Riecke authors book

Jan. 4, 2024

The Letters of Lily and Moons is a new book written by S. M. Sage, better known to locals as 2015 NRHEG graduate Sarah Riecke. Riecke published her book September 12, 2023. Her family includes her mother Tami, father Dale, step-father Gordy, and sister Anna, all of whom live in Hartland. In Florida she has her friends and her cat, called Grogu after the baby Yoda character from Star Wars.

 

Currently living in Jacksonville, Florida, Riecke says that her book was inspired by a Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) roleplaying game character she created about two and a half years ago.

 

After high school, Riecke attended the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth; she earned her Bachelor’s in Management Information Systems in 2018 and her Masters of Business Administration in 2019. Following her time in college, she lived in Rhode Island for a time before going to Florida looking for warmer climes while seeking a new job. In addition to being an author, Riecke works as a Power BI Developer for Hitachi Solutions America, a business consulting company which has her working with software that creates visualizations of business data. She began writing her book in the fall of 2022. Her book is self-published through Amazon KDP, which is a popular publishing outlet for independent authors. With this outlet, the author is responsible for all formatting and art design - tasks which Riecke used her IT skills and various programs to accomplish. Also as a part of the publishing process, Riecke hired a “developmental editor,” someone who professionally edits in-progress writing. When an author is ready to publish through Amazon KDP, Riecke explains that the process is quick - simply upload each part of the book, and then receive author copies to ensure everything looks good before sales commence.  

 

“I always liked writing, but writing a whole plot - beginning, middle and end - was never my thing,” Riecke says. She started playing D&D in college; the main character of her book, Ivy, was born when she played with a dungeon master who encouraged her to write a backstory for her character. Once she started writing it, she says she just kept going and really enjoyed it. Then, last April, she started reading more. Fantasy Romance is Riecke’s favorite genre. She says it can be tough to find great books, which made her think she might like to write her own. The Letters of Lily and Moons is the first book of a trilogy; Riecke says she’d like to write novellas exploring the relationships of side characters in the future. Her writing process, she says, is a “hot mess.”

 

“I’m not a plotter, I’m what they would call more of a ‘pantser,’” she says, a “plotter” being someone who plans out the plot and a “pantser” being someone who works “by the seat of their pants.”

 

“Oh boy,” she laughed after being asked about the best feature of her book. She went on to say it is probably the quality of the world she’s built. Riecke created a world from the ground up for her book, including a magic system, calendar, history and map. She is still growing her world, too, and says there will be more to come in book two.

 

More information about The Letters of Lily and Moons and S. M. Sage can be found at Riecke’s author website, smsageauthor.com. The book is available for purchase as a paperback, e-book, and on Kindle through Amazon.com.