Samhain Publishing Ltd Weblog

An Interview with Samhain's Executive Editor Laurie Rauch.

Several weeks ago, many of the Samhain editors spent time at Hilton Head with Crissy Brashear and the main office staff. While the editors have spent years getting to know each other on the editor loop and in small groups at conventions, this was a wonderful opportunity for us to meet and spend time together in person. I can’t tell you how good it was to get to know everyone a little bit better. To further that fun, I’m on a quest to interview all the editors at Samhain (and, as a warning to Marty, Marty also!) over the next year or so.

For the first interview of many, I’d like to welcome Samhain Publishing’s Executive Editor Laurie Rauch.

Bethany: What books have most influenced your life?
Laurie: Books in general have had a huge influence on my life. I’ve always been a bookworm, so books have always been a big part of what I do and who I am. That being said, there are books that have made an impact on my life—like the one (Careers for Bookworms) that helped me realize where my career path should go, and books that stay with me years and years after I read them or that I can go back to again and again and I’ll love them just as much as I did the first time—like the Anne of Green Gables series, the Harry Potter series, Robert Munsch’s The Paper Bag Princess, the…well, I could go on for hours.

Bethany: What book are you reading now?
Laurie: I don’t have as much time as I wish I did to read for pleasure anymore, almost all of my reading is work-related, and lately I’ve had a tendency to start books and wander away halfway through, though I usually go back to them eventually. Right now, I’m in the middle of Karen Rose’s Have You Seen Her and Elle Kennedy’s Silent Watch and I expect I’ll reread the Twilight series after I see New Moon later this month. I’m also trying to block a day into my schedule to read P.C. and Kristin Cast’s Tempted, which I’ve been dying to read, and I know I won’t be able to put down if it grabs me like the other books in the series did.

Bethany: Are there any new authors who have grabbed your interest?
Laurie: I met Leanna Renee Hieber recently at the NJRW conference, and we had a great old time geeking out together, so I’m really looking forward to her new book The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker, which is tempting me from my TBR pile. I also recently discovered Richelle Mead’s Vampire Academy series (I seem to be on a serious YA vampire kick these days), and I’ll be looking for more of her backlist to read.

And of course I’m always looking for new authors in my submissions folder…

Bethany: What are your current projects?
Laurie: I’m working on some really cool projects. We’re going to be re-releasing Theresa Weir’s Bad Karma in Spring 2010, which I’m very excited about. I’m also working on The Sexorcist, the third book in Vivi Andrews’s Karmic Consultants series and Serengeti Storm, the second book in her Serengeti Shifters series, the next three books in Charlene Teglia’s Take Me Lover series, Roxy Harte’s Heart of Change, which is my first F/F book, and Beth Kery’s new series, Princes of the Underground, will be launching in the spring. And, oh, I have so many more that I can’t wait to share with our readers, and not nearly enough room to list them all. But keep an eye on our coming soon pages, because they’re going to be great.

Bethany: Who is your favorite author and what is it that really strikes you about her work?
Laurie: I think I need to go back to the first author whose backlist I read all of after reading the first book—L.M. Montgomery. Anne was created over a century ago, and yet, I love her just as much today as I did when I was ten. I love that her books and her message is timeless, and yet, still able to pull me back to a totally different world every time I turn the page.

Bethany: What would you say is your biggest pet peeve while editing?
Laurie: From a grammar perspective—the rampant misuse of the apostrophe, using that when you mean who, and ‘unnecessary quotation marks’ (yes, that was intentional. ;) ).
Bethany: I will blank out my use of ‘that’ rather than ‘who’ in my interview questions..it was late…and dark…

Bethany: What would you like to say to any aspiring writers out there?
Laurie: Read. Read a lot. If you’re targeting a specific publisher, know what kind of books they publish. Study their backlist and their submissions guidelines. Then you can be sure that you’re putting your book in the right home.

And, when you’re working on your book, remember that the story is the most important thing. We need a plot that’s going to carry us through a couple of hundred pages. We need conflict and motivation for why your characters do what they do and want what they want. And at the end, if you can make your reader sigh and feel like they just went through heaven and hell to get the happily ever after, send it to me. ☺

Bethany: Where do you think e-publishing will be 5 years from now? 10?
Laurie: I think e-publishing will be much bigger and wider spread in five years, and within ten years, my hope is that there won’t be the big divide any longer of e vs traditional, there will just be publishing. Everyone’s goal is the same—to release great stories to entertain or inform—so if the content is the end goal, it’s not going to matter how that content is delivered.

Bethany: Who is your favorite editor—careful, this is a trick question…LOL.
Laurie: I think all of the Samhain editors rock. ☺
Bethany: Darn, thought I’d slip that in… ☺

Okay, now for the Lightning Round—

Bethany: Favorite Ice Cream?
Laurie: Turtles. Or anything involving chocolate and black cherries.
Bethany: I’m going to keep my mind on ice cream and think of caramel, pecans, chocolate fudge and vanilla ice cream and not…um…sea turtles.
Laurie: Um…yeah.

Bethany: Favorite Song?
Laurie: Let’s go favorite band—Hedley. Jacob Hoggard can sing me the phone book, and I’ll listen.

Bethany: Steak or Chicken?
Laurie: Chicken.

Bethany: Mountains or Ocean?
Laurie: Ocean. I’m a Scorpio… I need the water.

Bethany: Supernatural or Ghost Hunters?
Laurie: Supernatural. Sam…and Dean. Yummy.

Bethany: Why couldn’t Gandalf, as a wizard, just use some magic to kill all the orcs?
Laurie: Oh, now you’re going to out me… I’ve never read any of the Lord of the Rings books. Or seen any of the movies. But that makes sense…why couldn’t he?

Laurie, thank you once again for agreeing to today’s interview. I really appreciate it. Laurie can be found blogging at: link .