Spotlight on Samantha Storm

image courtesy of SamanthaStorm.com

I'm pleased to welcome SAMANTHA STORM to join me for an interview today. Samantha is the second of two winners who tied for first place in my recent WORST QUERY LETTER EVER contest. Her winning entry was short and sour:


Dear Berkley Editor,

I have this great idea for a book. I don’t have the time to write it, but it’s such a fantastic idea I know it will make a zillion dollars. So I was thinking you could give me a three book contract and then I could take the advance money and hire a ghost writer to write the actual book.

Please get back to me right away since this idea is sure to make us both a ton of money.

Look forward to that contract. You won’t be sorry you took a chance on me.

Jane Doe


Yeah, I'm sure Berkley will be getting RIGHT on that. Ha ha. And now, for a bit about Samantha...

LL: Can you tell me about your latest books? Just how "para" is your normal romance? :)



SS: I tend to shy away from vampires because honestly I get queasy at the sight of blood. My paranormals run more towards demon killers and psychics. I am particularly fond of action divas.


Shadow Vision is about a demon killer Friday Maxwell who really doesn’t have much experience yet killing demons. She suddenly finds herself in the midst of battle trying to stay alive. And just when she thinks all is lost a hunky stranger appears and helps her out.


Eye of the Storm is set a few years in the future. A subculture of “Talents” have quite a few mental abilities they hide from the general population. Katlin, our heroine, suddenly finds herself on the run. Her head is filled with information that the bad guys are desperate to get their hands on. She finds herself being protected by retired body guard Ryker—a man tore between his growing desire for Katlin and his quest for revenge.


I have eight free reads on the group now. A few of them are collaboration with writing friends. Most of the stories have paranormal elements, but there are a few that are strictly contemporary.


LL: Right now these are free reads. What's the address of the group where readers can find them?


SS: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SamanthaStorm/ It’s an over 18 announcement only group. I plan to add more free reads as I get them done.


LL: What's your current project?


SS: I am currently working on something completely different. I started working on a story to entertain my sixteen year old niece. It’s my first time working on a Young Adult story. It’s challenging, but at the same time I’m having a lot of fun.


LL: What has been your greatest joy as a writer, and your greatest challenge?


SS: I have been writing stories since I was ten years old. I have always dreamed of being a writer. And now I am writing stories and people are actually reading them. It’s pretty mind blowing.


The hardest thing is writing on those days when you don’t feel like it. Sometimes the writing just flows and those days are easy. Actually those days are bliss. It’s the other days, when you are going along convinced every word you write is utter garbage. Those days are pure hell. And the challenge is to force yourself on those days to keep going. The funny thing is sometimes the best stuff comes from those challenging days. When you go back and edit the work you realize it’s actually some of your best stuff.


LL: You recently ran a rather interesting contest. Care to tell us a bit about it?


SS: I found myself in a position where I was having problems with my epublisher New Concepts Publishing. I tried to see if the situation could be worked out internally, but when I was suddenly booted from the Authors loop I felt I had no choice but to bring the situation public. I figured I might as well run a contest to see what other people would do in my situation. You can read about my troubles with NCP publishing and what went on down –http://www.romancejunkies.com/rjblog/?p=235


LL: When you're not frantically typing out your latest romance, what do you do? Job? Hobbies? Family?


SS: I am a freelance webdesigner. I am also the Owner/ Operator of Romance Junkies the Review site. My husband is a rural Fire Chief. We live in an old mining town in Arizona . We have three cats, one dog and a bird. Hmm, hobbies. I love to swim, read and mess about on the computer.



LL: Where all can people find you on the web? MySpace? Twitter? Etc.


SS: Samantha Storm is also Chaoscat, owner of Romance Junkies: http://www.romancejunkies.com