I'm honored to interview with Sara Au, summer '25 flash fiction contest runner-up. We'll be chatting about her flash fiction story, "Dinosaur Week," her experiences entering writing contests, her latest works-in-progress, and more.
Make sure you read her flash fiction story, "Dinosaur Week," first, and then come on by to read our discussion.
First, here's more about Sara Au:
A former broadcast journalist, Sara Au started writing after leaving news and having her first child. From magazine articles to online profiles (and another baby!), she lucked into a non-fiction opportunity and is the co-author of two parenting books, Stress-Free Potty Training and Stress-Free Discipline (AMACOM, 2008 and 2015), and the ghost writer for Kids, Sex & Screens (Fair Winds Press, 2018). Three years ago, Au unexpectedly found herself moving back to New York as she entered her 50s. Now living near a lifelong friend, the two have embarked on a fiction journey together, birthing their debut novel idea along the Penna Pike during a girls’ road trip. They brainstorm joint pen names as they add pages to their manuscript each day. Au works in educational public relations, craves traveling, despairs over politics and gives too many treats to her elderly pups. She writes an occasional non-fiction blog at https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/finding-positivity.
--- Interview by Nicole Pyles
WOW: Congrats on winning runner up! Let's talk first sentences. I LOVED yours. Did that come to you right away or did that first sentence emerge through the editing process?
Sara: I hate it when others say this, but it really did come to me right away. The prompt from the Gotham Writers Workshop class assignment was in the lesson about developing character: A kind, quiet librarian is mixed up in a high-profile murder. Ali sprang to life in my mind as the murderer wearing a dinosaur dress. From there, the plot was simple: there's only one reason I know of why a librarian would commit murder, and that is to keep her students and her books safe. And there's only one thing threatening both kids and books these days. All of that was nearly instantaneously created in my brain when I saw the prompt.
WOW: Ha, I KNEW IT! I had a theory that the best first sentences happen almost immediately. What inspired you to write this story?
Sara: Dinosaur Week is a love letter to all of the amazing school librarians and teachers in red states caught between good literature and bad policies right now. I know and love many of you, and am so worried about your livelihoods, your mental state and your ability to keep going. (And it should go without saying, but I guess these days it's prudent to put it out there that this is pure fiction and neither I nor any of my educator friends condone any type of violence against anyone, even people who are trying to ban or censor books.)
WOW: What a beautiful message to those librarians and teachers out there though! You have such an interesting writing journey! How did your broadcast/journalist background prepare you to write fiction?
Sara: It did not, at all! I struggle mightily without having facts to anchor me, with having the freedom to just... make it all up. It's incredibly intimidating to me. I've always admired fiction writers from afar, knowing I was safely ensconced inside the quotation marks of my interviews. This is actually why I took the Gotham Writers Workshop class from which this story is adapted, to give myself some sort of a pathway to move forward into fiction. I've always had a mantra of "just say yes" when it comes to professional opportunities. That's how I came to publishing in the first place: I was in the extremely lucky position of having a writer colleague from a magazine suggest my name to her agent who was looking for someone to write a specific kind of parenting book. I never thought I'd write a book, but even if I had, the topic - potty training - was not one I would have ever considered. My first proposal was not accepted, but a couple of years later that agent had a similar opportunity come her way and she contacted me again, suggesting some specific changes. That revised proposal ended up becoming my first book. Now I always tell myself that if I can write 60,000 words about potty training, I can write anything!
WOW: What an incredible experience -- and important lesson for yourself. What are you working on now that you can tell us about?
Sara: Brooke Smarsh and I are co-writing a novel about a perimenopausal therapist who develops the ability to travel through time to escape the crushing challenges in her personal life while fixing her clients' past traumas. We're constantly brainstorming how to combine our letters into a pen name (and that's not at all a way we procrastinate).
WOW: That is amazing and I personally can't wait to read it. I love that you are co-authoring a novel with your best friend. How is that experience changing you and your own personal writing journey?
Sara: It's been so much fun! Part of that is overcoming my own self-doubt. But it's also so much more of an artistic endeavor than either Brooke or I are used to, and we're fully leaning into it. Brooke and I were college roommates who've stayed close friends even though we spent most of the last thirty years living far away from each other. When I moved back up north, we picked up our in-person friendship like no time had passed. I think it was on a girls' road trip to PA and she thinks it was at brunch in Hoboken, but at some point we started talking about how we both had the crazy idea to write a novel. It just made sense to do it together because we complement each other so well and we spur each other on. My non-fiction books were also written with partners, so that part feels very natural to me. We're having a blast!
WOW: I think that's amazing you are doing this together. Why did you decide to enter WOW's flash fiction contest?
Sara: I was listening to an episode of The Shit No One Tells You About Writing podcast (shout out Bianca, Carly and Cece!) where they dissect query letters. One of the accomplishments the author in this episode listed was an honorable mention in this contest from a year back or so. I was curious, so I Google'd it and saw that there was another deadline approaching. I'm now super excited to be able to recreate that same line for myself when we go out to query.
WOW: What a small world! I'm so glad you entered the contest so we can read your wonderful story. Thank you so much for chatting with me today.
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