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Our first question, slightly general, but it gives you a chance to tell us about your book and sell it to those who haven't read it yet. What inspired you to writing "Finding Sam"?
Two people inspired Finding Sam. John Legend and his song, All of Me and my late best friend Pam who lost her 2-year battle with ovarian cancer in 2010.
I first heard All of Me while stuck in downtown LA traffic. Running late for an evening gig, I remember asking myself if there was ever a man would ever love "all of" someone even with all her faults? When you're stuck in DTLA and you're running late for an appointment, it's easy to be negative. When I returned home at midnight that night (my gig ran from 6pm to 11pm), I was ashamed of asking such a negative question so I began writing the first chapter of Finding Sam which surprisingly starts with Sam's loss of her best friend Rosie.
I don't even know why I started the story that way but I'd realize later on that "Rosie" represented my best friend Pam whose last wish for me a week before she died was that she'd get to hold my first book in her hands. One of her final wishes was NOT to have a memorial and it devastated me because I really wanted to say goodbye to her in some way. But the absence of a memorial also became an ongoing honoring of her life because when I had secretly given up on my wish to become an author for ten years, she never did. She believed me always. So in many ways, Finding Sam is for her.
It's a beautiful way to honor someone and you've done a wonderful job with the book. Your friend, Pam, would for sure have loved it. Our next question is; What did you learn whilst writing this book? Did it impact you in any way after you have finished it?
Before Finding Sam, I'd never finished writing an original story. I never got to the end or even the middle of a story (with the exception of fan fiction which I wrote a lot of). I used to outline to the minute detail from beginning to end and then start writing. Usually I'd have a strong beginning but by the middle, I'd be bored of my story because I knew exactly what was going to happen based on the detailed outline I wrote. By then, I'd set it aside because there was nothing exciting about the story to write.
After all, I knew what was going to happen so where was the fun in the writing if I knew everything? Because Finding Sam was inspired by a song, writing the story meant that each day, I was learning something new. It felt like I was following Sam and Erik around with a notepad and pen and writing everything down as they went about their business. It was a lot of fun "knowing" only up to a certain point and letting the characters tell the story. When I finished Finding Sam, I knew then that I could write—and finish—any story I set my heart and mind to.
That is an interesting way to look at things. We're glad you decided to write and finish writing "Finding Sam" because it was a lovely read. One of our favorite characters in the book, after Olivia, is Sam herself. Tell us about Sam! How did you manage to build such a realistic character that was so natural in her own way? Was it just the song that inspired her or is there a real life person behind it?
