Her story
goes a little something like this:
After being
brought back to fantasy nerd-dom by a caring teacher and understanding parents,
Sarah wrote fan fiction during high school until one day, while listening to
the Cinderella soundtrack (the dark part after Cinderella flees the castle with
guards in pursuit), she thought:
What if Cinderella was an assassin
who had just tried to kill the Prince?
This idea
inspired Celeana, the main character of the Throne
of Glass series and Sarah spent six years writing the first few books of the
series. She posted Celeana’s story to FictionPress.com throughout high school
and college, and gained many fans along the way. But, the ultimate
goal was publication, so in 2008 she made the tough decision to pull her
stories from FictionPress.com and spent months revising and rewriting the
story.
From then on,
it was continual revision, after Sarah got her agent in 2009 and after
Bloomsbury bought the manuscript in 2010 then a lot of waiting until the publication
of Throne of Glass in the fall of
2012. Fast forward one year, and Crown of
Midnight is a NYT bestseller and Sarah’s about to jet off to the U.K. for a
book tour. If that’s not an inspiring story of publication, I don’t know what
is!
The story itself
makes Sarah a great role model, because it’s all about focus, motivation, and
never giving up. She may be a bit of a rebel, but who isn’t in the pursuit of
their dreams? Here’s some advice from Sarah about being a writer:
·
Write
as often as you can.
·
Write
what you love, and don’t apologize for it.
·
If
I had listened to the people who told me that writing wasn’t a viable career
path, then I wouldn’t be where I am.
·
If
it was easy, anyone could do it.
That last one
sticks with me. If writing was an easy path, then wouldn’t everyone be sitting
around crafting stories, playing with characters, writing love, intrigue and
mystery? Okay, maybe not everyone... But if this path wasn’t difficult, then it
wouldn’t be worth it in the end, right?
Even though Sarah
may not consider herself the best role model, I look up to her as a writer,
storyteller and inspiration in general, as I’m sure many of the people that
came out for the event do, as well as many people throughout the country and
world.
And, as I’m a
better writer than I am speaker, I tried to tell her while she was signing my
copies, but I’m not sure how intelligent/cohesive/sane I sounded. However, I
know the message is in her possession, because I wrote it in the awesome copy
of Throne of Glass that she has fans
sign!
 |
| Great idea, right? |
P.S. If you
haven’t read this series, I recommend it highly. Action, intrigue, romance,
plus the ending to Crown of Midnight
is completely stellar. Usually I pick up on foreshadowing (just ask my
boyfriend how many movies I’ve spoiled by whispering my guesses), but the
ending floored/shocked/awed me. It was a complete surprise, which means it was
immensely well done. Love love love!
DISCLAIMER: This post in an unofficial account of the event with
Sarah J. Maas on September 12, 2013 at Joseph-Beth Booksellers in Cincinnati,
OH. The views that I present in this article are my interpretations of the
event. They do not necessarily represent the opinions of Sarah J. Maas,
Bloomsbury or any affiliates.
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