Get ready to learn more about the book Saving Sam in this discussion with sapphic author Lynnette Beers.
Join us for an exclusive peek behind the scenes as we quiz Lynnette Beers about Saving Sam, writing, reading, and more.
This book is part of the Dual Timeline category in the 2024 IHS Reading Challenge.
Why did you write Saving Sam?
This book started out as a short story focusing only on Sam as a child. As I started to write that story, I realized I’d created a character who was so sweet but someone who needed to be protected. I also wrote about the bond between Sam and her brother Robert. There are different types of love in this book, one being the love between Sam and her big brother. The story morphed into a much longer short story, and I eventually realized it should be a novel. I took the short story I’d written and started to build what turned out to be a puzzle. One day I had an “Aha!” moment when I realized the book needed to be about Sam as a child and Sam as an adult. I even took a narrative essay I’d written and turned that into the opening chapter. The idea to have the book be a dual timeline story came to me when I started to piece together the plot. It’s interesting to think about how this book is pieced together with what originally was a really long short story and a narrative essay. As I put those pieces together, I wrote other chapters to create the whole book.
Who is your favorite character in the book?
Sam is definitely my favorite character. Adult Sam is similar to me but only in some ways. For example, she’s really into the ocean and also wants to protect or save people. I’ve never saved anyone in the ocean, but while in the water, I’ve calmed down swimmers who are scared of big waves. When I was in my early twenties, I seriously thought about becoming an ocean lifeguard but decided against it because I didn’t think I had what it took to save swimmers in really rough surf. The ocean is a place that comforts Sam, which is the same for me. Many people know that I swim in the ocean every day from June through October. I sometimes go in the water during the colder months. I’m really into taking photos of waves with my GoPro, and now that I think about it, this would have been a cool thing for Sam to do in her spare time. 😉
What inspired the idea for Saving Sam?
This novel started out as a short story, which I’d titled “Snake House.” The story took place in Mississippi right next to the Okatoma Creek. Years ago, I went canoeing in this creek with a friend. For whatever reason, the memories of that creek stayed in my mind. I also recall my friend telling me about water moccasins, which are very dangerous snakes. Our canoe tipped over, and into the water we went! At the time, I was terrified of encountering one of those water moccasins. Fortunately, that never happened. For whatever reason, I came up with some very interesting ideas for a short story. The story ended up becoming a long short story, and then it was heading toward novella length. I put it aside for years because I didn’t know how the story would end. One day several years later, I was swimming in the ocean on what ended up being a red flag day. The lifeguard had left for the day, so I had no idea it was a red flag day because when the lifeguards pack up to go home, they take down the flag from the lifeguard tower. A red flag usually means STAY OUT OF THE WATER! While in the ocean that day, I nearly drowned. The waves were massive. Any time I managed to swim to the surface, another wave pounded me to the ocean floor. It was terrifying. After about half an hour of fighting the surf, I somehow managed to get out of the water. Shortly after that experience, I was at a writer’s workshop in Big Sur where I wrote a narrative essay about my near-drowning experience. A few months later, I decided to work on the Okatoma Creek story. I then had a brilliant idea: to use the narrative essay I’d written as the opening chapter of my novel. I changed the POV to third person, and instead of having it be me almost drowning, I changed it to Sam the lifeguard going out to save someone else from drowning. The changes worked so well, and it was then that I realized I had the pieces of a novel.
What was the biggest challenge writing this book?
One of the biggest challenges was making sure the dual timeline was fairly balanced. There’s always a risk of a dual timeline not working because older scenes, which some people might call flashbacks, might pull the reader out of the story. Part of this challenge was to make sure certain details in the scenes when Sam is a child would fit with the scenes when Sam is an adult. Balancing the scenes of Sam as a child and Sam as an adult also meant I needed to make sure adult Sam was the same person as child Sam.
How did you come up with the title for your book?
It took me a while to come up with the title, ‘Saving Sam.’ For a long time, the book was titled ‘Snake House,’ but that title didn’t feel right once the overall story morphed into what it is now. Since Sam is a lifeguard, she saves people. She’s fearless as she goes into the rough surf to pull swimmers to safety, but there are times when she needs to be protected and saved. And I don’t mean in the ocean. Some of the scenes when Sam is a child are very special; they show the close bond Sam and her brother Robert have. In the scenes when Sam is a child, it is made very apparent that Robert will do anything to protect her and save her.
How much research did you need to do for Saving Sam?
I enjoy doing research for my novels. With this book, I spoke to lifeguards to make sure my details about rescuing swimmers were accurate. Some of the lifeguards showed me how to rescue someone. One of the guards even put a red rescue tube around me and showed me how to safely pull a swimmer out of rough surf. I also talked to a few close friends who are nurses to make sure I got all of the hospital scenes right. In the book, Sam’s brother Robert collects snakes and lizards, so I did a lot of online research, but I also went to the San Diego Zoo and did some in-person research in the zoo’s reptile house. My brother was also helpful by providing me with information about snakes and lizards. He has a degree in biology and used to teach science, so he was my go-to guy for these sorts of details. I grew up in San Diego where many scenes of this book take place, so those details were from what I recall from having lived there for the first twenty-six years of my life.
What is your writing process like?
I’ve always been a pantser, but I typically do a lot of brainstorming even before I start to write a book. But once I do get the words flowing, I love the surprising details that come from being a pantser. Once I’m well into writing a book, I will typically put together an outline. That’s mainly to make sure I don’t leave out any important details. One thing I do wish I could change is that I over-edit anything I’ve already written. I will spend so many hours tweaking words and sentences instead of writing new scenes. Some of my writer friends will tell me to “knock it off” when I’m stuck in one of these over-edit phases.
How do you celebrate when you finish your book?
If the weather is nice and the water isn’t too cold, I celebrate by going for an ocean swim. I spend so much time in the ocean, and some people won’t see an ocean swim as being all that special to me, but I’ll usually go to one of my favorite beaches for the celebratory swim. I also typically will enjoy a nice Chardonnay to celebrate finishing a book.
What animal or object best represents you as an author or your writing style?
This is a fun question! I’ll have to go with a dolphin. They’re such playful and free animals, but they’re also sometimes daring and unafraid. I wouldn’t go so far as to say I am unafraid when it comes to me as an author, but I do like to be daring with what I include in my books. There are a couple chapters in ‘Saving Sam’ that surprised me when I came up with the ideas for those scenes. I remember thinking, “Should I really include these details???” And then I realized, why not be daring? Also, another reason a dolphin describes me as an author is that once I hit a good stride with my writing, I feel free–like the words are coming out of me so smoothly. If you’ve ever seen a pod of dolphins playing in the surf, you’ll see that it’s pretty amazing. It always looks like they’re having a great time together. I like to think of this as a good metaphor for writers. It’s important to get the support and encouragement from other writers.
What has helped or hindered you most when writing a book?
What has helped me the most when writing a book was when I was a writer in residence on the island of Molokai in Hawaii a few years ago. I applied for this position and felt incredibly honored when the Molokai Arts Center chose me as a writer in residence. When I was on Molokai, I had huge chunks of time to write. I was there for about a month and had a great writing routine. I’d spend about four to five hours writing new scenes each morning, and then I’d go for a swim or explore parts of the island. Then in the evening, I’d edit the scenes I wrote earlier in the day. Sometimes while at the beach, I’d do a little bit of editing or jot down ideas that came to me. Other times I’d go and do research at various places on the island. The entire time there was all about me as an author writing my book, and I was very productive. I even kept a log of how many words I wrote each day.
Have you ever cried when writing an emotional scene?
I got teary eyed while writing one of the last scenes of ‘Saving Sam.’ It’s a scene that takes place in a river and then later next to that river. What I wrote about in that scene very much came from me as a pantser. I had no idea this scene was going to happen, so when I got emotional writing this scene, I knew I was on to something. Something significant about this book is that I wrote most of it right after my mom passed. She’d had a massive stroke and died about ten days later. Many of the details in the hospital scenes in ‘Saving Sam’ were from what I’d seen when my mom was in the ICU. There were some scenes in this book that enabled me to work through some of my grief about my mom’s passing.
Have you ever hated one of your characters?
When I was writing ‘Saving Sam,’ I created a creepy character named Johnny who I quickly grew to hate. Johnny is an incredibly evil character, and I hated him because he represented such a dark and evil human being. I definitely wanted readers to hate him. For those who have read ‘Saving Sam,’ they tell me how much they hated this character. When I was revising this book, any time I worked on the scenes where Johnny appears, I always felt creeped out. Johnny never redeems himself in my eyes. The freaky thing about this character is that when I created him, the evil and bad details came so easily. One of my beta readers asked me where I had ever come up with this character. I really have no idea. He just popped into my imagination and secured a place in this book.
Describe your favorite reading spot.
This probably won’t be a surprising answer: the beach! I prefer to start reading a book in a place where I won’t have any distractions, but once I’m into reading a good book, I like to read it at the beach but only if it’s not a crowded or noisy beach. During colder months, I enjoy reading a book at home on the couch, but with summer approaching, I’m looking forward to going to the beach to do some pleasure reading!
Do you only read books in one genre or do you genre hop?
I enjoy reading a variety of genres. When I’m busy with my full-time teaching job, I usually only have time to read short narrative pieces. I subscribe to a great magazine called ‘The Sun,’ which publishes narrative essays, poetry, and interviews. One of my favorite sections in that magazine is called ‘Readers Write,’ which is a collection of short pieces which readers of the magazine submit. Each month they have a different theme. I’ve had a couple pieces published in ‘Readers Write,’ and I am proud to say that one of my former creative writing students recently had a piece published in ‘Readers Write.’ Because each piece is very short, I enjoy reading them each month when I get ‘The Sun’ in the mail. In addition to the short narrative pieces, I read everything from contemporary romance to historical fiction and biography. I also enjoy suspense and mystery and occasionally like to read psychological thrillers. With summer here, I’m looking forward to reading as many books as possible!
