Vanessa Fox O'Loughlin is an Irish literary scout, agent and coach. She is also, as Sam Blake and Vanessa Fox, a published author.
Career
Vanessa Fox hails from St Albans in Hertfordshire, England. She moved to Ireland with her fiancé, a member of the Irish police force, Shane O'Loughlin, living first in Bray, County Wicklow, then in nearby Kilmacanogue.
In 2006, O'Loughlin moved from a career in event management to self-employment, founding Inkwell Writers Workshops to run fiction-writing workshops taught by bestselling published writers. During the post-2008 Irish economic downturn, the company was renamed The Inkwell Group and became a publishing consultancy, assisting new writers to move forward with their careers. O'Loughlin published one romantic fiction novel as "Vanessa Fox", and publishes crime fiction as "Sam Blake".
In 2019 she was elected to the Management Committee of the Society of Authors. In 2022, O'Loughlin was one of over 100 authors to contribute to 100 Ways to Write a Book – a compilation of author interviews put together by author Alex Pearl during the COVID pandemic.
Sam Blake
In 2015, the Bonnier Twenty7 signed O'Loughlin to write a three-book series of crime novels featuring Garda detective Cat Connolly and set in Dublin. The first book in the series was Little Bones, and was released, as were the two subsequent volumes, under the pen name Sam Blake. Little Bones went straight into the Irish fiction bestseller list at first place and stayed there for four weeks, eventually featuring in the Irish top ten for eight weeks. In Deep Water and No Turning Back also entered the Irish bestseller lists. All three were also released as audiobooks.
In January 2020 a standalone thriller Keep Your Eyes On Me was released by Corvus Books, together with an audio recording from Bolinda Publishing narrated by Harry Potter star Evanna Lynch. Keep Your Eyes On Me was also a No.1 Irish Times bestseller. In January 2022 a new book, The Dark Room, was published by Corvus Books.
As Sam Blake, the author uses multiple communication channels, and hosts the Behind the Bestseller podcast (Headstuff) featuring interviews with bestselling authors from multiple genres.
Writing.ie
O'Loughlin founded writing.ie in 2011; it developed into an Irish writers' web resource that covers literary events and offers advice to writers. The website continues to be developed and run by O'Loughlin.
The Irish Independent describes writing.ie as "a one-stop shop for authors."
References
Year of birth missing (living people) Literary agents Irish crime fiction writers 21st-century Irish writers Living people People from Bray, County Wicklow Writers from County Wicklow Writers from St Albans