About the Author:
You’ve taken a wrong turn and reached the website of author Sarah Main Burton. That’s me. I specialize in plot-twisty speculative fiction. The worlds I write are grim, the societies problematic, and the humor questionable. Bonus feature: each work of fiction comes with a romance between the variably likable female protagonist and the man she’s trying to avoid. Their entanglement is inadvisable. And they’re totally going to bone.
I also adore literary analysis and concept editing.
To the left, you can see a photo of me looking questionable in a forested area. I’m planning to change it out soon. It has the name “Vivian” on it because I was considering a pen name, but I’ve done too much work under my real name. You can see tiny bits of that work via the “Portfolio” tab.
In the 2023-2024 academic year, I was Editor-in-Chief for Emerson College’s genre fiction publication, Page Turner Magazine. While there, I led updates of the website and print layouts, and set the foundations for the first official public sales and distribution, and moved for the magazine to include visual art to accompany the writing, and for the inclusion of a DEI section. PTM’s Spring 2024 issue now on Bookshop and Amazon.
After I graduated with my MFA in Popular Fiction Writing and Publishing, and with the help of some amazing friends and guest speakers, I founded The PopFic Collective, a writers’ group that centers mutual uplift and accessible continued education. Over the first year, we hosted over 13 free online events, shared educational materials online, and hosted an online writing workshop. I’ve since handed the reigns over to the group’s new leader, Wendi Romero, also a graduate of the PopFic program at Emerson College. She’s awesome.
If you’d like a precis of my current project, or if you’d like to see words of praise from my extraordinarily kind former thesis advisor and former thesis reader, please see below.
“Masterful in her creation of intrigue, atmosphere, and complex characters navigating the highest stakes.”
—Jessica Treadway, author of Infinite Dimensions and winner of the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction with Please Come Back to Me
“A subversive genre bender whose stories pack an emotional wallop that never fails to entertain.”
—Edwin Hill, author of Who To Believe, and Edgar- and Agatha-award nominee of the Hester Thursby series
Current Project: The Witch’s Reaper
If I’m Not The Sacrifice is a mid-magic adult fantasy with a romantic subplot that features an enemies to lovers arc. The manuscript is 90,000 words, and it would sit on the shelf between Serpent & Dove, by Shelby Mahurin, and Kingdom of the Wicked, by Kerri Maniscalco.
Merrick was an orphan, adopted by Priest-King Bronin Basarab for his rare Gift, an ability to sense magic. Now, his Gift is a weapon in the holy war against witches—or it would be, if he a warrior instead of a diplomat. If it weren’t for his seething anxiety. If he didn’t fear that there was something very wrong with the way his Gift reacted to his father’s Holy power.
When Bronin asks Merrick to prove himself a worthy successor against his brutal and painfully talented adopted brother, Corrix, he doesn’t want to bother with the inevitable humiliation… but he also can’t let Corrix ascend to the throne, since, you know, he wants to live. And Corrix would rather he didn’t.
The challenge to win the crown? Hunt down Riven, the witch whose sacrificial death could end the Empire’s growing plague. But when Merrick finds her, he doesn't recognize his quarry. Instead, he sees a woman fleeing her mysterious and troubled past. And he wants to help. He insists on helping. Especially after she tries to steal his horse, which, by the way, she can’t ride.
Riven, on the other hand, knows exactly who Merrick is and who he’s looking for. What she doesn’t know is how to get rid of him. Charm and trickery will only work for so long. Unfortunately for Riven, she’s grown attached to her personal Reaper. Unfortunately for Merrick, he's drawn to Riven... and also to the addictive magic of the witch who always seems just out of sight. Both know they’re wrong inside, but things should be fine if they don't act on their desires.
They act on their desires. Just…so hard.
Merrick discovers Riven’s identity, because he was always going to. He’s angry, because of course he is. But did Riven betray him if he’d always meant to bring about her death? And is she really behind the Empire's plague, or has the Holy Priest-King who sheltered Merrick after his parents’ murder been lying about... everything?