Sarah Kurz

  "Patricia looked out the window and felt everything falling apart." Patricia Campbell lived a peaceful, normal life.  She cared for her family an her household and she found joy in her true crime loving book club.  Things in Patricia's world were good.  Calm.  Boring even.  And then James Harris moved in. I could not put this book down.  At first it made me laugh.  As someone who spent eight years as a stay at home mom while her husband worked in different states and countries I found myself identifying with Patricia.  I felt her loneliness and need for excitement. "Carter's spoon clicked against the bottom of the bowl and he stood up, leaving his bowl on the place mat for her to clean up, not waiting to hear what she had to say.  In that moment, Patricia hated her family with a passion." Not that I hate my family, obviously.  But I felt her frustration on a personal level. Then the book got creepy.  Super creepy.  Keepi...

 Irises smell like my childhood My grandma cutting me big bouquets Of all of my favorite colors I liked purple the best It always amazed me she'd willingly cut The beautiful flowers that lined her house I knew she did it just for me

      "I don't want another dog," I said as we walked along the rows of kennels at the animal shelter.  Tears stung my eyes and I quickly batted them away.  "It's too soon."     My husband gave me a reassuring pat, murmuring words of encouragement as he headed out the door and into the outside play area.  He was excited, the idea of adding to our family forcing a huge grin across his face.     I paused in front of the first kennel of the second row, memories I wasn't prepared for slapping me in the face.  Ten years ago I had stood in front of this very kennel and laid eyes on my best friend for the first time.  Three days ago I said goodbye to her for the last.     We met the dogs and I loved them all, as I have a tendency to do.  But I didn't want to bring any of them home.  I didn't need a dog.  My dog was gone and the pain left behind was unbearable.  And we had another dog at home.  R...

 "I urge you to please notice when you are happy, and exclaim or murmur or think at some point, 'if this isn't nice, I don't know what is." - Kurt Vonnegut It seems that life very rarely offers us perfect moments, and when it does we are far too busy to stop and notice them.  Or we are trying desperately to capture that perfect moment, to cling on to it for just a little longer, but then it vanishes right before our eyes and we are left with just the fuzzy memory.   Perfect moments can't be captured.   But they can be enjoyed. It rained last night.  The kind of gentle downpour that's easy to sleep through, the rain coming straight down so evenly that the windows can be left open without the worry of a stray drop traveling in and finding its way to the hardwood floors.  The clouds lingered and the rain decided to continue on throughout the morning, pausing my plans to plant the last few petunias in the hangers that line my fence and chicken coop....

 Everyone expects that writing a book will be challenging.  It is, after all, a lot of words.  And those words need to make sense.  They need to tell a story that is captivating and comes to life in the reader's mind.  So yes, writing a book is challenging.   But not as challenging as you'd think. Here's a little secret about people that like to write.  We have words floating around in our heads all the time.  Those words grab onto each other and form sentences and those sentences form stories.  The stories never stop.  Now, sometimes the stories are terrible.  Those rarely leave our minds and mostly happen while waiting in line at the grocery store or during very long car trips.  But sometimes the story is fantastic.  And that's when a novel is born. Writing the novel was the easy part.  Of course there were moments of writers block and moments where I struggled to make things make sense.  Moments where I c...

Need is a funny word.  It implies that the thing we are hoping to acquire is directly related to our existence.  We would simply perish without it.  So yes, I probably didn’t need a third dog.  No, scratch that.  I definitely didn’t need a third dog on that warm August day in 2011.  The big brown eyes staring back at me from the computer monitor suggested otherwise.   I looked down at the basset hound stretched out on the floor below me, my foot idly stroking his white and brown fur.  “What do you think, Tuck?  Do we need another friend?” Tucker thumped his tail and rolled over onto his back so that his belly was fully exposed for proper petting.  If you wanted a happy, ready-for-anything, easy going dog Tucker was your guy.  I was certain he’d love a new friend.  A more playful friend.  Maggie was great as far as companions went, but the dopey little French bulldog with his smooshed up face wasn’t what you’d cal...

 The following is a chapter from Tiny Sparks , the novel I'm working on.  It's a YA fantasy about a girl who has the power of the sun flowing through her veins.  This chapter focuses on Jonah Smith, one of her very best friends.  I absolutely adore Jonah and this was one of my favorite chapters to write.  Warning: If you plan to read the entire book someday there are a few spoiler-ish bits.  My apologies if the spacing is awkward.  Copy and paste didn't quite transfer as I wanted it to.  Enjoy!      Jonah didn’t know what to do with himself.  He sat in the middle of Lily’s floral print couch and stared at the grandfather clock across the room.  The couch was ugly, but he’d never tell Lily that.  Zera sat beside him.  He didn’t know if Lily allowed the massive dog on the couch or not.  After some consideration he decided that, after all this time, Zera should know the rules.  If she was breaking them it ...