via Zoom toprovide more information on the characters—their general tone (pleasant, gruff,etc.), backgrounds (some are Southern, others are not). Scott offered hissuggestions for how minor characters might sound.

After that, he uploadedrecordings of the chapters to ACX for us to listen to and approve. Once we hadapproved the initial recordings, we then received completed recordings forfinal approval. It was a last-minute chance to catch problems, which Iappreciated.

The projected date of completion atthe time of the offer was late January 2025, but the audiobook became availablebefore Thanksgiving. Amazon/ACX runs the book through its own approval process.They say the average time for approval is 10 days, but ours took two weeks. Butthere were no requests for corrections!

Gwen and I were both pleased withthe work Scott Ellis did with the audiobook. He did an excellent job.

On December 5th and 6th,the Kindle version of Murder on the Mullet Express will be free on Amazon. Ifyou comment on this post with the word “snowbirds,” I will enter you into adrawing for a free copy of the audiobook. If you don’t want a download of theaudiobook, I can send you a print copy of Murder on the Mullet Expressor another book in the Three Snowbirds series.

Lightning round – Just forfun:

Tea or coffee? Yes, with sugar.Lots of sugar.

Morning person or night owl?Whooo, me?

City or country? The ‘burbs suitme best.

Thanksgiving or Christmas?Halloween.

Extrovert or introvert? Introvertin person, extrovert online.

Print, ebook, or audiobook? Ebooksfor nonfiction, audiobooks for fiction.

Pizza, burgers, or pasta? Pizza.See, I can give a straight answer!

Other books by Sarah E. Glenn

Murder at the Million Dollar Pier - co-written with Gwen Mayo.

Ybor City Blues - co-written with Gwen Mayo.

Short Stories:

"Bolita and Blues" - Paradise is Deadly: Gripping Tales from Florida’s Gulf Coast

"Hornswoggled" - Mystery with a Splash of Bourbon

"Two Old Crows" - co-written with Gwen Mayo for Mystery with a Splash of Bourbon

"The Odds Are Always Uneven" - co-written with Gwen Mayo for Hoosier Hoops and Hijinks

"New Age Old Story" - Fish Tales: the Guppy Anthology

Okay, that's about all the fun I can stand. I got wordy.

I hope you have a great end to this year, whichever holiday you do or do not celebrate. Drop me a line below--I'm eager for other people to hear our first audiobook!

Want to follow me? Thanks!

Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/SarahGlennAuthor

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sarahelleniglenn/

Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/sarahglenn.bsky.social