It's Raining Books: Lottie Loves by Samie Sands

Monday, March 5, 2018

Lottie Loves by Samie Sands

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Samie Sands will be awarding a $10 Amazon or Barnes and Noble GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

Where do you get your book ideas?

My book ideas usually originate with a character, who’s traits are so strong that the story builds around them. For my first book, Lockdown, I wanted to create a zombie novel with a bit of a difference, using a main character who definitely doesn’t have the skills needed to survive. I always feel like the weaker, average person gets forgotten about in the apocalypse, so I wanted to explore that. Leah is a little bit of an airhead who’s priorities aren’t always in the right place but that makes her more real. I don’t think any of us could say that we’d act correctly all the time under such stress!

With Lottie Loves, I started creating someone who was living a comfortable life but who wasn’t totally sure about it...from that came her complicated past and the (sort of) love triangle that comes with it.

Do you write outline to start or just start writing?

I always have an outline, but more often than not once I start writing, the story starts to go in a different direction. Often ideas I had don’t work as well on paper as they did in my mind, or the characters will take on a life of their own and drive the plot for me.

How long does it normally take to write the book before edits?

That can depend on all sorts of things. Sometimes the ideas and the inspiration flow throughout the whole plot which means the story comes together very quickly, a good example of this is my Wattpad story Living on Borrowed Time, but sometimes I get writer’s block about certain aspects of the story…and actually, sometimes life and other priorities get in the way. It’s always a few months at least because I like to take a break from my manuscript before I get back to it, that way I can pick up any plot holes that I might have missed before.

Are you an indie author or mainstream author?

A bit of both. The AM13 Outbreak series and Lottie Loves are with the Limitless Publishing house, as are some of the best-selling anthologies that I’m involved with, but I also have some of my books self-published.

How did you get started? Can you give people wanting to write an idea how to get started?

I got started by writing a book that was completely for myself, without any thought of getting published, so I really did write the book that I wanted to read. Then once it was done I decided to try sending the manuscript off to publishers just to see what would happen, and I was lucky enough to get a three book contract from that, kick-starting my writing career. I would say to anyone aspiring to just go for it, because you never know what will happen!

“Will you marry me?”

Four words I’ve waited my whole life to hear. Four words I was sure would change my life forever…and they did. Just not in the way I expected.

Finding out my extremely gorgeous rock star boyfriend was about to propose had the complete opposite effect I thought it would. Rather than catapult me into a future I’ve always wanted, it plunged me back to a past I tried to forget.

Now I can’t get him out of my head. I can’t help but wonder what could have been, how our lives would have ended up if he didn’t leave me behind, a shattered mess.

All these memories are dangerous. They’re bringing my past back to ruin my future. And worst of all, they’re taking me right back to him, my childhood sweetheart, my first love…my biggest regret.

Read an excerpt:

“What am I going to do, Lotts?” he asked me, giving me a look of sheer helplessness. “How am I going to come back from this?”

“Well, I’ll help you,” I gasped at him seriously, growing increasingly excited about the prospect of spending even more time with Joe. Things were much better anyway, and I wanted to take that one step further. I figured if I could start tutoring Joe, I could drag him away from the idiotic ‘popular crowd,’ and we could go back to being the us we were when we were younger, the us I loved so much. “I’ll go over everything with you, I have extensive notes from all the classes, maybe I could get you back up to where you should be…”

I trailed off because he was giving me a strange look, one that had my heart thundering loudly in my chest. As his eyes shone with an emotion I didn’t quite recognise, I gulped down the massive ball of emotion that had lodged itself firmly in my throat. My ears buzzed, and my eyes swam. I had the intense sense that something monumental was about to happen…I just wasn’t quite sure what it was.

“You’re always there for me,” he murmured thoughtfully, his gaze falling to my lips. My blood boiled inside of me as I shifted uncomfortably where I sat. I felt scrutinised, weird, and I didn’t know what the hell to do. “No matter what, you’re always there.”

Then before I could even think, before I could grasp what the hell was happening, his lips had smashed against mine, and his hands were tangling themselves up in my hair. My instinctive reaction was to pull back, to find out what the hell was going on with Joe, but then the realisation screamed in my brain that Joe was kissing me, and that it might be the only shot I ever got.

My heart raced so quickly I feared it might burst from my chest, a fiery spark lit within me, and although it wasn’t quite what I’d been picturing in my mind—it was far too desperate and needy for that—I felt alive, tingly, and I knew this was proof that we were meant to be. I knew we’d finally overstepped that mark, we’d crossed the line and there would be no coming back from that, but I was excited. I felt this was how things had meant to be all along.

As we finally pulled apart, and we gazed into one another’s eyes, I thought I could see some shock there, almost as if he hadn’t quite expected to do that. I didn’t mind that though, I was certain I looked the same. In that way, it was really the perfect moment—in my mind, at least. It was spontaneous, unexpected, and incredibly excited.

“I…” I started to speak, to ask him the millions of questions floating through my mind, but before I could get anything out, we heard Joe’s mum calling him home. Usually this wouldn’t mean too much, we would hang out for a little while longer, but this time he jumped up rapidly with a regretful look in his eyes, and he raced away.

It’s just because he needs to think things through, I tried to reassure myself, as I trudged slowly and sadly to my own home. He just needs to sort out his own feelings.

Out of an intense desire to recall this situation fully, now that I’d started thinking about it, and wanting to be armed with as much knowledge as possible, I raced back to my diary, and I flicked through the pages until I found the relevant one.

26th May 2007

I just kissed Joe.

I don’t even know how to describe it, it was utterly the best moment of my life. All of my dreams couldn’t even begin to imagine how good it was going to be. I can’t even believe that I’m writing this…after all the heartache, all the wondering, it’s finally happened and now we can actually be together.

This is the best thing ever!

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