Sarah M. Eden: Mormon Author
Sarah Miller Eden is an award-winning historical romance novelist. She had read historical romance for many years but never thought to write one. One day she complained to her mother that she found it difficult to find the kind of “less steamy” romance novels that she preferred to read, and her mother told her she should write one. Due to a background in social science research, Sarah devoted the next year learning how to write before she started to write. Her first novel, The Ramshackle Knight, was published in 2007. Since that beginning, she has written numerous others, including, For Elise, Glimmer of Hope, As You Are, The Kiss of a Stranger, Friends and Foes, Courting Miss Lancaster, Seeking Persephone, Drops of God, An Unlikely Match, and the Longing for Home Series.
Eden won two 2014 Whitney Awards, one for best romance and one for best novel of the year. The Association for Mormon Letters awarded her 2013 Novel of the Year for Longing for Home. She was Foreword Review Magazine’s 2013 “IndieFab Book of the Year” gold medal winner for best romance with Longing for Home. She the In’DTale Magazine 2014 RONE Awards winner, Best Anthology, Timeless Romance Anthology Autumn Collection and In’DTale Magazine 2014 RONE Awards honorable mention, American West Historical Romance, Longing for Home.
She has twice served as the Master of Ceremonies for the LDStorymakers Writers Conference and acted as the Writer in Residence at the Northwest Writers Retreat.
Eden earned a bachelor’s degree in communication studies from Brigham Young University. She lives in Utah with her husband and children. She continues to write despite the physical challenges of rheumatoid arthritis. She is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Eden paved the way for other LDS authors to succeed in writing Regency clean-reads. Other LDS authors in this genre include Wanda Luce, Carla Kelly, Julianne Donaldson, and G. G. Vandagriff. National as well as LDS publishing houses are publishing their novels. Regencies are set in the same time period of England that Jane Austen wrote in. They emphasize humor, love, family values, and the rules of society. Eden notes the compelling issues of the Regency era: “turmoil of war, socioeconomic upheaval with the beginnings of the Industrial Revolution and political tensions with England and Ireland along with the lower classes.”[1]
