<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><rss xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" version="2.0"><channel><title><![CDATA[Sara Madden]]></title><description><![CDATA[Whimsical Stories, Inclusive Adventures]]></description><link>https://www.saramadden.com/blog</link><generator>RSS for Node</generator><lastBuildDate>Thu, 16 Apr 2026 11:49:25 GMT</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="https://www.saramadden.com/blog-feed.xml" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"/><item><title><![CDATA[Writing for the Child Who Is Watching]]></title><description><![CDATA[Children notice more than we think. They notice who is the hero. Who is laughed at. Who is brave. Who is allowed to belong. That is why writing for young readers is never small work. When I create whimsical worlds or gentle early chapter books, I am thinking about the child who may not yet see themselves reflected in their classroom, their community, or even their family. A book can become the first place they feel understood. If we give children stories that hold difference with dignity, we...]]></description><link>https://www.saramadden.com/post/writing-for-the-child-who-is-watching</link><guid isPermaLink="false">699fc54d91604ab56c36594c</guid><pubDate>Thu, 26 Feb 2026 04:04:41 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/e4d28ab17ca049bd91eb6fcbae60a0b0.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Sara Madden</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Who Gets Written Down]]></title><description><![CDATA[As Women’s History Month arrives, I often think about the simple mechanics of record-keeping. Who wrote the documents? Who had access to paper? Whose voices were deemed worth preserving? So much of women’s history exists in margins: in recipes, in clothing seams, in side notes, in oral traditions passed down at kitchen tables. The absence in official archives is not evidence of absence in lived experience. When we write women back into history, we are not adding something new. We are...]]></description><link>https://www.saramadden.com/post/who-gets-written-down</link><guid isPermaLink="false">699fc50855922dd46f5f2a64</guid><pubDate>Thu, 26 Feb 2026 03:59:41 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/2ddb5d_2a12a65898414bd7b2179cb44f587e8d~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Sara Madden</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[The Tender Work of Telling]]></title><description><![CDATA[There is a misconception that writing about history requires distance. But I have found the opposite to be true. The closer I get to the lives I am researching—the letters, the hands that dug graves, the women erased from footnotes—the more careful I must become. Telling someone’s story is a responsibility. It asks us to listen longer than we speak. To verify. To contextualize. To hold complexity instead of smoothing it away for comfort. Even when I write fiction, that same tenderness guides...]]></description><link>https://www.saramadden.com/post/the-tender-work-of-telling</link><guid isPermaLink="false">699fc481bf1bf6f6a2a884a7</guid><pubDate>Thu, 26 Feb 2026 03:58:36 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/2ddb5d_64301800c8494e248ce12f4098f03ce3~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Sara Madden</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Beginning with Memory]]></title><description><![CDATA[Every January carries the quiet pressure to begin again. New goals. New manuscripts. Clean notebooks waiting for ink. But I have learned that the most honest beginnings don’t start with ambition. They start with memory. Before I outline a chapter or sketch a character, I ask a quieter question: Who is missing?  Whose name slipped from the record? Who carried the weight of the story but never stood at its center? Research, for me, is not excavation for novelty. It is restoration. A new year is...]]></description><link>https://www.saramadden.com/post/beginning-with-memory</link><guid isPermaLink="false">699fc3fb12cb2e7c18f195fd</guid><pubDate>Thu, 26 Feb 2026 03:56:21 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/2ddb5d_d9eb516bc3434dc484a3c489007b7d28~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Sara Madden</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Why Stories Matter at Every Age]]></title><description><![CDATA[We sometimes talk about reading as something we outgrow, but stories grow with us. The picture book that teaches compassion becomes the novel that explores identity, which becomes the history that helps us understand responsibility. Each stage prepares us for the next. Writing across age groups is my way of honoring that continuum. A child learning empathy today becomes the adult capable of justice tomorrow. The thread is unbroken. Stories do not end when we close the cover. They continue in...]]></description><link>https://www.saramadden.com/post/why-stories-matter-at-every-age</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69922786159d7fac963e9b3a</guid><pubDate>Sun, 15 Feb 2026 20:10:27 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/2ddb5d_818cf891d1644e15b9e6a22152941211~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Sara Madden</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Writing the Ones History Forgot]]></title><description><![CDATA[History is full of bright banners, famous names, and dates carved into stone. But just beyond the spotlight stand the people who carried stretchers, dug graves, wrote letters, mended uniforms, waited at home, or endured in silence. Their stories are harder to find, but they are no less essential. Researching hidden histories means following fragments. A photograph without a caption. A record half erased. A memory passed down in families but rarely printed in textbooks. These are not gaps;...]]></description><link>https://www.saramadden.com/post/writing-the-ones-history-forgot</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6992271b743e81fba75c785b</guid><pubDate>Sun, 15 Feb 2026 20:07:04 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/2ddb5d_359502f3e59c422585aa0103638e4882~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Sara Madden</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Exploring Whimsical Worlds in Children's Literature]]></title><description><![CDATA[Children’s stories are often the first maps we hand to young readers. Within their pages, forests open, animals speak, and impossible things become possible. Yet beneath the wonder sits something even more powerful: the quiet shaping of empathy. Whimsy is not escape; it is rehearsal for understanding others. When I write for children, I think about the moments that make them feel seen. A difference in appearance, a fear of being left out, the bravery it takes to try again—these are epic...]]></description><link>https://www.saramadden.com/post/exploring-whimsical-worlds-in-children-s-literature</link><guid isPermaLink="false">698e2be651a6a74c3cb2cefa</guid><pubDate>Thu, 12 Feb 2026 19:37:10 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/2ddb5d_db80e2558a7b4b4aa61c7c243f527807~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_768,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Sara Madden</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Reimagining Fairytales: New Paths for Young Adults]]></title><description><![CDATA[Fairy tales have always evolved. They were whispered beside fires, reshaped at kitchen tables, and rewritten for every generation that needed them. Today’s young adults deserve versions that honor tradition while making room for identities, questions, and futures older tellings never imagined. To reweave a tale is not to break it; it is to listen for who was missing the first time. What happens when the silent character speaks? When the villain’s wound is understood? When rescue becomes...]]></description><link>https://www.saramadden.com/post/reimagining-fairytales-a-new-take-for-young-adults</link><guid isPermaLink="false">698e2be4636516a31670b6cf</guid><pubDate>Thu, 12 Feb 2026 19:37:08 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/2ddb5d_dc1af5cbad884b78a9f6544f8a8f5f52~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_768,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Sara Madden</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[The Art of Self-Publishing Inclusive Books]]></title><description><![CDATA[Self-publishing is often described as independence, but for many writers it is also responsibility. When you choose to bring a book into the world yourself, you become its advocate, archivist, and steward. You decide whose stories are visible. Inclusive publishing asks us to slow down. It asks who is represented, who is consulted, and who might finally recognize themselves in print. It means building teams with care, inviting authenticity, and understanding that accuracy is a form of respect....]]></description><link>https://www.saramadden.com/post/the-art-of-self-publishing-inclusive-books</link><guid isPermaLink="false">698e2bdf8879a928a5a88c17</guid><pubDate>Thu, 12 Feb 2026 19:37:04 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/2ddb5d_3881cfcd77c04bed89b6376a7d88e1df~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_768,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Sara Madden</dc:creator></item></channel></rss>