171: Sarah Branson - Author of A Merry Life
Here’s our latest podcast with Sarah Branson (A Merry Life, Sooner Started Press, April 2022). Our discussion ranges from what it’s like to build a world that’s set 300 years in the future but still keep it character-driven (“Like historical fiction that just hasn’t happened yet”) to a wise coach’s advice to Sarah about marketing an indie book (“No one can buy a book they haven’t heard of”) and why she decided her very long book was really a series of four and then chose to release them all within a single year. Award-winning author Sarah Branson was a midwife for close to thirty years, helping families welcome their little ones into their arms in the hospital, at a birth center and at home. Now she writes tales of action, adventure, revenge, and romance featuring airborne pirates. Her stories are set against the backdrop of an Earth changed by fires, floods, and pandemics, but are firmly rooted in the strength and resiliency of the human spirit. Sarah first started conjuring stories of pirates when her family hopped a freighter to Australia when she was seven. She has since grown up, traveling extensively across the US and the globe. She raised her family in Michigan and still longs to swim in Sturgeon Bay and Little Traverse Bay. She has a deep appreciation for people’s strength and endurance and fully believes that badass women will inherit the Earth and the Earth will be better for it. Her debut novel, A Merry Life, was chosen as the 2022 Connecticut Adult Fiction winner by the Indie Author Project and was named a 2022 Book of the Year finalist in the action/adventure and science fiction categories by the Independent Author Network. It is the first book in the series Pirates of New Earth. Books 2 and 3: Navigating the Storm and Burn the Ship are available now. The exciting conclusion of the series, Blow the Man Down is slated for February 2023. Sarah lives with her husband in Connecticut. To learn more about Sarah, click here.