Kelly Boyer Sagert is a full-time writer who has published 18 books and scripted numerous plays. She’s also the author of the script for Trail Magic: The Grandma Gatewood Story, which was nominated for a Regional Emmy Award (Best Documentary, Historical) and just won a prestigious Chagrin Documentary Film Festival Award. The Trail Magic team is now working on a film about Victoria Woodhull, the first woman to run for president of the United States—in 1872.
She lives in Lorain, Ohio.
ST: When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer?
Kelly: As a child, I was always writing stories and sharing them with friends. My first masterpiece was a play I wrote in the sixth grade titled “Haunted House Mystery” that was a rip-off of every Scooby-Doo episode ever written, featuring kids from our neighborhood. When I was in my twenties and pregnant with our first son, I realized, like a bolt of lightning, that I wanted to write for a living.
ST: Why do you enjoy writing for Story Terrace?
Kelly: I love meeting the people whose memoirs I’ll craft, hearing the stories of their lives. Often, they don’t realize how amazing they—meaning the people and their life stories—really are.
ST: What is your idea of perfect happiness?
Kelly: Being cozy at home with my family. We’ve got a big sports game on television and I’m reading a mystery novel during the commercials.
ST: What trait do you admire most in others?
Kelly: Empathy.
ST: If you hadn't become a writer, what career would you have right now?
Kelly: Archaeologist, as long as I would always have access to flush toilets.
ST: What is your most treasured possession?
Kelly: My books!
ST: Who are your favorite writers?
Kelly: Agatha Christie and Drew Gilpin Faust.
ST: What fictional character do you most identify with?
Kelly: Growing up, it was Trixie Belden, who bravely solved mysteries with her siblings and friends.
ST: If you were writing a Story Terrace book of your life, what would be the title and why?
Kelly: Funeral Home Girl Picks Up Her Pen. As a young child, I lived in the funeral home where my father worked, which had a significant influence on me. During that time—and ever since—I spent plenty of time quietly reading. So, it was a natural transition that I began wanting to write my own stories.
ST: Who is your hero?
Kelly: The person who is kind to people without expecting those acts to be known or praised. It’s all about paying it forward.
ST: What is your motto?
Kelly: This is more a mantra: grace, peace, light, love, forgiveness and joy.
ST: What is at the heart of what matters most to you about writing?
Kelly: Speaking the name! I believe that names are important, and so is the process of naming. I even titled my first poetry chapbook Speak the Name to honor the names of people whose lives are in danger of being lost in the mists of time.
ST: Dogs or cats?
Kelly: Both!
ST: Salty or sweet?
Kelly: Sweet
ST: Truth or dare?
Kelly: Truth
ST: Paperback or e-reader?
Kelly: Paperback
ST: X-ray vision or time travel?
Kelly: Time travel, as long as I can take motion sickness medicine first.
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