Sam Blake

Sam Blake is the pseudonym of Irish mystery author Vanessa Fox O’Loughlin. She is also known as one of Ireland’s top literary coaches, agents, and scout. Blake is from St. Albans in the UK though she has lived in Scotland ever since she got married to Shane O’Loughlin, a member of the Irish Police. She started out working in event management and became the founder of Inkwell Writers Workshops that focused on bringing together bestselling authors to teach aspiring writers. During 2008 when Ireland was undergoing an economic crisis, she changed her company into a publishing consultancy working with aspiring authors named The Inkwell Group. In 2015, she was signed by Bonnier Twenty7 to pen a three-book series set in Dublin featuring Cat Connolly, a Garda detective. Blake published “Little Bones” her first novel in 2016 that went on to become a bestselling title in Ireland. In 2020, she published “Keep Your Eyes on Me” a standalone thriller with Corvus Books. The novel also became an Irish Times bestselling title. Sam is the host of the “Behind the Bestseller” podcast where she interviews bestselling authors writing from a range of genres. Apart from her podcast and her publishing agency she also runs the “Murder One International Crime Writing Festival.” As an author, she has served on the Society of Authors as a director, been on the Management Committee of the Society of Authors and is a member of the CWA. While she comes from the UK, she has lived in the Wicklow Mountains in Ireland for years.