Sarah is an inveterate traveler, unabashed globalist, and firm believer in always eating dessert first. It is never too early for ice cream. She is a master packer of suitcases and lifelong Michigander. I Never Said I Love You is her literary debut.

Your novel introduces us to a cast of intricately detailed characters, such as Liss and Nao Kao. How did you approach developing these characters, and were they inspired by real-life individuals?

Each of my characters was definitely inspired by a real-life individual or, in many cases, is a composite of several real-life individuals, though I certainly exaggerated many of their most (and least) endearing traits. This book was my pandemic project, so to speak, and I wrote it initially for my friends. “Please name this character after me,” or “I’d like to see this character do this or say that,” were very common requests and conversations while I was working on it!

“I Never Said I Love You” explores themes of connection, memory, and the impact of the past on the present. Can you discuss what inspired you to write about these themes and how you wove them throughout the narrative?

I wrote the entire book in a few weeks early in 2021, around the height of pandemic, and before the vaccines had come out. In that sense, it’s not surprising that connection and memory were always there, lurking just beneath the surface. Like Liss, and like a lot of real people around the world, I spent a lot of time cleaning out closets and cupboards and unearthing long-forgotten mementos. That exercise certainly made me consider the things we remember and the things we forget and all the spaces in between. All of which is to say, that I didn’t necessarily set out to write about such big themes, but as they emerged, I certainly picked up the threads and played with them.

The story provides a vivid portrayal of both American and Laotian cultures, including the historical context of Laos. What research did you undertake to accurately depict these elements, and why was it important for you to include them in your novel?

One of the inspirations for this book was a course I taught on Southeast Asia at the time I was writing. The course required a tremendous amount of research, and as I planned out the lectures, Laos was the one country in the region that really got short shrift. Writing this book was an outlet for all of this tremendous knowledge I had gained and with which I needed to do something. I hate to admit it, but I haven’t traveled to Laos – yet. It’s very high on my bucket list. In large part because of that, my biggest worry was getting it “right.” I was very, very concerned about inadvertently slighting Laos or the Lao people or culture. However, I have several good friends in and from mainland Southeast Asia who read and re-read each passage, who helped make sure I captured the zeitgeist of Laos in the early 2000s and at present.

In terms of the importance of including this information, we are all the products of our culture and society. To understand Nao Kao without understanding Laos would be impossible, so it was never a question for me of whether this context belonged. If anything, it was a matter of how little I could safely trim!

Travel and the exploration of different places play significant roles in your book. How do you believe travel influences personal growth and relationships among your characters, particularly Liss and Nao Kao?

I have been a traveler my entire life. Travel allows us to see the world through other eyes, to understand the possible lives we might life, and certainly the lives other people do live. In this sense, Liss’s beliefs about travel and its influence on her are very much my own. Nao Kao is another story. He’s never left Southeast Asia before he arrives in Ann Arbor, and living there, meeting Liss, really opens his eyes to what life looks like when it’s not merely a quest for survival. Between them, Nao Kao seems to understand better than Liss the idea that we are the products of our cultures, and of the life we are born into, that some elements of ourselves are immutable, whereas Liss believes much more in her ability to influence the events in her life – if you don’t like the scenery here, just hop on a plane and it will change.

Can you share insights into your writing process for this novel? How did the idea come to you, and how did the story evolve from its initial concept to the final manuscript?

I may be accused of burying the lede, but this story is based loosely on a true story. Several friends encouraged me to turn it into a book. (Honestly, they wanted a movie, but what I could realistically offer was a book!) At the same time, I’d amassed quite a collection of short stories and essays I’d written over the years, characters I’d played with on and off, and so writing this novel was an opportunity to both tell a story that my friends were clamoring for and to try my hand at a longer piece of writing, while weaving in favorite bits from the past.

Were there any particular books, authors, or experiences that influenced or inspired you while writing “I Never Said I Love You?” How did these influences manifest in the story?

I’m fortunate to have an incredibly smart, talented group of friends, all of whom provided suggestions as I wrote. I say in the Acknowledgements that this felt like the greatest group project of my life, and I mean that sincerely. As two examples, without them, the chapters written from Nao Kao’s perspective never would have materialized, and the ending would have been much different.

What do you hope readers take away from “I Never Said I Love You?” Is there a particular message or feeling you wish to convey through Liss and Nao Kao’s journey?

For starters, it’s the idea that life is incredibly complicated. There is so much nuance in the world, and there’s a value in recognizing that right and wrong are not always as clear cut as we learned in kindergarten.

I think the second big takeaway is that we write our own stories. Very few things in life are truly fixed and very few choices cannot be undone. We just need to have the courage to both make the choices, and then to live with them.

Are there any themes or questions from “I Never Said I Love You” that you are interested in exploring further in future work?

I think the theme of friendship, and especially friendship between women. I hope one of the takeaways readers got was the extent to which Liss, as the Beatles sing, gets by with a little help from her friends. A book exploring those friendships more would be interesting.

Be sure and follow Sarah on social media:

Instagram - @author_sarahmagee

Goodreads - https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/45625699.Sarah_Magee