Sarah Varland Interview

Q: Let me start with asking you to tell us a little bit about yourself.

A:  I’m a wife to John, homeschooling mom, daughter, sister, and sometimes outdoor adventurer who loves to write, hike up mountains, hang out with my kids, go on dinner dates with my husband, paint, and draw. Ha, that sums up a lot of it. I’m a person with many interests and as I’ve told a couple recently, I have a lot of hobbies I enjoy even though I’m not very good at all of them.

Q: When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer?

A:  I remember writing stories in a journal in middle school, about characters who were like me but had basically no conflict in their stories. I continued the trend in high school, writing what I wanted to read when I felt I’d run out of books to read, and this time the stories were more well developed. I never finished anything until my sister pointed that out, and never one to back down from a sister-issued-challenge, I finished my first book when I was a senior in high school and submitted a query to a publishing company. They asked to see more of it, and turned it down, but that was where the desire to a writer really started. I also wrote a research paper that year about the career I hoped to have one day, and rather than write about one of my “safe” options, I ended up writing about my real dream, to be an author, and that paper along with encouragement from my family, is what really set me on the track to have this opportunity and I’m so thankful to God that I get to do this.

Q: What do you write and why this genre?

A:  I write romantic suspense. I started writing in the genre because I love both romantic suspense and chick lit but the chick lit genre wasn’t selling when I started seriously pursuing publication and an agent suggested I try something else. Romantic suspense fit so well with the stories my head came up with, partially because I’ve always had a bit of an overactive imagination when it comes to danger. I have kept writing romantic suspense because I think it’s a fun genre to read and in the Christian market I love how I’m able to tell the story of how God makes people braver than they think possible.

Q: Do you base your characters on people you know or are they totally made up?

A: They’re completely made up. I will say that they are often combinations of people I know, but never completely even then. It’s more fun to me to create a character from scratch and then just give them familiar characteristics here and there.

Q: Would you tell us about your current book release MOUNTAIN REFUGE?

A: Mountain Refuge is about a woman who used to find freedom running on mountain ridgelines but has since been spending her time running from her past mistakes and trying to prove to her siblings that she can be counted on. When she becomes the target of a serial killer, she has to take a more active role in her life, let herself be the brave woman she always has been and learn how much God loves her, no matter what.

Q: Where did the idea for this story come from?

A:  I knew I wanted Clay Hitchcock, a side character in most of my Treasure Point books, if not all of them, to have his own book. When I realized I had to end the Treasure Point series (you can only have so many murders in a small picturesque town before it is no longer picturesque haha), I decided it made sense for him to leave the area after what went wrong in the last case he worked (see my book Perilous Homecoming for details). I sent Clay to Alaska and since he’d also walked away from his law enforcement job I decided it would be fun to have him forced into a situation where the heroine was counting on his protection and on him being the cop he is inside but thought he could leave behind. Mountain Refuge is the result.

Q: Would you share with us what you are working on now?

A:I’m currently working on multiple stories—one about a woman who is an expert tracker and the police officer who needs her help, and one about a woman who comes to Alaska to find her missing great aunt only to become involved in a decades old murder investigation.

Q: Tell me three things about yourself that would surprise your readers.

A:  I’m secretly a big chicken. Is that surprising or sort of obvious from my books? I love how my characters end up being so brave in the end and hope that if I were in one of the crazy situations they find themselves in I would be able to be that brave too. I love sled dogs, recently rode on a tag sled (a sled attached to another sled, which was attached to a sled with 14 dogs on it). And despite the first thing I said about being a chicken, I absolutely love hiking on ridgelines, with drop offs on either side of me. What can I say? I enjoy being a contradiction.

Q: Milk or dark chocolate? Coffee or tea?

A.The chocolate really depends on my mood. I love both. As far as coffee or tea, I’m coffee all the way. It’s handy living in Alaska, because in South Central where I live, we have drive through coffee stands everywhere in addition to the regular coffee shops. I appreciate that, especially in the winter.

Q: Favorite TV show or shows?

A:  I love NCIS and Gilmore Girls. That really sums up well what I enjoy writing too, character driven suspense with what I hope is some fun dialogue.