Welcome to Rural Magic by Sara Ramsey!

I’m so glad you’re here! If you want to know more, read on…

What’s covered by Rural Magic?

Rural Magic covers the weird, wonderful, and complicated issues at the heart of life in a 430-person town in rural Iowa. I recently moved back to my hometown after two decades on the coast, and I’m exploring how to create life and art in a place that sometimes feels on the brink of collapse.

This newsletter is all about the magic and memory of these hidden places. I’m also working on a fantasy novel set in Iowa - as the novel progresses, you’ll get snippets of my process.

What’s not covered by Rural Magic?

I’m trying my best not to turn this into disaster-porn, even though there are a lot of problems here. I don’t shy away from the problems…but there is always complicated nuances around how and why things happen here.

I don’t want to write the high-level “talk to voters in a diner” think-pieces that inundate coverage of Iowa during election cycles.

I also don’t want to gloss over the challenges, and I’m not writing an overly-rosy picture of rural Americana.

Needless to say, I’m walking a very fine line - aiming for accurate reflections without being overly-dramatic or overly-sentimental. I won’t always get it right. But I hope you’ll engage with me as I tell these stories.

Finally - I’m not writing about magical spells or wicca or other forms of magic(k). They may show up in my novel, but they won’t show up in the newsletter.

Who are you?

I’m Sara Ramsey. I grew up in rural Iowa, but I spent most of my adulthood in San Francisco. As a child of the 1980s Farm Crisis + an elder millennial who inadvertently joined the coastal elite, I have very strange tastes. I love Champagne, casseroles, fancy spas, gravel roads, Mountain Dew, fountain pens, tasting menus, and chatting up random people in hotel bars. There aren’t a lot of hotel bars or tasting menus in rural Iowa, so I get my fix by traveling - but despite its issues, Iowa holds a strange power over my heart.

I’m also a novelist - I’ve published seven historical romances, and I’m currently working on a fantasy novel set in rural Iowa. And I’m a tech exec - I’ve built a career in a variety of strategy and operations roles at a major tech company, but I’m currently on a planned hiatus from tech to focus on writing.

No matter which life I’m living or where I am at any given moment, you can call me Sara. Or Sara Jane. Or anything else, really. Just don’t call me Sarah.


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Join the discussion

If you have questions, want to recommend books / things I can get delivered to my rural backwater, or just want to chat - join the discussion! I’d love to chat.

Thank you for being here!

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An Iowan and a coastal elitist walk into a bar...and, spoiler, they're both me. I write about community, connection, and magical moments in rural Iowa, which I'm rediscovering after two decades in San Francisco. I'm also working on my eighth novel.

People

Award-winning writer. Erstwhile tech worker. Small town lifer. Constantly on the lookout for joy in the midst of the apocalypse.