In her debut memoir, entrepreneur and Hollywood executive Samantha Hart reveals the abuses and traumas that she overcame to build a creative, successful, and love-filled life. BLIND PONY As True A Story As I Can Tell (Wild Bill Publishing) was released on March 15, 2021, and is a 2021 Los Angeles Book Festival award winner.
BLIND PONY As True A Story As I Can Tell illuminates Sam’s remarkable ability to be honest and vulnerable about horrific experiences while infusing her unique brand of humor and being relentlessly hopeful. Her story starts with a heart-wrenching childhood of abuse that she endured by her grandfather, which led to her life as a runaway teen and landed her in 1970s Los Angeles. She navigates various abusive relationships, toxic Hollywood characters, a search for her father, “Wild Bill,” and ultimately finds her North Star.
“Almost no one in my life, including long-time friends and colleagues, knew about the trauma I experienced as a young girl. I always managed to overcome adversity throughout my life, maintain a positive outlook, and do well for myself. But deep inside, I felt damaged. In telling my story now and hearing from readers, I realize there are a lot of “blind ponies” out there. If my story resonates for even one person and helps to provide some hope for healing, it was worth writing,” says Sam.
Sam is currently working on adapting BLIND PONY As True A Story As I Can Tell for TV/film while writing her next book, a novel entitled Starcrossed, and a collection of drawings and stories called When I Was A Muse.
The towering seventy-foot billboard, a cutout cowboy smoking Marlboros, watched over me and bore witness to the woman I had become. Each time I drove past the Chateau Marmont, I gazed up into his eyes and wondered what he thought of the girl who’d arrived in Los Angeles in 1975 on the edge of seventeen with nothing to lose. It may sound crazy to say I hoped he approved, but that wish was no more insane than when I had once sought approval from another cowboy who’d also appeared larger than life, smoked Marlboros, and didn’t say much or pass judgment.
I
lived in the Hollywood Hills with my daughter, Vignette, and worked in the
graphics department at a record company. As I drove Vignette to school each
day, I told her the giant billboard was a picture of her grandfather, Wild Bill.
Like my dad always said, “If you’re going to tell a lie, it might as well be a
big one.”
Vignette
loved hearing my stories about growing up on a farm in Western Pennsylvania
with ponies and fields of wildflowers and fruit trees and forests inhabited by
mystical wood sprites. It was a magical place of wide-open spaces where
imagination could take flight. I left out the part about running away when I
was fourteen years old.
When
Vignette was five, I heard the farm changed hands again and was turning into a
suburban enclave. I don’t know whether I had a desire to see the old place one
last time or if I felt a need to share it with my daughter to prove that all
the stories I’d told her were true.
When
our airplane touched down at the Pittsburgh Airport, I knew in my heart there
was nothing magical about the farm, and my imagination was the only thing that
allowed me to escape.
Welcome to the blog! The first page
is perhaps one of the most important pages in the whole book. It’s what draws the
reader into the story. Why did you choose to begin your book this way?
The first chapter is a jump forward in time, setting up the memory of the farm where I grew up. I wanted the reader to understand why I was conflicted about my identity from the beginning of the book. I knew it was essential to know that something troubling happened there without revealing all of the details. Also, the book can be dark in places. By beginning the book as the person who made it through that darkness, the reader knows from the start that I survive. Without knowing that, the sadness of the story might swallow one up. The first page hints at the darkness to come and introduces both the main character and Wild Bill, a pivotal character.
In the course of writing your book,
how many times would you say that first page changed and for what reasons?
I wrote the entire book, but I changed the first page and the whole first chapter multiple times. Once settling on the current opening, I continued to wordsmith the first few paragraphs until I found the balance between giving enough information about the main character without giving too much away.
Was there ever a time after the
book was published that you wished you had changed something on the first page?
I think it’s normal to doubt what you’ve written, especially on the first page. But, in general, I’m not the type of person who regrets the decisions I make.
What advice can you give to
aspiring authors to stress how important the first page is?
Know that your first page is the portal for your book. It’s the window into your world, so it needs to be as engaging as possible without feeling like words are assaulting the reader. Find the balance between hooking the reader in and wordplay flying like stray bullets.
Samantha Hart’s career has spanned music, film, and advertising, earning her a reputation as an award-winning Creative Director. Early in her career, Hart worked with top artists at Geffen, including Cher, Aerosmith, Nirvana, and Guns N’ Roses. In the film industry, her marketing campaigns brought prominence and Academy Awards to Fargo, Dead Man Walking, and Boys Don’t Cry while earning cult status for independent features Four Weddings and A Funeral, Priscilla Queen of the Desert, and Dazed and Confused. With her partner, Samantha built a multi-million dollar company in the advertising industry, Foundation, with over forty employees and offices in Chicago and Los Angeles. Under her leadership, Foundation earned distinction as an early disrupter of the traditional production and post-production models, combining the two under one roof. Samantha currently lives in Los Angeles with her husband, director James Lipetzky, and their teenage sons. Her daughter and granddaughters reside in Massachusetts.
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