About the Author:
You’ve taken a wrong turn and reached the website of author, founder of The PopFic Collective, and professional eccentric Sarah Main Burton. To the left, please a photo of Sarah. She wanted a GIF of Cary Grant saying, “Welcome, friends and enemies,” but she doesn’t have the rights to it. She owns her face, that jacket, and an MFA in Popular Fiction Writing and Publishing from Emerson College (all of which could be repossessed if she doesn’t start paying her student loans).
To see a few of her previous projects, consider the “Portfolio” tab. Her better angels tried to keep her from posting those articles. They failed. They often do.
In the 2023-2024 academic year, she was Editor-in-Chief for Emerson College’s genre fiction publication, Page Turner Magazine. While there, she added a DEI section to the print version and the website, oversaw the website’s reorganization and the update of the print layout, and set the foundations for the first official public sales and distribution. PTM’s Spring 2024 issue now on Bookshop and Amazon.
Sarah pays rent by solving problems she didn’t create, staying calm in emergencies, and building expertise in niche areas.
In her free time, she dissociates from reality, reads books, and manages The PopFic Collective.
If you’d like a precis of Sarah’s current project, or for words of praise from her professors, see below. If you wonder why the photo to the left is labeled “Vivian,” then same. I don’t have all the answers. I’ve been told I’m better off not knowing.
“Masterful in her creation of intrigue, atmosphere, and complex characters navigating the highest stakes.”
—Jessica Treadway, author of Infinite Dimensions and winner of the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction with Please Come Back to Me
“A subversive genre bender whose stories pack an emotional wallop that never fails to entertain.”
—Edwin Hill, author of Who To Believe, and Edgar- and Agatha-award nominee of the Hester Thursby series
Current Project: The 13th Witch
The 13th Witch is a mid-magic adult fantasy with a strong romantic subplot and an enemies to lovers arc that comes in at around 90,000 words. It would sit on the shelf between Serpent & Dove, by Shelby Mahurin, and Kingdom of the Wicked, by Kerri Maniscalco.
Riven is a witch whose sacrificial death could cure the Holy Basarab Empire’s growing plague. Merrick was an orphan, adopted by the Priest-King Bronin Basarab for his rare Gift, an ability to sense magic, wielded as a royal weapon in the holy war against witches. But when Merrick is sent to find Riven, he doesn't recognize his quarry. Instead, Merrick insists on helping Riven flee her mysterious and troubled past. Riven, on the other hand, knows exactly who Merrick is and what he’s looking for. What she doesn’t know is how to get rid of him. Charm and trickery will only work for so long. Unfortunately for Riven, she’s grown attached to her personal Reaper. Unfortunately for Merrick, he's intensely drawn to Riven... and the addictive magic of the witch who always seems just out of sight. Both know they’re wrong inside, but things should be fine if they don't act on their desires.
They act on their desires. They act so hard.
Merrick discovers Riven’s identity, because he was always going to. But is Riven really behind the Empire's plague, or has the Priest-King who sheltered Merrick after his parents’ murder been lying about... everything?