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

Alright, S. F. thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.

I started writing short stories in a creative writing class in high school. The teacher fostered my love for storytelling. I used that creative outlet to get me through the rest of high school and two years at community college. I dropped writing when I graduated because of negative voices around me saying that I wouldn’t ever write anything other people wanted to read. Fast forward to 2021. My best friend told me that she was going to write and self-publish her first book. I was floored. She explained how easy it was to publish your work after you completed your manuscript. She convinced me over several conversations to just write the story I wanted to write, and that’s how my debut novel, Execration of Autumn, got its start. I sat in my backyard and hand-wrote the original sentences of the first draft with pen and paper. My husband cheered me on as I worked through chapter after chapter, page after page of story. Once I got that completed I just needed to send it to people to actually read it. Talk about scary! You spend all this time creating something that you think is beautiful, and then you have to let other people see it. I remember the day that I finally had all the edits done and needed to send the book out to ARC (Advanced Reader Copy) readers. These are people who will read and reivew your book on Amazon and Goodreads to try to help get your story out there. Sending my book out to them and then uploading the final manuscript to Amazon for publishing was the scariest thing I’ve ever done. My best friend and I developed a saying, “Do it scared.” We say this to each other CONSTANTLY, it doesn’t matter if your knees are knocking with fear, just do the thing! Taking that risk and getting my story out there has introduced me to a bunch of new friends, and people that honestly love my characters and the story. If I wouldn’t have taken the risk and done it scared, this story would have never been out there for the world to see!

S. F., love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

My name is Sarah. S. F. Rogers is my pen name. I’m a self-published author who released my debut novel, Execration of Autumn, in April of this year. I am a small-town girl, living my adventure dreams one story at a time. I have been happily married to my husband for twelve years, and we share our lives with our three dogs, Nala, Beau, and Layla. I have been a reader all my life, and in 2022 decided to try my hand at writing a book. I wanted to see a female main character who was older, not just another nineteen-year-old running around learning magic. I questioned where the mature women were in literature. The ones with a little gray in their hair and an attitude to match what they’ve been through. My book has everything I love, like adventure, found family, and rescue dogs. I am working on the sequel to Execration of Autumn, and on another contemporary romance that doesn’t have a name yet! Cora’s story will span four books, one to cover each season. I’m usually found hiking and camping with my husband, or writing and reading with my dogs!

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

The goal is to get the stories I imagine out into the universe for other people. I love creating worlds and dropping characters into them. You can throw in a little magic and then see how the story unfolds. I want to tell stories that I would like to see, like the cute librarian gets the badass biker boy, or the more mature woman fights the big bad and rescues her husband. To tell stories that I would see myself in, or other normal working wives could see themselves in.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

I got started on TikTok, building my readership by sharing my writing journey. I would post teasers of what I was working on just to pique people’s interest. Then, I started a podcast with my brother and began interviewing other authors, developing those work relationships and some even deeper friendships through that. My siblings, who are also authors, and I always talk about how newsletters feel archaic, so we have all been using our social media pages as newsletters where people can check in with us and hear all the news. People will follow you when you are excited about something.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/s.f.rogers_author
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SFRogersAuthor
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@theauthorschaospodcast