June Author Spotlight: Sariah Wilson

Welcome to Scribbler’s newest series — an interview with our subscription box‘s monthly author! Each month, we’ll interview the author of our featured book to help you learn a little more about them and their writing process.

What could come between a nanny and an earl in a fairy-tale love story? A reality check — in an endearing and witty romance by Sariah Wilson, the bestselling author of ROOMMAID.

USA Today Bestselling author Sariah Wilson has never jumped out of an airplane, never climbed Mt. Everest, and is not a former CIA operative. She has, however, been madly, passionately in love with her soulmate and is a fervent believer in happily ever afters — which is why she writes romance. She grew up in southern California, graduated from Brigham Young University (go Cougars!) with a semi-useless degree in history, and is the oldest of nine (yes, nine) children. She currently lives with the aforementioned soulmate and their children in Utah, along with cats named Pixel, Callie, and Belle who do not get along. (The cats, not the children. Although the children sometimes have their issues, too.)

Sariah’s book ROYAL DATE was selected as one of the first winners in Amazon’s Kindle Scout program. Her novella ROYAL DESIGN helped launch Amazon Publishing’s Kindle in Motion technology, and she had her own Kindle World for THE ROYALS OF MONTERRA. Her books THE FRIEND ZONE and ROOMMAID were selected by Amazon as one of the Best Romances of 2019 and 2020, respectively. She has repeatedly hit Amazon’s overall Top 100 (both in and outside the USA) and been a #1 bestseller on Amazon category lists multiple times. Her book ROOMMAID was the most read book from Amazon’s website in September 2020. Thank you for the interview, Sariah!

1. “Pantser” or “plotter?”

Pantser. I wish that I wasn’t, but I one hundred percent am. I do think of things for future chapters and write them down here and there, but I don’t have any type of outline. Very often I basically know what’s going to happen in the next chapter or two, but nothing beyond that. It’s all very vague until I write it.

2. How many hours a day do you write?

It depends. Actual writing time—that can vary based on how many days I have left until my book is due, and I don’t know what I should include as “writing time.” Does staring at my screen count? At the end I basically “write” from the time I get up until I go to bed. That’s not typing the whole day, but rather sitting and thinking about what should happen next. The actual writing time is probably closer to three or four hours during that crunch time.

3. Who’s your favorite fictional character?

At the moment, my favorite fictional character is Ben Solo. Who should not be dead and should be brought back. Given that Star Wars has brought back multiple characters who literally died on screen in front of us (the Emperor, Darth Maul, Boba Fett), they can bring back Ben Solo and let him atone for his sins and be with his soulmate, Rey. (Can you tell I’m a huge Star Wars nerd?)

4. What’s your favorite part of the writing process?

My favorite part of the writing process is being done. I love the feeling of having written an entire book and turning it in to my editor. I don’t know that there is a better feeling, as far as I’m concerned.

5. Do you prefer writing on paper or doing everything digitally?

I write everything digitally. I do keep notebooks around the house to jot down dialogue or scene ideas, including a notepad in the shower, but all of my writing is done on my laptop.

6. As a writer, what would you choose as your mascot?

I was trying to think of a cool mascot, but I would probably have to pick a house cat. Because I love cats (I have three) and I aspire to their level of “could not care about any of this” and propensity to sleep all day. Plus, they try to lay across my laptop whenever I’m on a deadline which means they have chosen themselves to be my mascot.

7. What was the last thing (song, podcast, etc.) you listened to?

The last thing that I listened to (that I’m listening to as I write this, actually) is the personal playlist of songs that I compiled for writing my last book. I used to pick songs that would directly relate to what my couples were going through, but now it’s just songs that I like and am willing to listen to forty million times in a row. One of them is a song by The Corrs called “One Night” from a movie called “Mad About Mambo” which you should watch right now because it’s amazing.

8. If you could time travel (to the past or future), where/when would you go?

This is a tough one for me, especially because I majored in history in college. There are so many I would choose. Ancient Greece. The height of the Maya civilization, the Viking Age. Cleopatra’s reign in Egypt. Regency England. I actually wrote a time travel book about a woman going to Regency England that I had the best time working on. I could probably come up with a hundred others, but only with the caveat that it would be to visit, not stay.

9. If there’s a spider in your house, do you kill it or set it free?

If it’s just me, I will totally kill that spider. Squish it into oblivion. I want it dead and everyone related to it obliterated off the face of the planet. I really hate spiders.

10. What’s something you could eat for a week straight?

Dove ice cream bars. I could eat them for a week straight, no problem. I kind of do that already.

If you’ve read Cinder-Nanny and loved it like we did, be sure to leave a review for Sariah on Goodreads! And if you’d like to receive the next book before we post the author’s interview on our blog, be sure to subscribe to the Scribbler box today.

The Scribbler Team

Victoria Scott started Scribbler in 2017 after traditionally publishing an impressive number of books with companies like HarperCollins Harlequin Scholastic and Macmillan. Victoria is an Uber-hailing city girl who is passionate about writing and helping other writers find their voice.