I’m Sarah Mandell, author of Celia on the Run and the soon-to-be released Two Brothers, One Redhead, and a Stolen Giraffe. I’m also a professionally trained artist and work as an interior designer in the field of commercial architecture.  My small indie craft business called Once Again Sam used to be nothing more than a creative side hobby, but is now a thriving full time business where I make recycled leather jewelry and quirky fiber art for my online store and local shops & galleries. It’s fair to say I live to create. I would rather write a bittersweet story, design a new leather cuff, or needle felt a realistic-looking cactus out of wool fiber than eat or sleep.

The upstate of South Carolina is where I currently reside with my husband Josh, who makes me laugh like no other, but I grew up in Maryland for the most part. Before age twenty, I had traveled thousands and thousands of miles thanks to frequent and fantastic family road trips. As an only child, having all that time in the back seat of the car while quietly watching the world go by gave me a lot of practice using my imagination. That’s where my first interaction with art and fiction occurred – in my head, not in books.

In 2005, I graduated from Maryland Institute College of Art with a Bachelor of Fine Art in Environmental Design, where my love of architecture, furniture design, textiles and photography flourished, but I didn’t discover my favorite medium, creating with words, until my late twenties.

My handmade jewelry and what I like to call “Felted Curiosities” can be found at www.onceagainsam.com.