I am very excited! In just a few days, I will be attending a big event as a part of the SC Author Connection! What is the SC Author Connection? The SC Author Connection is a group of three South Carolina authors who will be going to several different book fairs and book festivals throughout the year.

I am a part of the SC Author Connection, along with Sybil Nelson, author of the Priscilla the Great series and several adult and young adult novels, and Elysabeth Eldering, author of Finally Home, along with several other young adult and children’s novels.

I first met Sybil at the YALLFest in Charleston and talked about sharing booths in future events. She had had contact with Elysabeth prior to the YALLFest and later on introduced us through email. After a few emails, we agreed to form a group to go to different book festivals and decided on the name SC Author Connection. Eventually, I designed the banner for the SC Author Connection that we would use at all of our big events. The image on the left is a picture of the banner I created.

Our first big event that we will be going to as a group will be the SC Association of School Librarians (SCASL) Conference. I will be traveling about four hours up to Greenville, SC to participate in the SCASL Conference for three days, Wednesday the 14th, Thursday the 15th, and Friday the 16th. I am very excited to get to go to the SCASL Conference with the group! More information about our next big events, such as the SC Book Festival, will be posted soon!

Hi everyone! I will be holding two book signings on Saturday, February 18th at two Wonder Works toy stores in Mount Pleasant and Charleston. The first book signing in Mount Pleasant will be held from 10 a.m.– 1 p.m. and the second book signing in Charleston will be held from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. The addresses are listed below.

Check out a video Wonder Works created about the Saderia Series and my first book, The Tiger Princess!

Here are the locations for my two upcoming Wonder Works Book Signings:

First Book Signing - 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Wonder Works
Belle Hall Shopping Center
624 D Long Point Rd.
Mt. Pleasant, SC 29464
Second Book Signing - 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.
 Wonder Works
St. Andrews Shopping Center
975 Savannah Hwy.
Charleston, SC 29407

My first book, The Tiger Princess, and the Saderia Series are now the Wonder Works Book of the Month for February! http://www.wonderworkscharleston.com/2012/02/14/saderia-series/. Wonder Works is also having a giveaway for a copy of The Tiger Princess on their Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/wonderworkstoys.

Articles about the books and the upcoming book signing have also
appeared on the Live 5 News website for West Ashley and Mount Pleasant! Here is one of them: http://westashley.live5news.com/news/events/65852-15-year-old-author-sign-books-wonder-works-locations?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=facebook

Also, if you haven't already seen it, check out an article written about the Saderia Series and the upcoming book signing in the Charleston City Paper: http://www.charlestoncitypaper.com/charleston/teen-author-sarah-rene-releases-third-ya-novel/Content?oid=4016817

I also just recently got the T-Shirts I created for the book signing with the characters from The Tiger Princess, Dash, and Hunted Home. You can see pictures of the designs in my previous posts. Along with the T-Shirts, I got a new banner I created for book signings and book fairs, as well.

I am so excited about the two book signings! If anyone is in the area, I hope to see you there! 

Hi everyone! I will be holding a book signing to sign copies of The Tiger Princess, Dash, and Hunted Home on Saturday, February 18th at two Wonder Works toy stores!

I will be holding a book signing at the Wonder Works toy store located in Mount Pleasant at 624 Long Point Road in the Belle Hall Shopping Center from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Afterwards, I will be signing books at another Wonder Works toy store located in Charleston in the St. Andrews Shopping Center at 975 Savannah Highway from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.

You can read more about the event here: http://charleston.thedigitel.com/arts-culture/wonder-works-hosts-local-15-year-old-author-sarah--37669-0201. You can also watch a short video about the book created by Wonder Works here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1-rE3YOVp8!

In addition to signing books, I will also be selling a fuzzy, adorable tiger cub stuffed animal that looks just like Saderia! You can see a picture of it on the left.


I will also be selling cool T-Shirts designed with images Saderia, Dash, and Dingo, the three main characters of each of my books. Some of the designs I have created so far are below:

I can’t wait until the book signing!

On Saturday, I got home from the YALLFest book festival tired but very excited. The YALLFest went great! I got to meet many other authors and tons of new readers!

One of the authors I met at the YALL Fest was Sybil Nelson, author of the middle grade Priscilla the Great series!

There were tons of other authors there, as well, including Pseudonymous Bosch, Heather Brewer, and Caitlin Kittredge, among many others.

At 2:00, I also got to do a presentation on The Tiger Princess, Dash, and Hunted Home. I was a little nervous about it, but I think it well really well!

Overall, the YALLFest went really great, and now I’m looking forward to my visit to Pinckney Elementary and the next stop on my Christmas Tour!

Just a few weeks ago, I received an incredible invitation! My fifth grade teacher from my old Elementary School, Pinckney Elementary, contacted me just a few weeks ago and asked if I would take part in their SMART Night on November 17th.

I think it’s going to feel amazing to be able to step back into my old school, only this time as an author! I’m really looking forward to it and I’m hoping that I can inspire the kids to write! Inspiring other kids is one of the things I enjoyed most at my first school visit to Mason Preparatory School, and I would love to be able to do it again!

On Friday, October 14th, I visited Mason Preparatory School to speak to two groups of sixth graders about writing. It was amazing! I showed them some of the pictures of my characters, Saderia, Cia, and Jash, and my earliest sketches for the covers of Dash and Hunted Home. I also showed them one of my more recent outlines for my seventh book and I also passed around a page I edited severely in my third book, Hunted Home. I got a lot of shocked looks for that!

I talked to them a lot about how to begin writing the first scene in a book by visualizing it. I told them about the fire scene that took place in the very first chapter of The Tiger Princess and told them how I imagined the first scene in my mind so vividly before I actually started writing. I talked about how I could hear fire crackling around me, and see the jumping yellow and orange colors of the flame creeping up hundreds of yards of trees. I told them how I could imagine seeing the green tops of the trees blazing with flickering fire and how I could hear trees groaning and starting to topple. I described how I could see a tiny, baby version of Saderia staring out through the window with this horrified expression as she stared out at the devastated forest.

I also talked a lot about outlining and how to create a complex world for the plot to take place, one that would contribute to the mood of the story and to the personalities of the characters. I described creating characters next and how to envision them with different good and bad traits that would make them more believable and relatable, using Saderia, Cia, and Jash as examples. I tried to describe how the plot has to fit the characters, but at the same time, the characters have to fit the plot.

Lastly I talked a lot about editing (and got a few ‘Whoa’s when I showed them the page I edited) and about publishing. I told them that writing a book isn’t just about telling a story--that it’s about telling it in a way that flows together as smoothly as possible to draw the reader in. When editing, I told them that instead of only looking for spelling or grammar errors, it’s also important to look at the way the sentence is worded to make sure it flows smoothly together.

Overall, it was a really amazing experience and once I got over my nervousness, I was really glad to be able to help and inspire them to write!