My favorite artist, an open book blog hop post

 

Welcome to Open Book Blog Hop. You can find us every Monday talking about the writing life. I hope you'll check out all the posts: you'll find the links at the bottom of this post.

Who is your favorite visual artist?
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Sorry, y'all. I can't pick. My favorite on any given day is the one that feeds the part of my soul that was hungry, and that's different on different days. 

So far as big, museum-famous artists, I love Francisco Goya, Frida Kahlo, Johannes Vermeer, and Auguste Rodin, among others. I'm more likely to get stuck on a particular work than all the work by a particular artist. For example, my favorite Van Gogh isn't any of his most famous ones, but a strange one that is part of the Cincinnati Art Museum's collection: Undergrowth with Two Figures. 

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That's my "hometown" art museum, so I've spent a lot of time staring at this particular wooded scene trying to decide if the people are ghosts, or if their semi-transparent appearance is more an optical illusion created by the lush undergrowth and the trees. I like that I never could decide. 

There are also quite a few artists in my life. People I know personally and love, whose work adorns my walls. From my father-in-law, who made his living as an artist, to my mother who studied photography, to neighbors, to convention buddies, to a college friend (Mark Davis) who sold me his cool octopus painting at a bargain rate because I wanted it badly, to a local guy (Wes Flanary) who painted The Gill Man and sold the work to my husband as a holiday gift for me. 

Honestly, I need more walls. I'm running out of space to hang the art that charms and inspires me. 

So, no, I don't have a single favorite artist, but I'm grateful they're all out there making wonderful things. Who's on your list?

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Knowledge is power, an open book blog hop post

 

 

Welcome to Open Book Blog Hop. You can find us every Monday talking about the writing life. I hope you'll check out all the posts: you'll find the links at the bottom of this post.

What new learning do you have on your list for the upcoming year?
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I've got big plans to release my first all-indie project in 2025, so I'm guessing I'll be learning a lot, including some things that I don't know I don't know yet. 

 

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But I know I'll be learning:

• to wrangle Vellum software for book layout
• how best to hire a book cover done
• the whole ISBN business
• how to understand my metrics for sales
• marketing for a new genre

So I'm hoping to learn a LOT of new writing-life skills in 2025. 

In other parts of my life, I'm hoping to learn:

• more about how all our household electronics systems work so I can troubleshoot for myself instead of always bugging Sweetman about it.  
• New recipes! I stay interested in cooking by always trying new things
• The secret to sleeping well 
• more about parenting adult children as my youngest crosses that threshold this year

How about you? What do you hope to learn this year? 

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Going off-roading, an open book blog hop post

 

Welcome to Open Book Blog Hop. You can find us every Monday talking about the writing life. I hope you'll check out all the posts: you'll find the links at the bottom of this post.

How do you deal with a change in ideas halfway through your book? Or do you save it for a sequel?
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Well, I'm a "pantser" as they call it--meaning that I don't work from an outline, but just free-form it in my writing life. So, there darn well better be some new ideas halfway through the book or I'll stay stalled forever! 

I have, however, had an unexpected twist--where I really thought the story or characters were going one direction and suddenly, a left turn at Albuquerque. That's what I think this prompt is getting at: when you had one plan, but the story or character seems to have other ideas.

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When that happens, I usually follow the new inspiration, at least for a while. Sometimes I end up writing a few different versions of events before I settle on the one that really serves the needs of the story. I keep all the versions, just in case I want to explore another one or use part of an abandoned section in another story sometime.

It's probably not the most efficient method for creation, but it is the one that works for me. How about you? Do you make a plan and stick with it in your creative endeavors? Or do you go with the flow, even when it ends up being a dead end? I'd love to hear about it in the comments. 

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Free to Write Anything, so What's Next?, an IWSG post

 

      

Welcome to the first Wednesday of the month. You know what that means! It's time to let our insecurities hang out. Yep, it's the Insecure Writer's Support Group blog hop. If you're a writer at any stage of career, I highly recommend this blog hop as a way to connect with other writers for support, sympathy, ideas, and networking. If you're a reader, it's a great way to peek behind the curtain of a writing life.

Our Twitter handle is @TheIWSG and hashtag is #IWSG. The awesome co-hosts for the January 8 posting of the IWSG are Rebecca Douglass, Beth Camp, Liza @ Middle Passages, and Natalie @ Literary Rambles!

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I turned in the final novel in the Menopausal Superheroes series in 2024, for publication in 2025!

 

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Of course, I'm completely jazzed about that and I can't wait for readers to finish this journey with me (balloons, confetti, shouting in the streets!). 

 

Going Through the Change came out in 2015, so that means I'm starting 2025 with no writing deadlines to meet for the first time in ten years.

 

Okay, I'll still have editing deadlines to meet, but so far as the new projects I take on and the new words I create? They could be …anything! Which is wonderful and a little terrifying. 

 

See before I landed that first book contract, my big struggle as a writer was discipline--staying focused on a single project and seeing it to fruition without wandering off to explore the new shiny idea poking at my subconscious. But I respond very well to external deadlines. That little bit of external pressure calms the brain weasels. They take "no" for an answer when that "no" came from someone else, like John, my publisher. 

 

I mean, he does look kind of intimidating, doesn't he?

 

 

So, I worried that, once I didn't have a deadline hanging over my head, I'd founder. 

But, guess what? I haven't!

Since I turned in that novel, I've written a novella and a half of an intended set of three novellas that I plan to publish as my first all-indie project. In fact, I've been energized with that "new project energy" and creating at a faster pace than I have in years (ask John about all that deadline renegotiation we've gone through over the past couple of years). 

 

These are a whole new genre for me. My published work so far is the Menopausal Superheroes series, and a lot of dark-leaning short fiction. In fact, my author banner for events currently says: Samantha Bryant, Half-Hero, Half-Horror. 

 

Me selling my books at Splatterflix at the Carolina Theatre in Durham

 

These new novellas, though? Romance! 

A friend of mine from Women's Fiction Writers Association, Stella Fosse, wrote a how-to book about writing and publishing romances featuring older characters. I read and blurbed it for her--the connections to my own work with Menopausal Superheroes seemed obvious!

While I was reading, I had an idea…actually I had three ideas. And now, I'm off exploring an new-to-me genre and having a great time. My working titles: Not Too Late, a second chance Gen-X romance about a woman returning to her hometown and reconnecting with a boy she knew in high school; Acid Reign, a one-night-stand turns to love about an 80s punk star finding love with a local politician; and Skinny Jeans for Fat Girls, the idea for which is still just a nugget, so we'll see. But all three will feature women in their 50s finding love.

 

So that's what next for me! After that? Well, I've got several back burner projects I'd like to get back to, and a collection of short stories I never finished putting together, so there's a world of possibility out there. 

How about you? What's on the horizon for you in 2025? What are you excited about? I'd love to hear about it in the comments.

 

 

The Best Thing in 2024, an open book blog hop post

 

 

Welcome to Open Book Blog Hop. You can find us every Monday talking about the writing life. I hope you'll check out all the posts: you'll find the links at the bottom of this post.

What was the best thing that happened to you in 2024 (writing or otherwise)? The worst?
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2024 was a landmark year in my writing life because I wrapped up The Menopausal Superheroes series of novels--the work of 10 years! Getting to "the end" was a whole different ball game when it wasn't just the end of a book, but the end of an entire series, but I'm really happy with how I wrapped it all up. 

4 novels, 2 novellas, and the shorts. The series so far.

 

It's with my publisher now and we expect to bring it out in June of 2025, so soon you'll be able to find out how it all concludes. 

And now that it's done, I feel so excited about all my new projects. I'm writing a trio of romance novellas right now that I look forward to bringing out as my first all-indie project. 

So how did 2024 treat you in your endeavors? Any big wins? Anything you're glad is over? I'd love to hear about it in the comments!

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