We chat with Sarah Gerard about her new novel, her favorite Florida spots, gardening, music, and a whole lot more!

Full Transcript

More from Sarah

“Modern Nature” (Patty Yumi Cottrell + Sarah Gerard at Burrow Press

“Talking to the Dead in the Sunshine State” (NYT)

Buy: Sunshine State (Essays) & her latest novel True Love

Check out Sarah’s True Love playlist on Largehearted Boy

Also, you can learn more about her father Eric Gerard who is running for Largo City Commission: www.gerardforlargo.com

Notable Quotable

True Love discussion

“I kind of want to start playing the Sims again, so I can go to a party during quarantine.” — Tyler

“Nina had a lot of red tide going on.” — Gramel

“Nina had a great work ethic and would do any piddling little job she needed to do to make a little money to pay her bills, she could do it, she had a great work ethic.” — Gramel

Chat with Sarah

“We started a vegetable garden. So we’re growing some peppers or pepper plants are going crazy. Right now our bean plants are going crazy right now. They have some tomatoes who are flowering, but they haven’t been fruited yet, but that might not happen until later in the summer. And, yeah, I mean, we’re learning a lot and moving plants around. And you know, I’m out there every day with them. And it’s a good way to get away from my phone and reflect and get outside, you know, without endangering myself or others.” — Sarah

On writing the character in “Midnight Preacher”

“I actually became fascinated with a real person who I base that character on, and he was one of those people who preached at midnight, you know, when you’re falling asleep on the couch. And he and he did get in trouble for I think, tax evasion. And I mean, he was always contrarian and always conservative, but he just became radicalized after Trump was elected. Yeah, and, and I wanted to write a story about him, I kind of started snooping around. And I had found him because he was listed as a hate group on the Southern Poverty Law Center website.”

“Our lover reflects us back to ourselves.” — Sarah

“I think actually, music and having a sense of humor are similar in a way. I mean, it’s all about timing” — Sarah

“I listen to this channel lo fi hip hop on YouTube when writing with my students. It’s kind of like weird at first but then at the end they love it.” — Tyler

“I was interested in the personal, and the interpersonal ramifications of 2016 election, because I noticed that it caused a ruckus. People got divorced people’s block their friends on Facebook. And, and when, you know, looking at something like toxic masculinity, or whiteness, or gentrification, you know, how do I not think about it? You know, in the current time, how can I not also think about our government?” — Sarah