Interview of Author Samantha Combs

Latest Book: The Deadlies
Buy Link: Amazon

BIO:
Samantha Combs is a Southern California author with nine published books: Her Young Adult paranormal titles, the Global Ebook Award-winning debut title SPELLBOUND, SPELLBOUND's sequel, EVERSPELL, GHOSTLY, WATERDANCER, and THE DEADLIES, a middle grade horror called THE DETENTION DEMON, and her adult horror collections, TEETH AND TALONS, WAY PAST MIDNIGHT, and HELLOWEEN. WINGSPAN will be her tenth published book. She enjoys writing YA paranormals, both dark and light, and supernatural fantasy and romance, but it is her love of horror that started it all. Thanks, Mr. King.

When she’s not writing, she works full time and enjoys spending time with her husband and two children. Her guilty pleasures include reality television, the Food Network channel and shoes. She truly believes she can accomplish anything if she has the right pair of shoes. And she adores totally inappropriate earrings.

Samantha loves writing and publishing her work and is in awe of the technological advances of our lives. With all of the genres there are for a reader, she has learned that writing paranormal and horror lets her share all the weirdness of everyday life in a not-so-everyday way. The foundation of a good story is all around her. All she has to do is….breathe.

Samantha loves to hear from her fans. Connect with her here:
Fan Page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Samantha-Combs-Fan-Page/205186202866933
Email: SamanthaCombsWrites@gmail.com
Blog: http://www.samanthacombswrites.blogspot.com
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/samanthacombs1
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4953744.Samantha_Combs
Amazon Author Central Page: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B0055WS25S

Q: What part of the book is the easiest for you to write? Why?
A: It’s always easiest for me to start the book. I usually steam forward for about five chapters. That’s when I stop and decide which path the characters need to take. Or they tell me.

Q: What part of the book is the hardest for you? Why?
A: The end. I want to wrap things up so each book can stand alone, but I always want to leave it with a wink, so it can be revisited should I or my muse ever choose to.

Q: If one of your books became a movie, which celebrity would you like to star as one of your heroines? Tell us about your heroine.
A: When I think of any of my nine books being made into a movie, its one of two: Spellbound or The Deadlies. And the actress is one of two: Emma Stone or Blake Lively. My character is self-aware, but still stunned by genuineness, cocky, but not overly so, witty, with a dry sense of humor, and completely unaware of her own attractiveness to the opposite sex.

Q: Do all your heroes and all heroines look the same in your mind as you “head write”?
A: This is a great question. I actually purposefully never give too detailed a description of a character. I want them to develop in the reader’s mind as a person.

Q: What’s your strongest point as a writer?
A: My ability to write believable dialogue.

Q: What is your favorite romance book that you’ve read?
A: I have always adored The Notebook, maybe because I know so much about the writer’s journey to get an agent to love it.

Q: You’re on a remote island with a handsome man/beautiful woman (you choose which one), a computer, and a “mysterious” source of electricity to power your computer. What do you do?
A: Write passionate love letters and hide them all over the island for him to find.

Q: What genre would you like to try writing in but haven’t yet done so? Why?
A: Steampunk. I love it but I don’t yet quite “get it”.

Q: Facebook, MySpace, Blogs, Chats, or Twitter. Which do you like best and why?
A: I love the camaraderie created by facebook.

Tell us where to find you: website(s), publisher’s page(s), blog(s), Facebook page(s), etc. List them all!
Check out all nine of my books:
SPELLBOUND
EVERSPELL
GHOSTLY
THE DETENTION DEMON
TEETH AND TALONS
WAY PAST MIDNIGHT
WATERDANCER 
HELLOWEEN
THE DEADLIES

CONNECT WITH ME!
Fan Page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Samantha-Combs-Fan-Page/205186202866933
Email: samanthacombswrites@gmail.com
Blog: http://www.samanthacombswrites.blogspot.com
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/samanthacombs1

BLURB:
When Calliope Flood catches the unwanted attention of prettiest and most privileged girls at her new school, she learns they are possessed of more than just good ole’ Southern charm; they are also possessed by the demons of the Seven Deadly Sins.

Whether she likes it or not, the Ravens want the pretty new girl to become one of their members. Their club is so secret, only a select few know their truth. As a budding journalist, Callie is more interested in investigating them than joining them. When people begin to disappear, she soon discovers the Ravens aren’t just interested in her for her looks; slowly, she learns she’s a legacy. Calliope enlists her eccentric Aunt, her new friends, and a quietly disarming Southern boy to form their own group, The Virtues, to free the girls, and the town, from the demons that have taken over their lives.

EXCERPT:
The front of Holly Hills Academy was imposing. Callie was reminded of antebellum mansions she had seen in magazines featuring Southern architecture. She watched the other students flowing into the building and wondered why they looked so perfect in their uniforms and she looked so out of place. The scratchy plaid skirt and starched white blouse were so unlike what she was used to. She couldn’t ever remember wearing knee-high socks before this. She’d managed to salvage some semblance of her individuality by shunning the ladylike black-patent mary janes in favor of her beloved black cowboy boots. They didn’t go at all with the proper look of the girl’s school uniform, but they were much more her style. They made the stiff, itchy monkey suit halfway bearable.

“Hi. You must be Mrs. Flood’s niece, Calliope. She told me about you.” Callie turned around to find another girl standing there, dressed in the same ill-fitting school uniform. She had an armload of books and was appraising Callie with a friendly eye. “My name’s Suzette Price, but you can call me Suki. Everyone does.” The girl did a little bow and finished it with a curtsey.

“Hey. I’m Callie.”

“I know. Your aunt plays canasta with my grandmother.” Callie gave Suki a wide-eyed look. Suki just laughed. “Oh, the already-knowing-you thing? You’ll have to get used to that. Haven Falls is a small town and everyone knows your business. We knew you were coming here to live more than a month ago. And since Holly Hills is the same school your momma and Auntie went to, we just knew you’d be going here too. You’re a legacy!” Suki seemed pleased with her knowledge, but Callie wasn’t. It irked her to have total strangers know so much about her.

Suki was friendly and as they stood outside the school, she waved at most students who passed them. Suki tried to fill her in on all the names, but Callie missed most of them. One she didn’t miss belonged to a boy named Cayden Welliver. Chatting animatedly with a couple of friends, Callie noticed he was a bit taller than her with dark hair that fell to just below his ears. He hung back, behind the others, as if he didn’t want to be the center of attention. He was certainly the center of Callie’s. She tried not to be obvious about it, but she found she kept peeking around people to see if he was watching her. A couple times, she thought he might have been.

As Callie tried to take the whole new environment in, her attention was drawn away from the good-looking boy to a tight group of girls who seemed to appear out of nowhere. There were six or seven of them, she wasn’t sure, and as they glided by, they commanded the whole area. They wore the same school uniform as everyone else, but somehow, it seemed to fit them much better. Loose where it had to be and snug where it ought not have been. Beautiful hair, shining faces and such a imposing presence, crowds of kids parted as if the movement were pre-rehearsed. It was apparent to Callie that they were some kind of big deal at the school.

“So, who’re the Barbie dolls?” she asked Suki.

“Oh, those are the Ravens. They’re kind of a social club. Super secret and super hard to get in.”

“If it’s such a secret, why does everyone know about it?”

“The secret part is what they do. No one really knows.”

“Then why would anyone want to get in?”

Suki gazed wistfully as the Ravens drifted by. “Are you kidding? I would kill to be a Raven. They’re the prettiest, smartest, most popular girls in the school. Everyone wants to be one.”

“Well, I don’t.”

“You will.” Suki raised an eyebrow at her new friend. “You’re pretty enough, you know. They might ask you. They probably only cruised by to get a decent look at you. Are you smart?”

“I can hold my own. But I’m not into joining things.”

“I heard you want to be on the yearbook staff. That’s joining something.”

“Something worthwhile. Not a social club for look-alikes.” Callie stared at the girl in front of her. “And how did you know about that?”

“I told you. Small town.”

“Whatever.”

“Come on. I’ll show you where your classes are.”

Callie followed behind Suki as she led her down another endless hallway. She saw the same pack of girls as before, the Ravens, gathered in an open area near some lockers. This time, they were openly appraising her. One of them, a tall, slender blonde girl, even raised her hand in a wave, as if she knew her. Callie was about to wave back until she saw her face. Instead of a smile, she was sneering at her. She sucked in her breath.

“Whoa.”

“What?” inquired Suki, disinterestedly.

“One of those creepy Raven girls was waving at me.”

“Really?” Suki spun around to look. “Which one?”

“The thin blonde girl.”

“Oh my God. Don’t wave back to her. She’s psycho.”

“Okay, well, that explains it. She was making this scary face at me. I didn’t wave or anything.”

“Good thing you didn’t. We try not to encourage her.” Suki stopped and turned around. “Anyway, we’re here.”


Anything else you’d like to add?
My tenth book, Wingspan, is currently with the publisher. I hope to have it out by the end of the year. Look for it! Teaser below:

Chessa Dawning never thought she’d be the kind of girl who’d be on the run. Or have a boyfriend. Or grow wings. Yet, here she was, having left the only home she’s ever known, staying two steps ahead of the men from her scientist father’s genetics company hell-bent on capturing her, and falling for a resourceful ex-criminal with colorful friends. And that was just this week.

Most of the time, Charlotte Lake can’t believe her life. The reluctant young leader of a rebel faction called the Ginger Nation, Charlie’s days are filled with planning surveillance, rescuing detainees, and exposing government conspiracy. Surrounded by loyal friends and soldiers, she knows she can never reveal the true nature of her quest. Finding her real father and exacting revenge for the freaky physical deformity he burdened her with is a bigger goal than even her most trusted confidant can know.

When a sudden twist in both their lives brings these two girls together, revelations about their past will make them rethink where they came from, and define their future in ways they never could have imagined. Not every scientific breakthrough is welcomed.