About — SCB

Historian S.C. Burns is the author of Cookesville, U.S.A.; the Wildest, Wickedest, Wealthiest Big “Small” Town in the West.

Sarah’s Story

Sarah by the River Isis during the Oxford Round Table on Women in History, Oxford, England, 2003
(Header image, above: Sarah at the Acropolis during the 2nd International Conference on European History, Athens, Greece, 2004)

From a young age, Sarah C. Burns learned intimately about the complications of race relations and family struggles.

As an adult, Sarah determined to address these problems on both a personal and professional level. The study of history gave her answers to the repetitive struggles societies faced, by not learning from the past. Sarah developed a passion for history, as she discovered solutions to both social and political problems. Dedicated to the fight for civil rights, including Women’s and African American History, Ms. Burns evolved into a defender of social justice for all.

Receiving a Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts from California State University, Bakersfield, in 1994 and 1996, respectively, Ms. Burns first served as an adjunct professor of history at Bakersfield College (1996-2002) before becoming a lecturer in the California State University Bakersfield History Department (2002-2004). Since 2005, she has been an associate adjunct professor of history at the College of the Canyons and, since 2013, an adjunct professor of history at Antelope Valley College. Simultaneously, she was a social and cultural historian at National University from 2008 to 2016.

Notably, Ms. Burns completed two residencies at the Oxford Round Table on Women in History (2003 and 2012) and the Athens Institute for Educational Research (2004). She has also been a frequent presenter in her field, having written multiple articles in motivational books, with other well-known authors. Contributing her expertise to reading, researching and writing, she wrote and published her first book Matilda of Argyll in 2003, reprinted in 2007, which can be purchased on Amazon.com. Her second historic fiction, Cookesville, U.S.A., was published in June 29, 2021.

Among the highlights of her career, Ms. Burns is notable for being the author of the very first women’s history course in a community college in the State of California. Described by her colleagues as dedicated and deeply intellectual, Burns notes that she loves to share her findings in a storytelling manner.

With the publication of Cookesville, U.S.A., Ms. Burns has turned another corner in her exciting career. Tales from the fictional town of Cookesville will continue with her next book: From PHILPOT to COOKESVILLE; one woman’s heartbreaking path to independence!

“When we read books, whether they are true history, based upon history, creative art, or pure journalistic reporting, we are reading about someone else. The mistakes, crimes, affairs and achievements are committed by characters on a page. For the writer, there is a piece of your heart and your own story embedded in works of creative or historic fiction. For the reader, they can face their own demons, without revealing them to anyone else. It is a private world—between the author, the reader, and the characters they live with for a brief time. It is a delicious way to escape the present!”

— SCB