Books Spark Joy with Sarah Williams

17 May

Welcome to this week's edition of Books Spark Joy with Sarah Williams.

Sarah is the bestselling author of Australian romantic fiction including the successful Brigadier Station series.She spent her childhood chasing sheep, riding horses and picking Kiwi fruit on the family orchard in rural New Zealand. After a decade travelling, Sarah moved to Queensland to raise a family and follow her passion for writing. She currently resides in Maleny on the Sunshine Coast Hinterland, Australia.When she's not absorbed in her fictional writing world, Sarah is running after her family of four kids, one husband, two dogs, a horse and a cat. She is CEO of Serenade Publishing, hosts the weekly podcast/vlog Write with Love, runs writers workshops and retreats, mentors and supports her peers to achieve their publishing dreams. Over to Sarah ...My mother was a teacher, so she knew the value of reading to kids. Every night my brother and I would snuggle in and listen as she read us story after story. As I grew up my interest in books wanned as I found other hobbies. However I clearly remember the moment my life changed.I was fourteen and my family were attending a party at my aunts house. I stumbled across a pile of books in her garage and spotted a worn paperback with a pioneering couple in a dramatic pose. The blurb of “This Calder Range” by Janet Dailey promised romance, suspense, cowboys and indians. Everything 14 year old me could possibly want.My aunt let me have the book – she’d obviously forgotten how steamy parts of it were. While reading it I had an epiphany. I wanted to do this, to write stories that would transport the reader to a different time and place, to escape the every day. It was that moment I knew I would become an author.Twenty years later my first book The Brothers of Brigadier Station was published. Now I have five books behind me, a new audiobook version and a bunch more planned. I still have my battered copy of This Calder Range sitting pride of place on my bookshelf in my office.I mostly read on my Kindle or listen to audiobooks now. I have about 2000 books on my kindle and read around one per week. I prefer shorter length books up to 50,000 words.I am often given paperback copies of books and I do like getting autographed copies too. Eventually I end up gifting many away either as competition prizes via my podcast Write with Love or to my local library.We have three huge bookcases which are full of books – mostly children’s books as I have four kids at primary school and, just like my mother, I read story after story to them every night.