We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Sara Jane Jacobs a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Sara Jane, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

Although I started writing before my children were born, it wasn’t until after they became adults that I knew I wanted to pursue writing professionally. I guess you could say I had a moment of clarity in May 2015. I can still remember setting up my computer in the living room with firm determination to make this my career.

Sara Jane, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I write inspirational romance from a Christian worldview, but I never start writing a story with a religious theme in mind. I often struggle with how to market my books because readers’ expectations are so varied. I don’t necessarily include an overarching theme of faith that might normally be found in Christian fiction. My stories have also included innuendo between married couples and from the antagonists that one reviewer thought was a bit more “explicit” than expected in a book of faith.

I may hint at profanity without using the actual words. Some people might call it edgy, although I’m not sure it qualifies. I just try to let my characters be real. They struggle, and some of them do very bad things. Their lives are not all rainbows and butterflies. They all deal with their shortcomings and mistakes, and hopefully, by the end of the series, they’ve grown into better human beings.

I started my writing journey after I heard an advertisement for a writing contest. I think they wanted you to write a scene set in your hometown. I don’t remember the details. I didn’t enter the contest, but I wrote the scene which grew into my first novel.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

My first two books were traditionally published. When I got my rights back in 2020, self-publishing seemed daunting so I sent out a few query letters. In general, publishers don’t want to republish work that has already been published and that was soon confirmed. I began to revisit the idea of self-publishing and readied myself for a new adventure. I love learning new things, but I also like to know what I’m doing. The time in between those two points can test my patience. I started learning all I could about self-publishing, had my books edited again, and had new covers made. Although I had used two editors, I reached out to a proofreader for one more set of eyes on my book before I released it. When she emailed me back, she asked if I’d be willing to work on the manuscript for a few more weeks. She said she thought she could help me take my writing up to another level. That edit took eighteen months and that editor has become a wonderful mentor to me. Those eighteen months felt like forever but I’m so thankful for them.

Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?

Technology has advanced so much since I first started writing and there are so many great resources that just didn’t exist. The internet in general is a great tool and specifically YouTube. While I would love to travel to every place I write about, YouTube is a great alternative. I’ve also used it to research Navy SEALs, tramautic brain injuries, and equine therapy just to name a few things.

Contact Info:

• Website: sarajanejacobs.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/sarajanejacobsauthor
• Facebook: facebook.com/sarajanejacobsauthor

Image Credits
Author photos by rachelnicoleoliver.com