We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Sarah McCoy. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Sarah below.

Alright, Sarah thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Do you think your parents have had a meaningful impact on you and your journey?

My mom was a career school teacher and my dad was a career military officer. So by profession and practice, my household was one governed by lessons and rules. That said, I must give my parents credit for going out of their way to encourage imaginative play as a vastly important feature of my childhood.

We only had basic television (seven channels) while I was growing up and there was no Internet or computer screen time back then. My parents had a rule that for every hour of reading, we could watch that amount of television. So, I would stockpile my minutes for episodes of Lady Lovely Locks, Faerie Tale Theater, and Reading Rainbow. Often, I ended up with more books than television programs, which were live so it was hit or miss. We didn’t purchase a lot of books. The ones I owned were gifts. Special items I received on a birthday, Christmas, or another holiday. They sat on my bedside table like guardian friends. Most of my books were borrowed from the library. My mom took us as often as possible so I could stock up. The library was a magic kingdom of limitless people, places, and stories. My mom didn’t chaperone my rambles through the aisles. She let me explore on my own. It was one of my earliest memories of feeling proudly independent.

Simultaneously, my dad encouraged us in outdoor play and travel. He’d been an Eagle Scout as a boy and passed on his love of exploring the world to me. I grew up hiking trails in the Black Forest, skiing in the Alps, and swimming in Caribbean waters. Some might view the many moves of military life as a downside, but my dad helped me understand that the world was just as big as the library I so adored. I needed to get there to live the stories as much as I read them.

My parents certainly influenced my growth as an independent thinker, dreamer, and that ultimately influenced my current career as an author. I’m so grateful that they recognized that rules are good but must be balanced with the freedom of individual expression and the flexibility of choosing one’s own path and opinions. Both regiment (hours of writing at a desk to complete a manuscript) and imaginative liberty (dreaming up stories) are essential to my vocation.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

SARAH McCOY is the New York Times, USA Today, and international bestselling author of the novels Mustique Island, Marilla of Green Gables, The Mapmaker’s Children, The Baker’s Daughter, a 2012 Goodreads Choice Award Best Historical Fiction nominee, the novella “The Branch of Hazel” in Grand Central, The Time It Snowed in Puerto Rico, and Le souffle des feuilles et des promesses (Pride and Providence).

Her work has been featured in Newsweek, Real Simple, The Millions, Literary Hub, Writer’s Digest, Huffington Post, Read It Forward, Writer Unboxed, and other publications. She hosted the NPR WSNC Radio monthly program “Bookmarked with Sarah McCoy” and served as a Board Member for the literary nonprofit Bookmarks. Sarah taught English writing at Old Dominion University and at the University of Texas at El Paso.

The daughter of an Army officer and a Puerto Rican schoolteacher, her family was stationed in Germany during her childhood. After a decade in El Paso, Texas, she now lives with her husband, dog, and cat in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

I was always told to “write what you know.” I’ve been a published author now for fifteen years. My first book The Time It Snowed In Puerto Rico debuted in 2009. Six books later and my seventh currently on the production line (forthcoming from Harper Collins in 2025), I don’t believe writing only what you know is true. My best works have come from inspired curiosity– of wanting to know more about something I know little about. I love unearthing stories of voiceless people from the past. Usually women. Theorizing through my fiction the happenings of an unsolved mystery. Challenging my old notions of history with some new finding. It’s exhilarating to act as a kind of detective or story archeologist. I want to learn about my subjects as much as I want readers to! That kind of shared journey through literature is the reason I write.

To some extent, even my debut novel, which was based on my family in Puerto Rico, is actually a kind of digging up the secrets of my native country (Puerto Rico) and understanding it better.

So that’s certainly one lesson I have unlearned and thank goodness! Because it would be incredibly limiting to only write about what I know… the world is so much bigger than my limited perspective. Writing my books helps me seek it out and shine a light on it for myself and the broader world.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

Being able to relate with people on a deeper level of human connectivity is the most rewarding aspect of being a writer. In a time where people are feeling progressively more insular and even inconsequential with the onslaught of AI, being a living, breathing artist is really the last bastion of human identity. We are the dreamers and innovators. Creativity cannot be manufactured. Connecting with readers is more than reading words on a page, it’s engaging in an imaginative escape and allowing the spirit to inhabit other people’s worlds– to feel the emotions that are not our own and so, our empathy grows for the collective global community.

This is the biggest reward for me as an author. Meet you– reading this right now. And each reader who picks up one of my books.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://sarahmccoy.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sarahmmccoy/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SarahMMcCoy/
• Twitter: https://x.com/SarahMMcCoy
• Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/sarah-mccoy-271353452
• Other: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2770941.Sarah_McCoy

Image Credits

Author headshot/bio photo: Nina Subin.