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| “ | I believe in the power of stories. I believe that when they hint at a rebuke to the darkness, when they whisper to us that a hero may rise to set things right, they tell the truth. So in a way, these stories are true. | ” |
— A note from the author, The Last Archer, p. 127
|
Samuel Dale "S. D." Smith is the bestselling author of The Green Ember series, a succession of middle-grade fantasy-adventure novels.
Official bio
"S. D. Smith is the best husband Gina Smith has so far had and father to four Smithereens who are still young enough to appreciate what passes for his wit and wisdom. Sam is a West Virginia native, a sometime sojourner in southern Africa and the Caribbean, and current resident of his house.
Sam is an award-losing author, having featured as a runner-up for the West Virginia Fiction Award, World Magazine’s Children’s Book of the Year, and Audible’s Kids Audiobook of the Year. He has also lost every other literary award ever given over the entire course of human history.
Sam is a co-founder of Story Warren, a site for parents and others who love children and want to be “allies in imagination.”
Sam has spoken at conferences and classrooms across the country, occasionally doing what disgraced former experts have called, “a pretty decent job.”
He enjoys soccer, West Virginia sports, reading, eating chocolate chip cookies, getting letters from readers, and spending time with his family."[1]
Biography
| “ | I started writing about dogs and spacemen, but at some point, I fell for the ‘boys don’t read’ nonsense. Boys think that’s something girls do. It was a big problem for me and I only rediscovered reading in my late teenage years. [The Lord of the Rings and Ender's Game] were just hooks and I fell in love. I have been trying to make up for lost time ever since because I spent so much time not reading. | ” |
— S. D. Smith[2]
|
S. D. Smith was born in Huntington, West Virginia, on February 11, 1977. He was also raised in the aforementioned state for a period of time in his childhood, but has also spent some of his young years in Ohio, KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng (South Africa; as a missionary kid) and briefly in Puerto Rico and Zimbabwe.
As a child, Smith's mother read him The Chronicles of Narnia.[2][3] When he was age 12, his family moved to South Africa, where his father worked as a church planter. When he was older, he moved back to Beckley, West Virginia, earning a living as an adult educator.[2] West Virginia's "wild landscape" amid the Appalachian Mountains provided inspiration for his imagination as a child.[4]
Eventually, he began to tell stories to his children of rabbits and bravery. Years later, he was encouraged by his family to write the stories down, which resulted in The Green Ember series.[2]
In 2015, Smith published his first book, The Green Ember, with an initial print run of 1,500 copies,[5] by way of Story Warren, LLC, which he co-founded with Andrew Mackay.[2] The funding for the publication of the book was raised in part through an initial Kickstarter fund, which raised $21,908 with the help of 577 backers.[6] Encouraged by the apparent positive reception the book received, Smith proceeded to write and publish in July 2015 his first book in his prequel series Tales of Old Natalia, The Black Star of Kingston. Smith then raised $55,508[7] by way of another Kickstarter fund and self-published his sequel to The Green Ember, Ember Falls.[3][4] The anthology book The Last Archer in his A Green Ember Story series was published in December 2017, with the Ember Falls sequel Ember Rising following in March 2018; like the two previous main series books, its publication was also aided financially through a Kickstarter fund, which raised $81,448 with the help of 1,971 backers. In December 2018, Smith published his second book in Tales of Old Natalia, called The Wreck and Rise of Whitson Mariner. The following year saw the release of The First Fowler (a direct sequel to The Last Archer) and the announcement of the fourth and final main series installment: Ember's End.
Smith's The Green Ember was nominated for multiple awards, including World Magazine’s Children's Book of the Year.[8][9] His books and audiobooks have held prestigious places on multiple bestselling charts, and he was featured in Amazon.com's Top 100 Bestselling Authors list for a period of time.[3]
He currently lives in Grandview, West Virginia, with his wife and children, where he enjoys spending time with his family, writing, and reading the works of authors that include G. K. Chesterton, C. S. Lewis, and J. R. R. Tolkien.[10] He is a devout Christian and currently attends church in the Grandview area.
He is the co-founder of Story Warren, LLC, which is the company that publishes his books.[11]
Much to his surprise, The Green Ember series has proved to be rather popular, as he has sold hundreds of thousands of books and has been listed as one of the Top 100 Bestselling Authors on Amazon and The Green Ember's audiobook has spent time as #1 in worldwide sales on Audible, even briefly surpassing the popular Harry Potter series.[11][3] On account of the extremely positive reception to his books, in 2017, he decided to quit his day job and work as a writer full-time.[12]
Smith has spoken to filmmakers about possibly creating a movie adaptation of The Green Ember, a possibility about which he has said:
| “ | It’s a little bit surreal, but it’s also what people do every day. Meeting all these people, I’m hopeful that at some point down the line we’ll have a movie[.][3] | ” |
Bibliography
The Green Ember series
- The Green Ember
- Ember Falls: The Green Ember Book II
- Ember Rising: The Green Ember Book III
- Ember's End: The Green Ember Book IV
Tales of Old Natalia
- The Black Star of Kingston: Tales of Old Natalia 1
- The Wreck and Rise of Whitson Mariner: Tales of Old Natalia 2
A Green Ember Story series
- The Last Archer: A Green Ember Story
- Potter's War: A Green Ember Story
- The First Fowler: A Green Ember Story
Awards
| Award | Category | Recipients | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| World Magazine's Books of the Year 2015 | World Magazine's Children's Book of the Year for Ages 9-13[13] | The Green Ember by S. D. Smith | Finalist |
| Audible Awards | Audible's Kid's Book of the Year | The Green Ember by S. D. Smith | Finalist |
| West Virginia Fiction Awards | West Virginia Fiction Award | The Green Ember by S. D. Smith | Finalist |
Trivia
- Smith's favorite book series is The Lord of the Rings,[14] and it is also one of the few books he confesses to rereading regularly.[15]
- The Book of Ecclesiastes in the Bible is S. D. Smith's favorite book of all time.[15]
- Smith's favorites of his characters are Helmer, Maggie Weaver, and Jo Shanks.[14]
- S. D. Smith is the middle child of five children: three brothers and one sister.[11]
- Smith has a younger brother, Josiah Smith, who works for him as a "manager."
- Smith has four children: Josiah Smith, Anne Smith, Micah Smith, and Norah Smith.[14]
- S. D. Smith does his writing in a small building nearby his home called "The Forge".
- The Smiths are homeschoolers.[16]
- When asked whether he creates characters based on real people, Smith responded that some of his characters were "[l]oosely based sometimes, but not often. There are a few characters [in The Green Ember series] whose names honor real people."[17] One example of this would be Eefaw Potter, who was likely inspired by potter Eddy Efaw.
Gallery
External links
Social media
References
- ↑ [1]
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 [2]
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 WV Metro News | Best-selling author has roots in West Virginia
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Christ and Pop Culture | “The World Is Magical”: An Interview with S. D. Smith, Author of The Green Ember
- ↑ The Green Ember is Five Years Old | SDSmith.net Newsletter - January 16, 2020
- ↑ The Green Ember by S. D. Smith, illustrated by Zach Franzen - project by Story Warren on Kickstarter.com
- ↑ Ember Falls by S. D. Smith, Author of The Green Ember - project by Story Warren, on Kickstarter.com
- ↑ World Magazine | Fresh off the shelf
- ↑ World Magazine | Children's Books of the Year
- ↑ FAQS: The Green Ember and S. D. Smith
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 About Sam
- ↑ S. D. Smith Is Going On An Adventure | SDSmith.net
- ↑ Children's Books of the Year | World News
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 [3] Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; name "Smith" defined multiple times with different content - ↑ 15.0 15.1 On My Shelf: Life and Books with S. D. Smith | The Gospel Coalition
- ↑ It’s Trailer Time! The Official Schoolhouse Rocked Trailer is Here! Schoolhouse Rocked
- ↑ Do you have any characters that are based off real people? — S. D. Smith Q&A | Goodreads
