Like You’ve Never Been Hurt (Dance, Love, Live #2) by Jaime Samms
Dreamspinner Press

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Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words is happy to have Jaime Samms here today to talk about inspiration, writing and the release, Like You’ve Never Been Hurt.  Welcome, Jaime.

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1. Where do you normally draw your inspiration for a book from?  A memory, a myth, a place or journey, or something far more personal?

 A lot of the time, an inspiration for a book can be something as simple as a scene I see during a drive, or something I overhear at the mall or a picture I see somewhere. Since I’m very much a pantzer, all it takes is a visual cue or a line of dialogue to spark that thing in me that makes me decide I have to write about it. The story grows organically out of that. These latest dance books are a little more personal, since my daughter is, and always has been, a dancer. Now that she is rapidly nearing the age when she will have to be moving to a bigger city to pursue her dream, I guess I needed to explore that dream in my own way. It got me thinking about a life in dance, and then the stories began to take shape, and here we are now!

2. Are you a planner or a pantzer when writing a story? And  why?

Definitely a pantzer all the way. The why is probably because for me, writing a story is much like reading one in some ways. I enjoy the journey. I want to find out what’s going to happen as much as the next guy. So unveiling the characters and story as I go is fun. Sometimes, even after so many stories, I still have to push myself past the point where I know how it ends, just to get the writing part done. It can be a struggle not to heed the siren call of a new story at that point!

3. Contemporary, supernatural, fantasy, or science fiction narratives or something else?  Does any genre draw you more than another when writing it or reading it and why does it do so?

I grew up on fantasy sprinkled with science fiction here and there. I like paranormal now, and confess to being a bit more drawn to anything that has a heaping side helping of plot alongside the romance when I read. I shy away from writing stuff like that just because I’m not convinced I have the chops to hold up to some of my very favorite authors of the non-romance genres. 

4. If you had a character you’ve written you would write differently now at this time in your writing career, who would it be and why?

Since the vast bulk of my story writing is character driven, I really don’t think there is a way to write any of my characters differently and still be writing the same story about the same guy, if that makes sense. The story is their journey to being the different person. If I could change some aspects of a story? I might do some beefing up of the peripheral story in Patchwork Heaven. Gregor was a challenge to write and I question if his story was told to best effect. I wouldn’t change Gregor. I would change how I related his story.

5. Can an author have favorites among their characters and do you have them?

I’m sure it happens. Honestly, if anyone is my favourite, it is probable whatever character I happen to be writing at the time. They are all different, and like kids or pets, you love them all for themselves. When your focus is on them, in that moment, they are the world. But they are not the universe.

6. If you were to be stranded on a small demi-planet, island, or god forbid LaGuardia in a snow storm, what books would you take to read or authors on your comfort list?

 I have such a long list of to-be-reads that as long as I have access to electricity, and my phone, I can read just about anything I’m in the mood for. I just have a ton of unread e-books.

7. How early in your life did you begin writing?

 I don’t remember ever not having stories happening in my head. Writing them down came in about elementary school, probably. Letting other people read them was a slower, more selective process. In fact, I know exactly where all that early writing is, still in my parents’ house and have been waiting for the time when I can sneak it all out without anyone noticing so they don’t ask what it is. It really isn’t fit to be read. By anyone.

8. Were you an early reader or were you read to and what childhood books had an impact on you as a child that you remember to this day and why?

I read early on. I don’t remember anyone reading to me, though I do remember reading to my little brother. Some of my very favorite kids books:

https://www.amazon.ca/Tigers-cellar-Carol-Fenner/dp/B0006AYF5K

http://www.amazon.com/Danny-Dinosaur-Syd-Hoff/dp/0064440028

https://www.amazon.ca/Big-Max-Kin-Platt/dp/0064440060

https://www.amazon.ca/Alligator-Pie-Classic-Edition-Dennis/dp/1443411515

So yeah. Fantastical imagination has always been the way it was going for me, so no wonder as I got older, I moved on to Tolkien and Tad Williams and Terry Brooks. It was inevitable.

9. If you were writing your life as a romance novel, what would the title be?

I have never been good at titles, but…something along the lines of Never Settle. I made good decision in the end, and have a great family. But it was touch and go there for a little while!