Sarah Patt: On Writing

I feel incredibly fortunate to have a job I absolutely love! I am a one-on-one tutorial teacher in a private school for children with a language-based learning disability. I help them in reading, writing, and spelling. My campus which is in a quaint seaside town thirty miles north of Boston, Massachusetts enrolls students in the second through eighth grades. There is also a high school campus in the next town over. 

I get a variety of grades which I love. This means I have six students with six different reading levels and goals, so I’ve got six library books checked out ranging from Charlotte’s Web by E.B White to Night by Elie Wiesel. With this comes six different personalities. So you ask, how does teaching inspire my writing? The adage, the more you read, the better writer you become holds true as well as the wealth of information each of my students shares with me on an individual basis makes for a great story. I absorb what they tell me and in the evening when I hunker down to write, I spin their words into a tale.

Each of my students is asked to write brief but detailed chapter summaries. We read collaboratively out loud alternating turns with each paragraph (not by page) so the child has to follow along and look for the indent and if there is dialogue – we alternate characters. This develops their intonation, accuracy, and fluency. I always joke, there’s an actor in all of us! Most of my students want to skip the writing part and continue reading which is great but I remind them if everyone felt this way there’d be no authors! 😉 

And as the pièce de ré·sis·tance, when we are done reading a book, I have them write a short book review.

Usually, each student completes 6 books during their school year with me. Our school’s librarian is our final set of eyes because I remind them how important editing is. No matter how many times the student reads their written work, to spot errors and/or typos, there’s usually at least one that gets overlooked, so it’s crucial to always have another proofreader! Their book reviews get published on our school’s blog as well as displayed proudly on the library’s bulletin board.

Overall, teaching is a great career to have while pursuing a writing career. My closest colleagues know the only way I’ll leave it is if my trilogy hits the big screen! 😉 And that is my ultimate goal. Because of Savannah was my debut, Dakota is its sequel and Lucky is the third installment which is currently under review with my publisher. I am enormously grateful for any and all support and truly appreciate this opportunity to share with Women Writers, Women Books my career and aspirations. Thank you.

Sincerely,

          Sarah Patt

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Sarah Patt graduated from Wheelock College in 1991 and taught for five years before becoming a mother in 1996. It wasn’t until 2008 when she returned to the classroom. While maintaining a full-time teaching position at The Landmark School, Sarah earned a master’s degree in Special Education from Simmons College in 2012. She is enormously grateful for her devoted and loving husband and their three children, who support her writing endeavor wholeheartedly with words of encouragement and expressions of pride. Dakota is her second published novel.

DAKOTA

Eighteen-year-old Dakota Buchannan is determined not to be the messed-up, orphaned teenager with an over the top imagination the media describes her as. After her father’s accidental death at Jennings oil refinery, she finds out that she has a much older half-brother and moves to Houston, Texas, to live with him and his young daughter, Savannah. It doesn’t take long for Dakota to settle in and capture the heart of a young man. Life seems to be going quasi-normal until CEO Jake Jennings breaks into Dakota’s home to confront her. In his narcotized state, he assaults her while incoherently apologizing for something his late father did, of which she has no recollection.

She eventually escapes, and Jake is charged. Released on bail, he returns to his penthouse, and Dakota’s boyfriend takes her away for the weekend to clear her mind, but on their return, the front page of the local newspaper confirms ‘Jake Jennings plummets to his death.’ Dakota’s half relieved the man is dead, but the other half replays in her mind what he was trying to tell her that terrifying night and whether or not he actually killed himself or did someone push him off his balcony.

Feisty and determined, Dakota never loses sight of hope or the importance of family and friendships. She navigates her new life with her moral compass –– reconciling the past and seeking answers while discovering secrets and lies.

BUY HERE

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