Official Interview: S J Savage

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Official Interview: S J Savage

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Today's Chat with Sarah features S J Savage author of Lily's Quest.

To view the first official review, click here.

To view the second official review, click here.

To view the book on Amazon, click here.

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1. When did you first start writing?

In early 2020, I got very sick and it was assumed that I had COVID. Not much was known about COVID at that time, so my husband (who is a physician) quarantined me in our bedroom for 5 weeks. I was so bored - I mean, there's only so much TV you can watch. I opened my laptop and began writing as a way to entertain myself. By the end of my quarantine, 70% of the book was written.

2. What's your goal when you write a story?

This was my first crack at actually writing a story, and I am a critical thinker and I love details. The story needed to be interesting, it had to make sense, and all of the intricate details had to pull together. In the end, it was important to me that the reader felt satisfied knowing everything had come full circle. It irritates me when I read a story that fails to wind up all the details and leaves you hanging.

3. What author would you say has most influenced your writing style?

Probably James Patterson in that he writes suspensefully without straying outside of the story line. As I got 25% of the way into it, J.K. Rowling's ability to create unusual characters who can do unique things became an influence to me.

4. Let's talk about your book Lily's Quest. It centers around a remarkable four-year-old girl named Lily who sees some sort of beings. How did you come up with the idea for the book?

While quarantined in my bedroom, I was sitting quietly one morning. I glanced around the room and my focus landed on my closet door. That triggered a memory of an experience I had when I was 4 years old. I remembered being terrified of my closet when I was a child. I opened my laptop and began writing about that experience. As I did, I remembered things that were stored in the far corners of my mind about Shadow People pulling me off my bed by my feet. My parent's reaction was that I just had a bad dream, but children don't fall out of their beds from the end of their beds, they would fall to the side. I paused and thought: What if my parents believed me? From there an interesting story was created.

5. The reviewer discusses the exceptional characters and close-knit families. How did you make them so realistic?

It was easy because the characters are my actual family, neighbors, and friends. I didn't have to make them up. The only fictional characters are Edith MacKenzie, Auset, and the staff at the top secret government facility. Everyone else is real but with fictional names. Most of the experiences in the book are fictional, but the experiences in the beginning chapters were real. I've always been intuitive, but shut it down when I was constantly being distracted by the dead at school. I re-opened it later in life but kept it to myself.

6. Was it difficult to write about such a young protagonist?

Not at all because I was writing about myself. The book opens with a very early memory at the age of 4, but after 3-4 chapters it jumps to 6 yrs, then 7 yrs old. Lily's understanding of her abilities and what she is seeing develops rapidly over that 3 year period with the help of her mentor, Edith MacKenzie. It may be inconceivable that a 4 year old would be so advanced beyond her years, but that's how it was. I don't know how to explain it other than I must be an old soul because I naturally had an "inner knowing" and heightened awareness of many things at a very young age.

7. Is there a central message you want your readers to walk away with?

Yes. I want people to know that despite the hardships and chaos in life, there is love everywhere. Each one of us enters into this world to contribute to humanity in some way. We can do our absolute best in life if we feel nurtured, loved, and supported. Some of us don't grow up with a family like Lily's, but that doesn't mean that we cannot go and create a family like that of our own for our own children.

8. What's next for you? Is there another book in the works?

I started writing a second book but it's taking quite a bit longer because I'm not locked in a room under quarantine! The second book features the same characters and picks up where I left off in the spring of 1970. This book deals with many of the same concepts I wrote about in the first novel (portals, time travel, quantum physics, and history) and the adventures are just as exciting. I've completed 12 chapters so far and will be writing more when I have some down time.

I like to end with fun questions.

9. Do you believe in writer's block?


I'm sure it happens, but that doesn't seem to be a problem for me. My problem is that I currently have so much on my plate with day to day responsibilities that it's hard to find the time to write. When I do have a few moments, I open my laptop, read the last chapter that I wrote, and it flows from there. I often feel like I'm channeling the information because it flows so effortlessly. I don't have an outline that I adhere to, I simply start writing and it all comes together somehow. If you were to ask me how the second novel will end, I would tell you that I have no idea! I won't know until I reach the final chapter.

10. If you could only read one book over and over again for the rest of your life, what book would you choose?

That's a difficult question because there are so many great books out there, but if I had to choose one? Lily's Quest: Beyond the Thin Veil of Parallel Dimensions. Not because I'm shamelessly self-promoting, but because this is a novel about my own personal childhood, my family, my childhood home, friends, and neighbors. It's a walk down memory lane with a fictional twist here and there. It's a comfort to look back on my life and remember people and places as they used to be. That never gets old for me.

11. What's on your car radio (CD player, Spotify) right now?

Steely Dan. It always puts me in a good mood and I never get tired of hearing it.

12. What animal would you most want to be and why?

That's easy - A Bald Eagle. First, it represents America and I love this country. Second, my personality type is most like an Eagle. They are independent, are able to see things from a heightened perspective, and they're bad-ass birds! They don't take anyone's crap and neither do I. They live high in the trees in mountainous areas and it just so happens that I feel most at peace out in the big trees in mountainous areas. Was I ever an Eagle in a past life? Possibly!
A book is a dream you hold in your hands.
—Neil Gaiman
Abi1
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Post by Abi1 »

Wonderful work for an author's first time writing and the fact that the book started based on the author's own experiences as a young girl is quite surprising. To have experienced something of the supernatural at such a young age is quite frightening.
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