When she’s not digging in the, Sustainable Edible Edu-cation Project Garden, hosting sustainability-oriented events for the student body through Green Club, or in class,  California Lutheran University junior Sarah Sherwood is pen-in-hand, pursuing her goal of publishing a second novel.

“The best thing I have ever done for my writing career was to get a job that is no way involved in writing,” Sherwood said.“Working at the SEEd garden has been so amazing for my writing career because I literally just sit there and I pick weeds out of the ground and I am thinking through the plot of the book.”

Sherwood is a student worker at the SEEd Garden on campus and co-president of the Green Club.

“She is not afraid to speak her mind and stand up for what she believes in,” junior Azubah Collins said. “As for [being] dedicated, she keeps with her craft and doesn’t give up on what inspires her to keep writing and finding creative new ideas.”

Her environmental advocacy has influenced her writing, but Sherwood said her time studying abroad in Wales, United Kingdom was a crucial time in her development as a writer.

“My semester abroad was a writers retreat – there was nothing to distract me,” Sherwood said.

Some days while abroad, she would spend hours on her book-writing 20,000 words with ease, Sherwood said. 

Sherwood is working on a novel that is part of a trilogy. The novel follows a journey and adventure in the life of young-adult monster hunters. Sherwood’s goal is to complete the story by December 2020 and begin pitching it to publishing companies.

Sherwood has loved writing since she was a child and her career later began during high school. 

In August 2017, she self-published her first novel, “The Edges.” The book is a romance that follows a love triangle between two boxers and their trainer’s daughter, and the tension that follows. The novel is available on Amazon as a paperback and an e-book for Kindle. 

Sherwood said the “Legend” trilogy by Marie Lu has motivated her to orient her writing more toward inclusion, diversity and persons of color.

In the future, Sherwood said she hopes to work in the publishing business until she develops  a writing career of her own.

“I can see her becoming a really good author, once she has an idea it just goes,” junior Tanya Kooplicat said. “She is really dedicated.”