Interview with Samantha Young

Hey all you readers and writers! Emma Michaels here to introduce our guest author of the day:

Samantha Young!

Hello Samantha and welcome to The Writers Voice!

Who do you feel is your most relatable character to readers?

Despite the mythological context of her bigger plight, I really feel Ari from my upcoming series, Fire Spirits, is the most relatable of all my characters. In Smokeless Fire she is just turning eighteen and she has all of these life-changing decisions in front of her – what college to go to, what career path to concentrate on. She’s confused about what she wants out of life and feels alone because of it. But I think a lot of teens feel overwhelmed by these huge decisions that are expected of them at what really is a young and inexperienced age. Not only that, Ari has trouble letting go of certain elements of her teen life and again I think a lot of teens go through this emotional transition.

Are the traits of anyone close to you apparent in your characters?

My whole family is extremely sarcastic… if you didn’t learn from birth to arm yourself with quick wit and wicked sense of irony you were going down, lol. I think this comes out in almost all of my books - that kind of banter and teasing between characters, just because it’s what I’m used to with not only family but with my friends.

Who do you feel is your most unique character?

My most unique character is definitely Ari from Smokeless Fire. I don’t think I’ve come across anyone like her in any of the YA books before. She’s part of a mythology and religion that hasn’t been touched on (as far as I’m aware) and I’m really looking forward to my readers’ response to her.

What are your favorite song lyrics?

My favorite lyrics as a teen (I was a slightly brooding teen and loved anything that was of the ‘beautiful dark’) are lyrics from Silverchair’s song ‘After All These Years’ – “Every father’s pain casts a shadow over a broken son”. Very dark and melancholy, but I know them to be heartbreakingly true and those lyrics have always sat with me. On a funnier note I love the lyrics from the Kaiser Chiefs’ song ‘Ruby’ – “Due to lack of interest, tomorrow has been cancelled.’ Hehe, love it.

Do you have a playlist for each of your novels? If not, can you think of a few relevant songs?

I do have playlists for most of my novels. For The Tale of Lunarmorte trilogy, the ‘theme’ song has been Cosmic Love by Florence and the Machine since the album release in 2009. I cannot hear that song without thinking about Caia and Lucien. On the Fire Spirits soundtrack, Adele’s ‘Set Fire to the Rain’ is the ‘theme’ song and again… can’t hear it without thinking about Ari. It was such an inspiration when I was writing Smokeless Fire.

If you could have any extraordinary gift or super power what would it be and why?

I think I’d be a shapeshifter. You could see the world from every point of view that way.

To all our readers out there, thank you for following The Writers Voice and happy reading!