The Story is About   +  Samira Armin Hodges

Samira Armin Hodges is the author of the soon to be released YA novel Milestones For more information about Milestones, Samira, and/or her book tour schedule be sure to visit the Milestones website.

"The second time he spoke to me was at the lunch line. It was several years later. He asked me to pass the salt. Something deep and meaningful, like: “Hey, could you pass the salt please?”

I spent a good year of my life analyzing that particular encounter. I remember justifying in my head that he loved me, too, just because he’d asked me to pass the salt. I actually convinced myself he could have asked anyone to pass the salt but he chose to ask me. I must have been nuts."

You are a doctor as well as an author, do you find your medical experience is in someway reflected in what you write?

Well, I don’t do it on purpose but yes. Definitely. Even though Milestones is not in any way a “medical” book, you will probably notice right off the bat that some of the characters have medical quirks. I sort of can’t help it! Medicine is a big part of me so it inadvertently leaks out in all other parts of my life. Unfortunately, I haven’t found the “on-off” switch for that.

Milestones is your debut novel, are you excited, nervous or anxious about its release on August 1st and is there anything in particular you are looking forward to?

Ooh! All of the above! I’m equally excited, nervous and yes, super anxious too. Obviously, it’s natural to want my book to succeed and hope that people will love and relate to it. So clearly, there’s a bit of pressure there. Established authors have it a little easier because they know their books will sell at least a set amount of copies. But on the flip-side, this is a dream come true for me so yes, I can barely sit still most days. I can’t believe that my creation -- my “baby” if you will -- is going to become a reality in just over a month! Who wouldn’t be excited, right? And wanna know what I’m looking forward to? I’m looking forward to my very first, legitimate fan letter. The first stranger to read my book, love it, look me up and shoot me an email. I am soooo looking forward to that day.

If you could tell audiences one thing about this series what would it be?

That Milestones may not be like any other book you’ve read. It may surprise you. And that’s a good thing.

What inspired the story for Milestones?

Well, I’m not quite sure any one thing inspired it. Many little inspirations made their way into my novel but there wasn’t one big event that made it happen. I wasn’t like Stephanie Meyer who had a dream about Edward and Bella. No. With me, it was different. Basically, I have this super active imagination and I think up stories ALL the time. When the story for camp Milestone came to me, I told my family and friends about it and for the first time ever, they all said, “You have to write it. You just have to. Write this book. It will be goooooood”. So I did.

Can you tell us anything about the "secret" of camp Milestone?

It’s so hard to answer this question without giving away the whole thing so I’ve come to use the following expression: Milestones is like a wolf in sheep’s clothing.

If you could use five words to describe yourself, what would they be?

Goofy. Giggly. Perceptive. Little. Hippy.

(Okay. My husband picked that last one. And if you realize that he’s a born and raised good ol’ boy from Texas who married an “ethnic” Canadian who actually loves things like fruits, vegetables, sushi, trees, recycling etc…then you can see where he got that from). ;)

What did you learn from your first novel?

I learned that the literary world is scary but in an exciting way. I never knew anything about having an agent or talking to publishers or marketing a book or anything like that before I got into this business. I just thought that people wrote books and the rest just happened magically. Kind of like: Poof! You’re an author. The end. But we all know that’s so NOT how it goes.

What advice do you have for aspiring authors?

Don’t give up. If you can dream it, you can have it. Just look at me. I’m one big, fat dream come true.

What else should people know about you?

That I’m addicted to writing. And I love tennis and used to play in college.

Are any of the characters in your book based off real life people?

Yes. Only one. The character named Cyrus is based off my cousin, Cyrus. He’s the closest thing I have to a brother. And once you read the entire novel, you will realize just how funny that really is. I managed to find a way to stick my tongue out at him….”literally”.

Would you consider Milestones a mystery, comedy, adventure, romance...what kind of story should the reader expect?

I sort of think it’s in a category of its own. It certainly has mystery because you’re meant to figure out the secret of the camp. But there’s also some romance, adventure and definitely some comedy in there as well. If I had to choose just one category, I would go with “mystery”. That’s the big hoopla. The mystery. At least in book one of the trilogy, it is.

Is there a happy ending for Faye and Benji as the trilogy continues?

Nuh-uh. So sorry. Can’t spoil that. I’ll just say one thing: If Faye and Benji make it, they would be re-writing history.

Thank you so much for having me Kristi. Keep up the awesome blogging! :)