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URL:
www.samanthalucas.com
Contact:
mail2samantha@gmail.com
ABOUT SAMANTHA
Samantha was born
and raised in Southern California and now lives in the
mountains of Virginia and is loving the discovery of
seasons!
As a teenager she did commercials, a couple of rock
videos and a bunch of extra jobs in television and movies
saying it was a great way to spend some time and make money,
especially when you're a kid. Her first ever "real" job was
at Disneyland, which she loved more then anything since she
is, and declares always will be, a Disney theme park freak.
The mother of two teenage boys, she's a dedicated
home-schooling mom with a die-hard love of animals, owning a
small zoo herself because every time she drives by the
shelter she's compelled to adopt someone!
She's written stories all her life, but it wasn't until
a few years ago she finally decided to pursue publishing and
was offered her first contract from Siren Publishing in
2006, although it took about four contract offers before she
stopped thinking someone had made a terrible mistake.
Samantha loves writing erotic romances because of the
freedom in the genre to take the characters places
mainstream romances won't allow. Though her stories are
erotic in nature, they are love stories at their core,
because as a self proclaimed romantic, she can't and imagine
writing anything else.
INTERVIEW
Q: Can you tell us a little about how you started writing?
Was it something you have always wanted to do?
A: I think I come from a long line of story tellers. My
grandmother was fabulous, entertaining us for hours with tales
she would weave that included us all as main characters. I
personally have written since I was a kid, I'm sure I would have
always written, whether I'd pursued publishing or not, it's just
something that soothes my spirit and I love getting lost in
creating a story.
Q: What do you consider to be the key elements of a great
story?
A: Characters you remember long after you've read the last page.
If the characters don't come to life, don't grab you and make
you care about them, I don't see the point to the story,
especially in the romance genre. The other key element is
Emotion. I need to feel the love growing, the passion. I want to
feel empathy for the characters and what they've gone through in
life and thrill with them when they succeed.
Q: Which author or stories inspire you?
A: It seems to me, that anytime I read a really wonderful story,
it inspires me to write. At the end of a good book, I usually
feel two things, contentment and a need to write something
equally as wonderful. LOL. That being said, Catherine Anderson
is certainly my favorite author. I feel a connection with her
stories. It was after reading Blue Skies, and after I'd stopped
crying ;-), that I knew I had to be an author of romance novels.
Q: How does reader feedback matter to you?
A: It's the best part of the whole thing. I think as writers, it
sometimes feels as though we're writing in a vacuum. You spend
all this time writing, polishing and editing a story and then it
goes out into the real world. By that time, I've come to love
the characters and feel as if they are close friends, so to have
someone else “meet” them so to speak and be moved enough to
write you about them, it inspires me to keep writing.
Q: In 5 years, where do you see yourself in general and in
your writing career?
A: Most of my life I've felt my life would truly begin at 40. I
got my first publishing contract 2 weeks before my 40th birthday
and from there, my life has gone down a path I never saw coming.
So far it's been fabulous and hard and exciting and a myriad of
other things, but five years from now, these are my dreams: The
“dream home” lovingly restored and decorated with a thriving
garden. I'll be spending every day with the man I love. Holding
hands and making each other laugh. I also want an intimate
wedding on the beach at Disney World and I'll take my first trip
to Italy. I see myself more defined as a writer. Creating
stories and characters who live and love and hurt and become
real to the people who read them, but most of all, I just want
to live and love and laugh as often as possible. Life is good,
don't forget to enjoy it. |
