An Interview with Samantha Lee Howe

An Interview with Samantha Lee Howe

Please tell us everything we need to know about your most recent book! Tell us how it fits in with all your other ongoing series…

My latest book is actually a standalone novel called THE STRANGER IN OUR BED for HarperCollins.

Here’s the blurb: ‘On the surface our main protagonist, Charlotte, is a happily married woman. But she is frustrated and lonely, a detail she keeps from her husband Tom. Then she meets Ewan Daniels and before she can help herself she falls in love. After a long affair, Ewan asks her to leave Tom. When she agrees and goes to meet Ewan however, he doesn’t show.’

It’s a twisty-turny thriller which hopefully keeps the reader on their toes – if there’s one thing I hate in a book it’s predictability ... so I try and ensure that everything I write has an element of unpredictability about it.

How would you define the genre that your book falls into?

This book is a psychological thriller, some would call it domestic noir.

Why did you fall in love with this genre in the first place, and which books / authors / series would you recommend?

I’ve been reading thrillers most of my life. Years ago, I devoured the works of Mary Higgins Clark, Sidney Sheldon and Dean Koontz. In recent years I’ve been reading some popular titles by authors such as Paul Finch, Caroline England, Abbie Frost and Peter James. In fact, I’ve also been writing thrillers for many years, they just happened to feature supernatural elements, or to have a family of vampires as the main protagonists, so it’s a genre I’m very familiar with.

You’ve worked in all kinds of different genres. How important is it for you to take a zig-zag path, exploring all these various kinds of story-telling?

The one thing that is similar in all writing is that you have to create convincing characters and situations regardless of the genre. Although most of my previous works have been horror, fantasy and science fiction, a lot of the stories I tell usual are very ‘thriller’ in their structure and are psychologically twisty. The challenge with writing mainstream thrillers is that you cannot explain a mystery by using some supernatural element. In a way it’s far harder to write and has to be possible in the real world. This is where the challenge comes from for the writer, but I love that and enjoy rising to it.

Is there a genre you couldn’t imagine ever writing in? Is there anything you couldn’t imagine bringing your own style to?

I’d probably have a go at anything if asked. Though I’m not sure I would want to write a romance novel or chick-lit. It’s not really me, and I think you have to be the demographic for the novels you write, otherwise you won’t do them as well as you should.

How did you get into writing in the first place, and how did you first get published? Has it been a long and difficult road, or has it been relatively straightforward?

It definitely has been a long road. I have always been a writer. At the age of eleven I decided I would be a novelist and I’ve pretty much never given up on that. But how the professional journey began was following the completion of my Master’s Degree in Creative Writing. I had this novel I’d written for my dissertation and I had been told by my tutor that it was good. I had no idea where to go with it and so I ended up using a vanity press as I knew nothing else at the time. The interesting thing with this, however, was that I then went on to win the Silver Award for Best Horror Novel in 2008 with the well established Foreword Magazine and following that I found a small press publisher called The House of Murky Depths who offered me an initial three book deal to republish the first, and to write two more volumes.

Since then, I’ve been working very hard towards getting bigger deals and better sales. It took twelve years and a change of genre, but I am now with HarperCollins and writing under my real name of Samantha Lee Howe … THE STRANGER IN OUR BED is being launched as a debut thriller with HarperCollins’ imprint One More Chapter.

What about public events, readings and conventions? Some authors don’t like doing these kinds of things – and others love it. Is getting out into the world a big part of being a writer these days?

Unlike before the age of digital, where mostly you browsed a book store in order to find your next read, these days people buy books in a variety of ways and formats. Sometimes they just use online book sellers and therefore might only become aware of those books that are ‘best sellers’. If they haven’t heard of you, why might they search for your titles in this circumstance? That’s why I believe it is really important to attend conventions, readings and other public events wherever possible to help connect with potential readers. It’s equally important to have an online presence, and to interact with people on social media, showing them that you are a real person that’s worth their time and investment.

Do you have a good sense of who your fans and readership are? Do you get a lot of messages and feedback?

I do feel I got into social media at exactly the right time. I have built up a presence that gives me a measure of who is buying my books, and more importantly who isn’t and why. I’ve been very lucky, I think, to have built relationships over the last twelve years with a variety of readers, who are sometimes very honest about how they feel about your works! They don’t always say what you want to hear, but if they keep supporting you then you know that you are doing things right. Even so, I’ve had some amazing feedback in the last year. Readers are coming out of the woodwork with massive support for the new book, and it’s felt like there has been a massive buzz about it. Which has been amazing.

What are you going to write next? Are you going to be working in the same vein? What can we expect to read?

I’m sticking to thriller writing for the immediate future. Partly this is because I feel I have said and done all I want to in horror for the time being, but also this genre really excites me. I’m currently working on a new standalone thriller and I have several ideas for the next few as well so I think I have plenty to keep me busy for the moment.

Tell us about your reading. Who do you turn to for comfort reading?

I’m currently reading lots of other thrillers – a study if you like of the market and what’s selling. I also need to do this to make sure that I create something different in my work. I still enjoy SF, Horror and Fantasy, but I’m not reading much in those genres right now. Even so, one of my main go to writers is Tanith Lee. I love her works and they always remind me that I’m still aspiring because I can’t imagine ever being able to write prose as effectively as she did!

Finally… tell us something surprising about yourself that your readers might not already know!

I love property programmes. I’m really into house design and have a fascination with home improvements! I love any excuse to go looking at other people’s houses too.