In a small Tennessee town in 1999, high school senior Blake McNamara is the son of a moonshiner and cares nothing for football or politics. He’s Captain of the Jr ROTC, has his sights set on West Point, and dreams of retiring one day as a military officer.
Samantha Yale is the daughter of a United States Senator. She obeys the rules, dresses in a conservative 1950s style, wears thick eyeglasses, and has never been asked out on a date. But she doesn’t mind. She wants nothing more than to live life expressing her love of art through her paintings.
The two never speak to each other and couldn’t be more different among their classmates. But when Blake and Samantha are teamed up for a school art project, they’ll soon learn that the people and experiences we first encounter are rarely what they seem...
And that’s exactly where their adventure begins.
excerpt
"On that first day, Mrs. Moore asked Samantha to show us a painting she’d been working on since early summer. When Samantha removed a linen sheet from her easel, she had painted herself in a crimson gown. In the image, she wore some make-up, which I’d never seen her wear before.
Her hair was washed and straight, and her glasses were gone. Those blue eyes, that red, and that magnificent light. It looked so real, like we were staring at a photograph. The red she used was akin to Rembrandt. The light, how she could create it to look so balanced, I was baffled. We all were.
And Samantha had mixed the paints herself. No kidding. I'd never even heard of someone making their own paint. It was amazing, really. I didn’t know jack squat about paintings back then, but I knew that what she had created was great. And that’s when I realized I had never actually seen any of Samantha’s art. I had glimpsed parts of half finished projects here and there, you know, pieces in the making. But never a finished one.
As Samantha spoke about it in front of the class, with the ease and confidence of someone who had talked in front of groups of people all of her life, I raised my hand. I asked how she made everything look so realistic. Samantha giggled, and she hid her smile with her hand. Her eyes shined, and I noticed that she was… pretty. But in her own way.
I’ll never forget that. Because in that moment, I believe, it was the very first time I noticed Samantha Yale."
He first attended college at Northeast State in his home county of DeKalb, through a full tuition theater scholarship, acting in the Broadway musicals Annie and Big River. He was first introduced to film by working as a production assistant and background extra on Dawson's Creek (Joshua Jackson, Katie Holmes) and Tim Burton's Big Fish (Ewan McGregor, Danny DeVito). He paid the rest of his way through college by working as a bookkeeper in his hometown bank and on the college landscaping crew. Having a close relationship with his parents and brother, he later transferred in-state to Auburn University where he and his brother were roommates.
At Auburn, Lingerfelt worked as a barista at a local–owned coffee shop, and gave away his television during his junior year to dedicate more time to self-development. He completed a BA in Marriage & Family Counseling with independent studies in 19th Century British Literature and Financial Planning. He served in the student government as Vice President of The College of Human Sciences, joined the university lacrosse team, and they won two consecutive conference championships. During his summers, he volunteered with international humanitarian organizations, leading to relief work in Jamaica, teaching English in Romania, medical teams in Mexico, and he finished his senior internship at a homeless men's soup kitchen in East Kilbride, Scotland.
After graduation in 2006, he counseled genocide refugees in Uganda and taught English at Made-in-the-Streets; a street children's rehab farm in Kenya. While there, Lingerfelt created a low budget documentary titled Made in the Streets of Africa. He was awarded the Lily Endowment for his work, and the documentary was used in human rights and social activist courses at universities across the states, including Princeton. For the documentary, Lingerfelt used a Walmart videotape camera and taught himself FinalCutPro.
Lingerfelt continued his humanitarian efforts (Egypt '07, Mongolia '08, Syria, Israel, Palestine '10, Liberia '11). In 2010, he served as an American representative at the Institute of Middle Eastern Studies Conference in Beirut, Lebanon. The focus of the conference was cross-cultural dialogue among Christian and Muslim youth peace movements. In 2011, he produced and directed a documentary on microlending in Liberia for Atlanta's Peachtree Presbyterian Church, which the church used at their annual humanitarian missions galas. Lingerfelt went on to produce and direct documentaries on Korn's Brian Welch and the Fuller family; the founders of Habitat for Humanity.
Following Liberia, Lingerfelt served as the keynote speaker at the Kiwanis Conference in Birmingham, 2012. His topic was microlending and ethical methods in humanitarian efforts.
From 2010–2017 he divided his time between film–production and serving as CFO for his family's company, Fyala Security, which provides security guards to high schools and hospitals. After this period, Lingerfelt accepted an offer to become a financial adviser at the investment firm that had managed his family's wealth for 20 years. He was made to study for a year and pass the Series 7 and Series 66 licenses, which would also allow him to work as a licensed stock trader on Wall Street. He passed the exams in 2017.
He spent five years writing his first novel, The Mason Jar, an inspirational epic, romance. He self-published and released it in December 2011 after being rejected by eight literary agents. The novel sold over 5,000 copies within two years, and went on to become a national best-seller in 2014. HarperCollins and Amazon offered contracts to purchase The Mason Jar and a sequel novel, but Lingerfelt refused since he couldn't keep the film rights. Award-winning author Nicole Weaver wrote, "Lingerfelt's novel reads like one, long, beautiful poem." Author Lee Wilson called Lingerfelt the intersection of Nicholas Sparks and C.S. Lewis, and columnist M.J. Rose at Writer's Digest said Lingerfelt had accomplished in two years what most writers dream of accomplishing in ten.
In 2012, Lingerfelt finished an internship in film production at the Emmy-award winning company Revolution Pictures. Lingerfelt went on to work on production teams for The Song, Yellow Day, and Sweet Home Alabama. During this time, he wrote the screenplay for The Mason Jar, after reading over a dozen screenwriting books recommended by Hollywood executives. In December 2013, Lingerfelt was flown to Beverly Hills for table talks concerning The Mason Jar feature film, but it was later passed on for Tom Hanks' film A Hologram For The King and Martin Scorsese's Silence.
Lingerfelt went on to win the 2015 Nasser Entertainment screenwriting competition in Studio City, California. The following December, he wrote and directed his first short film titled, Summer Leaves: A Love Story In DeKalb County. The film was made with volunteer cast and crew, and was accepted into three international film festivals. The film starred Sandra Lafferty (Walk The Line, The Hunger Games) and Katrina Despain (Pitch Perfect). Carl Lauten, director of The Cosby Show and Spin City wrote an email to Lingerfelt and his crew, calling the short film, "exceptional."
Lingerfelt backpacked across Ireland in 2014 and then wrote and published his second novel Alabama Irish. A companion novel to The Mason Jar, it was released in book stores world wide in March, 2016. The following month, he received the DeKalb County, Alabama's Top 40 Leaders Award by The Time's Journal.
In 2017, under the guidance of his firm, Lingerfelt opened his financial advising office in Newnan, Georgia, near the home of Trilith Studios.
Lingerfelt's writings have been featured in numerous newspapers and magazines such as The Huffington Post, A New Mode, Thought Catalog, The Elephant Journal, Elite Daily, Good Guy Swag, and The Good Men Project. Lingerfelt keeps readers briefed at his blog, which has garnered over 6 million views.
In December 2019, Lingerfelt's third novel, Young Vines was released in book stores world wide. His fourth novel, The Portrait of Samantha Yale, was published in November 2021. If you would like to write James Russell Lingerfelt or book him for a speaking engagement, see Contact above.
(The banner photos on this page track Lingerfelt at 2007, 2010, 2015, and 2021.)
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The Portrait of Samantha Yale
Written By
James Russell Lingerfelt
Reviewed By
Heidi Lynn’s Book Reviews
First, I want to thank James Russell Lingerfelt for providing me with this book so I can bring you this review.
WOW!! The Portrait of Samantha Yale is hands down my ultimate favorite book that James Russell Lingerfelt has ever written. It captivated my attention as he whisked me back to simpler times of high school days. James' story often put a smile on my face, made me giggle, put love in my heart, and shared some very special messages throughout the story. A Portrait of Samantha Yale is a book to add on to your summer TBR list!
The graphic designers did an incredible job with Samantha Yale’s portrait on the cover. However, I did question why they did not post her with famous glasses.
James Russell Lingerfelt is a brilliant storyteller that writes from his own experiences, fantastic with descriptions, and all of his stories are very meaningful. The Portrait of Samantha Yale you can tell his characters and their stories came straight from his heart. I could feel that passion he had for these characters and the beautiful story as I was reading it. He definitely put a smile on my face.
Out of all the books I have read lately Blake and Samantha have become my favorite couple for so many reasons.
You may need a tissue or two as I did tear up at some parts of the book. James threw in a twist that took me by surprise!!
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