Samantha Andersen was born in California, moved to the Nevada-Utah border as a young girl. In that small border town, she met a young man and developed a huge crush on him. She went away to college and returned home four years later. Thirty years later, she still confides that she has a crush on him. The couple had two children, both grown now. She spent their formative years volunteering and cheering for them in all of their endeavors. Now she enjoys filling her free time with gardening, baking, reading, and walking her dog, Rue. She and her crush enjoy a weekly date night. It was on one of those evenings when she regaled her crush with the plot and themes of the latest book she was reading. He challenged her to write her own story. So she did.