Sara Donati: On Filling In Historical Blanks

April 3, 2024

Sara Donati is the pen name of Rosina Lippi, a former academic and tenured university professor. Since 2000 she has been writing fiction full time, haunting the intersection where history and storytelling meet, wallowing in 19th-century newspapers, magazines, street maps, and academic historical research.

She is the internationally bestselling author of the Wilderness series (Into the Wilderness, Dawn on a Distant Shore, Lake in the Clouds, Fire Along the Sky, Queen of Swords, and The Endless Forest) as well as The Gilded Hour, the first in a new series following the descendants of characters from the Wilderness series. She lives between the Cascades and Puget Sound with her husband, daughter, Jimmy Dean (a Havanese), and Max and Bella (the cats). Follow her on Facebook.

Sara Donati

In this interview, Sara discusses the roadblocks that made the writing process longer than usual for new historical novel, The Sweet Blue Distance, her advice for other writers, and more!

Name: Rosina Lippi, writing as Sara Donati
Literary agent: Jill Grinberg
Book title: The Sweet Blue Distance
Publisher: Berkley/Penguin
Release date: April 2, 2024
Genre/category: Historical
Previous titles: Into the Wilderness; Dawn on a Distant Shore; Lake in the Clouds; Fire Along the Sky; Queen of Swords; The Endless Forest; The Sweet Blue Distance; The Gilded Hour; Where the Light Enters; Homestead; Tied to the Tracks; The Pajama Girls of Lambert Square
Elevator pitch:From the author of the international bestseller Where the Light Enters comes a sweeping Western saga centered around a young midwife who journeys from New York City to New Mexico in 1857.

Bookshop | Amazon
[WD uses affiliate links.]

What prompted you to write this book?

I’ve always been deeply interested in history—especially of those times and places that were ignored in grade school. This novel gave me the opportunity (excuse?) to learn more about results of the Mexican-American war and the bloody onset of the Civil War.

How long did it take to go from idea to publication? And did the idea change during the process?

This novel took twice as long as usual—more than three years—but that had to do with the pandemic, health issues, and family complications.

Were there any surprises or learning moments in the publishing process for this title?

Things moved more slowly than they have in the past in part because there is not much material on the way the military worked in the west prior to the Civil War. The lack of records surprised me, given the overabundance of military records in every other area. It also unsettled me to find that most mentions of the military had to do with their extreme and often violent discrimination against Mexicans and Mestizos. The military was at war with multiple indigenous tribal nations, but this was different.

In the same way, I was not surprised, but I was disturbed, by the extreme way the Catholic church dominated and controlled everyone, and the bitter animosity between Bishop Lamy (French) and the Mexican and Mestizo priests.

Were there any surprises in the writing process for this book?

As mentioned above, there were many brick walls due to simple lack of historical documentation.

What do you hope readers will get out of your book?

A good love story. An interest in the southwest and in the New Mexico Territory. A more detailed understanding of colonization and its complexities.

If you could share one piece of advice with other writers, what would it be?

Two crucial points: Persistence is the key, and even so, perfection is unachievable. Don’t tie yourself into a perfectionism straight-jacket.

With a growing catalog of instructional writing videos available instantly, we have writing instruction on everything from improving your craft to getting published and finding an audience. New videos are added every month!