Looking Out for Sam

Looking Out for Sam (1994) Post 343

Looking Out for Sam  is a Christian romance and in fact is was short-listed for Christian Children's Book of the Year back in the day. It started life as an idea about a girl taking up with a  boy with a Galahad complex. Over time, this changed somewhat, to the romance between a Christian boy and an agnostic girl. Sam and Bree aren't based on anyone in particular, but Sam's situation... the eldest of a very large family, is reminiscent of a family I knew. Bree's real name is Breeze, but she prefers Bree... "The horse or the hooker?" asks Sam. Travelling reluctantly to Tasmania with her mother for a holiday she doesn't want, Bree is angry and resentful that the only other possibility is helping her father and stepmother renovate a house. Bree finds her mother annoyingly suggestible. She is a determined person herself, going for things that last. When she meets Sam on the ferry, and he offers her a handkerchief, she finds herself on the back foot after making sardonic comments about people who visit Tasmania. Sam says, "I live there." The awkwardness soon blows over, and the two become good friends. Just one thing bothers Bree... he's so helpful to everyone and he really believes in turning the other cheek. By the end of the book, which is also the beginning, Bree is standing in a church, desperately making bargains with a power she isn't even sure exists. 

By the way, I once travelled over the strait on a ship, and met a lovely lad who engaged me in conversation. No romance developed. I was well and truly married and twice his age. 

ABOUT THE BLOG

Sally is Sally Odgers; author, manuscript assessor, editor, anthologist and reader. She runs http://www.affordablemanuscriptassessments.com and Prints Charming Books. (Sally is me, by the way, and I am lots of other things too, but these are the relevant ones for now.)

The goal for 2017 is to write a post a day profiling the background behind one of my books; how it came to be written, what it's about, and any things of note that happened along the way. If you're an author, an aspiring author, a reader or just someone who enjoys windows into worlds, you might find this fun. The books are not in any special order, but will be assigned approximate dates, and pictures, where they exist.