Interview: Samantha Young

I'm excited to share my first author interview:

 Samantha Young, author of The Tale of Lunarmorte Trilogy!

1. The Tale of Lunarmorte has changed quite a bit since you first developed the story - it became a trilogy and the covers were all redesigned. Can you tell us about that?

Sure. It first began as Lunarmorte, published by Vanguard in 2010. I wasn't happy with the finished result, mostly because I knew I wanted to expand it, and Lunarmorte just didn’t feel polished enough. So I decided to head down the indie road. I developed the ideas for the sequels and went back and edited and revised Lunarmorte into Moon Spell so that part one was more cohesive in the grander plot. I renamed it The Tale of Lunarmorte trilogy which makes sense once you’ve read the first book, and it gives you an idea of what to expect from the second and third novels. 

As for the cover art… *smiles sheepishly* … I had an issue with copyright. I didn’t want to tread on any toes, so I used a photograph of my lovely friend (with her permission of course) and manipulated it on Photoshop to give me three separate covers. However, I was getting negative feedback: the covers were too unassuming for the novels. After fretting and nail biting and generally fussing, I finally came across a copyright free photo website. I found some beautiful pictures that had a Greek goddess theme running through them, which I thought was perfect, and voila! Finally J

2. You spend so much time with your characters when writing. Do you feel super attached to them or feel like you have a relationship with them?

I feel super attached to them :-p

I've gotten good at accepting critique of my work because I’ve always been pretty good at accepting constructive criticism; it makes you better at what you do. However… I did get a little upset, at first, when someone didn’t like one of my characters. It’s just natural. They’re a part of me. I’m big on character development because that’s what I want out of the books I enjoy reading, and I really feel it’s important to provide my readers with three dimensional characters. And as you say, I spend a lot of time with them, especially over the course of a trilogy. By the second and third novels, I almost felt like they were writing themselves. I didn’t have to stop and think about what Caia would do in a certain situation anymore; I just knew what her reaction would be instinctively.

I love all my characters because they’re such fun to write. Even the not so nice ones. In fact, sometimes they’re even more fun to write.

3. So, moon spell is about paranormal creatures, werewolves in particular. Would you ever want to be a werewolf?

Oh yeah. I think the freedom of running with a pack and having supernatural strength and senses sounds awesome. Plus, my wolves have a longer lifespan than the average human and they stay looking young for longer too… who wouldn’t want that? :-p Best of all, there is such a sense of community among them. I’ve got a small family, so I think the extended family of the pack holds appeal to me.

4. Slumber sounds amazing! What is it about in a nutshell, and where did you get the inspiration for the story?


Thank you J. Slumber is pretty special to me. I don’t know why, it just… is. I was on Goodreads, and people were talking about fairytale retellings, which made me think about writing a retelling of my own. I decided on Sleeping Beauty but as the ideas came to me it became less of a retelling and just a fairytale based extremely loosely on the Sleeping Beauty concept.

 In a nutshell it’s about a fictional world called, Phaedra, a land once populated by the Mage. There are some mage left, including Princess Haydyn, whose magic lulls the land with peace. When Haydyn falls victim to a mysterious Sleeping Disease, her best friend, Rogan, is the only one who can find the cure that will save her, and thus Phaedra from crumbling into chaos.

Essentially Slumber is Rogan’s story as she journeys across the provinces to find the cure. There is plenty of action, romance and fantasy. It is marketed as a YA fantasy Romance for older teens and readers, as there is some dark subject matter not suitable for younger readers.

5. Lets get to know you a little better! What do you do when you aren't writing (or reading)? 

This is so sad… but writing these few months has literally taken over my life :-s

I’m lucky enough to be writing full time at the moment, but whenever I can drag myself out of the worlds I’m creating, I can be found attempting to get back into Pilates (it hurts, it hurts so much), taking walks around my village with my mp3 player, hanging out with my friends and family (especially taking trips through to Edinburgh – my favourite city), trying to get through my ever growing reading pile (I’m just as obsessed with reading YA as I am with writing it), keeping track of my favourite shows (Vampire Diaries, Supernatural, Grey’s Anatomy…), adding to my DVD collection (I’m a bit of a film fan), heading out to schools, book groups etc to talk about my novels, and keeping my eyes and ears open for interesting and unique ideas for new stories. Oh and most recently getting soaked to the skin in torrid rain watching my brother play (and win!) his golf championship - I couldn’t get any more quintessentially Scottish than that.

6. Do you have any silly quirks or habits?


Lol, I must have lots of those. Um… OK, I listen to music to inspire me but I can’t actually listen to music when I write… I have to wear ear plugs when I write, so I can’t hear a darn thing. I write the summary chapters for my novels out in notebooks but they have to be a very specific notebook from a collection called the ‘manuscript notebooks’. They look like bound leather books and are very pretty on the shelf.

Oh and I leave empty cans of Diet Coke everywhere. Everywhere. It even drives me mad. There are probably lots more but that’s all I can think of right now…



Bonus: Is there an interview question that you would love for someone to ask that no one has asked you yet?

No one has asked me who my favourite fictional character is.

Answer: Lol. I don’t know. It’s too hard. Maybe… Todd from Patrick Ness’ Chaos Walking Trilogy.

Now for a random little quiz! You can interpret and answer these however you like!

~ hardcover or paperback? Paperback. Although hardbacks are beginning to grow on me. 

~ favorite food? Fajitas. Mmm. Sounds good. I wonder if I have stuff to make those… 

~ early bird or night owl? Used to be a Night Owl, now I’m an early bird. I still don’t know how that happened. 

~ place you most want to visit someday? Budapest. I want to set an upcoming novel there so it’s on my most immediate travel plans. 

~ favorite color? Green. All shades except neon. 

~ ocean or pool? Pool. *wistful sigh* one day I’ll have my very own. I can dream, can’t I? 

~ Can you cook? I can’t cook very well, I’m OK if I follow instructions. But I can bake! And I’ve been told I’m pretty good at it. My kitchen at present is a bit too wee, so I haven’t baked in a while. I hope I haven’t lost my baking muscles L 

~ Do you have any pets? I used to have a Yorkshire terrier called Beanie. Had her for a long time, she grew to the grand old age of seventeen. Now it’s just the goldfish. Won him at the fairground. He doesn't even have a name. But he’s old too. I think he’s like… thirteen or something. I swear the tank he lives in is magical because I’ve never heard of a goldfish (especially a fairground fish) that old.
He really should have been given a name :-s 

~Coffee or tea? Coffee. Specifically, Latte. Yum.

Thanks Samantha! That was fun. :)

If you want to find out more about Samantha and her novels, you can visit her blog: Samantha Young - YA Paranormal & Fantasy Author or check out her books on Goodreads.


By the way, I'm the one who added in all of the pictures, so hopefully Samantha doesn't mind me adding pilates LOL cats and the like.  : P

What about you guys, would you want to be a werewolf?

Not the kind from old 80's movies where they run around killing people on a full moon, but the more modern idea of werewolves that transform at will and are part of a pack.