Character Interveiw: Sarah Anderson from A Whisper to a Scream

BB: Tell us your name and a little bit about yourself.

SA: Hi, my name is Sarah Anderson. Alex, please stop it. Mommy is trying to do an interview. Sorry. He forgets the family room is not an appropriate place to kick a soccer ball around. Alex! That’s two. One more and you’re in time out. I’m a stay-at-home mother of two boys. I live in Naperville, Illinois, with my kids and husband, Tom.

BB: What role do you play in your book?

SA: I guess you could say I’m the co-star, if A Whisper to a Scream were a movie.

BB: How did you meet your author?

SA: Well, this is pretty odd. I popped into her head while she was taking a shower. I guess she had this vision of a mom trying to grocery shop with a toddler who was throwing things out of the cart. Yup, that’s me.

BB: Do you get along with your author?

SA: She is harmless enough. It is pretty weird to have someone watch you and take notes, though. It felt sort of like being on a reality show, only there were no cameras. Just this omnipresent, short, fat woman in on all of my conversations. I was freaking out until Annie told me the same chick was following her around as well. No, Nicky. I cannot help you with your spelling homework. I am busy, honey. I’m sorry. What was I going to say? Oh well. It went right out of my head. Next question?

BB: Is this your first role in a publication?

SA: Yes.

BB: Do you plan on returning in other books?

SA: I would like to. I hear Karen is writing the story of another member of the Classics Book Club. Catherine, the actress. She played Audrey, the country wench in As You Like It, when we went on our book club field trip. If there are any book club scenes, I will be there, unless Tom is out of town yet again.

BB: Do you like how you were written?

SA: Not at first. I mean, who likes having a huge magnifying mirror thrust in your face?

BB: What is the most interesting thing that happened to you in this book?

SA: I got to go to Boston for a long weekend when Tom was working there. I wish it would have been Hawaii, but you take what you can, right?

BB: Who is your favorite character in your book, besides yourself? Why?

SA: Well, I love my family very much, but I think my favorite is my new best friend Annie Jacobs. She is an amazing woman. I don’t know if I would have the strength to endure all she did. Okay, that’s three. Time out, Alex. And stop nagging me, Nick. I am almost done, then I can give you your spelling test.

BB: Is there anything we should know about you that we haven't been told in your book?

SA: I’m secretly British aristocracy and have a country home waiting for me in Derbyshire, complete with a full house staff and (breaks into hysterical laughter)...I can’t even get the words out with out laughing...in my dreams.

BB: How do you feel about the way your story ended?

SA: I wish it ended differently, but it is what it is. That’s life, right?

BB: Thanks for your time Sarah, and thank you Nicky and Alex for letting your mommy talk to us. To learn more about Sarah Anderson, check out A Whisper to a Scream by Karen Wojcik Berner.

Book Description: Ovulation detectors. Hormone surges. Anxiety-ridden dreams. This is the world in which Annie Jacobs is thrust when she and her husband John receive a diagnosis of unexplained infertility. A 37-year old PR executive, Annie has wanted to be a mother since she first cuddled her Baby Tenderlove at age five. She is dreading another Christmas of relatives asking when they will be hearing the pitter patter of little feet, and Uncle Joe slapping John on the back, telling him to relax and take a cruise. Lots of people get pregnant on vacation, you know. Across town, stay-at-home mom of two, Sarah Anderson, attempts grocery shopping with a toddler intent on hurling items from the cart at passersby. She notices a box of rice heading straight for a gray-haired head. Leaping across the aisle, Sarah grabs it, saving the woman from certain doom, or at least a minor head injury. Little Alex screams at being thwarted. The unknowing octogenarian shakes her head and admonishes Sarah for not knowing how to keep her child quiet in public. "A Whisper to a Scream" is the story of two women on opposite ends of the child-bearing spectrum who come to realize the grass is not necessarily greener on the other side of the fence. A vivid portrayal of contemporary marriage and its problems, the novel speaks to a longing in all of us, a yearning that might start as a vague notion, but eventually grows into an unbearable, vociferous cry.