INTERVIEW: Sarah E. Pearsall Typed Her First Draft at Age Fourteen on an Electric Typewriter

Welcome to the Tuesday Author Interview with Christina Boyd for the Who, What, When, Where, and Why.

CHRISTINA: I have been a member at Chick Lit Chat HQ on Facebook for years. Author Sarah E. Pearsall occasionally comments, but her recent post about her debut book, which is an upcoming feature at Kirkus, caught my eye. I was thrilled when she agreed to this interview.

When did you first think you had a book to write, and how did you start?

SARAH: I was fourteen years old when I started writing the first version of The Summer Knows. I was inspired by my friendship with two brothers who only came to visit during their summer vacations each year, but we formed a deep and everlasting bond. I wrote the first manuscript, all one hundred and fifty pages, on my mom’s electric typewriter. The novel has changed drastically since then. I wrote the current version in my MFA program at Florida International University, and it was my thesis. Then, after graduation, I worked on the book with notable authors, Laura Lippman and Meg Wolitzer, to get The Summer Knows where it is today.

CHRISTINA: Fourteen? That's amazing. At fourteen, I was just boy crazy and just writing in a diary. A diary that I burned before going off to college. Too many embarrassing notions to be discovered by anyone else.

Do you put people you know, or their characteristics, in your book?

THE SUMMER KNOWS by Darah E. Pearsall. Published June 17, 2025

SARAH: I like to think of people I know and characters I’ve read about as puzzle pieces. I like to take pieces from different people – real and fictional - ideas from my own imagination, and stitch them together into new, fictional people. Writers are collectors of the human spirit. We are always using what we know and have experienced, in new and fresh arrangements, to tell a story that resonates a truth.

CHRISTINA: What comes first: plot or characters?

SARAH: For me, characters are always the heart of the story, and I start formulating them in my mind and in character sketches well before any real plot forms. They tend to lead me to the plot as I develop them, and then, as I draft the characters and the plot sort of evolve together.

CHRISTINA: How do you decide on the ‘heat level’ for your books?

SARAH: Sex is part of human nature, and if you are going to write about relationships and love, sex is a natural element of a story. I approach sex in my stories as naturally and as humanly as possible. I was deeply influenced by Judy Blume’s fictional works and how honestly and realistically she depicts sex, and I feel, as a writer, I do the same. I am not sure what “heat” level my writing would fall under, to be honest, but there is sex in The Summer Knows and my other stories. Since I write mainly coming-of-age stories, sex is usually a new element for my characters and can be awkward. I do not see myself as a “spicy” author, but a writer who writes realistically about sex.

CHRISTINA: That's fair. I think sex in a book for the sake of sex is terribly dull. Your novel sounds heartfelt and thoughtful.

Have you gone on an author pilgrimage or research trip? Where and what was the most memorable moment?

SARAH: I absolutely love to go on research trips for my stories. I just got back from a trip to Florida to research a YA murder mystery series I am building. Setting/place is extremely important to me, and knowing the place is part of my process. Even when I write science fiction and there are new worlds involved, I map the new places and do lots of journal writing about them before I start drafting the manuscript.

My most memorable moments on research trips have been to the Ten Thousand Islands National Preserve, just off the West Coast of the Florida Everglades. It is a setting of my next novel, and being among the mangrove islands, you feel like you are at the very edge of the world. It is an incredible place, and I am in love with it!

CHRISTINA: That sounds like an amazing research trip.

What do you think makes a good story?

SARAH: A good story needs compelling characters that we either care about and want to cheer on or are so interesting, we can’t help but follow them to the end. We also need a goal for our characters to aim for. I love stories with a strong plot and with great character development. The relationships are most important for me because what we are trying to do in telling a story is to seek the human spirit, and the human spirit is bound to relationships. I am not really into beautiful prose. I find that a lot of books that have a lot of beautiful language are terribly boring. I can forgive subpar prose if the story is solid and I can connect with the characters.

CHRISTINA: Indeed. Prose should never be boring. Life is too short to read a dull book.

If you weren’t a writer, what would you be?

SARAH: I would totally be an FBI profiler. I am obsessed with how the human mind works and why we do the things we do. I have an unhealthy love affair with true crime and anything to do with serial killers. I am utterly fascinated with the diversity of the human mind and human consciousness in general.

CHRISTINA: That would be a fascinating career. Maybe you will need to write about one! Thanks for your time with this interview. And Congratulations on the Kirkus feature. That's a great way to debut a book.

Sarah E. Pearsall, author

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Sarah Pearsall is an Assistant Professor of Writing & Inquiry at Michigan State University. She has sixteen years of teaching excellence in higher education. Sarah also is the summer interdisciplinary creative writing instructor at the world-renowned Interlochen Center for the Arts for the past ten years.

She received her MFA in Creative Writing from Florida International University and is currently writing her dissertation on the writer’s identity for her doctorate in writing education at the University of Central Florida. She is the former food columnist for Around Wellington Magazine. She had been published in Sliver of Stone Literary Magazine, Tampa Bay Parenting, Macaroni Kids, and John Dufresne.

Sarah enjoys cooking and traveling the world with her two sons when not teaching or writing. She lives in the deep northern woods of Michigan, where she gardens and raises various farm animals with her husband and extended family. You can connect with Sarah on her website, TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook.