Samantha Thomas currently resides in a small rural town in North Carolina, with her family, Kit the family cat, and her trusty guide dog Lion from the Guide Dog Foundation.  The Thomas daughters are bright, funny, and compassionate. As time and health allow, she remains active in school issues, local and foreign politics, and preserving the rights of all people - including children. Children's rights do not disappear at the school building doors. The avid belief in inherent good teaches her daughters that everyone can be responsible, contributing members of society no matter the age, race, or disability.

The last two decades brought many opportunities her way along with many upsets in her life. A current member of the Parent-Teacher Association, she has served in various ways including board member and committee chair. She is currently serving an alumni-elected seat on the Steering Committee through the Guide Dog Foundation. In addition, she has served as a Notary Public for the last sixteen years. In 1989, she attended college majoring in accounting and business administration. By summer of 1996, she discovered she was going blind due to a hereditary eye disease called retinitis pigmentosa. Unwilling to give up, she began working online serving as a system op, now the title is moderator, of a email support group. This experience introduced her to new friends  who became more like a family. After funding for the program was exhausted, she returned to school again in 1998, for medical transcription. By 1999, she was hired by a national medical transcription company after passing the entrance exam with a score of 100%. A month later, she graduated from the medical transcription program with a 4.0 average. The ability to work from home proved very helpful since there was no public transportation available in the area she lived in. Just when her new career was taking off, she became ill  and was later diagnosed with systemic lupus erythemosus, degenerative joint disease, ulnar neuropathy, and generalized neuropathy. Alas, another career was left in ruins.

Never one to give up, she began writing on a more extensive basis. For more than two years, she had a newsletter column for the now defunct American Medical Transcription Guild. Not able to sustain a subscriber base due to finances, the guild was dissolved. She donated time and services when needed to the Guide Dog Foundation, which included articles for the alumni newsletter Harness Handle, the school newsletter The Guideway, public relation letters, and essay contests to earn the school recognition for their great work. After scribbling down notes and various short stories, she one day started writing just because.... Three years later, her first novel was completed and later accepted by a publishing company. Greed, Murder, Lies had become more than a dream; it was a reality. As soon as the first novel went into editing, she began working on a second novel. Again staying with creative fiction, Dark Eyes, Blue Skies will be completed by early 2005, around the time the first book goes into print.

Health problems prevent extensive travel, however, she does not live in a vacuum. The internet keeps her updated on important issues. She is most active in pro-choice, domestic abuse prevention including child abuse, prevention of cruelty to animals, spay/neuter pets, cancer prevention, and like issues. Her illness prevents her from donating hair to the Locks of Love program, she has convinced numerous friends and family - including her own mother, to donate hair to the cause. Guide dog advocacy is not just through the guide dog school. She advocates for guide dog users in her county by writing letters to the newspapers and making others aware that having a guide dog is a viable choice. She is a two-time guide dog handler. Dori, her previous guide dog, is living the life of luxury with family in the country while Lion continues the work she began.

The best medium to share her ideas has been the internet. She has been an avid internet user since the days of bulletin boards and mult-user domains. The first computer she owned was a TRS-80, or more commonly referred to as a trash-80. The internet has come to be a powerful tool to keep up with political issues and know exactly how her elected officials are voting. Each time her congressional representatives vote, she receives an email notice. Most often, she is able to send an email stating her opinions along with why she does or does not support the bill in question. She has spoke directly with Sen. Bob Etheridge, Sen. David Funderburk, Sen. Jesse Helms, Rep. Leo Daughtry, former Gov. Martin, former Gov. Hunt, and current Gov. Easley. In addition to working at the local level, she has contacted the White House liasons during the Clinton administration to help disabled veterans obtain benefits. The internet has given her a lateral voice to get her points of view heard by people that can make a difference.

Life has not always been as easy as it is now for this writer. She is very active in child abuse prevention due to the abuse she, her mother, and brother suffered at the hands of her biological father. They spent years running away from him when the law of the land refused to deal with the problem. The journey took her as far away as Texas, the bayous of Louisiana, Virginia, Tennessee, and Georgia in addition to traveling from the mountains to the coast of North Carolina. The alcoholic father managed to find them and continue the torment until the laws changed around the time she was becoming a young adult. She remains close to her mother and brother but continues to be estranged from her father. Currently, she is trying to bring the last piece of the family puzzle together. She has sister in the Philippines, fathered by her own father during the Vietnam War. All she has to go on are some old slides and army records. The day she locates her sister the family will be complete.

Sad but not bitter, she sees all of this as a learning experience. and avidly believes that everything happens for a reason. The trials and tribulations of her youth taught her to be a much stronger, caring, and responsible adult. She learned lessons the hard way from the school of hard knocks.

Many characters in her stories have traits resembling her own as well as hobbies and sports she enjoyed over the years, especially before becoming ill. Diving for oysters and clams, pulling nets, climbing, hiking, swimming in the ocean, motorcycle riding, working as a barmaid, and even singing are just a few of the things hidden away in a memento box in her mind. Today, her daughters are the ones that thrive with new ideas and things to explore. Her oldest daughter followed in mother's footsteps in singing. She is in chorus, performs in Showcase of the Stars, and performs at various events for the school. If plans do not change, she wants to continue in music and medicine after graduation, class of 2006.

Samantha spends her days caring for her daughters, the family critters, and writing while trying to maintain some semblance of a normal life despite obvious setbacks due to health problems. Her childhood dream was to become a dancer or a free-lance journalist. The acceptance of Greed, Murder, Lies is a special milestone in her life. The dream has become a reality despite complicated hurdles. Dreams do come true if you never stop trying and never stop believing in yourself. A dream is out there for everyone. With hard work and determination, it can come true.

Dove of Peace

Help send a message of peace around the world! The Dove of Peace flies from site to site, through as many countries as possible. It does not belong to ANY belief system. Please help make a line around the globe by taking it with you to your site, by giving it to someone for their site, by passing it on to another continent or to the conflict areas of the world. May trouble and strife be vanquished in it's path.