Today our guest is Sara Staggs, former civil rights attorney-turned-author. She writes upmarket fiction and YA, and her debut novel, Uncontrollable, launches on May 25th from Black Rose Writing. Sara practiced civil rights litigation for several years before she had to stop because of her epilepsy.

After two brain surgeries in six years, she wrote a novel based on her experiences with epilepsy, which mixes fiction with autobiographical fiction ("auto-fiction"). Uncontrollable is a 5-star Reader's Favorite, and has received amazing advance reviews from Independent Book Review, Midwest Book Review, Pacific Book Review, Indie Reader, and featured in Publisher's Weekly as Booklife Editor's Favorite.  

Sara started her writing journey after her second brain surgery, using writing as therapy. She kept a journal while she was in the hospital, and started writing to deal with the trauma and PTSD that she experienced during her pre-surgical work-ups. After finishing the medical scenes, she wondered if she could create a novel inspired by her life, and the result was Uncontrollable. Sara keeps a blog about writing and publishing, living with epilepsy, and parenting a transgender child. Her next book is a YA LGBTQ+ book that she hopes to query this fall.

Sara has a three-city book tour starting on May 25th, and here is the list of events currently lined up. If you are in Portland, Dallas, or Cleveland, come see her speak and leave with a signed copy of a book that has been described by best-selling author Alisa Kennedy Jones as "UN-PUT-DOWNABLE!" 

 Cleveland

May 25th: WEWS live interview at 10am           

Presentation at Empower Epilepsy with Cleveland Clinic neurologist, Dr. Imad Najm. Event from 5pm-8pm. Free to all. Register here. 

 

Dallas

June 9th: Book event at Interabang Books at 6pm, moderated by professional speaker, Karen Cortell Reisman. Come early for food and mingling! RSVP here.

Portland

June 6th: Book reading, Q&A, and signing at Annie Bloom's Books at 7pm. Come early for food! Children welcome. RSVP here. 

June 14th: Author's Night at the University Club at 6pm. Wine tasting and snacks start at 5:30. Open to all. RSVP here. 

You can learn more about Sara on her website www.sarastaggswrites.com.

Sign up for her newsletter to keep up-to-date on events, her next release, and for new blog posts! You can follow her on Instagram www.instagram.com/sarastaggswrites and on Twitter @SaraStaggs. 

Support your local bookstore & this podcast by getting your copy of Uncontrollable at https://bookshop.org/a/90599/9781685132019 or see all the options to order on Sara's website www.sarastaggswrites.com.

A little about today's host-

Shawna Rodrigues left her award-winning career in the public sector in 2019 to consult and publish her first novel Beyond the Pear Blossoms. Her desire to connect and help others led to the launch of her podcast The Grit Show shortly thereafter. When she learned women host only 27% of podcasts, her skills and passion led to the founding of the Authentic Connections Network. She now helps mission-driven entrepreneurs better connect with their audiences by providing full-service podcast production and through a community for Entrepreneurs & Podcasters – EPAC. Podcasting is her primary focus, so she continues to support the writing community through this podcast, and her writing time is mostly focused on anthologies.

She offers a free 7 Steps to Perfect Your Podcast Title to anyone interested in launching a podcast. You can also follow her on Instagram-@ShawnaPodcasts, and learn more about the network and community at https://linktr.ee/37by27.

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