Delaware Today magazine 302 First: Thirty Seconds with author Sarah Huber of Wilmington

Sarah Huber, 30, of Wilmington is author of the recently released “Kill, Marry, F**,” an irreverent game book that presents trios of celebrities and objects and asks readers to discuss which one they would kill, which one they would marry, and which one they would, well, you know.

DT: The title has the F-word in it. Really?

SH: (laughs) Well, in fairness, it’s F-U-C. I made a very conscious effort to do it without doing the asterisk and percentage sign and all that stuff. But yeah, it’s a hard word to avoid.

DT: What do your family and friends think about your first book “kind of” having that word in there?

SH: So far I have a lot of support. The only thing now is whether or not I put it on my resumé. It might discourage a few employment opportunities.

DT: How did you wind up in Los Angeles?

SH: I moved out there when I was 17 and went to school for television. When I graduated, I got a job at “8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter,” that sitcom with John Ritter. Right when I was about to start, he died. I was super-bummed because that was my first real job after college. So I took a job at “Entertainment Tonight.” It was great to learn how that side of the industry worked and how they could make or break careers by doing a 20-second spot. I worked there for a year or two until “The Insider” came around.

DT: How did you come up with the idea for the book?

SH: My job was voiceover coordinator for the show. I was in charge of getting the talent to do their voiceovers and every day was a mad rush against the clock. Pat O’Brien, one of my best friends, was host at the time. He was hilarious and he made my job difficult, in a fun way. I had to keep tabs on him and get him to do his stuff. Whenever we’d read the script, his mind would wander or he’d wander. So I started playing Kill, Marry, F*** with him because the weirder the set of three I could come up with, the longer I could keep his attention while writers would come up with scripts or changes. I got pretty good at it.

DT: How did you learn about that game?

SH: I think everybody kind of knows it. I remember playing in high school. People play it by different names with the same concept. I thought I would make it the official name of the game. It’s great in bars with strangers because you get to learn about what they like and don’t like and why. It’s definitely a good conversation starter.

DT: Do you play it all the time?

SH: Of course, I’m sick of it now … but yeah.

DT: You finished the book back in May. What are you up to now?

SH: I also developed an iPhone app to complement the book. I’ve been working on promoting it before the book comes out. Unfortunately Apple rejected it because they found it offensive. Now I have an Android app, which doesn’t have the same restrictions.

DT: How’s that going?

SH: It’s doing well so far. It has over 5,000 games played in two weeks and I just did a soft launch on it, so hopefully it will pick up.

DT: How did you end up back in Delaware?

SH: I started pitching the book and then last September I got laid off. Then I got the offer two weeks later from Mark Batty Publisher. I finalized everything by December and had from January to May to write the book. I figured if I could live rent-free in Delaware it was a lot easier. So I sold everything and moved home. There’s nothing like being 30 years old living with your mom.  —Drew Ostroski