Story and Horse

A Universe of Your Own with Teen Author Sarah Humpherys

August 20, 2022 Hilary Adams Season 1 Episode 43
Story and Horse
A Universe of Your Own with Teen Author Sarah Humpherys
Show Notes Transcript

A Universe of Your Own with Teen Author Sarah Humpherys

 We talk about dragons! Join us for a fun and inspirational conversation with teen author Sarah Humpherys. Sarah is a fantasy nerd and magic enthusiast.  At the age of 15, she was invited to be a part of a writing program led by New York Times bestselling author Angie Fenimore. During that 6 month course, she wrote her book Stone Cold, successfully pitched her novel and got it published. We talk about the healing power of writing, magic systems, Sarah's unique creative process and preferred location to write, and, yes - dragons!

Sarah Humpherys's Bio:
Sarah Humpherys lives in Lehi, Utah and is a die-hard fantasy nerd that can’t stop talking about dragons and anime. She is trying to get through school by creating her own worlds and characters and has written six novel length books. Sarah does make friends, but only with people who can stand her habit of constantly talking during movies to critique the plot, her memorization of the How to Train your Dragon Wikipedia page, and a monologue explaining why Doctor Strange is obviously the best avenger.

Connect with Sarah Humpherys:
Website: https://www.sarahhumpherys.com
Sarah's Book Stone Cold: https://www.amazon.com/Stone-Cold-Sarah-Humpherys/dp/1631955845
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sarah_fantasy_author
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sarahhumpherys

Host Hilary Adams is an award-winning theatre director, coach, equine-partnered facilitator, and founder of Story and Horse. She is all about supporting creative expression and sharing stories with the world.

Connect with Story and Horse
www.storyandhorse.com
Facebook: @storyandhorse
Instagram: @storyandhorse

Support the show
Intro:

Welcome to Story and Horse, a podcast where we hear stories from creative lives. Meet new people, hear about their challenges and triumphs, and get inspired to move forward with your creativity. Now, here's your host, Hilary Adams.

Hilary Adams:

Hello, thanks for joining us here on the Story and Horse Podcast. Glad to have you listening. I'm your host, Hilary Adams and a coach theater director and founder of Story and Horse where I work with people to help get their creativity out into the world. Here on the podcast. We meet people living creative lives, hear their stories, and gather inspiration for our own creativeness. Today we're joined by Sarah Humphries. Sarah is a teen author, a fantasy nerd and a magic enthusiast. We often talk about dragons. Hey, sir. Thanks so much for joining me today.

Sarah Humpherys:

Thanks. It's nice to be here.

Hilary Adams:

can you start us off by introducing yourself?

Sarah Humpherys:

Okay. Well, my name is Sarah Humphries. And I'm 18 years old. I just graduated from high school. That's interesting. That was an interesting experience to go through high school graduation. Amazing, I would not recommend it. But about me, I am just a teenager that is really nerdy about everything fantasy. I'm an author. I write, that's what I've been doing forever. That's my extracurricular activity. I have no other clubs, extracurricular activities, anything, just Dungeons and Dragons. And writing that that is me. I'm an author. I'm actually a published author. I've written a book called stone cold that came out just a few months ago. And I'm really excited about that. And that's me.

Hilary Adams:

Congratulations on graduation. That's wonderful. Thank you. How did you get started writing?

Sarah Humpherys:

Oh, I don't, I don't really know exactly. Because when when I was really, really young. It's basically something that I've always been doing. I've always been fascinated with stories and making my own stories. When I was four, or five, maybe even three, I can't remember I went up to my mom, it was saying, Hey, I don't know how to write yet. But could you write down the words on this sheet of paper that that I have in my head, and I could draw stick figures for the art. And those are my first books, you know, stupid stuff, like, this lady wanted to play with her friends, but her friends didn't like her very much. And then she lost her cat and just, you know, stuff that a really, really young child would come up with. But those are my first stories. And they progressively got longer and better, I hope as time went on, and I was just writing them. And I've been writing ever since I had access to computer, like a lot more. And that's basically me. And I published my book when I was, let's see, I got the contract when I was 16. So I got into publishing just a couple years ago. And yeah, it's basically been a part of me for forever, and I really enjoyed it.

Hilary Adams:

So what is your book about?

Sarah Humpherys:

It's a romance fantasy. And it's about a kingdom where everyone wears enchanted stones that take away motion, like it's an emotionless society, they don't want feeling they don't want that. And there are some people that the stones don't work on. And those people are considered dangerous, they're hunted down and executed. So the main character has the misfortune to be one of those people that the enchanted stones do not work on. So she has to pretend to be emotionless and kind of hide herself and hide her secret or she'll be killed. And the inciting incident is that her brother dies. And so she has she's the crown air, actually. And so she has to try even harder. And there's all this stress, and there's a war going on. And there's marriage lines and a love triangle. I put a lot of stuff in there. And it's it's a really fun read.

Hilary Adams:

Where did the idea or the inspiration for the book come from?

Sarah Humpherys:

Most of the stuff that I write is actually just me taking tropes and plot lines and characters that I really like and putting my own spin on it and combining a whole lot of them. So I really like sci fi and dystopian. I like that idea of an emotionless society. I love when something that is considered human is taken away from us. And I also like medieval fantasy. Eat with magic and kingdoms. So I kind of combine the two. And also I really wanted to do the trope where the main character has a secret. And if they're find out, then they're killed, because that automatically adds a sense of tension into the story. So it was basically just a lot of stuff on my bucket list that I was able to do.

Hilary Adams:

You have obviously, along with inspiration, you have the craft and the structure because I can hear it in the way you're describing the book. Was that from? Did you learn that in school? Did you learn that from a burden on other stories, like where did your craft the sort of technical aspect of the craft come from?

Sarah Humpherys:

I read a lot. So I, I basically take notes from people that that's really nice. I have, I watch a lot of TV and I read a lot of books, and I have like 1000 page document of just notes, character types that I like, I literally have a list of just stuff that I want to put in all of my books. And that's how I come up with my ideas. But I also found it really helpful to watch YouTube videos on just like writing videos, I had this series by a YouTuber called Hello future me, they do an on it's called, like on writing, world building on writing, character types, stuff like that. And I took notes from all of those videos, and that was really helpful. So I just read and take notes a lot, but also people actually like sitting me down and, and giving me advice and teaching me stuff was also really helpful.

Hilary Adams:

Circling back to the stones that they carry, I urgently want to know what the stones look like or feel like like, what were the stones that the people carry?

Sarah Humpherys:

Okay, well, this was like, life heard. long novel. So I did not put much very, I did not put very much thought into the stones. I basically chose mainstream gemstones which, which was, I guess good because then people know about them. You don't have to google What does Topaz look like? So that that ended up being good. But I basically went the inside out route, which was I took those emotions and color coded them. So like Ruby is anger. Emerald is happiness. Amber is love. Black Onyx is fear. And like a crystal quartz is pain. And those were the emotions.

Hilary Adams:

So do people have to carry a collection of stones with them? For them?

Sarah Humpherys:

Yeah, they basically. Yeah, they basically have. They wear them with necklaces. And it's like determined on like, your social status. They're very expensive. And I went into that a little bit. And yeah, that was that was really fun. Especially since I met a jeweler at a farmers market who was very, very, very kind and awesome and amazing to make the gemstone necklace for me like in real life. That was cool.

Hilary Adams:

Oh, wow. Wonderful. And so you love magic, obviously in the world of magic and fantasy. Talk to me about your the magic construction of what you call the magic systems.

Sarah Humpherys:

Okay, well, magic has to make sense. It has to follow a set of rules or be understood in this world because it's like an innate part of this world. So I heard that there are two types of magic systems there are soft magic systems and hard magic systems and soft is like, like you don't really understand the rules. It's more wicked and like, and uncontrollable and hard magic systems are like you understand the rules you get something directly out of it. Kind of like Harry Potter Harry Potter is a mixture between hard and soft because you have to learn spells and then and then you can cast them but the spells can pretty much do anything and so that that's what adds the more like softness, unpredictable nature to it. But magic in fantasy it's it's kind of hard actually. I I'm really I'm trying to work on doing a hard magic system because soft magic systems are easier because it's just oh, there's magic and characters can just do stuff with it. Like I made a Soul Magic where you know you can you can increase the darkness in someone's soul and you can increase the power in someone's soul and take someone's soul out of their body and I'm like, this is gonna get overpowered pretty soon. So, because if if you just enable magic to do anything, well, pretty soon, you're gonna, you're gonna have a very sense of a decreased tension in your novel because you think that oh, the magic can do anything, the characters can do anything. And that's not really satisfying. So usually, with magic, like you have to, you have to either establish the rules or establish that it's dangerous. So it has to be satisfying. And it's tricky, like in Avatar The Last Airbender with bending, that was, that was really fun, because the magic was ingrained into the culture of the world. So it made sense. And usually with bending like you had to specifically learn skills. And sometimes moments in people's character arcs were tied to different powers, like a main, like a character, Zuko, he was able to finally get over his shame and stand up to his father, which allowed him to unlock the ability to channel direct lightning, which was a really satisfying moment, because it had been building up throughout the entire series. And that was cool. So there isn't much magic in my stone cold book, because I wanted to just keep it more like a palace book. But the stones are enchanted. And there is a magic system with the stones, which I explore in the later book that I'm working on. So there's a little bit of magic there. But I have a whole lot of other books that have different magic systems. And it's, it's, it's hard, but I'm trying to get there.

Hilary Adams:

Can you tell me about your creative process and how you work?

Sarah Humpherys:

Okay, well, I usually write in the dark in my closet. That's how I write, it's really funny because I can focus more on a world that is fantastical and not reality, if I kind of shut myself out from reality and more like sensory deprivation. And I have my closet and their blankets in there and pillows. So I can just make a comfortable environment in there and just write and I can just focus on the world that I'm creating. And that's what I found is the best for me. And again, usually when I want to come up with another idea, I just go to my list of stuff that I want to write and just pick two or three and combine them like that was so one of my one of my most recent ideas, I wanted to make a magic system based on reincarnation, because no one's no one's really done that and I thought that would be cool. But then I thought of another magic system where someone like it's called flame speaking and someone like sticks their hands in fire, and they're able to increase their vitality and be mortal and live forever. And I'm like, huh, huh, let's just combine them so. So I made a magic system where there are God's creatures basically. And those things created the earth and human souls and they and the souls that they like the best, they marked them, and they reincarnate over and over, but the reincarnation makes it so when they're reincarnated. The person can only be put into the body that someone already exists. So that soul is put into another person's body. And that original soul goes out. And so I had the flame thing where someone still flame speaking where that person can alight a magic fire and take the soul that has been displaced and put that into their own body and increase their vitality. So I basically just mishmash a lot of stuff. And usually it works. Sometimes it doesn't. But that's just fun and creative and wacky.

Hilary Adams:

And your thing you're working on a second book.

Sarah Humpherys:

Yeah, the sequel of stone cold. I I'm almost almost done with it. I promised my dad that I get it done by Saturday, because it's the day before Father's Day, and he's leaving, but I don't know if I can get it done, which is so sad because I promised that to get it done by my launch date, which was January 20/25, or something of this year. That did not happen. And then I said okay, February, March, April, May. I need to get it done. I need to I need to actually fulfill the promises that I'm making with my book. So I really, really, really hope I can get it done in the next couple of days.

Hilary Adams:

Are you close?

Sarah Humpherys:

I am very close. The first draft is done and I'm just doing a pass on it. So it can be seen by eyes other than mine, you know. And I'm about halfway done with that. So we'll see. But with the first draft of any of my books, it's, it's really, it's really wild because well, first draft, you're not supposed to really show that you know you're doing, you don't know what you're doing. And sometimes I can get really distracted. Like, I like listening to music. And sometimes I just want to watch TV. And so, and I write late at night, too. So sometimes I'm writing some dialogue, and I click Enter twice, and then I just type Oh, it's loving 50 At night, why am I doing this? Can I just watch TV right now? I mean, some of my favorite characters are doing. That's cool. I don't even leave. And so I just go on a ramble. And then I'm like, great, continue on. And so usually my pass over the first draft is just me, taking out those nonsensical rambles of me, of me. Just talking to myself at like, 12, or one in the morning, lamenting over me writing this book, and it's really funny, because sometimes I don't remember that I wrote them.

Hilary Adams:

Note to self. So talk to us about getting published, how did that happen. And any suggestions or advice for people is always welcome.

Sarah Humpherys:

Getting published was cool. But I did it in a way that is kind of newish, which was fun, and other people can do it, too. But basically, I went in a program that I like a writing program, led by a New York Times bestselling author, Angie Fenimore and for six months, when I was 15, she basically sat us down, and we did an online course. And we had to write our own novels, me and the other students, who were, of course, like decades older than I was. But we wrote our books, and she was giving us advice. And then at the very end, she specifically taught us how to write query letters and how to pitch to traditional agents, which is really helpful, because usually, when someone is trying to do the traditional route, they don't really know what they're doing. And I didn't know what I was doing. And so having someone to actually, you know, face to face, we actually did that face to face, all of us went up to another house, up north. And she taught us how to do this and gave us specific feedback. That was that was really nice. And then the day after we pitched to agents over zoom that she personally knew. And we had the credibility by going through the program, they knew what she was doing. So I was able to get accepted through that. And that was amazing. So my advice to anyone who wants to traditionally publish is, it's really helpful to get someone who knows what they're doing, who can teach you stuff. And a lot of the connections that people make in the traditionally published sphere is from like, people that they know, like, my friend, she was interning with Jennifer Nelson, I think, and she was talking with her agent, and her agent found out that my friend was writing a book and her agent was like, Oh, well send it to me. That's cool. And so basically, if you just make friends and have connections, then you can then you can get something published if if you're if you're lucky, and you can self publish to that's another really awesome option. That was a lot less lucrative back then, because Amazon didn't exist. But Amazon does exist. And a lot of people can make a lot of money if they self published through Amazon. And that's another route you can go to.

Hilary Adams:

What was it like when you received your book, for the first time?

Sarah Humpherys:

My dad took a video of it, and I was actually I had an interview with KSL Local news station. And he said in the video that they used for the interview, and it was basically me like dancing and yelling, and my brothers are like, Sarah, it's 10 in the morning. What are you doing? And I'm like, I just got my books. They look so pretty. Oh my gosh, and it's the cover and everything. And they're like, just what just go to bed. So I felt it felt really enthusiastic. And that was that was fun.

Hilary Adams:

Because it's fun to get to pick it up and hold it for the first time.

Sarah Humpherys:

Yes, that was that was amazing and My My best friend was like, Oh my gosh, you you got your you got your physical books go in the neighborhood and sell them. And I was like, no, wait, that's, that's too far. I'm an author. I write to connect with people like that's that's, I don't talk to people face to face. No I'm not. I'm not I'm not selling my books, but I did for an entire summer and that was that was an interesting experience that was nice. I thought I was going to die honestly knocking on doors that that were way far into the neighborhood. Beware of Dog signs. But it was really nice because I was able to mark it. And marketing is also a really important aspect of, of writing a book and I got some traction, and it's actually selling on its own now through Amazon and Barnes and Noble. And that's, that's incredible.

Hilary Adams:

So you actually went door to door selling?

Sarah Humpherys:

Yeah, it was. I am a I was a child. I have a socially anxious child. I was not ready for that. But he did it.

Hilary Adams:

That's very brave of you. I think a lot of people would find that very hard to sell anything door to door. Nevermind your own book.

Sarah Humpherys:

Yeah.

Hilary Adams:

That's super

Sarah Humpherys:

a lot of people were really were really nice about it.

Hilary Adams:

I think a complete and utter pivot because I haven't got to ask anybody this before. Can we talk dragons for a minute?

Sarah Humpherys:

Yes, sure. Dragons. All about dragons.

Hilary Adams:

Yeah. Talk to us about dragons. I know you love them.

Sarah Humpherys:

Yes, I do love them. I love dragons so much. They are my favorite mythical creature, because they're just so iconic to fantasy and so powerful. And like, I love the concept of like, because a lot of stuff in fantasy, you know, can be really graceful. Like you have saders and, and unicorns and dryads and nature spirits. And then you have fire breathing scaly beasts who can who can, who have long talons that can dramatically scratch across the stone when your main character enters the cave and just, it's so enthralling to me. And, you know, dragons can be a whole lot of stuff throughout fantasy, they can be fire breathing treasure, hoarders that your adventurers have to fight to gain a magic talisman or something, or they can be, you know, wisdom. Seeking dragons, like the adventurers go to the dragon to seek advice. They can be masters of magic, they can be rulers, they can be familiars, you know, dragons, like they're, there's so many types of dragons. And it's so varied. And I love that a lot. And one of my favorite book series is called Wings of Fire. And it's actually it, it tells the story, it's it's all dragons, like, all the all the main characters are dragons. And the the author is so clever, because she made seven different species of dragons, and then did cultures and customs and built a society for every single one of them, and politics and their queens and like the the sand wings, the sand dragons. Their Queen died before she was able to name an air out of her three heirs. And so the three heirs went to the other tribes of dragons and gained allies and then a giant war started. And that's just so fascinating to read about dragons fighting wars. I, I just love that a whole lot. And it's funny because sometimes I I look up fan art of of different dragons and, and I'm like, Oh, nope, nope, the wing blades are supposed to attach here on the shoulder. And they're not mathematically and they're not mathematically accurate. Due to the weight of the dragon, the wings aren't as big and the tail is for too long. So funny, because I'm nerdy about about, you know, the autonomy of these dragons. And it's really fun. And one of my favorite franchises worlds at all is How to Train Your Dragon to because of all the species and yeah, I'm just way, way, way too obsessed and nerdy about a strictly mythical make believe creature, so much useless knowledge.

Hilary Adams:

Are you going to incorporate our dragons on your inspiration list?

Sarah Humpherys:

Oh, yes, I've written three dragon books.

Hilary Adams:

Yeah, so you have some books that you've written that aren't published yet? Or have they been self published?

Sarah Humpherys:

Oh, yeah, I've written a whole lot of books that that aren't just that just aren't published yet. I did. Kind of half self publish one of my books when I was like I 10 and didn't realize that it was bad because it was written by a 10 year old. But you know, I designed the cover, and I sent it in. And then they gave me the books that were actually like bound, like, as a book. And it was, it was not very thick at all. It's like 100 pages. But I guess that was my first published book. I'm not sure if anyone outside of my family would read it. But

Hilary Adams:

people will look back and find it as your early work

Sarah Humpherys:

Yeah, yeah. Oh, no, like the recesses of the internet or something.

Hilary Adams:

Exactly.

Sarah Humpherys:

Like Sarah, is this yours?

Hilary Adams:

Some reporter in the future is gonna go back and find that. Speaking of like, what do you see in your future,

Sarah Humpherys:

I really hope that I can keep publishing books and keep writing books, because I love it. And you know, if you're good at something, or supposedly good at something, I really hope that I'm good at writing after spending the last 10 years of my life writing, when that'd be sad. But like, if you're if you're good at something, and you love it, then I really hope that I can make it as a career because, you know, everyone wants to love their career. And that's been my dream since I was like, eight. So I hope to publish more of my books, self published, or traditionally published, try to make money. And I'm going to college in the fall, and I'm studying English. And I really hope that will be fun. Maybe it won't be fun. And I'll have to just write a whole lot. And maybe I won't like writing anymore after college. We'll see.

Hilary Adams:

Yeah, and one of the notes that you sent me through the podcast, you mentioned that you're sort of writing you're writing to help get through high school. Yeah. Yeah. As a way of constructing worlds. So yeah,

Sarah Humpherys:

I, there's something that's really, really, let's see, with fantasy, specifically, there's something really appealing about creating a universe that is yours that you can control, like, like, I've created several dragon books, because I love dragons. And that's cool. So being able to create something that you love, and that you're in control of is a really nice way to forget about your anxiety and depression for a while. Like if you if you have negative thoughts, you can just retreat to an area that you really love. And I like watching TV a lot, too. So sometimes when I'm stressed, I can just turn on TV. And imagine that I'm flying through space with an evil Emperor tailing after me not worried about having a job or something.

Hilary Adams:

Before we wrap up, is there anything else you'd like to share? They've given us several inspirations and takeaways for people. But anything else you'd like to share either for inspiring people for creativity or something else? Entirely?

Sarah Humpherys:

Well, I really like writing. And it's really helped me and I think other people who are kind of adverse to writing can, they should really just try it and see how it works out. Like, it's really, really helpful. Even if you just journal even just write down your thoughts. There's something really very therapeutic about that. And, you know, you can write poetry or just just tell a story. And that's, that's really fun. Because, you know, a whole lot of people have their own stories, and everyone has a story to tell. And we could always use more stories. So I'd like to have everyone write. And everyone, you know, put down their feelings and just add more to the stories we have.

Hilary Adams:

That was so well articulate, articulated. Thank you. Thank you. How do people reach you?

Sarah Humpherys:

I'm on Instagram and Facebook. And I have my own website, although it's sort of bad. So if you want to, if you want to contact me, then my email is Sarahauthor000@gmail.com. So you can totally just send me an email and be like, Hey, I read your book, and I liked it. And I've gotten a few of those emails, and they're always really fun. And I don't delete them. I keep them in my inbox. My inbox is very crowded, but I don't care because those emails are amazing. So don't don't be scared to just send me or message me.

Hilary Adams:

What's the what's your URL for your website?

Sarah Humpherys:

Just SarahHumpherys.com Although my name is kind of spelled in a weird way. It's Sarah with an H and then Humpherys is hu M P H, E ry s, it's usually spelled R EY s, but it's E ry s.

Hilary Adams:

And all of those links will be in the show notes. Sarah, it's been wonderful talking with you. I've learned a ton and I've got to go look at dragons now. I love dragons. So what what is your absolute favorite dragon? Is it the How To Train dragon?

Sarah Humpherys:

That's pretty hard, though. It's really hard. Oh my gosh, okay. Let me think. Okay, my favorite dragon would be. Yeah, okay. My favorite dragon would be Knight wings from the Wings of Fire series, because they are completely black dragons with star shaped with like star speckled scales on the underside of their wings, which is really cool. I like that. And they can read minds and see the future if they're born under a full moon, which is so cool. I love that power. And their culture is like, really mysterious like they're prophecy givers. So I like those dragons.

Hilary Adams:

I can't wait to read that series. I didn't know about it until we talked. So

Sarah Humpherys:

oh, it's such a good series.

Hilary Adams:

Very excited. Anyone who's listening, all of Sarah's links will be in the show notes. And her book is called Stone Cold and there is a sequel coming out also. So please make sure you connect with her and you can find so called at Amazon, Barnes and Noble and anywhere you enjoy getting your books. Is there an ebook or an audiobook version of it?

Sarah Humpherys:

Yeah, there's an e book.

Hilary Adams:

There's an ebook version of it also. So that was great. So thank you so much for joining me here today.

Sarah Humpherys:

Yeah, I like talking with you.

Outro:

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