Women’s fiction author Sarah Branson chats with me about her new action-adventure novel, North Country.
Bio:
Award-winning author Sarah Branson was a midwife for close to thirty years, helping families welcome their little ones into their arms in the hospital, at a birth center, and at home. Now she writes feminist speculative fiction with plenty of action, adventure, revenge, and romance. Her stories are firmly rooted in the strength and resiliency of the human spirit.
Sarah first started conjuring stories of pirates when her family hopped a freighter to Australia when she was seven. As a child and as an adult, she traveled extensively across the US and the globe. Her children grew up in Northern Michigan, swimming in Sturgeon Bay and Little Traverse Bay. Over the years, she has worked as a receptionist, retail clerk, writing tutor, business owner, and certified nurse midwife. She also taught science and history to middle school and high school students in the U.S., Brazil, and Japan. Through these myriad experiences, Sarah developed a deep appreciation for people’s strength and endurance.
Her debut novel, A Merry Life, has been honored as the 2022 Connecticut Adult Fiction winner by the Indie Author Project, and was the 2022 Kindle Book Award winner for science fiction and was named a 2022 Book of the Year finalist in the action/adventure and science fiction categories by the Independent Author Network. It is the first book in the four-book new adult series Pirates of New Earth. The second book in the series, Navigating the Storm was a finalist for The Eric Hoffer Award. The series was followed by a young adult spin-off, Unfurling the Sails, a finalist for the 2023 Foreword Indies Award and for the 2024 Independent Author Network in both action/adventure and young adult categories. In 2024, A Pirates’ Pact, her first middle-grade book, was released and garnered a Best Book Cover Page Turner Award. A stand-alone novel North Country, A Kat Wallace Adventure, her newest release, is available now.
Sarah lives with her husband in Connecticut.
Welcome, Sarah. Please tell us about your current release.
In North Country, four women—each harboring a secret—embark on a dangerous mission that will change them forever. Set in 2372, in a world rebuilding from disaster, the pirate nation of Bosch thrives on a booming drug trade, but its women dream of more. Master Commander Kat Wallace seeks redemption from a violent past, Carisa Morton battles a failing body, Sergeant Flossie Porter hides her true identity, and Master Sergeant Diamond Miata hungers for power. As they journey into the patriarchal, isolated North Country, they must confront betrayal, desire, and the painful truths that shape them. None will return unchanged.
What inspired you to write this book?
I was inspired to write North Country because I always knew that Kat Wallace, the fierce protagonist of Pirates of New Earth and one of the four leading women in this novel, would one day have to return to the land of her childhood to confront her past. I also wanted to explore the many ways women can be strong—whether through resilience, wisdom, cunning, leadership, or sheer determination. Drawing from friends who live with chronic illness, I felt it was important to include a character navigating that reality. And finally, I was intrigued by the idea of an unlikely alliance between two very different women, all set against the backdrop of a deeply patriarchal and isolated land where survival—and truth—demand everything they have.
Excerpt from North Country:
Kat, February 8 1145
We wipe our boots on the faded rug made with braided fabric scraps and shake and brush the snow off our coats before stepping from the foyer into the tavern proper. It’s a pretty nice place, definitely on the new side; reminds me a bit of Ray’s back in Bosch. The walls and floor are all rough wood, with heavy beams on the ceiling. Stools, most occupied, surround several tables, and two or three men sit on barrels at the bar. The floor is littered with sawdust and nutshells that crunch under our boots and release a fragrance that stirs a memory and causes my stomach to turn. I breathe out through my nose as if to cast the flashback aside. Wrong bar, wrong time. The place was buzzing with conversation from the early drinkers when we first walked in but went quiet as the locals turned to see four strange women arrive. My delight at having this be a woman-only mission wanes a bit. Women don’t go wandering into taverns on their own without a man in Allanavik. At least they didn’t twenty-five years ago, and given the somewhat ominous silence, I don’t think they do now either.
I herd my little group closer to the bar and start to order something to warm us up. The bartender, dressed in a somewhat clean homespun shirt and dark pants with an apron wrapped around his moderate paunch, is tall and middle-aged with dark stubble on both his head and his chin. His gray eyes survey me and my friends, and before I can speak, he asks, “Where are your menfolk?”
I hear Diamond give a quiet scoff behind me, but I ignore her. Instead, I look right at the man and lie through my teeth. “They just a bit behind us. Should be catching up soon.”
Stubble-Head looks slightly mollified both by the answer and my North Country patois, but has a follow-up. “You folks aren’t from around here.” It isn’t a question. “Hunting party?”
“Yep,” I answer but add nothing. Keep the lie as simple as possible.
Now his eyes rest squarely on Diamond. He gestures with his head. “She yours?”
Fuck. He is assuming Diamond is a servant or even a thrall, simply based on her coloring. This is not the place to make a moral stance, though, so I just say, “She with us.”
He gives a disinterested tilt of his head. I take his quiet for belief in my story and quickly lay a few markers on the bar. “We be chilled. Might we get a bit of soup to warm us? And some tea? Maybe some whiskeys for our men?” The markers are whisked quickly away and with a grunt and jut of his chin, Stubble-Head directs us to a standing table next to the fireplace against the far wall. I’d rather be closer to the door, but this will be warmer, and at least I can see the whole joint this way. With his acceptance of our markers, the rest of the clientele assumes we are harmless and return to chasing their lunchtime buzz as they talk shit about their neighbors, and likely us.]
What exciting project are you working on next?
I have a couple ideas for some additional Kat Wallace novels as well as a second middle grade and YA book.
When did you first consider yourself a writer?
When I was a kid, I fancied myself a poet all through elementary, but that image faded as I grew, though the idea of writing a book always stayed in the back of my mind, though I quickly discounted it, because, I felt I had no story to tell. Defining myself as a writer and an author didn’t really come until the third book in my series was headed to publication– the imposter syndrome was very strong for quite a while!
Do you write full-time? If so, what’s your workday like? If not, what do you do other than write and how do you find time to write?
I do write full time now. When my debut novel came out, I was still working as a midwife, but after some discussion with my partner, I decided to go all in on writing and publishing novels. My workdays now vary widely depending on where I am in the process.
I do a great deal of pre-writing which for me is just a fancy way of saying I play make-believe with my characters. Once I land on an idea that could work for a novel length, I focus in and start to rough out plot-lines and the narrative arc of the story often on large pieces of poster paper using multi-colored markers. When I actually start writing, you can find me tucked into the corner of the couch, often for hours, as the story begins to make itself known– fortunately my husband keeps me supplied with coffee and snacks. I know the workday needs to wind down when I am served a glass of wine!
Once the manuscript is done and in one of my editor’s hands, I begin to focus on the promotion and sales part of an indie author’s work.
What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?
When I get stuck in a plotline, the best thing I can do is to go on a long drive alone. The isolation clears my head, my characters have plenty of time to “talk” to me, and usually I return inspired and ready to move forward in the story.
As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
A surgeon, but then I started adding up the years of education, so I switched to an elementary teacher (which I would have been spectacularly bad at).
Anything additional you want to share with the readers?
I spent years and years working with strong women and birthing people as a midwife developing a deep and abiding respect for the wide array of strengths each brought to a watershed life event. My characters are nurtured and have grown up steeped in this perspective. North Country is a stand-alone novel, but if readers want more Kat Wallace adventure, they can find it in my series!
It was great getting to interview with you! Thanks for sharing North Country with your readers!! I’m happy to answer any additional questions they or you may have!!