We interviewed Unrest author Sandra Ann Heath on what inspires her writing, what she does when she’s not writing, and what she’s excited about! Read on to learn more about her!
To start, what are your three favorite books that inspire your writing?
1) Khaled Housseini’s The Kite Runner; 2) House of Sand and Fog by Andre Dubus; 3) Sue Monk Kidd’s The Secret Life of Bees. The first two are not surprising as they each have a Middle Eastern theme. The second one is about an Iranian colonel who fled Iran for America and experienced tragedy assimilating. The coming-of-age angle to my novel, Unrest, was inspired by the third novel I named, The Secret Life of Bees, as well as other novels like J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye — I loved the rebellious teen, Holden Caulfield. I really can’t name just three (!); John Green’s Searching for Alaska as well as most of Jodi Picot’s novels gave me inspiration.
Being a writer, for sure you spend a lot of time just writing. But what do you do when you don’t write?
I read!
What’s the hardest thing about writing for you?
Finding time to write.
Tell us what you’re excited about right now.
I’m thrilled about starting a new job with a fantastic financial institution (my day job is in banking). I’m in my final week of vacation and am marveling at all the fragrant flowering trees and beautiful blooms of flowers in our town. Looking forward to some fireworks displays in a few days! This September, each of my sons will be at the same university and I’m excited about their optimism about their extended education and their future careers.
Which book of yours would you recommend a reader start with?
At the present time, I’ve written one book, Unrest. I’ve started writing a murder mystery that includes my favorite theme — overseas travel.
