Samantha Lee Howe (née Harrison) is a British novellist and screenwriter. She writes horror and fantasy under the pen name Sam Stone. She is best known for her 2020 psychological thriller novel The Stranger in Our Bed, published by HarperCollins imprint One More Chapter. Howe is the commissioning editor of Telos Publishing imprint Telos Moonrise.

Early life and education

The youngest of seven children, Howe was born Samantha Lee Harrison in Manchester, England, which forms the partial backdrop of her novel Killing Kiss and is the common location of the Vampire Gene series. In a recent interview with The Daily Express, Howe admitted that her father was abusive and that she was also in an unhappy first marriage because of Domestic violence. As a result, Howe is now a Survivor Ambassador for Yorkshire charity Independent Domestic Abuse Services also known as IDAS. Despite this difficult start, she graduated with a BA (Hons) in English and Writing for Performance at University of Bolton, a PGCE at Manchester University and her MA in Creative Writing also at Bolton. Her eventual first novel, Gabriele Caccini, was originally written as her dissertation. Stone worked as an English teacher at St Christopher's Church of England High School, Accrington until 2007, where she decided to leave her position after it was discovered that she was the author of Gabriele Caccini, which she had written under the pen name of Paigan Stone.

Career

Howe's debut novel, Gabriele Caccini – published under her original pen name, Paigan Stone – was recognized by Foreword Reviews, an American literary magazine specializing in reviewing books from independent publishers, at its Book of the Year Awards with its Silver Award in Horror for 2007. She was shortlisted for the August Derleth Award for Best Novel in the British Fantasy Awards for her second novel, Futile Flame. This book was also a 2009 finalist in the ForeWord Book of the Year Awards, while the third book in the series, Demon Dance, was a finalist for the 2010 Foreword awards and won the August Derleth Award for Best Novel in the British Fantasy Awards 2011. This made Stone the first female writer to win the August Derleth Award since Tanith Lee did so in 1980. However, after the awards were announced, there was controversy over the voting and so Stone publicly returned the Award, not wishing to be associated with something which might have been awarded erroneously. The BFS then declared that the voting was valid, but then in a later statement announced that the Best Novel would be declared a 'No Award' for that year, assuming (without asking) that Stone's return of the award meant that she did not want it. She also won the Best Short Story Award in the British Fantasy Awards in the same year. In August 2012 Telos Publishing issued a press release announcing the forthcoming audio of Sam Stone's horror collection, Zombies In New York. Telos also published her Steampunk/horror novella Zombies at Tiffany's. Gabriele Caccini was re-edited and re-released as Killing Kiss under the pen name Sam Stone in September 2008 by The House of Murky Depths. Writer Tanith Lee gave a quote for the back of the book which said : "A deceptively readable date with darkness – watch your step! This book is lit for the much more discerning chick (and cock) who likes to walk in the shadows. Relax with it, but be prepared for sudden jewels and little masterpieces – and the rug to be pulled from under your feet." Howe went on to write a further four titles in the Vampire Gene series: Futile Flame, Demon Dance, Hateful Heart and Silent Sand. She then moved to Telos Publishing for reprints of the series and the first print of the sixth novel, Jaded Jewel. In 2011 a short story collection, Zombies in New York and Other Bloody Jottings, was published by Telos Publishing. The collection was later picked up in October 2012 by AudioGo. In 2013 it was announced that Howe, writing still as Sam Stone was involved as a screenwriter for a Doctor Who spin-off film; White Witch of Devil's End was released on 13 November 2017 on DVD as part of "The Daemons of Devil's End" boxset by Reeltime Pictures. In May 2015 Stone became host of her own radio show, The Stone Tapes, on Lincolnshire radio station SirenRadio The book went to print in January 2018. In 2020, she published a psychological thriller novel entitled The Stranger in Our Bed published in February 2020 by HarperCollins imprint One More Chapter. It hit the number one slot in the USA Today book charts. The novel was adapted into a film by production company Buffalo Dragon, The film, directed by Giles Alderson and starring Samantha Bond, Emily Berrington, Ben Lloyd-Hughes, Joseph Marcell, Nina Wadia, Bart Edwards and Terri Dwyer, was released on 1 July 2022 on Showtime Networks. Samantha has since sold three more books to HarperCollins One More Chapter and all three were published in 2021 as The House of Killers Trilogy which consists of The House of Killers Book 1, Kill or Die Book 2, and Kill A Spy Book 3. In 2022, Howe edited a charity anthology for Telos Publishing in aid of advocacy charity POhWER. The anthology, Criminal Pursuits: Crimes Through Time, was submitted to the Crime Writer's Association for consideration for the CWA Short Story Dagger and six stories from the 14 included were longlisted, three of which made the shortlist resulting in Flesh of a Fancy Woman written by Paul Magrs and featured in the anthology, going on to win this prestigious award.

Awards and nominations

Writing credits

Novels, novellas and collections

Audio

Screenwriting

Short stories

Editor

Current publishers

Former publisher