Sarah McCoy

Sarah McCoy is the New York Times, USA Today, and international bestselling author of Marilla of Green Gables; The Mapmaker’s Children; The Baker’s Daughter, a 2012 Goodreads Choice Award Best Historical Fiction nominee; the novella “The Branch of Hazel” in Grand Central; and The Time It Snowed in Puerto Rico.

Her work has been featured in Real Simple, The Millions, Your Health Monthly, Huffington Post, Read It Forward, Writer Unboxed, and other publications. She has taught English writing at Old Dominion University and at the University of Texas at El Paso. She lives with her husband, an orthopedic sports surgeon, and their dog, Gilbert, in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

From McCoy's Q&A with Deborah Kalb:

Q: How did you end up writing this novel about Marilla Cuthbert, the character from the famous book Anne of Green Gables?

A: I had just completed another novel called Pride and Providence, which sold internationally. I was in the process of changing North American publishing houses.

While getting to know potential new publishers, the executive editor at William Morrow/HarperCollins gave me a call. She asked me, “What do you really want to write next, Sarah? What’s something that you’d only dared dream about but really excites you?”

I’d never had an editor take an active role in the brainstorming part of book development. It was wholly refreshing.

So I followed her instructions and the first idea that came to mind was… Marilla Cuthbert. I’d always been fascinated by her as a prominent yet only partially known character in my beloved Anne of Green Gables series. I grew up with the books and was obsessed with everything related.

Marilla of Green Gables was a novel that...[read on]

Learn more about the book and author at Sarah McCoy’s website, Facebook page, Instagram page, and Twitter perch.

The Page 69 Test: Marilla of Green Gables.

Writers Read: Sarah McCoy.

--Marshal Zeringue