The Interview - Maximilian Sam

To date, what is your favorite (or most difficult) chapter you have ever written?

One of my short stories from Stories From A Stray is a final farewell to a friend who passed away. I had to give it to someone else to edit. It was far too personal and emotional to do myself. I'm proud of how it came out. It's a fitting tribute to a very special person.

Did you have any say in the cover design?

I've had a large role in all my book covers. Indeed, the latest actually has me on the cover! For "It's A Stray Dog's Life" my friend took my concept and made it amazing. It certainly worked as we won an award for the cover design.

What can we anticipate from you moving forward?

There's a lot in the pipeline. I've even had people ask me to write certain genres of book. I'm also working on one that I feel I was destined to write. You'll have to wait and see what all the books are when we announce them!

Did you always want to be an author? If not, what did you want to be when you grew up?

Part of me certainly did. I remember my 4th birthday party where a children's author came along and did a whole puppet show with the characters. I was also lucky to grow up surrounded by books. In many ways, there was no way i was escaping the clutches of being an author.

How long did it take you to write this book?

The first book took about 6 months. The second 6 weeks. Once I'd defined my formula, the rest fell into place.

What other hobbies do you have outside of writing?

As well as being an author I'm a qualified Rugby Union referee and a RYA Coastal Skipper. That's when I have time to run around a rugby pitch or jump on a boat to go sailing. Looking after the stray animals takes up a lot of time!

Are any of the characters in your book based on people in your real life? If so, can you tell us more about that process and how it influenced your writing?

All the stray dogs in my books are based on the real animals I look after. I spend many hours watching them and laughing at the crazy antics they get up to. The process started with the first stray dog I took in. She was so well looked after she even had a tent in the garden with her bed inside. One day I received a knock on the door. A neighbour told me she'd been run over and killed. It was strange as I felt certain i could hear her barking. To escape the grief, I sat on the beach and wrote her a long letter. A few days later she came back home. She had been hit by a car and needed some help from the vet to recover for a few days. The car needed more than that! I took the letter and adapted it to make the first section of my first book. Writing about the other individual dogs flowed from there. From grief for a stray dog came my first, award-winning, book!