Explore the creative heartbeat of the Midwest in this Author Express episode featuring Sara Brunsvold, author of The Atlas of Untold Stories. Uncover how her roots on a multigenerational dairy farm in rural Missouri and her connections to Mark Twain’s hometown shaped her approach to storytelling and character development. Sara offers a glimpse into her latest women’s contemporary fiction, weaving themes of family, faith, and the stories we all keep hidden.
Curious about the inspiration behind her memorable characters and the powerful mother-daughter relationships at the story’s core? Tune in as Sara shares little-known details about her writing process, how she balances life with teenage daughters, and why Little Women continues to inspire her. Ready for a unique literary road trip across America’s heartland? Don’t miss out—this is a must-listen for fans of family fiction, book lovers, and Midwest literature enthusiasts alike.
Sara Brunsvold is the Christy Award-winning author of The Extraordinary Deaths of Mrs. Kip and The Divine Proverb of Streusel. She creates stories that boldly engage contemporary issues through the lens of hope and unshakable faith. Her passion is to connect with readers first through books, then through meaningful conversation. She lives with her family in Kansas.
Support your local bookstore & this podcast by getting your copy of The Atlas of Untold Stories at Bookshop.org
A little about today's host-
Author and musical composer Kathleen Basi is mother to three boys and one chromosomally-gifted daughter. Her debut novel, A SONG FOR THE ROAD, follows a musician on an unconventional road trip. Bestselling author Kerry Anne King writes, “In a novel filled with music, heartbreak, and surprising laughter, Basi takes us on a journey that encompasses both unimaginable loss and the powerful resilience of the human heart.”
Meaty, earnest, occasionally humorous, and ultimately uplifting, Kathleen’s fiction highlights the best within ourselves and each other. She writes monthly reflections on life, writing and beauty on her newsletter. Subscribe at https://kathleenbasi.substack.com/.
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Learn more about our hosts, the guests we've had, and their books -
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Kathleen Basi:
Welcome to Author Express. Thanks for checking us out. This is the podcast where you give us 15 minutes of your time and we give you a chance to hear the voice behind the pages and get to know some of your favorite writers in a new light. I'm one of your hosts, Kathleen Basi. I'm an award winning musical composer, feature writer, essayist, and of course, storyteller. Let me tell you a little about today's guest.
Kathleen Basi:
Sarah Brunsvold is a farm girl turned city dweller who followed her lifelong dream of becoming a novelist through many detours and twists. Her latest women's contemporary novel, The Atlas of Untold Stories, was hailed by Publishers Weekly as having expressive prose and a quietly stirring climax. Readers will be moved when she is not writing or helping others realize their writing dreams through editing and mentoring. Sarah can be found on a coffee run with her teenage daughters or exploring the Midwest with her family. Welcome, Sarah, to Author Express.
Sara Brunsvold:
Thank you so much for having me. I am so happy to be here.
Kathleen Basi:
So tell me the most interesting thing about where you're from.
Sara Brunsvold:
So I grew up in a town called Hannibal, Missouri, which some readers may recognize as Mark Twain's hometown. And so it's also the setting for the Adventures of Tom Sawyer. So all those places that he talks about in the, the cave, you know, the white, the, the fence that's whitewashed, the river. Of course, all of those are real places and I grew up visiting those and going on school trips to those. So I was influenced by great American literature from very early on, even though I lived on a farm.
Kathleen Basi:
So that's very cool that you lived outside of Hannibal, I assume if you were on a farm.
Sara Brunsvold:
Yes, that's correct. We were about nine miles outside, just west of Hannibal.
Kathleen Basi:
Okay. Yeah. That's actually very close to where I live. And um, we've been, that's we drive through all of that area to get up to Hannibal. I did a, an event at, at some churches up there in January, so that was the last time that I've been there. And it was fun to go to the cave again after having not been there for several years.
Sara Brunsvold:
Yes. And it's funny, I, I haven't been since I was a kid and my daughters who have been to Hannibal multiple times, you know, to visit family and our roots there, they have yet to, to go to the cave. They've done all the other touristy stuff, but we have not yet taken them to the cave, so gotta get on that.
Kathleen Basi:
Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's a fun tour. I'm curious to know what kind of farm you were growing up on, you doing the whole soybeans and corn thing.
Sara Brunsvold:
lly settled, came over in the:
Sara Brunsvold:
And so that land had been in our family for many generations. And in fact, the church where I grew up, it was a very small rural Lutheran church out in the middle of cornfields, and our ancestors helped found that church. So I went to church, went to church with both sets of grandparents, went to school, the same school my dad went to in the same area where my grandpa grew up. That area is very special to us. A lot of my extended family still lives in that area. So it's just neat to go back and be among that. That richness of family history.
Kathleen Basi:
Did someone take. Did your brother stay on the farm or is that, is it, is it ended now?
Sara Brunsvold:
It is ended now, unfortunately, yes. My dad actually encouraged my brother and me to find other employments. So we. So yes, we both, we both left the farm to pursue other, other careers, but. And the land, unfortunately, did. We ended up having to sell the land after my dad passed away, but fortunately it went to a distant cousin of mine. So I guess technically it's still in the family and it's still being farmed, but it's just not in my immediate family.
Kathleen Basi:
Well, Dairy, my dad grew up on a dairy farm and you know, there, there are no holidays. The cows have to be milked twice a day every day. And it does not matter if it's a birthday or a vacation or whatever. So, yeah, that's an intense. That's an intense lifestyle.
Sara Brunsvold:
It very much is, yes. And so, yeah, we didn't have a lot of vacations growing up. And of course with farm life, it's just hard. But there's also some sweet aspects to it. You do learn a work ethic from a young age and you learn to appreciate what you have. And I think there's a lot of faith formation that comes in, you know, being reliant on the land and on the, on the elements to actually earn an income off. There's so much external factors at play that, that completely undo all of your great plans, whether it's ruining the harvest or you know disease coming for your cattle.
Sara Brunsvold:
But there's a lot of faith formation in that. Learning to trust and. And learning that everything is a cycle and there's peaks and valleys. And if you stay the course, that's the only way that you can do. That's the only thing you can do, is just stay the course.
Kathleen Basi:
Well, I could talk to you about farm stuff all day, but I think that our listeners would probably like to hear about your book. So can you tell us about the Atlas of Untold Stories in about a sentence?
Sara Brunsvold:
Absolutely. So the story is about a mom and her two grown daughters who go on a bookish road trip around America's heartland, seeking out different towns and sites that are connected in some way to American literature. And as they travel, they are not only discovering how these stories affect them, but how these stories unlock the untold stories among them. And those are the stories that are going to change their lives.
Kathleen Basi:
That sounds fascinating. As soon as I saw the description of this book, I thought, oh, I got to have her on this. On this show. I wonder if you've got the mother and the daughters. Are there minor characters around the edges of this book as well that you think, oh, maybe that person could have their own story?
Sara Brunsvold:
Oh, they could have their own story. Interesting. I do think that there is a minor character that you see with the youngest daughter, Chloe, in her point of view. So. So the story is told in the point of view of all three. The mom and then the two daughters. And in Chloe's storyline, she has a landlord named Seymour who is just a riot.
Sara Brunsvold:
He's a lot of fun to read. He's a lot of fun to have written. So potentially I could see him showing up in a future story. He's just got a great personality to him. He's blunt, but in a humorous kind of way. And I wouldn't mind spending some more time with Seymour.
Kathleen Basi:
Those are the fun characters a lot of times.
Kathleen Basi:
Yes, probably characters that bear no resemblance to you. Because we're all too polite.
Sara Brunsvold:
Yeah, exactly.
Kathleen Basi:
They say that. They say that one of the things that. That you can explore with characters is the person who's able to do the things that you only wish you had the courage to do.
Sara Brunsvold:
Isn't that the truth? Yes, I 100% agree with that.
Sarah Brunsvold:
So how did you approach, if you're talking about mother and daughter relationships, how did you approach developing the relationships among these three women?
Sara Brunsvold:
So a lot of it is just drawing from personal experience of either what I have seen or experienced myself with Mother, daughter dynamics. So I think one of the things about generational dynamics is there's always more to the story than what we think we know, especially if we're talking about, you know, daughter to mother. There's a lot to our parents history and a lot to their stories that maybe we don't realize or we think that we understand all of the details. But it's not until we make a concerted effort to really get to know them better that more of what has shaped them as a human being kind of comes to light. And I think that's true the other way around. You know, as a mom with two teenage daughters, I have really learned that, that there, there are hidden parts to my daughters that I didn't acknowledge or didn't realize existed. And it helps form my perspective of who they are, what they're meant to do, and maybe the, the purpose for, for their lives. So I kind of approached it from that angle and of There are stories, even in the people who are closest to us.
Sara Brunsvold:
There are stories that we don't know about them. And what happens when we do start to uncover those hidden details? How does that reshape our understanding of who they are and our understanding of how we are in, in relationship with them?
Kathleen Basi:
That's interesting. I wonder how much self reflection goes into when you're writing a book like this. How much you start reflecting on your own life and your own relationships through the light of what you're seeing in your characters.
Sara Brunsvold:
Oh, absolutely. And I think it's kind of a two for one. It's both an inspiration from my own relationship with my daughters. In fact, I have dedicated the book to them because they were the two that I was thinking of the most as I was writing. But it's also, like you said, a reflection upon. So it's an inspiration from. And it's a reflection upon the relationship that, that I do have. But also what do I aspire to have? What kind of relationship do I aspire to have with them? And I think the same was true with my own mom.
Sara Brunsvold:
You know, what relationship do I have with my mom? But what do I aspire to have with her? And quite frankly, I identified with the mother in this story more than anyone else. And perhaps that's the life stage that I'm in. So much like Edie the mother, you know, I am in that process of learning to trust my girls really to the Lord. This is a Christian novel. And so a lot of that theme comes forward. Learning to trust that they are on the right path, that I have done what I was supposed to have done, you know, to help them get on that path. But learning to let them go into their own lives and just embrace that fact that that was always supposed to happen. They, you know, they weren't always supposed to live with me.
Sara Brunsvold:
They are supposed to launch and find their wings and be their own people and live their own lives. And that's not necessarily something that I can be along with the ride. I can be along on the ride with them, but in a very different way than when they were, you know, under 18.
Kathleen Basi:
Well, you have teenage daughters, so that actually brings up a question about how you manage to write. How do you stay disciplined and meet writing goals and keep, keep, just get, keep, make the whole thing happen.
Sara Brunsvold:
Well, deadlines help.
Kathleen Basi:
Deadlines do help.
Sara Brunsvold:
Those immovable milestones certainly help. I think I do better when with hard and fast deadlines. You know, I don't know how I do it. I'm asked that a lot and I know other authors are as well, and I don't have a fun answer. I think you just take it day by day and you know, you find those hours somehow they always come up. You know, they're always there, they're always provided. But day by day, just looking for those opportunities to work on what, what it is that's the priority for today. So some days, you know, I'm able, especially when my daughters are in school or they are otherwise occupied, maybe at camp I can get hours of writing done.
Sara Brunsvold:
And then there are days like yesterday I got maybe 30 minutes, you know, but I just, but I am thankful for every minute of writing that I can do and just try to make the most of, of what I do have.
Kathleen Basi:
Okay, well, as we start to wrap up, tell us what's the one place people should go to find you online?
Sara Brunsvold:
The one place that you can find me and all the goodies that I have for you for free is sarabrunsvold.com that is my website. Find more information about my books and there's also a way to contact me through my website. So I would love to connect with you there.
Kathleen Basi:
Great. So. And finally today, tell us what book or story inspires you the most. If it's not Mark Twain.
Sara Brunsvold:
One of the books that inspires me the most is actually Louisa May Alcott's Little Women. It is one of my favorite all time books and I'm an underliner and I have more than one copy on my shelf and my marked up copy is full of ink.
Kathleen Basi:
Oh, that's fun. All right, very good. Well, thank you so much for being with us today and good luck going forward.
Sara Brunsvold:
Thank you so much.
Kathleen Basi:
Thanks for joining us today. Reviews help other people to find us, so please take a minute to give us a rating and leave a few words. We'll be here again next Wednesday. In the meantime, follow us on Instagram at Author Express Podcast to see who's coming up next. Don't forget, keep it express, but keep it interesting.
