Author Interview: Samantha Clarke

It's been a busy couple of months in the book world, peeps!

Part of it is getting to meet new authors just about every day! There are indie authors, and traditional authors, and every genre you can imagine! It's a pleasure, every single time I meet one!

Today's blog is an interview with Samantha Clarke: a lovely, young author who has writing coursing through her veins!

So, let's get to it...ladies and gents...Samantha Clarke!

When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer?
I was probably twelve or thirteen, it was my freshman year of high school.


How long does it take you to write a book?

I’ve only published one book so far, but after I sat down and became serious about finishing it I was in the final stages of editing after four months.

What is your work schedule like when you're writing?
On days that I’m able to I will write for an hour or two in the morning, go about my day and then write for another hour or so before going to bed.

What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?
I write everything down in a notebook, including backstories, world building etc. before I type anything out.

Where do you get your information or ideas for your books?
From reading or from the world around me.

When did you write your first book and how old were you?
As I mentioned I recently just published my first book, but the first book I have ever written I was the last part ninth grade, so I was probably thirteen at the time.

What do you like to do when you're not writing?
I like to read a lot but between school, work and writing I don’t get to read very much at all.

What does your family think of your writing?
My partner and their family is a lot more supportive than my own. The only people in my family that are supportive are one of my cousins, my mother and her parents. The rest of my family doesn’t take my writing very seriously at all.

What was one of the most surprising things you learned in creating your books?
I pay very little attention to grammar when I’m ‘in the zone’. It took me ages to edit my book and finish all of my grammatical errors.

How many books have you written? Which is your favorite?
I’ve written three, but only one has been published. I don’t plan on publishing the other two, as they were written when I was much younger.

Do you have any suggestions to help me become a better writer? If so, what are they?
Since I’m still learning the tools of the trade, I feel like I need advice more than I would be able to give it.

Do you hear from your readers much? What kinds of things do they say?
I’ve heard from a couple. They’ve all asked me when my second book is coming out and have told me that they can’t wait to read it.

Do you like to create books for adults?
Yes, however my target audience is young adults.

What do you think makes a good story?
Good world building and consistency.

As a child, what did you want to do when you grew up?
When I was very young I wanted to be a teacher and own a farm.

Thank you, Samantha!

If you'd like to find out more about Samantha, visit her here:

Website

Facebook

Amazon Author Page

New Things

New Things

Coming Soon!

Since the release of my first self-published novel, Sigrun, the Bandamann Saga, I have met more authors than I could have imagined! It's been a true eye-opening experience that I will never forget!

These authors are not only amazing in their own rights, but come together to support each other in ways that I never even thought possible. I feel privileged to be a part of it all, and have been welcomed with open arms.

It's been a long while since I've posted regularly here, but that's because I was busy submersing myself into the world of the Indie Author (self published, self marketing authors). It has been a wonderful, incredible ride, and I hope to share more with you very soon!

Over the next months, I hope to bring you features on some of my new author friends! I will be blogging on their new releases, old favorites, interviews, or just to say hello!

I hope you are as excited as I am to meet some of these amazing, talented individuals! Join us soon!

Winging It

Today I'm just gonna write.

Right here.

Right now.

Writing.

I'll see where it takes me.

Where I end up.

What is my brain thinking about?

So many thoughts swirl through at once.

I glimpse a piece of something...

Then it's gone.

What was that?

Writing.

It's Labor Day.

Do I need to blog about it?

I think not.

Not that I've read anyone else's,

But I don't want to write about that.

Right now.

Right here.

Writing.

I'm hot and muggy.

Sweating for no reason.

I've wiped my brow more times than I can count.

I'm just sitting.

Writing.

Did I really just write about the weather? 

Oh man.

I guess I did.

But that's how it is...

Right here.

Right now.

Winging it.

A Few of My Favorite Things

I’m just an old fashioned girl, living in a new fangled world.

I love technology, always have. Anything that comes out advancing us as a people is magical genius to me.

I love the creature comforts. I love hot and cold running water, and I don’t really want to know where it’s coming from (although, having well water, I know all too much where it comes from). I love heat in winter and air conditioning in summer. I love flushing toilets and bubbling bathtubs. Glass top stoves and convection ovens. Industrial mixers and refrigerators. Even though it’s not PC, I love fur. I wouldn't kill for it, but I happen to have one from my grandmother’s closet, and I love it. That shiz is warm people! Don’t judge.

I love photography. I took my first photography class in high school, and I was in love. Technology and creativity in one beautiful media. I was hooked. I joined the yearbook photographer staff, and had a ball! In college, I became an art education major with a concentration in photography. This was the old school photography with chemicals, developing and darkrooms. I spent many hours in a dark room, and I loved every minute of it. There is nothing quite like bringing a vision in your mind to life on a page. Well, almost nothing.

Which brings me to my next love: baking. I would bake every day if I could. I considered opening my own bakery, at one point, a few years ago. The town I live in is a little small for that though, as was my pocket book. But I still love to bake. I bake cakes for my family’s birthdays, and cookies when the kids or hub requests them, or some banana bread when there are some lying around that are too ripe, or for a school function, or just because. I've been doing it since I was a kid, and I hope to do it ‘til I’m too old to care.

I love video games. Yep. I said it. I am a gamer! Space Invaders, Pole Position, Pac Man and Missile Command on the Atari, back in the day. Centipede in any arcade I ever went in. I stopped playing through high school and college for some weird reason. Later, my hub got me playing Sonic on the Sega. (If it sounds like I’m speaking a different language right about now, just bear with me.) I stuck with the simple games, while the hub went on to first person shooters on the Playstation. Using two joysticky things just to move around? That was ludicrous!

Pregnant with our third babe, I was getting a bit stir crazy during the day. I am at home all day, but the other kiddies were basically in school all day. Any woman can tell you, those last days, hours, minutes…are a life time! So, to stop myself from going nuts, my hub suggested I try his latest shooter with him: Resistance. It freaked me out! There were alien monster thingies jumping out everywhere, and shooting, and violence! Yet, I couldn't stop watching! Finally, I tried playing. I was horrible at first, but got the hang of it to at least be able to move around. That game is still one of my favorites. It opened up multiplayer gaming for me, and I haven’t looked back since! Again, for those of you unfamiliar with gaming, multiplayer is being able to play, online, with other peeps! Strangers, or friends, I have met many interesting people in gaming! But that is for another blog.

I love to sew. When I was in high school, I thought I would go into fashion. I love fashion design, the clothing, the fabrics. There was only one problem: I didn't know how to sew. Flash forward about eight years, and I am a new mom. When my first born was just a babe, my mother in law gave me my first sewing machine. I learned how to sew children’s clothing, and my love for fashion was reignited. I made cute girly clothes for my daughter, and then made them for other people’s babies. I loved it. The combination of creativity and calculation was, in my mind, the best.

That’s what I love the most. Using both sides of my brain to create something wonderful. It not only stimulates more of my mind at once, but to create something in the real world that started as just an idea, to me is the ultimate. (Aside from creating life itself, but that goes without saying.)

Let me know what things your brain likes!

Me? A Writer?

I don’t really consider myself a writer, but I write. Back in school I wrote notes to almost every friend I ever had at some point. I was the queen of notes. I had stories with some friends, and we’d go back and forth with notes, adding to the story. Some notes got carried away. Far, far away. Eventually I learned that not everything needs to be written down. Some things really are better left unpenned.

I never thought of myself as a writer, but I write. Often in college, I thought it would be nice to write a book about my childhood. I had a really wonderful, blissful childhood. There were no major traumas or hardships. I was really spoiled in being a child. I had no complaints about it, and I thought it might make a great modern day Laura Ingalls story. I never did get around to doing it. To me, writing a book, a whole book myself, sounded out of reach. Sounded like something smart, older people do. Not me.

When people ask me, “What do you do?” I never say, “I’m a writer,” but I write. The first time I got pregnant, I kept a detailed journal of thoughts and feelings throughout. I was so excited to start this journey of parenthood. I was thrilled to write in my baby’s book, and record every first she had in her first year. As more babies came, the writing was less, simply from being busy. It was still meaningful to me to do it, to let the other two know about themselves in their babydom.

When my first child learned to read and write, she knew she wanted to be a writer, not me, but I write. I watched her love for books and the written word grow further than I ever could imagine. I knew, in my heart, she would be a great author one day. When she was small, and bed times were a bit rough, I used to think of ways to ease her little, creative, over worried mind. I used to tell her I loved her no matter where I was. Even if I went to the moon, I would still love her. I thought I’d make a children’s book about it. I even wrote it out and sketched some very rough drawings for it. But I didn't know how to go about publishing it, or getting someone to publish it (pre self publishing days). So it didn't happen.

As a parent, I became a good storyteller. Children love to hear stories, whether from books, or made up from their heads or yours, or stories about when you were little yourself. I never thought to write any of them down, to be a writer, but I write. I have vivid dreams from time to time. Sometimes I like to tell them to someone when I wake up. One time I told my husband and daughter about a strange, science fictiony dream I had, that stuck in my mind. My daughter told me I should write it down. I said I would, and found an old school composition book, and wrote down the dream. As I wrote, I didn't think of myself as a writer, but only a recorder of the dream. I wanted to share it, so I wanted to make sure I recorded it in as much detail as I could remember. I enjoyed it. Of course, when my daughter read it, she thought I was a goddess. She told me to make it into a story. She asked if she could make it into one, but she was already working on about four of her own. I already had an idea for it anyway.

I started to write my story. I wrote fiendishly sometimes, where other times I would go months without touching it. It kept calling to me, bringing me back. My daughter read new material every time I finished some. She loved it, and encouraged me to keep going. About three and a half years later, I had a story, a book, a novel. I am still learning about how to prepare it for publishing, but I am excited to share it soon. I feel more like a recorder, than a writer, but I write. I hope that you all enjoy it as much as I do.

Nature

The smell of the first snow fall.

Looking at individual snowflakes.

The magical wonder of a snowy landscape.

Sparkling snow.

Lying down in the moist, green grass of spring.

Wiggling your toes in perfectly sun-warmed sand.

Walking outside and smelling spring in the air after a long, cold winter.

Luscious shades of green taking over the woods.

Dew.

Seeing the fawns play in the yard.

The sight of colorful blooms breaking forth out of the ground.

Sitting on a dock bathing in the hot sun with the cool lake beneath you.

Lying in a boat in the middle of the beautiful, blue lake and looking up at the sky.

Sunsets.

The sound of the brook gently trickling through the yard while I swing on the hammock.

Brilliant color displays on the trees every fall, like nature’s fireworks.

The smell and feel of dirt on my hands.

Frost.

Seeing birds soar.

Just a few of my loves in nature that make me feel one with the Earth.

What are yours?

Shower Thoughts

One of my best places to have crazy thoughts is in the shower.

Perhaps it is the hot water trickling everywhere, and the steam rising to clear my head.

Perhaps it is the heavenly scent of soaps, rich with moisturizers and natural oils and bubbles that allow my head to wander freely.

Perhaps it is just having enough time alone to have a complete thought. About anything.

I believe it is the combination of these things.

Sometimes I am working out a problem going on in my life. Trying to find the best solution, or the cause of it all, or what my part in it shall be.

Sometimes I have a song stuck in my head which dominates most of the shower, but still allows me to have funny thoughts in the background.

Sometimes, sometimes, I just wander through my brain, and something wonderful happens.

Those are my favorite shower thoughts. The ones where I feel like I put some part of the meaning of life together in a way that makes me completely happy. I come out of the shower a little different than before. Cleaner yes, but also cleansed.

My Sweet Valentines

My earliest remembrance of Valentine’s Day we called it St. Valentine’s Day. Yes, we celebrate this holiday because of a Saint. The school day was filled with making cute heart shapes, cutting and pasting. Home was filled the week before with papers of all sorts, old and new, paper doilies, lace and ribbons.

My dad used to make wonderful, ornate old fashioned Valentines for my mom every year. He would let us kids make our own as well. There were so many beautiful things to make a Valentine with! It’s one of my favorite memories of the holiday!

We also looked forward to getting a heart shaped box with chocolates in it from our parents. It was so fun to see how special the boxes looked every year. Some of them I saved and used them to put earrings in or some other small items of my childhood.

As I got older, Valentine’s Day took on new meaning of romance. There were endless possibilities and hope for love. I was such a romantic back then!

Eventually, I would receive beautiful gifts from my one true love every Valentine’s Day. He started with a teddy bear; white with a red bow. I slept with that bear for years, until it was matted with snuggly love.

There was jewelry, ah yes! Jewelry! One of my favorite desires! There was a gold shell on a gold chain, simple but beautiful. Then there was a gold heart, because that’s what he really wanted to give me the year before. There were earrings, and a bracelet with my birth stone. Oh to be wooed with such treasures!

My favorite of these treasures from my Valentine was my diamond ring. It was 21 years ago today that he asked me to be his wife. Since then, Valentine’s Day will be forever in my heart in a way that I cannot explain. This holiday meant to remember love changed my life forever, and I have loved it more ever since.

These days, I look forward to Valentine’s Day with my family; my Valentine and our three children. Every year I try to find something special for them, along with something sweet. I still hold up the tradition of picking out heart shaped boxes when I find ones I like.

Sometimes it’s the little things that make a special time for all of us. Valentine’s Day lends itself to lots and lots of little things that can make that time very special to someone indeed.

What to do?

Whenever I have a lot of time to myself, I can’t help but think all kinds of different things. Sometimes I think of things I’d actually like to write down and keep track of, or simply share with others. The problem with doing that is that usually when I think of these random things, I am busy doing something else; driving in the car, taking a shower, cooking a meal, shopping for groceries. I can’t always get to a pen and paper to write down what I was just thinking.

Sometimes if I think it’s important enough that I want to share, I try very hard to bring it into my conscious mind to remember and write it somewhere, usually on facebook. Other times I’ll tell someone who is nearby, usually a family member; my daughter, one of my sons, or my husband.

But sometimes I don’t think it would be appropriate or interesting to share with a certain person or certain people. When I think that, then I usually don’t share it in any way, especially over the internet. Then, before very long at all, it is gone.