Posts

I was very excited this morning to read Jessica Rudd’s blog on Mama Mia, speaking out in defence of chick lit and commercial fiction. Go Jessica! While my books don’t fall easily into the chick lit category (they are a bit too dark, although they usually have at least one female chick-lit-style character doing her utmost to lighten things up) they are certainly commercial. And I’m very proud of that. I want everyone, and I mean everyone, to read them!

The joy of reading is that it’s such a personal experience. We form relationships with the characters we read about, and we have our own reactions to the journeys they are on, which are interlinked to our own feelings and experiences. Stories are places of freedom, of escape, and of personal interpretation, so it’s a sad state of affairs when any kind of snobbery begins to try to dictate our reading passions. Besides, sweeping whole genres into generalised definitions is plain daft. I’ve read some brilliant chick-lit that has had me crying with laughter – Watermelon by Marian Keyes springs to mind. I’ve also read plenty of books in the same genre that I thought were a load of old rubbish (and will therefore remain nameless!). It’s the same with ‘lit fic’ – I’ve waded my way through a few prize-winning, critically acclaimed doorstoppers wondering why I felt compelled to waste my time; and yet other books have had me in awe – Swimmer by Bill Broady, and Beloved by Toni Morrison are two of my all-time favourites. But I should add that I did my dissertation on Beloved. It was by studying it that I got such a lot out of it. In fact, I think I gave all my friends copies of Beloved for Christmas that year, and, in hindsight, since most weren’t doing English degrees they would probably rather have had the latest Bridget Jones.

Wouldn’t it be great if all types of writing could simply co-exist and try not to squabble? But it’s unlikely, isn’t it. Life just isn’t like that, at least not yet. In the meantime, I have made a conscious choice to try to write the kind of books I love to read. And there is nothing I enjoy quite as much as a spine-tingling mystery with characters you can’t stop thinking about. If that makes my stories your guilty pleasure, then so be it. I promise you’ll get your money’s worth!col-md-2

Pages

MEDIA

To see reviews of All That is Lost Between Us, click here.

To see reviews of Shallow Breath, click here.

To see reviews of Beneath the Shadowsclick here.

To see reviews of Come Back to Meclick here.

Links to author interviews and general articles:

The Wonders of Research, Write Note Reviews, Jan 2016

What Lies Beneath: Interview with Sara Foster, Rowena Holloway, Jan 2016

The Psychology of Georgia, Book Muster Down Under, Jan 2016

AusRom Today’s Must Read list 2016, Jan 2016

Teen’s Secret Anguish: The West Australian, Jan 2016

‘Deep Connections’: Interview with An Adventure in Reading, Mar 2013

Interview with The Musings of Monique, Mar 2013

Interview with The Australian Bookshelf, Feb 2013

Interview with The Reading Room, Feb 2013

Interview with 1Girl2ManyBooks, Feb 2013

Q&A with Book Muster Down Under, Feb 2013

‘Sara Foster visits deep, dark places for her third novel’, The Examiner/Skinny Cap with Two Sugars, Jan 2013

Interview with Book’d Out, Dec 2012

Jenn J McLeod’s Author Harvest ‘bales up’ Sara Foster, Dec 2012

Interview with Write Note Reviews, May 2012

Interview with The Examiner (WA), 2 May 2012 (and on Skinny Cap with Two Sugars)

Interview with Auslit’s Authors Compare site, October 2011 (on setting)

Interview with thereadingroom.com, October 2011

Interview with Monica Kade at Career Confessions, May 2011

Sydney Writers’ Centre podcast (Beneath the Shadows), April 2011

Recommendation on www.shesaid.com.au, April 2011

Interview with Colosoul (Independent Youth Magazine), April 2011

Interview with femail.com.au, April 2011

Interview with Aimee Burton at Poisoned Apples and Smoking Caterpillars (a Boomerang Books blog), March 2011

Interview with The Australian Literature Review, 16 February 2011

Interview with Claire Williams at Flourish online magazine, 11 February 2011

‘Online extras add to thriller’s mystery’, North Coast Times, 1st February 2011
(www.inmycommunity.com.au)

Sara Foster answers Booktopia’s Ten Terrifying Questions

Sydney Writers’ Centre podcast (Come Back to Me), March 2010

Interview with www.chicklitclub.com, February 2010

‘Sara turns over a new page in Perth’, North Coast Times, 2 February 2010 (www.inmycommunity.com.au)

‘Perth helps to bring out the creativity in author’, West Australian, 2 February 2010

Links to my blogs elsewhere:

I am sometimes lucky enough to be invited to write on other people’s sites or blogs. You can check out my guest posts by following the links below:

New Year, New Beginnings (14 January 2013) on Fiona Palmer’s website

Researching Shallow Breath (29 November 2012) on Nicole Alexander’s website

On Writing (10 August 2011) on The Australian Bookshelf

Writer on Tour (14 April 2011) on Adventures of an Intrepid Reader

The literary/commercial fiction divide (14 Feb 2011) on Natasha Lester’s blog http://whilethekidsaresleeping.wordpress.com/

A shifting landscape, a perfect backdrop (13 Feb 2011) on www.lisaheidke.com

Inspiration (9 Feb 2011) on The Random Blog

Mothering and writing for a living (8 Feb 2011) on http://anjwritesabout.com/

Endings: Beginnings in disguise (4 Feb 2011) on The Random Blog

Stories within stories (3 Feb 2011) on The Random Blog

Losing the plot (2 Feb 2011) on The Random Blog

The North Yorkshire moors, the perfect setting (1 Feb 2011) on The Random Blog

At long last, meet Grace (31 Jan 2011) on The Random Blog

On writing and editing (31 Jan 2011) on http://www.ahthepossibilities.com/

Sara Foster is grateful for… (31  Jan 2011) on http://anitaheissblog.blogspot.com/

Breathing Life into Landscapes (4 Nov 2010) on www.fleurmcdonald.com

On pursuing publication (9 April 2010) on The Random Blog

Finding the time to write (8 April 2010) on The Random Blog

Friends and family readers (7 April 2010) on The Random Blog

Your editor is on your side (6 April 2010) on The Random Blog

When characters get minds of their own (5 April 2010) on The Random Blog

col-md-2