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

Sara, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Are you happy as a creative professional? Do you sometimes wonder what it would be like to work for someone else?

I would rather gouge out my own eyeball with a melon baller than ever have a “regular” job again.

I’ve done a lot of things while pursuing my creative career. I’ve been a corrections officer in an all-male max facility prison, an operations supervisor for an airline, I’ve poured concrete, medical billing, accounting… but my passion is telling stories.

As a managing editor, I get to do that. It’s corporate storytelling, brand management, but it’s still about people and their stories. One of the best things about having this kind of job is that it doesn’t suck the life out of me. I still have that creative spark that is both fed and utilized, and I still have some left over for the other stories I want to tell.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I always wanted to be a writer. Well, initially, when my mother asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I said Queen of the Universe. She said that wasn’t a real job. But really? I’m a queen of a thousand universes. All the worlds that live and die in the clickety-clack of my fingers across the keyboard.

I wrote my first horror story after watching The Exorcist at my 8th birthday party. It was about a paraplegic girl who is possessed by green mist and kills all of her friends. I wrote it in green colored pencil. You may wonder how that brought me to romance. Another movie inspired me. It was The Howling VI: The Freaks. A werewolf falls in love with a preacher’s daughter and overcomes his own darkness to protect her. All the stories I tell, whether they be horror, thriller, or romance, they’re all about overcoming some kind of darkness to prevail in the end. I think this is important because we see ourselves in the stories around us. We need to know that we can win.

Across four pen names, I have 86 titles. In addition, I freelance as a developmental editor, writing coach, and offer workshops such as How to Write Better Villains Based on Real Experiences with Serial Killers, Cannibals, and Sex Offenders.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

I have a memoir out about my time as a CO. It’s called Sweet Hell on Fire. It’s dark, but it’s intimate. It’s me, spreading my guts out on the table to let strangers poke through it. I didn’t realize it would be like that. I should have, but it didn’t quite hit me. But when I started writing it, I thought that wouldn’t be traumatizing either, because everything had already happened. Uh, no. I spent many nights sobbing while I typed.

But it was the most rewarding experience. Not only speaking about what happened to me, having a platform, but how many other people I connected with who had similar trauma. Who told me they found hope in my book, and in meeting me. It made what happened to me have meaning. It became okay that it happened, in a sense, because I was able to use it as a light in the dark for others.

Books do that. Not just memoirs, but all stories have the power to make that connection.

How did you build your audience on social media?

I built my audience on social media by being genuine. Being myself. I interact with content that interests me. A lot of people will tell you not to talk politics, religion, etc. on social media. I do. If you don’t like my politics, you won’t like my books. That is okay. My books aren’t for everyone.

My advice to anyone trying to build a presence is to hang out on platforms you enjoy. If you don’t like interacting on FB, then stay on the platform you do enjoy. Readers and fans will figure out what’s genuine and what’s not. They don’t want to interact with people who are faking it or are miserable. Organic growth is where you’re going to find your people.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.corvuscoraxbooks.com
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/SaraLunsford