Today I would like to welcome the author of Stitch, Samantha Durante. She has written an amazing story steeped in...well, everything. You get a little romance, a little mystery, a haunting, some conspiracy, and a big slap-you-in-the-face twist. Who can possibly say no to that?
Name: Samantha
Durante
Book: Stitch
(Stitch Trilogy, Book 1)
Genre: YA
Paranormal Romance/Dystopian Sci-Fi
1. Tell us about yourself. Where are you from and what do you do
(besides writing)?
Thanks so much for having me today, Brandi!
My name is Samantha Durante and I’m a brand
new author – Stitch is my very first book!
I live in New York City with my husband and my cat, but we’re moving
soon to a home we purchased in Westchester County right outside the city.
We were just married in September (right in
the middle of the
Stitch Blog Tour!)
and are in the middle of fixing up our new home before we move in, so that’s
what’s been keeping me busy most recently!
2. Tell us about your book. What is it about?
Stitch is a young adult science fiction novel where nothing
is as it seems. The main character,
Alessa, is a college freshman who’s having trouble adjusting to some recent big
changes in her life, and the fact that she keeps seeing a ghost around her
sorority house is not making anything easier on her. She can’t seem to get the ghost out of her
head, and on top of that, she’s having recurring nightmares about being in some
kind of prison, so with all of that going on, she’s really struggling just to
get her work done and have a social life.
And then as she delves more into the ghost’s history, she uncovers a
secret that turns her life upside down and she realizes that nothing about her life is what she once
thought… I can’t say too much more
without giving all the good stuff away :-) but I’ll tell you that Stitch starts
out presenting itself as a paranormal romance, but there’s a big sci-fi twist
that morphs the book into more of a dystopian, so it’s very different than a
lot of stuff that’s come before!
3. Where did the inspiration come from?
(e.g. fact/fiction, reading, personal interest/passion, a story someone told
you, personal experience).
Stitch was inspired by a combination of books, movies, TV
shows and personal interests, so there’s a little bit of a lot of things in
there! I love long, immersive
sci-fi/fantasy series, so I knew off the bat that I wanted it to be a trilogy,
and I decided to just take elements that I loved from other stories and see if
I could combine them all into one and see if I could find a way to make it all
make sense. So there’s the paranormal
romance element – with a ghost (instead of a vampire/werewolf) since I’ve
always been fascinated by ghosts – plus a dystopian society (I just can’t get
enough dystopian!), a little spacetime physics, a lot of suspense, a crazy
twist, an intricate conspiracy, strong female leads, you name it! Stitch is a mash-up of a lot of great stuff
which I think came together nicely to create something a little different. :-)
4. Is there a little of yourself in any of
your characters? If so, who?
Absolutely. For most
of my characters, and particularly Alessa, I just tried to put myself in their
shoes and think about how I would react to their situation. (Since Stitch was my first book, I figured
that’d be easier than trying to figure out how someone else would react!) I wanted my characters to be realistic and
normal and relatable, not the crazy extremes you see so often in a lot of
fictional characters.
5. What do you do to relax?
Read! What else? Haha.
6. What do you think is the greatest
challenge about being an independent author?
The greatest challenge is just going it alone.
I’m a brand new author, and I’ll be the first
to admit that I have no idea what I’m doing.
Luckily, I have a supportive network of family and friends (and new
blogger friends!) who have been INCREDIBLY helpful every step of the way, from
helping me edit and proofread to critiquing cover designs to getting the word
out about Stitch.
I’ve made abundant use
of resources on the internet for independent authors (and even started compiling
some of my own
on my website, since I’m so grateful to the people who took the time to do this
before me!) and just have tried not to be shy about asking people for their
help with promoting the book.
So far
it’s been quite an adventure!
7. What advice would you give to aspiring
indie authors?
Don’t give up! It’s
easy to lose confidence after a couple rejections or less-than-stellar reviews
when you don’t have a team of trusted professionals (agent, editor, publisher,
etc.) behind you reminding you that you’ve done something great. But just remember that if you’ve written
something you love, other people are sure to love it too, so just be persistent
in getting it in front of as many readers as possible. And don’t be afraid to ask for help! There are TONS of amazing people out there
who want to see you succeed, so you just need to seek them out and ask for
their assistance. This blog tour has
really reaffirmed the overall goodness of people for me – everyone has been so
incredibly supportive and helpful, and I feel very lucky to have made the
contacts I have. And I just found all
these great blogs from searching online and reaching out to them! So you can do it, too.
8. What do you enjoy most/least about
writing?
What I love most about writing is having the freedom to
create any world I want and share that world with readers. It’s so exciting to see other people getting
into this place and these characters that I made up – it’s just so much fun!
As for what I like least,
I’d have to say it’s the flipside of what I love most. Sharing your work with the world is opening
yourself up to criticism and (especially on the internet) ridicule, and it’s impossible for everyone who reads your
book to like it (just look at the reviews on any of the classics!). So those negative comments are going to come
whether you like it or not, and you just have to be prepared to learn what you
can from them and not let them overshadow all the positive.
9. Do other authors inspire your writing?
If so, how?
Oh, yes! I absolutely
love to read, and getting so much enjoyment from the work of so many other
authors is what inspired me to write in the first place. Other authors continually impress me with
their creativity and their way with words and their dedication to helping other
authors succeed, so I am constantly getting inspired every time I read!
10. What is your favorite book? Why?
I don’t think I can pick one favorite! But I’ve read Pride and Prejudice more times
than any other book, and I love it more every time I pick it up, so I have to
go with that one. Jane Austen just
really knows how to charm me!
11. Anything specific you want the readers
to know about you and/or your book?
I just want to say THANK YOU to everyone who has read Stitch
and recommended it to their friends and left a review online – you can’t even
know how much those things mean to me, and how incredibly important they are to
helping Stitch succeed! So thank you for
all your support! And I’m absolutely reading all your feedback and
incorporating it into my plans for Book 2, so keep the ideas coming!
Just for fun:
a. Plotter or pantser? Plotter. I’m definitely not a “by the seat of my
pants” kind of gal – I have a plan for everything!
b. Summer or winter? Summer! I love to be outside in the sun and swim and
hike.
c. Beach or mountains? Can’t I have
both?
d. Morning person or night owl? Morning. I feel so productive when I get things done
early!
e. Chocolate or vanilla? Vanilla ice
cream with chocolate magic shell, yummm.
f. Favorite food? Cheese. I never met a cheese I didn’t like!
g. Favorite TV show? The Vampire
Diaries. I can’t get enough.
Please include
whatever links you want:
Smashwords
(multiple e-book formats $2.99)
Also available in the iTunes store ($2.99 e-book)
What a great interview! Thank you, Samantha for joining us today :) If you missed my review of Stitch on Monday, I encourage you to take a look here. I hope everyone is adding Stitch to their library right now, if not, you should. You're totally missing out right now. Also, don't forget to stop back Friday and enter the giveaway for a copy of Stitch!
