LAKEWATER HOLIDAY BLOG: Samantha Alban

​For the holiday season, we at Lakewater Press thought it would be a good time to share who we are with a little holiday blog hop.

Between December 1 and the 24th we’ll share holiday interviews with our authors and the Lakewater Press staff. It’s an excellent opportunity for us to get to know each other a little better, and to give our readers a peek behind the scenes–or pages!

Perhaps you’ll even find a new blog to follow, or your next favorite book!
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(Be sure to read all the way to the bottom for our holiday giveaway!!)


Today’s interviewee:

​Name and LWP affiliation: Samantha Alban, Staff (Assistant Editor)

Your blog (url): www.scalban.wordpress.com

Where do you live? Sonoma County, California

What are your chances of having snow on Christmas Day? Most likely 0%, but who knows…this year has been full of weather surprises!

Do you have any favorite holiday traditions? I love setting up the train around my Christmas tree. Last year I even bought liquid smoke for it! I was heartbroken when it broke down and I spent days trying to troubleshoot and fix the problem. After the fourth (I think) day, I finally got it working! I was so excited, I totally forgot about the liquid smoke and didn’t even find the bottle until after I had taken it down for the year. So this year, it’s all about getting that train running WITH the liquid smoke ?

Eggnog: Yes or No? YES!!!! (but, I drink Coconut Milk “Egg” Nog).
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Are you an artistic gift wrapper or a basic “paper & tape” warrior? Nothing says a traditional
Christmas like brown wrapping with a simple red bow. I call it “simple chic.”

Do you have any special holiday memories that include books? Are there any specific titles you remember? I always try to give a book to someone every holiday season. I could spend hours in a bookstore and even though books are available for purchase online, I still love walking into a decorated bookstore during the holiday season. And spending the time in the store, looking through all the titles and trying to find the perfect one for someone else to love and enjoy is something that I’ve always done and still love to do.

What is your earliest book-related memory? I grew up surrounded by books. I devoured them as a child. I had my own bookshelf since I can remember and it’s always been stuffed with books. I LOVED all my series books, as a child. In elementary school, I had all My Babysitter’s Club, my Nancy Drew’s, my Sweet Valley High’s, and all of my Christopher Pike’s and later on, all my King’s and Rice and Twain and Dicken’s books all along the shelves squeezed in between all my classics. My most favorite thing to do, after dusting my room (my most hated chore), was to take them all off the shelf and reorganize them. I know, mucho nerdy.

Do you write/work during the holidays? I write all year round, so yeah, I usually squeeze in a bit of time on a holiday.

Can you share what you’re working on now? I’d love to. Right now I have mucho projects, but I’m really excited about this YA magical realism I’m working on called THE MIRROR WALKER. It’s about this girl with a special ability to travel through mirrors to other worlds. (Ed. note: Samantha writes as S.C. Alban)
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What are your goals for 2018? Yikes, I’ve got so many! Let’s see…to publish Book 3 in The Strega Series (Death Before Dying), clean up my 2 YA novels for querying, find two amazing books I can suggest to the Lakewater Press list, tackle a new WIP I’ve been stewing on for a while, and snag agent representation (hey, dream big or go home, right?)

​Links to all the Lakewater Press participating blogs:

Barbara Quinn
Emma (E.L.) Wicker
James L. Weaver
Jodi Gallegos
Mia Kerick
Rebecca Carpenter
R.L. Martinez
Sam Boush
Samantha (S.C.) Alban
Sue Featherstone
Susan Pape
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Enter the Lakewater Press giveaway for your chance to win a book of your choice (5 winners to be selected):

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