{"id":7371,"date":"2022-06-05T20:39:30","date_gmt":"2022-06-06T00:39:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/?p=7371"},"modified":"2022-06-05T20:39:30","modified_gmt":"2022-06-06T00:39:30","slug":"interview-with-author-sarah-hans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/interview-with-author-sarah-hans\/","title":{"rendered":"Interview with Author Sarah Hans"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Sarah Hans is an award-winning author, editor, and teacher. Her speculative short stories have appeared in more than 40 publications, including <em>Love Letters to Poe<\/em> and the horror podcast <em>Pseudopod<\/em>. Her first novel is titled <em>Entomophobia<\/em>, and it&#8217;s full of bugs. You can find it on the <a href=\"https:\/\/omniumgatherumedia.com\/entomophobia\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Omnium Gatherum site<\/a> or at online vendors such as <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/38QemjW\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Amazon<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s the publisher&#8217;s description of her novel:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>One mistake can change your life, and Meri has made a lot of them. She married an abusive husband and stayed with him for ten years before she finally left. She moved back in with her mom and dated a guy who turned out to be an alcoholic. Now, just when she thinks things can&#8217;t get any worse, she gets caught shoplifting. And not just by any security guard: by something supernatural, something that wants to do more than just calling the cops. Something out of her childhood nightmares. Now, Meri has a severe phobia, a psychotic ex-husband, an overbearing mother, an alcoholic ex-boyfriend, a daughter caught in the crossfire of a bitter divorce&#8230;and a curse. Will she become the thing she fears most?<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>I recently had a chance to chat with Sarah and ask her a few questions about her writing process.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What inspired\u00a0<\/strong><em><strong>Entomophobia<\/strong><\/em><strong>?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Actually, your writing class did! You challenged us to think of the person (or people) we knew who had the most challenging lives and then add a supernatural element. I had to add a lot of side\u00a0plot,\u00a0also, to flesh out the book. It definitely wouldn&#8217;t exist without your influence!<\/p>\n<p><strong>What is your favorite part of the novel?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Probably the ending! It&#8217;s hard to say why without giving too much away, but I loved writing the faerie queens.<\/p>\n<p><strong>In what ways did the novel change during your revisions?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I didn&#8217;t do too much revision, actually, because I tend to revise as I write. I did keep changing the bugs, though. In some versions there is a swarm of bees,\u00a0and in some versions they&#8217;re cicadas. I kept vacillating\u00a0because what&#8217;s the scariest bug? That&#8217;s a hard question for me to answer. I find most of them pretty creepy!<\/p>\n<p><strong>What did you learn about your writing process (or anything else!) while you were working on this book?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I learned that it really helps me to know what the ending is going to be, so I can write toward that goal. I also learned to write an outline, even if it&#8217;s just vague. It also helps to power through and write the book as quickly as possible, before my ADHD makes me lose interest.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What advice do you have for beginning writers?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Ask for what you want. It&#8217;ll be scary and hard the first time you do it, but the worst that can happen is the agent or the editor or the publisher says no. Most people in the writing industry are pretty helpful and kind, I&#8217;ve found, and they&#8217;ll say yes if they can! But you will miss a lot of opportunities if you don&#8217;t put yourself out there and ask. Pretend you&#8217;re brave!<\/p>\n<p><strong>Any final thoughts?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m currently finishing up a horror novella about meth addicts hiding out in an abandoned asylum, and I&#8217;m about halfway through a historical horror novel about an identity thief who gets in way over her head. If you want to keep up with my releases and\u00a0appearances, the best way to do that is to follow my blog,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/sarahhans.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">https:\/\/sarahhans.com\/<\/a>, or follow me on <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/witchwithabook\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Twitter<\/a>. Thanks for reading!<\/p>\n<p><em>You can also find Sarah on Instagram and TikTok with the username @witchwithabook. Sarah lives in Ohio with her partner, stepdaughter, and an entirely reasonable number of pets.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/38QemjW\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"7374\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/interview-with-author-sarah-hans\/entomophobia-2\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/entomophobia-1.jpeg\" data-orig-size=\"1000,1500\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"entomophobia\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/entomophobia-1-200x300.jpeg\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/entomophobia-1-683x1024.jpeg\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-7374 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/entomophobia-1-683x1024.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"683\" height=\"1024\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/entomophobia-1-683x1024.jpeg 683w, https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/entomophobia-1-200x300.jpeg 200w, https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/entomophobia-1-768x1152.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/entomophobia-1.jpeg 1000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 683px) 100vw, 683px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>Sarah Hans is an award-winning author, editor, and teacher. Her speculative short stories have appeared in more than 40 publications, including Love Letters to Poe <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/interview-with-author-sarah-hans\/\" title=\"Interview with Author Sarah Hans\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7373,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[70],"tags":[154,189],"class_list":["post-7371","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interview","tag-interview","tag-sarah-hans"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/entomophobia-e1654475851200.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8qT6f-1UT","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6866,"url":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/omniumgatherumparty\/","url_meta":{"origin":7371,"position":0},"title":"Forthcoming Anthologies and an Online Book Launch Tomorrow Night","author":"Lucy A. Snyder","date":"January 14, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Tomorrow evening, I and Donna J.W. Munro, Anton Cancre, Kimile Aczon, and Nzondi will be participating in Omnium Gatherum's release event for Sarah Hans' new novel,\u00a0Entomophobia. The book launch readings will be free and streamed on Facebook on Saturday, January 15th at 5pm PST\/8pm Eastern. To view the event during\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;publishing&quot;","block_context":{"text":"publishing","link":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/category\/publishing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Release Party graphic","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/EntomophobiaReleaseDay.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/EntomophobiaReleaseDay.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/EntomophobiaReleaseDay.jpeg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/EntomophobiaReleaseDay.jpeg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/EntomophobiaReleaseDay.jpeg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2206,"url":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/ohio-horror-writers-association\/","url_meta":{"origin":7371,"position":1},"title":"Ohio Horror Writers Association","author":"Lucy A. Snyder","date":"September 5, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"I and other authors such as David Day, Tim Waggoner, Gary A. Braunbeck, Janet Harriett, and Sarah Hans recently formed the new Ohio chapter of the Horror Writers Association. You can find the new group online at\u00a0https:\/\/ohiohwa.wordpress.com\/ and on Facebook. At present, the group is holding quarterly meetings; the next\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;horror&quot;","block_context":{"text":"horror","link":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/category\/horror\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2466,"url":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/my-confusion-schedule-and-other-news\/","url_meta":{"origin":7371,"position":2},"title":"My ConFusion Schedule and Other News","author":"Lucy A. Snyder","date":"January 14, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"I hope you all had a good start to 2019! I spent most of last week at Seton Hill University in Greensburg, PA for their winter Master of Fine Arts in Writing Popular Fiction residency. I met with new students and attended workshops offered by writers such as Kevin Hearne.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;convention&quot;","block_context":{"text":"convention","link":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/category\/convention\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Diamante.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Diamante.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Diamante.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Diamante.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Diamante.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Diamante.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1531,"url":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/the-red-tree\/","url_meta":{"origin":7371,"position":3},"title":"The Red Tree","author":"Lucy A. Snyder","date":"August 1, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Caitli\u0301n R. Kiernan\u2019s\u00a0The Red Tree\u00a0is a dizzying weird gothic novel that chronicles the final months of a writer named Sarah Crowe as she grieves for her dead girlfriend, wrestles with writer's block and tries to unravel the dark mysteries behind the legends surrounding an ancient oak tree growing near the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;dark fantasy&quot;","block_context":{"text":"dark fantasy","link":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/category\/dark-fantasy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/redtree.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2771,"url":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/origins-game-fair\/","url_meta":{"origin":7371,"position":4},"title":"Origins Game Fair","author":"Lucy A. Snyder","date":"June 12, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"I'll be participating in the Origins Game Fair this week as part of the Origins Library. The Library programming and author tables have moved to a new location. Previously, our signing tables were way in the back of the huge vendor hall, and our programming was tucked away in a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;convention&quot;","block_context":{"text":"convention","link":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/category\/convention\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Origins Game Fair","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/origins.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/origins.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/origins.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/origins.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/origins.png?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/origins.png?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":15467,"url":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/ohio-horror-writers-spooktacular\/","url_meta":{"origin":7371,"position":5},"title":"Ohio Horror Writers Spooktacular","author":"Lucy A. Snyder","date":"October 21, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Celebrate spooky season with the Ohio Horror Writers Association! On Saturday, Oct. 25th at noon, please join me and other Ohio horror authors for fun, fiction-focused afternoon at the Columbus Library at 96 South Grant Avenue, Columbus, Columbus, OH, 43215. The event is free, but registration is requested. Saturday, Oct\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Writing Advice&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Writing Advice","link":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/category\/writing-advice\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Screen-Shot-2025-10-21-at-10.50.02-PM.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Screen-Shot-2025-10-21-at-10.50.02-PM.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Screen-Shot-2025-10-21-at-10.50.02-PM.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Screen-Shot-2025-10-21-at-10.50.02-PM.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Screen-Shot-2025-10-21-at-10.50.02-PM.png?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Screen-Shot-2025-10-21-at-10.50.02-PM.png?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7371","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7371"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7371\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7375,"href":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7371\/revisions\/7375"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7373"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}