Playing Chess with Bulls

A New England farmer at heart, Sarah P. Blanchard also lived for several years on the Big Island of Hawaii and in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, where Drawn from Life and many of her short stories are set. Rural life and the natural world have strongly influenced her writing, as have the works of writers Barbara Kingsolver, Charles Frazier, Kelly Braffet, and Ron Rash. Sarah holds a B.A. in English and an M.B.A. in marketing and worked for many years in communications and marketing. On side journeys, she has also been a volunteer firefighter, radio news anchor, talk show host, magazine editor, website developer, horse trainer, grantwriter, and facilities supervisor for a large astronomy observatory. For five years, Sarah taught at the University of Hawaii-Hilo and also taught fiction writing in the College for Seniors Program, part of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at the University of North Carolina-Asheville. Before turning her attention to fiction, Sarah wrote three instructional books on horse training (Howell Book House). Many of her poems, essays, short stories, and a novella have been published in literary reviews, online, and in podcasts. Her story "Playing Chess with Bulls" was a finalist for the 2021 North Carolina Writers' Network Doris Betts fiction prize. She is active in several writers' groups and workshops. In her writing, Sarah is drawn toward flawed, compassionate characters who believe they must battle their demons alone; and complex antagonists who think they have nothing left to lose. Sarah and her husband Rich divide their time between rural northeastern Connecticut and the Blue Ridge Mountains of western North Carolina.