The Inspiration behind Sarah’s Gift

by Erica Tucci

Where do authors most often get the inspiration for their books? You probably already know the answer to this if you read a lot, are an author yourself or wish to be an author. Authors are inspired by their own personal experiences.

We all (meaning everybody in the world) have our own personal journeys replete with life experiences that create the stories of our lives. And through these tales, we often find that we have something to share in a way that might be able to serve others in some capacity. If we are so inclined, we will put ourselves out in the world for all to see, where our messages might resonate with others in their own hour of need. And as we share our stories with others, we are not only helping to heal them, but we are healing ourselves. That is what my Sarah’s Gift book series for children 7-12 years old is doing for me.

Sarah’s Gift book series came to me when I had an encounter with my inner child who was beginning to get a bit ornery. You see, she felt that she wasn’t able to express herself the way she wanted to, that she had been stifled all her life and couldn’t be who she really was deep down inside. And now she was screaming to speak her piece. So I let her do so through the written word, since writing is my passion. I created Sarah’s Gift for her, with the characters, settings and incidents coming from my own life as a child (and as an adult still living as a child in many ways, if that makes sense). Now she (I) has been able to explore her world with a different perspective than how it was before. It has become a world where her spirit animal guides help her build confidence in herself and her special abilities, and how she uses her newly found self-assurance to help others.

And this is where the other inspiration behind Sarah’s GIft has come into play – Dr. Steven Farmer’s Children Spirit Animal Cards. Animals have their own special messages for us, and if we understand animal symbolism (nicely portrayed and described in Dr. Farmer’s cards and the associated guide), we can then apply these messages to our own lives. For example, in the first book of the Sarah’s Gift series, Bear was Sarah’s spirit animal guide that taught her how to “stand up for herself” in the midst of peer adversity.

Getting back to personal experiences, Bear came to me in a dream when I was six years old, which is how I opened the first book Standing Up for Yourself. And when I found Dr. Farmer’s cards and saw Bear, I knew I just had to use his cards as the basis for the series. In the second book, I opened it with a dream that Sarah had of a crow, which again was based on my own experience. Crow did come to me just as I depicted in Believing In the Magic. There are other incidents and characters in both books that are based on the people and occurrences in my life, and that will continue as I develop new stories.

Writing Sarah’s Gift has been so much fun as I let my inner child come out and play in a way she never was able to. It is giving me the chance to uncover parts of me that have been hidden in the dark that I wish to bring into consciousness. As C.G. Jung says: “One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.” Sarah’s Gift is helping me on my journey of evolution, and my hope is to use it as a means of helping others on their own journey. Do you have a child inside who wishes to come out and play with Sarah? 🙂

I do hope that you will check out Sarah’s Gift on Amazon by Clicking on the image below.