Author Intrusion

I'm Glad You Came By!

READING GROUPS     APPEARANCES

Come see us:  Friday, May 16, 5 - 9 p.m., Joseph Beth Booksellers in Lexington, KY. Saturday, May 17, 11 a.m. - 1 p.m. at Lifeway in Lexington.

Welcome to the website of writer Lisa Samson. Thanks for taking the time to visit.

A little while ago, my publisher asked me a question. He told me not to sit and think about it. "Give me your first response."

"All right." To be honest, I was a little nervous. I'm one of those people who won't answer in church unless I know it's the right one. Usually "Jesus" works a good fifty percent of the time!

"Why do you write?"

"So that people will know they're not alone."

The words popped out before my brain really had time to figure out the answer, as if they'd been sitting underneath the tip of my tongue for years.

When readers grace me with their letters and emails, many of them will say, "You say the things I think but don't want to admit out loud." Or, "I've been asking the same questions for years now."

You see, I don't write because I have all the answers. I write to ask questions, and I know they are the same questions a lot of you are asking. (I'm not that unique!) So I think of my books as a conversation between me and you as we experience the lives of my characters and go through the waters of conflict and the fires of trial with them. If we can both walk away with the need to love God, our families, our friends, our community and our world a little more, I rejoice.

God's peace be with you.

lisa

ps: To sign up for my occasional newsletter, email me at lesamson@hotmail.com and put "newsletter" in the subject line!  You can also find me on facebook.

Quaker Summer and Hollywood Nobody Nominated for Christy Award

Quaker Summer is a nominee in the Contemporary category for a Christy Award, and Hollywood Nobody has been nominated for YA (young adult). The Christy Award recognizes excellence in Christian Fiction and I'm honored to be among the nominees.

Quaker Summer wins Christianity Today Book Award

I'm delighted to announce that Quaker Summer won Christianity Today's Book Award 2008 for fiction.  An unexpected honor indeed and one for which I'm most thankful!

Embrace Me

Lisa Samson is an artisan of hope.  Here is a book filled with beauty,  and also with truth... in a world that is starved for both. --Shane Claiborne  author, activist, and recovering sinner (thesimpleway.org).

Available now at Amazon, and on the New Fiction table at your local Barnes and Noble Booksellers.

Review in from Library Journal:

Samson, Lisa. Embrace Me. Thomas Nelson. Mar. 2008. c.320p. ISBN 978-1-59554-210-6. pap. $14.99. CF

Unlikely best friends Valentine and Lella, one scarred horribly and the other a multiple amputee, make ends meet by working in the Roland Wayfaring Marvels and Oddities show, always conscious that they are different from "regular people." Samson's compelling tale of their quest to make sense of their own little world and their need for love and acceptance will stay with the reader long after finishing the novel. This is truly grown-up inspirational fiction with unusual, complex characters; the publisher compares it to Sara Gruen's Water for Elephants. Highly recommended for all collections. Christy Award winner Samson (Songbird) lives in Kentucky.

 

Bella

I'm pleased to officially announce that I'm in the process of writing the novelization of the award-winning movie Bella. I was contacted by Thomas Nelson earlier this past autumn and plans were finalized in December. Working from the screenplay by Leo Severino and Alejandro Monteverde and painstakingly watching the film itself has been a unique process for me, but one I am enjoying. Bella is life-affirming, filled with faith, hope and love.

Preorder here! Releases in May.

Finding Hollywood Nobody

Finding Hollywood Nobody -- book two in the Hollywood Nobody series, is available for preorder on Amazon. Releases February 15th.

Link: Amazon.com: Finding Hollywood Nobody: Books: Lisa Samson.

For fifteen-year-old Scotty Dawn, life is starting to resemble a movie. After learning that her movie-industry mom is actually her grandmother, Scotty receives more shocking news: Her father was killed by the mob. With his murderer still at large, Scotty hides out on a film set in Texas. There she encounters old rivals, new friends, and a young girl caught in a desperate situation. But in the middle of her fears and intense loneliness, Scotty discovers the life-changing power of prayer.

Quaker Summer makes PW's Best Books of the Year for 2007

I'm in a bit of shock, folks. This is amazing. God's clearly still in the miracle business!

Link: PW's Best Books of the Year - 11/5/2007 - Publishers Weekly.

It's the end of the year—almost. A time for reflection, before the resolutions of 2008 send us all scrambling once again. So what did we read this year that kept us up at night, broke our hearts, opened our minds, made us fall in love? Three thousand books are published daily in the U.S., and PW reviewed more than 6,000 of them in 2007, in print and online. From that astounding number, we've culled a best books list covering our favorites in fiction, poetry, nonfiction, comics, religion, lifestyle and children's—150 in all.

Great Review of Hollywood Nobody!

Other reviews:

Tina at Tree Swing Reading.

Deena at A Peek At My Bookshelf.

Shauna at Shaunarumbling.

Link: TitleTrakk.com: Books: Book Reviews: Hollywood Nobody by Lisa Samson.

Hollywood Nobody by Lisa Samson

Reviewed by Darcie Gudger

Where were books like this fifteen years ago when I was a teen? Sweet Valley High and saccharine Christian YA made my stomach lurch and my mind long for characters I could relate to. Good thing I had an imaginary friend…

Teens of today, don’t despair! Authors Melody Carlson, Jenny B. Jones and now Lisa Samson are cranking out the books I only dreamed of reading.

Hollywood Nobody

Hollywood Nobody, my first YA book and the first book in the Hollywood Nobody series from NavPress has recently released.  Join Francis Scott Fitzgerald Dawn, "Scotty," as she travels around from movie set to movie set with her food stylist mother. Something's always happening around the old Travco RV they call home.

Back Cover Copy:

Most teens would envy Scotty's life, traveling to film sets, rubbing elbows with the hottest stars. But playing sidekick to her flighty "movie food-stylist" mother, Charley, makes the 15-year-old long for a "normal" life---and ask tough questions. Who is her father? Why is Charley receiving mysterious phone calls? A funny, street-smart coming-of-age story!

Justice in the Burbs

We're so excited here. Justice in the Burbs released August 1st! Will's first book, my first involvement with non-fiction, and we're wondering what God will do with it. What people will do with it. Our prayer is that so many people will see Jesus standing in front of them, whether it's the person serving who's giving the Savior food, of the person being served, seeing Jesus in the eyes of the person who's come to help.

If you're excited about the book and you blog, would you mind letting your readers know about it today? Amazon link here. And youtube video link here. We own the copyrights to the video so please feel more than free to embed it in your blog if you so choose.

 

Also, if this is something you think your church would like to do in small groups or studies, email us with your address and we'll send you the two-chapter sample booklet and a DVD of the promotional video so you can pass it on to the decision makers. If that happens to be you, don't get out of breath passing it from one hand to the other!

Thanks so much!

will and lisa

"Will and Lisa have joined talents to offer a compelling argument for living justly in an unjust world, and for loving our neighbors in a hands-on, life-changing way." LIZ CURTIS HIGGS, author, Bad Girls of the Bible.

"Whatever happened to the vital social and moral energies of the Christian faith? They are alive and throbbin in this book that shows how the gospel can walk the missing sidewalks and unfriendly cul-de-sacs of the suburbs." LEONARD SWEET, Drew Theological School, George Fox University.

"Will and Lisa are provocateurs of imagination, writing for a desert where folks are thristy for more than the American dream. This is a much-needed invitation for justice to flow throught the suburbs liek mighty waters and bring to life all the parched souls trapped in the ghettos of poverty and wealth." SHANE CLAIBORNE, activist, author, The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical.

"Will and Lisa Samson's new book, Justice in the Burbs, is a moving book. I wept with joy, knowing how many people will be moved to join the work for justice God has already begun in the world."    CHRISTIAN SCHAREN, author, One Step Closer: Why U2 Matters to Those Seeking God.

The Justice in the Burbs blog will be updated regularly with thoughts and ideas for those seeking to engage in the world around them for the sake of others and in the name of Jesus.

Quaker Summer

Quaker Summer

Women of Faith's Novel of the Year, and August's WOF Book Club selection. Find out more here! Great interview there too.

From the Back Cover:

Every year I think there must be more to life, and every year, despite a new car or a trip to a new land, new milestones and triumphs in my son's life, or a redone deck, a pool, a spa, or entertainment system, I take stock and think once again, I was made for more than this. But I love my stuff.

Heather Curridge is coming unhinged. And people are starting to notice. What's wrong with a woman who has everything--a mansion on a lake, a loving son, a heart-surgeon husband, and soapstone countertops--yet still feels miserable inside?

Yet when Heather spends the summer with two ancient Quaker sisters and a crusty nun in a downtown homeless shelter, she suddenly finds herself at a crossroads.

Sometimes you have to go a little bit crazy to find the life you were meant to live.

Inside scoop: People ask me frequently if there's a theme to my using a kangaroo as a device to shift Heather's gears. My answer? Sometimes God is in the machine. I try not to rely too heavily on such devices in my writing, but follow Jesus for long and you'll know that God really does send some strange things our way to capture our attention. (If you ever take me out for a cup of coffee, in exchange, I'll tell you "the peacock story" that happened in my own life.) However, the kangaroo, as far-fetched as it seems came from something I'd read in the paper years before. In the upper mid-west, a woman found a kangaroo in her barn. Apparently, the beastie was being transferred to a zoo and he escaped. He was on the loose for several days before finally ending up in the barn. See? It could happen!

From Publishers Weekly
  Starred Review. One of the most powerful voices in Christian fiction, Samson delivers what seems, on the surface, to be just another Christian women's novel, but in reality is a staggering examination of the Christian conscience. Like most Samson heroines, Heather Curridge is a woman in crisis. Outwardly, her life seems idyllic: she has an unusually handsome, successful and loving husband, a child she adores and the most beautiful home she could imagine. Inwardly, however, she is falling apart, overcome by the idea that this comfortable, affluent life is keeping her from God's will. With the help of several older, wiser Christians, her patient family and her two best friends, Heather comes to some painful conclusions about her past and future. Samson's unflinching exploration of childhood bullying, as well as inner-city poverty and drug culture, are rivaled only by her portrayal of the soul-desiccating acquisitiveness in which many Christians engage, often in a misguided attempt to numb both their heartache and their awareness of God's potentially life-upending plans. Unlike many Christian novelists, Samson does not tidily resolve every single problem her heroine faces, but instead paints an emotionally and spiritually luminous portrait of a soul beckoned by God. (Mar.)
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