A conversation between Sarah Hunt, winner of the 2021 Stone Soup Book Contest, and Tristan Hui, former Stone Soup contributor and winner of the 2020 Stone Soup Book Contest, about Sarah Hunt’s debut novel, Foxtale. Foxtale was also a finalist in the youth author (under 25) category for the 2023 Indie Book Awards. 0:34 — What does Stone Soup mean for you? 1:31 — What was the hardest part of the publishing process? 2:32 — How did you come up with the idea for Foxtale? 4:13 — Was there anything you read during the writing process that inspired you? 5:07 — Do you have a favorite character from Foxtale? 5:41 — What impact do you hope Foxtale will have on your readers? 6:53 — During the editing process, how did you decide what to cut and what to keep? 8:42 — Can you talk about your writing process? 11:46 — What advice do you have for other young readers? 12:42 — Has your belief that you’re your own target audience helped to deal with outside criticism? 13:33 — What are your future writing goals?
Sarah Hunt
Saturday Newsletter: October 15, 2022
Read about Stone Soup’s latest book releases below! A note from William Rubel Friends – I am exceedingly proud to announce that you can now preorder Sarah Hunt’s Foxtale, the First Place (Fiction) winner of our third Annual Book Contest held in 2021. Many, many congratulations, Sarah! The official publication date is November 15. Place your orders now to get the book as soon as it is released and in time for the holiday season. Before talking more about the book, I would like to acknowledge and congratulate the many young writers who submitted works to the competition. It takes a great deal of determination to complete a book-length work of fiction or poetry and courage to submit the work to a contest. Anyone who manages to complete a long work of fiction—or a book-length poetry collection—has accomplished a miracle. Sarah’s novel is set in the future. It involves climate change, space travel, adventure—classic science fiction! It is also a literary work, however. Chapters open with thoughtful aphorisms and quotes from other authors that express ideas important to the story. Sarah’s writing is intense! She is one of those authors who seems to inhabit her characters such that you see and feel what they see and feel. One becomes intensely attached to the characters and to the story. A real page turner! I have a second book to announce today, too. The collection of poems, Catalogue of Ripening, was written by Sabrina Guo during her first years in high school. She is currently a senior. For several years, Sabrina was a Stone Soup star, a repeat contributor and winner of multiple writing contests. This is our first foray into publishing works by Stone Soup authors who have moved into the next stage of their writing life. Longtime readers of this newsletter know that Sabrina has developed a substantive focus on social action: she is the inspiration for Stone Soup’s Refugee Project, has founded multiple programs aimed at empowering girls, and raised tens of thousands of dollars to buy protective gear for medical workers early in the COVID-19 pandemic. Knowing these aspects of her life story, you will find her poetic voice is equally curious, outward-looking, and deeply empathetic. The poems in this collection are beautiful, thoughtful literary works that show Sabrina to be a ripening literary voice, one that is coming into her own. It is very exciting for Stone Soup to see one of our writers mature. Please support Sara and Sabrina by purchasing their books! Both titles are appropriate for either young adult or adult readers and are now available for order (or preorder!) through all major book retailers and at your local bookstore, or by clicking the links to buy on our Amazon storefront, or from an Indie bookstore. My best, Stone Soup is published by Children’s Art Foundation-Stone Soup Inc., a 501(c)(3) educational nonprofit organization registered in the United States of America, EIN: 23-7317498.
