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Corks & Conversation with Samantha Downing

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In this week’s Corks & Conversation with Samantha Downing, we talked with the best-selling author of My Lovely Wife about her latest novel, For Your Own Good. Have a listen …

Samantha Downing is a bestselling author who joined us from New Orleans! We had to postpone our recording from earlier this season because of Hurricane Ida. Thankfully, Samantha’s home survived the storm and after a few weeks without power and internet, things are back to normal. As normal as things are these days! 

We shared a wine that seemed appropriate for the experience, a red wine called Rough Day. This theme also spills over to her diabolical characters, which is a good thing for dark and twisty thrillers! Her latest book, For Your Own Good, takes place in an elite private school. Not much wine drinking but the coffee can kill you! And it’s a perfect setting for a thriller, because as Samantha puts it,

“It’s the great thing about setting a book in high school: we’ve all been in it, and we’ve all, even if you didn’t go to a private high school, had a high school experience and you may have kids who are now in high school”

For Your Own Good is another of her “stay up all night” reading books! We aren’t the only ones who think so. It has been optioned by Robert Downey, Jr and Greg Berlanti for HBO Max! Get a copy of this page-turner book (indie bookshop.org or Amazon.com) and enjoy!  When we asked about how much she plans her plots, she said not at all! She describes her process,

“I start with a character; like in this one I knew it was going to be a bad teacher. That’s all I knew. I didn’t know anything else. And then I just go. The first chapter is really when the first decisions are made. And the more chapters you write the more decisions that are made and it just goes from there”

While this process has worked to produce some great novels, she admits that the plot doesn’t always come together.

“At the 20,000 word mark, I know whether I have a story that can carry on for another 65,000 words or whether the story just isn’t big enough. Sometimes it’s just not there, it’s just a smaller story. And sometimes I just get bored at the 20,000 word mark- I’m not into it, I personally am not into it- and I’ll throw it out. So I throw out that stuff all the time”

Samantha loves to write and she edits along the way. Because, for her, the creating part is more fun than the rewriting. However she does it, we look forward to her next novel!

Some highlights from the Episode:

3:55 When Hurricane Ida hit
5:15 It all started with the idea of bad teacher
8:30 You’ll never think about coffee pods the same way
10:54 The effects adults have on children is a theme that shows up in all her books
15:22 Why The Shining and The Exorcist are just too scary
18:08 Why the Domestic Thriller is her perfect genre

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