Chatting Over Coffee With Samantha Hunter

It’s my pleasure to have romance author, Samantha Hunter, visiting Over Coffee. I enjoy reading Sam’s books and I haven’t read one yet that disappointed me. I admire her ability to tell an interesting story. But many can tell an interesting story. What I like is not only the realistic characters she creates but also her understanding of people and places. Where we come from plays a big part in how we view the world, how we act, and I like how she gets that.


Sam is an interesting person and a very creative, grows flowers and orchids as well as quilts. I had the chance to ask Sam some questions to satisfy my curiosity and share a bit more about who she is with you.



Sam, thank you for stopping by Over Coffee. It's always a pleasure to have you visit. You write wonderful love stories with some memorable characters.

Aw, thanks Sia – and thanks for having me by for coffee – we need it here in Syracuse right now, because we are being hammered with SO MUCH snow. If I am not here in the morning to respond, it’s because I am outside shoveling…

Tell me a bit about you?

And so, about me – I am a lifelong (God help me) Central New Yorker, and I love it here, except in winter. I am happily married to a wonderful man I met on the internet about 17 years ago, and he’s my real life hero, in fact, my first Blaze was inspired by how we met.

What a nice thing to hear you say about your husband! I know you’ve done quite a bit of work in non-fiction/technical and you’ve worked as an editor?

I have a Masters in English, and so I was teaching for 12 years before I started writing, and I have also done stints as a features editor and copy editor for a tech trade magazine. I have a degree in Geography as well, a subject I love and which infuses all of my writing, though I never have worked in the field.

I’ve definitely noticed the correlation between your knowledge of geography and character development. So here you are a success in your professional life and you decide to write fiction and sold the story inspired by how you met your husband?

I sold my first book almost by accident – I wrote Virtually Perfect with the encouragement of my good friend and fellow teacher (we worked in the same college dept) Cara Summers, and it sold. And that changed history for me – I decided to write full time, and now, well, here I am. :-)

Can you tell us a bit about your personal love story? How did you meet and what was it that made him unforgettable in your eyes and heart?

Well, we met at a place online called LambdaMOO, a scientific project in early social spaces on the internet (1993 – before there was any kind of dating sites, etc – we just met, and at the time, it was relatively unusual). I was actually seeing someone else at the time, but that was a fling. He was getting out of a bad relationship. We lived a few states away, and he was quitting his job. I had a 10 year old (who is now 26 and built like a linebacker--a great kid with a good heart).

But anyone looking at us would have thought it had all the markers of being a disaster. ;) Then I remember getting his picture in the mail and just being knocked over. I just knew. I still carry that photo in my wallet.

We met after three months of talking online; two months after that he moved in with me, and three years later we got married. I’m very, very fortunate that our careers, while different, have dovetailed in that he is an editor/writer for tech trade, and I am a writer, and he also teaches (as do I, part time). So we have a lot in common, and these days, we both work at home. So we spend a lot of time together, and we love it (which mystifies a lot of people), but it works for us.

I can understand that. My husband and I worked together for 13 years. :-)
What was the last thing your husband did for you that made you go awww?

So many little things. We’re not really into big gestures, but he’s very caring and affectionate, and little things when I don’t expect them, if he notices I have an achy shoulder and offers to rub it without me asking, or … well, a million little things like that. In the way of pretty amazing stuff, he always makes my birthday dinner, and this past year he made a complete home made Spaghetti dinner, sauce, meatballs, cake, all of it – home made. It was awesome. I am slowly luring him into taking over the cooking. :-) (Shhh… don’t tell).

When you’re not writing or working, what are things you like to do? I know you love growing flowers…?

I do love flowers and quilting, too. If you check my blog, you can see a project I am trying to finish now, but we’ll see. It’s coming along, but I am sewing in whatever bits of time I have. Christmas Project. I’ll post some new pictures of it today…

It's beautiful! I just don't have the patience to do that sort of work.

I also love my dogs and animals, and a lot of outdoor activities. Lately, my new passion is Yoga – I’m not great at it, but I love it! It’s making a huge difference for me physically and mentally.

What classes are you teaching this semester?

Two courses in technical writing. It’s been a wild time, as I am new to this community college, and it’s been about 8 years since I have taught. It took me a while to get back into it, but I was also finishing a book and working freelance, so you can say this fall has been a teeny bit crazy. :-)

LOL! You think? I would say more than a bit crazy. 

What was the biggest adjustment you had to make in writing?

Not being able to get out and go to work, to visit with co-workers, etc. I can talk with people online, but I do miss things like office Christmas parties, etc that kind of thing. I meet friends out for lunch, etc and teaching this term has been nice, because I met new people, other teachers, and got out of the house, which was great – I do get out of the house otherwise, LOL -- but you know what I mean.

Writing can be isolating, and you have to stay active, see people, get out, do stuff, to stay sane, IMO. That’s how I started quilting, too – one winter I had to get out of the house, have something else to do, see people, etc even though I didn’t own a sewing machine and I didn’t know anything (seriously, I knew NOTHING). But I got hooked. :-)

You write almost exclusively for Blaze? What is it about this line you enjoy?

I have published only with Blaze, though I have also been working on various single title attempts for a while. I keep working at it, and hope to one day expand my horizons a little (which I have also done with my Kindle books, a bit).

Mainly, I love the freedom I have at Blaze – we have a wide range of possible stories we can write – you can write something light and humorous, heavy and dramatic, or somewhere in between. I need that variety.

I also like the sexiness of it – to me, that’s real, in a world where sex often comes before love, and men and women are in charge of their own sexuality, careers, lives, etc but still hope for that special connection with someone. I like that we can have all kinds of heroes and heroines – we are not locked in to having one kind of character (not just alphas, etc), which is good for me, since I tend to like to write more nice guy, Gamma types, though they are not girly-men by any stretch. So, you know, I like a lot about Blaze, and I’m very lucky to be a Blaze author. I don’t imagine stopping anytime soon. :-)

In your latest book, your romance is centered on two people who have known each other since they were kids and are reconnecting. What is it about Reece you like—what made him fun to write?

One of my original title ideas was The Tease, because that’s how I saw Reece – he is the guy who teased this girl he liked mercilessly, but would defend her against anyone else who did – and now he’s teasing her in a whole new way. I like that they reconnect as adults and that spark has been there for so long, and it just bursts to life again. But he is a guy who has a good heart – he loves deeply, and cares for others. He can carry a conversation and still be a guy. He’s struggling a bit, and coming to terms with some difficult things, and I liked helping him along that learning curve. He sees himself in one way, but in the book, he gets to become more multi-faceted. He’s very sexy, and open to everything, and anything, that Abby desires. Yeah, I really like Reece. :-)

One thing I’ve always admired about your characters (especially the women)—they aren’t weak or whiny. They’re usually hard working professionals. What’s something you admire about Abby?

First and foremost, that she isn’t just going to give up what’s most important to her: her family business. She’ll fight for it and do whatever is necessary to make it work – but her strength is also her weakness – she forgets that she can’t do it all on her own, or that there might be more important things she needs to acknowledge. She takes her responsibilities almost too seriously. But work is very important, and so is family – those are at the core of her value system. She can’t stand to let anyone down, but she has to learn to put herself first a bit, too. (I love the talking to her parents give her in the book – just goes to show, you are never too old for mom and dad to set you straight! LOL).

Also, she is completely honest. She says what she thinks, she doesn’t play games (sex games aside – she loves those), and she’s forthright. I like people like that. No subterfuge. It doesn’t mean she’s always right, but that’s okay, too.

After looking at the cover, I have to tell you, I wouldn’t mind having a Reece with a naughty list under my tree, lol!

Yeah, he would look good in a red ribbon! ;)

Lolol! Yeah, he would, but truthfully he'd look good without...um, a ribbon or anything. Ahem. So, what’s coming up next for you?

My next release is a June 2011 Blaze, MINE UNTIL MORNING, and this is a very interesting book for me in a number of ways.

• First, it’s part of a 24 Hours:Blackout Series with Tawny Weber and Heather McAllister, so that’s exciting in and of itself.
• Second, it’s my first book with a blind hero. Completely blind. And he’s a bodyguard who owns a bodyguard agency with his brothers – and he lost his sight protecting the heroine. So. . .my blind hero and his heroine, in a blackout for 24 hours. There’s a story. :-)

It was so interesting writing a blind character, and there are so many things about this book that I love. Jonas is a little crankier than Reece, but just as sexy, I think, and just as good hearted. His heroine, Tessa, owns a soap and lotions shop in Philadelphia, and I really enjoyed their chemistry.

• Third, this book is the jumping off point for three more I will be writing, a Berringer Bodyguards series for Blaze about the three heroes --Jonas’s brothers-- who work in the bodyguard business with him. We meet two of the brothers in MINE UNTIL MORNING, as well.

So, those should be coming out in 2012, I believe, and before that, I have one more book (untitled at the moment) with a heroine who is a US Marshal – she’s the sister of my Texas Ranger from HARD TO RESIST, and she has quite a protection detail ahead of her looking after an ex-Navy Seal, now returned to his cowboy life.

Wow, that’s a full plate. And I am trying to get some new Kindle books out, too, so we’ll see what happens!

Any special holiday plans you’d like to share with us?

We had a really amazing Thanksgiving, with all the family here, etc and it was wonderful but really busy and crazy (in the good way), so I am looking forward to a somewhat quiet Christmas. Some family visits, meals, friends, and lots of sleep, reading, and staring at Christmas tree lights and my honey. :-)

Happy Holidays to everyone!

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Back of the Book


From the time they were kids and neighbors, Reece Winston tugged Abby Harper's pigtails and tormented her. But when Abby—now the sole owner of her parents' vineyard—sees Reece Winston again after years apart, she's unexpectedly struck by the need to play a much more adult kind of game….


Then a freak accident forces her to stay with Reece, and Abby decides that what she really wants for Christmas is Reece—perhaps wrapped with a red bow. But as Abby and Reece explore their naughty lists, they begin to realize that nothing is quite as easy as it seems! EXCERPT

BUY: Amazon, Barnes and Noble, eHarlequin

Samantha Hunter lives in Syracuse NY where she has been writing for Harlequin Blaze as Samantha Hunter since 2004. Previously employed as a writing instructor at Syracuse University where she earned Master’s Degrees in English/Rhetoric, Public Administration and Geography, writing her own books appeared to be destined when she once crossed out the name of the authors on her LIFE Encyclopedia at the age of six and wrote “By Sam Hunter” on the title page.

As of 2010, she’ll have put her name on sixteen novels of her own, with more in progress. Sam was a RITA “Suspense/Adventure” nominee in 2008 for her Blaze Extreme Untouched, a sexy paranormal romance, and she’s an avid reader of romance and mystery/suspense, prefers television to movies, and loves spending time with her husband, pets and in her gardens.

You can chat with her on eHarlequin.com, Twitter, and Facebook.

Interview With Samantha Hunter, Harlequin Blaze

Samantha Hunter is my guest today and has written the second in the Dressed To Thrill Series. A very action-oriented, sexy romantic suspense.

Sam, welcome back to Over Coffee!


Dressed To Thrill is a fun new Blaze series, written by some very talented authors. I’ve read the first in the series and will be reading the second. Considering the shorter format of Blaze, compared to single title romance, these stories are quite satisfying to read. I love the way the authors create realistic, multi-layered characters you can emotionally connect with and share some Red Hot adventures.


Last month, I featured Tawny Weber and the first in the series, Feels Like The First Time. I’ve read Sam’s books in the past and can guarantee her installment will be good.


Here’s the Blurb for Caught In The Act:

• The outfit was ridiculously revealing. Still, food writer Gina Thomas needed a disguise for the costume party…just so she could sneak into divorce lawyer Mason Scott's office and steal a few photos to save her sister—the trouble magnet.However, the costume seems to bring out the naughtier side of Gina. And Mason can't keep his gorgeous eyes—or his hands—off her! But even as the New-And-Way-Sexier Gina submits to Mason's exquisitely carnal attentions, Practical Gina wonders how long before she's caught red-handed….
  
  Sam graciously answered some questions for me regarding the series and her newest book and what we can expect from her in 2010.
  
  
  
  Did Blaze editors approach you about this series? Or did you four come to them with the proposal?

Actually, I was up in Toronto visiting my editor, and mentioned to Birgit and Brenda that I wanted to do a continuity at some point, and they said to come up with some pitches, find some authors I’d like to write with, and get back to them.

So, it was pretty much an open field. I asked Tawny Weber, Karen Foley, and Lisa Renee Jones, and we starting coming up with ideas. However, none of the stuff we came up with stuck with editors. Brenda told me she was looking for something with costumes, and the idea for a “wrong costume” series – much like the popular “wrong bed” books – popped up.

The girls and I came up with the premise of the online costume shop that ships out the wrong costumes to heroines, and Brenda loved it, so we started planning stories.

Another fun element was as we were planning our stories, we wondered “why would these costume mistakes keep being made?” and so we ended up working with the editors to create a mini-romance that carries through each book, found in the prologues and epilogues, that tells the story of the clerk at the costume shop who keeps making shipping errors – and why. :-)

It was a fun, exhausting, and satisfying process, and it was always nice to have each other to talk with as we went through the whole thing. We’re still talking as a group as the reviews come out, and we’re running our free Twitter spin-off stories.

• What Twitter Stories?
  

Glad you asked. ;) Jayne at eHarlequin asked us if we wanted to do some kind of Twitter promotion for the series, and we came up with the idea of a round robin – so, we’re all writing four new round-robin stories that are spin-offs of the miniseries titles.

• That’s quite an undertaking considering the limitations on word counts for each tweet. How do you manage that?

A new story will run monthly, and we post five story tweets each day on Twitter – you can follow @BlazeDTT or read the updated story daily at http://tweettweetlove.com/.

We have a guest author contribute tweets each Friday, and there are also discussions and prizes going on at various discussion groups – you can find all of the info and links through the Tweet Tweet Love website.

As you can see, there are a lot of little treats associated with this series, and I can offer one more, my Online Read at eHarlequin, CAUGHT BY SURPRISE, (you can also find Caught in the Act here) that is the story of my hero’s younger brother.

• Tawny's heroine was a bit of a sexy footloose geek, not well liked in school and reluctantly goes to her HS reunion. Of course she finds love where she least expects it. What's the deal with your heroine?
  

You should all run out and get the book to find out! LOL

• Trust me, I intend to as soon as it’s available :-) Which is October 1st.
  

Gina, the heroine in CAUGHT IN THE ACT, is an overly responsible big sister who has always lived in the shadow of her younger, sexier sister (who is also always in trouble). Gina is a reserved, shy restaurant reviewer who works from home, and you know what it can be like working at home – she spends a lot of time in sweats and doesn’t meet many new men, so not much dating.

Gina is getting her sister out of trouble – again – when she has to sneak into Mason Scott’s home to steal some revealing pictures of her sister (being used in a divorce settlement – Mason is a divorce lawyer). But, while she wanted an inconspicuous costume, she ends up in a cabaret singer’s outfit, and is mistaken for the entertainment. She actually can sing, so she goes for it, and well, let’s just say that’s just the beginning of the end of Gina’s boring life – things get very exiting, very dangerous, and very sexy.

• Which scene in your novel did you love writing and why?

Oh, this is tough, because I love this entire book – seriously, I had so much fun with it. It’s a very action-oriented, sexy romantic suspense. I don’t want to give away any spoilers, but I have to say, one of my very favorite scenes is with the heroine’s sister – when she’s talking to the Coast Guard, and what she does at the end of that scene. I was writing it, and going back and forth with my friend Larissa Ione, whose husband is in the USCG, and they were reading it for me to make sure it was all accurate, and it was a blast, but I absolutely love what Gina’s sister does there.

As for Gina herself, I think one of my favorite moments with her is when she and the hero are in under serious threat, trapped in a house with bad guys coming in, and Mason wants her to hide in the closet. She absolute refuses, and picks up something to hit them with instead – I think it’s a moment where we see what’s she’s really made of, even when she doesn’t see it herself.

• Was this your first experience taking part in a series like this?

Yes, this is my first continuity, though I have done some anthologies, and various miniseries within the Blaze line. A miniseries/anthology is where individual authors write books on a certain theme, and the books all have that flash on the cover, and they come out at various times over several years. A continuity is where several authors work together on separate books linked by a common premise, and sometimes by common characters, and the books come out together, one after the other, since they are linked.Anyway, I did enjoy it. Writing can be so solitary most of the time, it was very nice being able to contact the group at any point to brainstorm or just vent. Now, being able to enjoy the final products and readers’ reactions together, it’s all been great.

So what’s next from you?

My next Blaze release is in March 2010, a two-story collection of Blazing Bedtime Stories where I will share a book with Kimberly Raye – her story in the book is “Cupid’s Bite,” and mine is “I Wish He Might…” – I think it’s hysterical how they rhyme. ;) But my story is about a tabloid reporter who meets a sexy genie… and he gets to make her wishes come true. ;)

After that, I also have a May release which people have come to call “the magic icing book.” LOL! The title is MAKING YOUR MOVE, and it’s about a woman who owns a bakery with her college buddy, who happens to be a scientist who has made an extract used in cookie frosting which enhances female pheromones to attract any man they are interested in. It was an incredibly fun book to write… less of the suspense and danger, though there is a little mystery in there, but most just sexy fun. :-)

Sam, thank you for answering my questions and sharing a bit of what we can look forward to in 2010. I love the idea of Making Your Move and I’m looking forward to reading Caught In The Act.
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Samantha Hunter lives in Syracuse New York with her husband and several pets. Since January 2004 when she sold her first book to Harlequin Blaze, Virtually Perfect, she has gone on to publish several more with new releases on the way. Sam holds two Master's degrees and was a university instructor for many years before quitting to live the writing life.

Visit Sam's author Blog at www.loveisanexplodingcigar.com.

For even more red-hot masquerade mishaps, read other Dressed to Thrill titles, including:

Feels Like the First Timeby Tawny WeberHarlequin Blaze Miniseries: Dressed to Thrill September
2009
Hold on to the Nightsby Karen FoleyHarlequin Blaze Miniseries: Dressed to Thrill November 2009

Santa, Babyby Lisa Renee JonesHarlequin Blaze Miniseries: Dressed to Thrill December 2009

Defending Inspiration

My guest today is Samantha Hunter. She’s written sixteen books for Harlequin. She's worked as a university writing instructor for ten years and Sam's been writing full-time since 2005. Sam loves to cook, being outdoors and she’s a quilter who makes some gorgeous bags, and a self named bag addict.

As with anything creative, inspirattion plays a big part. That's true whether you're doing a painting, decorating a home, doing crafts, writing music or stories. The best of those endeavors comes with being inspired and the excitement of creating that mental picture. Being involved with crafts and writing; I’d say Samantha Hunter is well familiar with the concept of inspiration.

I saw a comment on Twitter yesterday, where someone posted a quote that said “If you wait for inspiration, you’re a waiter, not a writer.” As quippy as it is, that made me sad.

A lot of writers dismiss inspiration, and I have to admit, that’s not me. I believe in the magic, the spark, and the muse. I consider myself a writer who does wait for inspiration – and that hasn’t kept me from producing sixteen books for Harlequin to date with several more that have either not been published or are in the works.

To me, inspiration is not antithetical to the work of writing, but it is the air that writers breathe – it’s what keeps us going. It’s the initial idea, the premise, the strike of brilliance, the trigger, whatever you want to call it. It’s the “roll” we get on or the thing that breaks the block. It’s the power behind the words, the thing that makes craft more than mechanics. It’s that feeling that pushes us through a book, and I think in the best of cases, the reader can feel it, too – when they are completely sucked in, or find a moment in a book making them laugh or moving them to tears.

When we get inspired, following a spark, we can work like we’re on fire, write page after page, barely able to keep up. Then the work starts to suggest itself, the book starts rolling out in front of us – the work fuels inspiration this way, too. The more we write, the more ideas we have to keep writing.

What I have found is that the process of being inspired is a lot like meditating – if you relax, if you open your mind to the world and the possibilities, it works. A lot of people don’t want to stake their careers on that, but I can’t imagine having a career without it, if only because it’s part of the joy of writing. I’ve found that the only time I am really happy and writing my best is when I am inspired, and I’ve also found that the more you encourage it, the more often it comes. But that’s just me.

So why do so many writers dismiss inspiration, as if it’s something that gets in the way of work rather than something that fuels it? I suppose because they fear it won’t come to them, and that’s a scary thing. I’ve also thought that writers might think that admitting that they believe in inspiration might make them seem flighty or floofy…but that’s where the work comes in. I believe in being inspired, and I don’t think any of my editors or my agent would consider me irresponsible or not having a good work ethic – I have never missed a deadline. I consistently propose new ideas, I finish books. I write almost every day, and sometimes, I do write even when I’m not “feeling it,” because we have to, but if I am really uninspired, I really can’t write. Yes, that’s scary. But, usually, if I relax and remind myself what it is I love about what I do, and maybe go work in my garden for a while, it comes back.

In the end, it’s whatever works for you – writing is highly individualistic. What’s right for one person is not right for someone else, and that’s okay, but I reject the wholesale dismissal of inspiration in our world. Sure, we have to know the business, the craft, the market, etc but we can’t let it take over, and I find believing in inspiration is the best defense. Twitter being what it is, also offered up a quote I did like, one that balanced out the scales, and that was from Ray Bradbury, who said “You must stay drunk on writing so that reality cannot destroy you.” So, I’ll leave it at that. :-)

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Samantha Hunter lives in Syracuse New York with her husband and several pets. Since January 2004 when she sold her first book to Harlequin Blaze, Virtually Perfect, she has gone on to publish several more with new releases on the way. Sam holds two Master's degrees and was a university instructor for many years before quitting to live the writing life.

Visit Sam's author Blog at www.loveisanexplodingcigar.com.