Author

Samantha
Hart

I spent years selling Hollywood’s stories.
Now I’ve written one.

Samantha Hart

Samantha Hart spent the 1990s inside the Hollywood marketing machine, first in music at Geffen Records, then as a studio creative director and executive behind the campaigns for some of the decade's best-loved independent films. She went on to co-found Foundation Content, a production company in Chicago and Los Angeles, and now runs Wild Bill Creative, an independent studio making commercial, documentary, and branded work.

Her memoir, Blind Pony, tells the story of growing up in Hollywood as a runaway teen. Desperation Will Kill You, her first novel, is a psychological thriller set in the Hollywood she knew from the inside, available March 16, 2027. She's now at work on Witty, a romantic comedy with an edge.

She lives in the Pacific Northwest and Los Angeles.

Novel · 2027

Desperation Will Kill You cover

Desperation Will Kill You

1990s Hollywood. A young woman. A powerful man. The movie business has always been about who controls the story — and Franny Lane is about to find out what that really means.

“A rollicking retro Tinseltown thriller.” — Kirkus Reviews

Great for fans of Winnie M. Li’s Complicit and Halley Sutton’s The Lady Upstairs. — BookLife Reviews

Release Date 3/16/27

Memoir · 2021

Blind Pony cover

Blind Pony

The story of a girl who ran away at fourteen and never quite stopped running — until she wrote it all down. Raw, harrowing, and finally free.

⭑ Starred Review — Kirkus Reviews

Winner — 2021 Los Angeles Book Festival, Wild Card

1st Place — New York Book Festival, Wild Card

BookLife Prize — 9.50/10  ·  Prose: 10/10

“A rollicking retro Tinseltown thriller.”

Kirkus Reviews

“Brisk, dishy Hollywood thriller of love, sex, power, and revenge.”

BookLife Reviews

“Hart crafts a layered psychological thriller that steadily tightens its grip…”

BookLife Prize

“A page-turning thriller that explores the ego-larded world of L.A.’s film and music industries in a compelling story of identity, ambition, and love. Both the story and its characters are as irresistible as the world their author paints.”

IndieReader

“Hart writes with confidence and cinematic detail, capturing the glamour of late-1980s Hollywood while exposing the predatory culture beneath its polished exterior. Her prose balances sharp dialogue with thoughtful psychological insight, allowing moments of quiet emotional reflection to coexist with scenes of mounting suspense.”

BookLife Prize

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