Meet The Director of Publishing Services at Lucid Books – Sammantha Lengl

We have added a new member to our team at Lucid Books. Well, she isn’t exactly new, so much as she has taken on a new role at our company. Sammantha has been with Lucid Books since October working on content creation as well as administrative tasks. When our former Project Manager Marissa Torres decided it was time to transition to another role that would allow her more time with her children, Sammantha seemed like the perfect fit for the job. Marissa is still with us, working with finances and royalties, and enjoying all of her extra time with her kids. We wanted to take a moment, and let you get to know Sammantha not just as the Director of Publishing Services, but also as the person behind the title. -Casey Cease, CEO

Hello! My name is Sammantha Lengl and, like Casey said, I am the Director of Publishing Services at Lucid Books. Some of you may have spoken to me over email or phone. Or, maybe you have just read my blog posts on Lucid’s website. Either way, those encounters were of a professional nature, and I would like to spend some time letting you get to know me on a more personal level.

I was born and raised in Houston, TX. And, though I love it, I never thought I would return here. I attended university at Stephen F. Austin in Nacogdoches, TX, not Austin as many people think. It was a bit of an adjustment moving from a large city to a small town, but I really grew to enjoy it. I started out as an Elementary Education major; that had always seemed to be the plan for my life. After two years of picture cards, song cards, activity stations that paled in comparison to my, what seemed like, unreasonably creative classmates, and crawling around on the floor with my twenty-something peers, I decided that maybe becoming a teacher was not the right path for me. Don't get me wrong I like children, but 28 of them at a time, for 7 hours a day, 5 days a week is not my cup of tea.

My parents were worried about me changing my major so late in the game, I wouldn’t be able to change until the second semester of my junior year, but I knew that being a teacher would not make me happy. So, I thought about what I love to do, and what I really, REALLY love is to read. I love stories in general, but there is something so magical about sitting down with a book and letting your imagination and good writing paint a picture in your mind. And, something I love almost as much as reading is talking about what I read. I love discussing books with other people who love discussing books. So, English seemed like a natural major. With the switch I was still able to graduate in four and a half years in December of 2010. Now, what job couldn’t an English major with a minor in French get in the middle of a recession?

As it turns out, not many. So, I moved back home and got married to my college boyfriend who had a job in Houston. I spent the next three years doing odd jobs at my mom’s office and a tutoring center. I wasn’t really sure what I was supposed to do with my life, but I was learning to enjoy where I was. I met Casey in August of 2014 when my husband and I attended a service at Christ Community Church of Magnolia, where he serves as lead pastor. On our second visit he asked the dreaded question, “So what do you do?” I reluctantly answered that I was currently working a temp job at the company my mom works for. He asked what I majored in and I told him, and then he asked, “Would you like to work at a publishing company?” And here I am today.

I feel so fortunate to have the opportunity to work in an industry that I care about, and in a company run by someone I respect. This is certainly not the plan that I had envisioned for my life, but it is a great one. I have enjoyed working with our current authors, and I look forward to working with many more as the years go by. My passion is stories, and I can't wait to walk alongside you in order to bring your story into the world.

If you have any questions for me, please share them in the comments section below.