Author Interview: Samantha Hardin

Hello everyone! Welcome back to another Author Interview. I'm really happy that I get to speak to so many other authors via this platform, and this week I'm delighted to be speaking to teacher and author, Samantha Hardin.

Samantha's links:

Amazon

Twitter

Website

Hello Samantha! Thank you for offering to take part in today’s interview. For those who are being introduced to you for the first time, would you like to start off by telling us a little bit about yourself? Hi! I'm 25 years old and I teach fourth-grade language arts in Ohio, USA. I'm married and I have a six-month-old son and two adorable cats. I've always loved to read and write and the earliest memory I have of writing is around second grade writing a story called The Wild and Crazy Animals. Since then, I haven't stopped. Would you like to tell us about your published works, both the tales of Zertle the Crime-Fighting Turtle and Brewed with Love? Zertle came to me one night lying in bed. At first, it was just a silly idea, but then I decided to run with it. In the book, you join Zertle as he tries to solve the mystery of who stole the pumpkin from the patch. You are given 3 suspects and throughout the story, you find 3 clues. Then you help Zertle match the clues to the suspects to solve the mystery. There is a sequel as well, called "Zertle the Crime-Fighting Turtle: The Tale of the Snail Mail" where you help Zertle find out who stole the mailbag and why. As for Brewed with Love, I'm not entirely sure what inspired me to write it. The premise is that Julie and Derek are set to get married, but Julie leaves Derek at the altar. The story picks up two years later and we see what they are up to now. Here's a tease: An unexpected encounter on the 2 year anniversary of her jilted wedding sends Julie headlong into a romance that will have surprising connections to her former love. Meanwhile, Derek’s relationship flourishes as he comes to terms with his traumatic romantic past. It’s quite a difference going from writing about Zertle the Turtle, to an adult romance novel in Brewed with Love. How did you find the transition? Honestly, I write a lot of different age ranges. The transition isn't too bad. I teach, so my brain is pretty wired to be able to focus on a lot of different things at once. How have you found the publishing process on your works so far? Was there anything that you would do differently if you could go back? So far, I have only published through Createspace/Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP). They switched from Createspace to KDP between my publishing of the two Zertle books, so there was a bit of a learning curve switching to the new system. Overall though, I enjoy working on that platform. I'm working on something right now though that I am currently querying to agents, so I'm excited to see what that process looks like. I notice that the second Zertle story was also worked on by your husband. How did you find that experience of working together? ​It was great! He has strengths where I have weaknesses so we balance each other out. ​ Has the experience of teaching helped you with the children’s stories? ​With Zertle, not as much. I've taught kids in the 10-12 years old age range so they don't help too much with younger children's stories. However, I have a huge extended family and have been around young kids my whole life. My current project, however, has definitely been helped by teaching kids in the upper elementary/middle school range. Are there any characters in literature that fallen in love with over the years?  I was pretty in love with Jesse Tuck from Tuck Everlasting when I was around fourteen years old. Do you have a favourite book (besides your own of course)? ​Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt. When I was in eighth grade I read the entire book every day for a week. In total, I've probably read it close to a dozen times. Are there any fun facts we should know about Samantha Hardin? ​I once got grounded as a kid because I was ignoring my chores and reading Nancy Drew books instead. I believe I read about 40 books that summer. And lastly, would you like to tease us with what to expect from you in the coming year? ​I'm currently working on three projects actually. Each one is a different age range. One is called The Cowardly T-Rex and is a children's book about how to be brave. The second is a New Adult contemporary story called Adulthood University about a girl named Dani and the trials college brings. Finally, the third is the book I have been teasing above. It's a middle-grade novel called Time-Turners: A Revolution in Time which follows two twins who gain the ability to time travel and go back to visit the American Revolution.