Please welcome friend and author, Samantha Priestly...

 ...to my blog this week.  Hi, Samantha, thanks for making time in your busy schedule to be here.  So, tell me what is is your current release?

SP   My latest book is a novel, Rose Villa, about a cursed house.

AW   Hmmm... That sounds interesating.  What first got you into writing and why?

SP   I wanted to write from a young age, but I didn’t think it was something normal people could do.  Then when I left school I went to work for a large bookshop.  We had authors coming in to do signings and I realised many of them (not all of them) were actually normal people.  When I left work to have my babies I thought, it’s now or never.  It’s hard to say what first got me into writing though, I read a lot as a teenager and just knew that’s what I wanted to do.

AW  You write mystery and contemporary novels.  Is it all imagination or do you also undertake research?

SP   It’s mostly research!  I try to check everything to make sure I’m getting it right, especially when writing about the past and I do a lot of research before I start. Imagination comes into it too, of course.  I’m writing my first non fiction book at the moment and I’ve found the level of research needed for that to be so enjoyable, though probably because it’s such an interesting and gruesome subject!

AW  And what about other types of writing?  Have you ever dabbled with short stories, for instance, or other genres?

Samantha's writing space

SP   I started out writing short stories and my first novel began as a short story.  I also have two short fiction chapbooks published.  I’ve also written two plays, both of which are being staged this year.

AW  Famous authors, such as Roald Dahl and Dylan Thomas, had a special space for writing.  Do you have a writing ‘shed’ of your own?

SP   We moved house almost two years ago and for the first time ever I now have an office!  It’s a small attic space.  I love having somewhere that’s just for writing, it makes it so much easier to concentrate!

AW  Finally, what would your eight-year old self think of, and say about, you today?

SP  I think my eight year old self would look at me and say this is exactly who she’d expect me to be!  I feel so blessed to have been able to make the life I wanted to have.  I’m not going to say ‘lucky’ because it’s been hard work and a lot of patience, but my eight year old self would see the me today as being who she wants to be.

... about the book  Rose Villa has held a curse in its bricks since 1843, and the Yorkshire village it stands in has held the secret of a murder since 1987.  In 2007, Jonathan and Kirsty meet on Facebook twenty years after they last saw each other and Kirsty visits Jonathan in his home, Rose Villa, only to find the house has affected him and he’s no longer the person she once knew.

... about the author  Samantha is a writer based in Sheffield, England.  She won the H. E. Bates competition and The Tacchi-Morris Prize for short stories.  Her chapbooks, Dreamers and Orange Balloon, are published by Folded Word.  Her novels Reliability of Rope and A Bad Winter, are published by Armley Press and her latest novel, Rose Villa, is published by ASJ.  She has also written two plays, Greenwood and The Devil is in the Timing, to be staged this year.

You can follow Samantha on her Website on Facebook her  Author Page  Twitter  and on Instagram 

You can find her books on Amazon