By ELIOT SILL

Staff writer

By day, she is assistant manager of a bank in Bonner’s Ferry, Idaho. In her spare time, however, Marion native Sara Vinduska loves to write.

Vinduska and her boyfriend drove 22 hours home for Thanksgiving, and Vinduska was able to donate her second published novel, titled “The Drowning Man,” to Marion City Library on Tuesday.

“The Drowning Man” is Vinduska’s second novel. Both novels are romantic suspense, Vinduska said, as is most of her writing.

“I’ve tried to write other things, and they usually turn into romantic suspense,” she said.

She has written one other novel, “Reflections,” published in 2012, that she says is the first part in a series. “The Drowning Man” is not part of that series, and takes place in Kansas City. It’s about the relationship between a female police officer and a male firefighter.

Both her novels are around 90,000 words, or 200 pages. She published her works independently through Amazon’s Createspace website. They are available on Amazon, and “most online book stores,” as well as on Kindle. And, as of Tuesday, her second novel is available at Marion City Library to check out.

Vinduska’s parents, Terry and Cindy, were both very proud of their daughter.

“There’s not very many people that have a dream and are able to see that through to reality,” Terry said. “Most of us have to settle for something in our lives, and the chance to have that dream and accomplish it pretty much on your own is a phenomenal accomplishment.”

“I don’t know if you can really describe it,” Cindy said.

Terry wrote for a farming magazine based out of Oklahoma for a few years. Other than that, they said, Sara’s parents aren’t writers.

Sara described herself as a “total pantster” writer.

“They say you’re either a pantster or a plotter, you either write by the seat of your pants or you methodically plot it out,” she said.

She said part of the reason she published independently was to have it published the way she wanted. She got great feedback from editors and agents she sent her work to, but they wanted her to change her work to fit their formulas.

“The hero and heroine need to be (referenced) on the same page a certain percentage of the time, they need to meet within the first 20 pages,” she said. “I figured I’d rather be true to the book and do it myself.”

Sara Vinduska graduated from Kansas State in 1997 with a degree in clothing and textiles.

“If I could go back, I’d definitely major in English,” she said.

She said her book would be on sale via Kindle on Friday for 99 cents, and that marketing the book is the hard part of the process.

“The writing’s easy,” she said.