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“The writer who cannot distinguish truth from a peanut-butter sandwich can never write good fiction.”
– John Gardner, The Art of Fiction

Sarah Reck is Assistant Director, Marketing, with the Audience Engagement team at Random House Children’s Books, a division of Penguin Random House. She lives, works, and writes in Pittsburgh, Pa. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing and MA in English from Chapman University and did her undergraduate work at Lycoming College. Her cat, adopted in June 2021, is called Clark; he has 24 toes.


More About Me



“Being involved in politics, in any way, is an act of hope.”

— Pete Buttigieg


The Fun Stuff


“The belief that and should not be used to begin a sentence is without foundation. And that’s all there is to it.”

— Bill Bryson, Bryson’s Dictionary of Troublesome Words


My Writing

Short Fiction“Doesn’t Always Turn Out the Way You Planned”

a Bridgerton & While You Were Sleeping story, featured in Issue 4 of Alice Says Go Fuck Yourself, the Fan Fiction issue

“Careful there,” came a deep voice as a large body steadied her from behind. The crosswalk changed and the crowd around them began to move forward. Somehow, Penelope managed to turn around. “Thank you,” she said in a short breath. She looked up – and up some more – until she said his face. “Oh good lord,” came out of her mouth. The man was ridiculously handsome. In a very familiar way, like maybe he looked like a film star (or actually was one) or like she’d seen him in passing several times before.

Read more.

Flash Fiction“On the Tracks”

featured in the October 2017 edition of Ghost Parachute

Mick is a rough-and-tumble sort of kid. He smokes a pack a day that he steals from the drugstore while his buddies knock over the magazine racks so the pretty girl behind the counter screams at them and chases them all out with a rolled magazine. He likes to tell stories from the train yard, where he lays spread eagle on the gravel beside the tracks and puffs smoke at the clouds.

Read more.


Current Projects

I’m currently 50K words into a historical fiction work that is somewhat based on the life of my maternal grandmother.

My grandmother c. 1942

Past Projects

Completed novels (unpublished):

+ “The Rules of Summer Camp” (YA contemporary)
+ “Swept Away” (YA speculative)
+ “First to Find” (YA contemporary)
+ “Birthright” (YA steampunk)
+ “In-Between & Ever After” (YA contemporary/speculative)

Unfinished novels:

+ “No More Sinned Against” (contemporary fiction)


Making History Blog

Enjoy several posts I wrote for the Heinz History Center’s Making History blog.

Contact: sarah at sarahreck dot com