SAMANTHA BEAL was born in Oklahoma and grew up in Western Pennsylvania. In high school, she started reporting for local newspapers.

       While earning a degree in English from Clarion University of Pennsylvania, her beat expanded to education, health, government, and crime. Graduating from CUP in 2018, she was hired as a full-time reporter covering the development of Pittsburgh's fastest-growing suburb. After two years of reporting on the COVID-19 pandemic and covering the 2020 presidential election, Samm walked out of the newsroom and didn't look back.

       Now she lives in Pennsylvania, where she slings lattes while plotting her next mur—um, novel.