Sandy Sams said it was partly through her own personal experiences that she came up with the idea to write a book about a prostitute and a nun switching roles in life.

Sams, a 1990 University alumna, is the author of “Celestial Desire,” a novel which explores female sexuality and spirituality.

“I was spiritually and emotionally growing at the time,” said Sams, explaining why she chose to write the novel. “Both of those women in the book are an expression of my growth in some way.”

The 282-page novel, which chronicles the story of a prostitute who crosses paths with a nun and switches roles with her to learn more about herself, was published in May, but it’s taken Sams awhile to get where she is today.

After completing her degree in romance languages at the University, Sams held positions at the Athens-Clarke County Library, Disney World and Air Tran Airways. But, she then found a passion for mental health counseling and went back to school to complete her master’s degree in professional counseling at Georgia State University.

After obtaining her master’s degree, she began writing her first published novel.

“At the time, I only had to work four days a week,” Sams said.

“So, I worked on it during the weekend, and sometimes when I had downtime at work.”

Although the work is fiction, Sams’s inspiration came from the reality of her own life.

Sams even drew some of the background for the novel from a study abroad experience she did in France when she was a student at the University.

“I was doing some counseling of my own, and I was having some issues in my marriage, so it was my way of coming to grips with the things I was going through,” said Sams, who now works as an adolescent behavioral counselor in Florida.

Although the first people to read the novel were her mother and a co-worker, Sams said she was slightly uncomfortable when her first published book was released to the public.

“When it was very first published, I felt exposed because even though it’s the work of fiction, there’s a lot of non-fiction and personal experiences that come into play,” she said.

And after the initial uncertainty of having others read her work wore off, Sams began reading book reviews online to gauge public opinion of her writing.

“It is nice to get feedback from other people because you never know if it is as good as you think it is until you hear from other people,” Sams said. “So it is really encouraging to hear that other people liked it too.”

But, Sams said publishing a novel comes with several challenges, such as covering the costs of the publishing process.

“Another challenge is that now I have a more demanding job, so it’s really difficult for me to have enough time to get the marketing done,” Sams said.

Sams visited the Classic City during the weekend to hold a book signing at the Borders on Alps Road and at the Madison County Library.

She said people interested in obtaining a copy of her book, “Celestial Desire,” can visit Borders, where there are still several copies of a signed version.

As for the future, Sams hopes to open her own private practice as a therapist while continuing to write books.

However, she’s not just looking for fame and money.

She said unlike many authors, she is driven to write novels because of internal incentives.

“Everyone dreams about being published and being a best-selling author, but that wasn’t my motivation,” she said.

“My motivation was to do it for myself.”