Deborah Samuel
Author Interview - Deborah Samuel
Author of Grace Through Fire - A Memoir of Murder, Tragedy, and Resilience
Grace Through Fire: A Memoir of Murder, Tragedy, and Resilience is a raw and redemptive memoir about surviving generational trauma, devastating loss, caregiving, and ultimately learning how to rescue yourself.
When my elderly mother shot my abusive father in their Arkansas home, my already complicated life was thrown into a storm of murder trials, media attention, grief, family responsibility, and emotional upheaval. At the same time, I was caring for my wife following a life-altering accident while confronting my own relationship with alcohol and the accumulated trauma of my past.
Eventually, I faced a difficult truth: I could not save everyone around me. I had to begin saving myself.
Grace Through Fire follows that journey from survival to sobriety, spiritual awakening, forgiveness, reinvention, and ultimately freedom. It is a story about what happens when we stop allowing our past to determine our future—and discover that it is never too late to begin again.
Author Interview - Deborah Samuel
Author I draw inspiration from:
Three authors immediately come to mind: Dr. Lois P. Frankel, Brené Brown, and Napoleon Hill.
Each has influenced a different part of my life. Lois helped me understand how women sometimes unintentionally diminish their own power. Brené Brown gave me a new vocabulary for vulnerability, courage, shame, and resilience. Napoleon Hill challenged the way I thought about money, success, and the beliefs we carry around wealth.
I love writers who don't simply entertain me but leave me thinking differently about my own life.
Nice Girls Don't Get the Corner Office by Lois P. Frankel and Rising Strong by Brené Brown both had enormous impacts on me. Napoleon Hill's work also fundamentally changed how I think about money, abundance, and wealth.
Author Interview - Deborah Samuel | Author I Draw Inspiration From
Favorite place to read a book:
The upper helm of our yacht, Summer Solstice, in Santa Barbara Harbor. I can sit there with a book and a great latte and watch harbor life unfold around me. It is also a view I dreamed about for 25 years before I actually lived it. Today, I get to wake up inside that photograph I once had pinned to my office corkboard.
Book character I’d like to be stuck in an elevator with:
Forget calling maintenance—I would probably want the elevator to stay stuck for a while.
I would ask Jo about those moments when life forces you onto the proverbial floor and makes you decide who you are going to become next. When did she choose herself? What frightened her? What would she do differently?
I suspect somewhere between floors three and four, Jo would turn the interview around and begin interrogating me. And I have a feeling she would have some very pointed questions about Grace Through Fire.
The moment I knew I wanted to become an author:
I never did.
I never set out to become an author. I set out to heal - thrive - reinvent myself again...
For years, I journaled because I needed somewhere to put what was happening to me. Eventually, those journals became thousands of pages—the raw material of a life that, at times, even I could barely believe was mine.
My sister Laura finally said, "Deb, you have to write the damn book."
She was right.
I didn't choose to become an author and then look for a book to write. The book came first. Grace Through Fire was simply a book I had to write.
Hardback, paperback, ebook or audiobook:
Hardback when I am sitting still. Audiobook when I am moving.
The last book I read:
I am currently reading As a Man Thinketh by James Allen.
Author Interview - Deborah Samuel | The Last Book I Read
Pen & paper or computer:
Pen and paper first. Computer second.
Book character I think I’d be best friends with:
Anne Shirley from L.M. Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables.
She is imaginative, emotional, curious, outspoken, occasionally impulsive, and capable of seeing possibility where other people might see very little. Most importantly, she creates belonging and beauty despite difficult beginnings.
We would probably sit overlooking the water, talk far too much, dream up several completely unreasonable adventures, and convince ourselves every one of them was absolutely possible.
Author Interview - Deborah Samuel | Book Character I’d be Best Friends With
If I weren’t an author, I’d be a:
This question makes me laugh because I may have already exceeded my lifetime allotment of careers.
I have been a teacher for 20 years, home builder, airplane mechanic, FedEx driver, real estate professional, entrepreneur, and now author.
I don't think I need another career. My next chapter is writing more books and spending more time onstage speaking and motivating others. Teaching was one of the great loves of my life, and I've realized speaking is simply another form of teaching.
Favorite decade in fashion history:
Definitely the 1940s, particularly the World War II era. I love the elegance and structure of women's clothing from that period—the tailored silhouettes, beautiful dresses and jackets, and the sense that people dressed intentionally.
Place I’d most like to travel:
I don't simply want to visit Croatia. I want to experience its coastline from the water—sailing between islands, pulling into small harbors, eating local food, meeting people, and waking up wondering where we might sail next.
Travel is already a huge part of my life. I've traveled to Japan, Italy, Israel, Australia several times, Mexico, and beyond. For me, travel isn't about checking countries off a list. It is about experiencing a place from the inside.
My signature drink:
Very expensive sparkling water with lime!
I don't drink alcohol anymore, so give me a beautiful bottle of sparkling mineral water, lots of bubbles, ice, and fresh lime, and I am perfectly happy.
I've learned you don't need alcohol in the glass to celebrate something wonderful. These days, I have plenty to celebrate.
Favorite artist:
I don't really have one. I love art, but I respond emotionally rather than following particular artists. If a painting, photograph, piece of music, film, or beautifully designed object makes me stop and feel something, that is art worth paying attention to.
Number one on my bucket list:
Buying my own airplane.
I am returning to flying and working on getting my pilot credentials current again. My goal is to purchase an airplane within the next year and have it waiting at Santa Barbara Airport.
The dream is wonderfully simple: Kelsey and I decide we want to go somewhere, throw our bags into the airplane, climb aboard, and go.
No TSA lines. No crowded terminals. Just check the weather, file the flight plan, start the engine, and point the nose toward our next adventure.
Apparently, I have a thing for transportation. I already live on a yacht. An airplane seems like the logical next step.
Anything else you'd like to add:
One thing I have learned is that I no longer feel the need to separate all the different parts of who I am.
I am an author. I am a real estate professional. I am an entrepreneur. I was a teacher for 20 years. I am a pilot returning to the sky. I am a wife, traveler, storyteller, and someone who has had to reinvent her life more than once.
At first glance, those things may seem unrelated. To me, they are all connected by one idea: transition.
My real estate and senior downsizing work helps people navigate major transitions. Grace Through Fire is about navigating an enormous transition of my own. And my speaking and writing are increasingly focused on helping people recognize that the chapter they are living today does not have to be the final chapter of their story.
I don't want people to see only "Deborah the Realtor" or "Deborah the Author." I want them to see the whole person, because all of those experiences created the woman who eventually wrote Grace Through Fire.
Reinvention does not have an expiration date. May the journey begin within you.
Find more from the author:
Instagram: @deborahsellssb
Facebook: DeborahSellsSB
Author website: DeborahSamuelAuthor.com
About Deborah Samuel:
Deborah Samuel
Deborah Samuel is the author of Grace Through Fire: A Memoir of Murder, Tragedy, and Resilience. Born and raised in Rogers, Arkansas, Deborah's life has been defined by reinvention.
Entrepreneurial from an early age, she supported herself through technical school, earning both her pilot's license and aircraft mechanic credentials before earning a master's degree in education. She spent 20 years as an educator, creating innovative programs for at-risk youth and receiving national recognition, including being named National Physical Education Teacher of the Year in 2006.
Today, Deborah lives in Santa Barbara, California, where she is a real estate professional specializing in helping seniors and longtime homeowners navigate major life transitions. She and her wife also own SB SOS, a senior downsizing and move-management company helping families through the emotional and logistical process of beginning a new chapter.
Deborah and her wife live aboard their 1973 Grand Banks yacht, Summer Solstice, in Santa Barbara Harbor with their beloved black cat. She is returning to flying, traveling internationally, writing more books, and developing the next chapter of her work as a speaker.
Grace Through Fire will be published by She Writes Press on October 6, 2026, with distribution through Simon & Schuster.
