IWSG: If I were Queen

 (Reminder: this site is now ONLY my blog. If you're looking for my book links or contact options, events, or any other aspects of my writer life, please visit http://dangerouswhenbored.com )

 

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 July 1 posting of the IWSG are Rebecca Douglass, Ronel Janse van Vuuren, Cathrina Constantine, and Jacqui Murray!

July 1 question - Is there anything you'd like to see changed, added, and/or rearranged about the book publishing industry?

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Hmmm…I guess this is one of those "If I were Queen" kinds of questions, where suddenly I have the power to make sweeping changes. The problem is that I don't want to be queen because I don't know if I know how to fix things. What if I made it worse? 

But if I was going to try, I'd take on the giant (silly little guy with a slingshot that I am): Amazon. 

(leave now if you don't want to hear my anti-big-business rant). 

Indie authors RELY on Amazon. When they first came out with Kindle in 2007, it revolutionized the publishing industry, opening up new pathways to publishing and putting real distribution power in the hands of penny ante folks like me. Without the Kindle revolution, most of us wouldn't be able to get our work into the hands of readers. 

But as often happens as businesses grow and become more powerful (I'm looking at you Google)…it's gotten worse and worse (see: enshittification). 

image source

Amazon killed other bookstore chains (remember Borders?) and made it harder for indie bookstores to keep afloat. What had been a pretty sweet deal for authors got sourer and sourer and every year, with new restrictions and re-stacking the deck to make sure the house always wins. KU page read rates keep going down, making it less and less worth it to participate from the author-side. 

Amazon needs our products, but it doesn't treat as partners. To them, we're another avenue to exploit. So, the very thing that once opened up the world to us has shut down other options. And along the way they stopped being a bookstore and became an AI-driven cesspool full of inferior knock-off products that aren't what you thought you were ordering. 

Have you tried even just FINDING something there lately? Since they switched to AI-driven search, it's like asking your 90 year old aunt with dementia where she left her book. Last time I tried to look up one of my books, I had to type in the title, my first and last name, and change the search drop down to "book" and it still offered me three products that weren't my book above the actual search result. One of them wasn't a book at all. 

(and I feel like puking because I know about data centers and water use and what the environmental impact of all this AI is. I've got enough guilt leftover from my AquaNet days, thanks). 

Selling there is like sailing among pirates in an unarmed rowboat. 

So, when I released my first indie work earlier this year, I knew I didn't want to be beholden to Amazon, even though I knew I'd also need to have my work available there. My work is published widely, so that if any one avenue shuts down, there are always others. 

• Bookshop! My affiliate link pays me an extra commission if you buy from there 
• Curios: a new-to-me platform for direct sales
• Bibliobean Books: an indie bookstore (woman-owned) I consign my romance work with 
• Books2Read aggregators: On my website, I link to as many of the places my books are available as possible, trying to be anywhere readers might look for me.  

Amazon, of course, punishes me for this, making it harder to find my work on their site, making it more difficult to change my prices and run specials, and paying me a smaller cut because I won't give them the whole pie. Good thing this isn't how I pay my mortgage.

And it's hard to get readers to do something less convenient like buying direct from me, downloading from Bookfunnel and transferring a file to their favorite reader. 

Amazon did a really great job making shoppers reliant on them, and now they're pressing that advantage. *ssholes.

So, my current policy is to have my work available there, but funnel people away from them whenever I can, and do my own shopping elsewhere whenever possible, even if I have to pay a little more for it. (The Kobo reader is my favorite right now, and their KU equivalent doesn't require that writers give up the right to sell elsewhere, too).  

So, yeah. This is one Amazon I'd like to raze to the ground. I'll stick to the actual river, jungle, and Wonder Woman. They're all better Amazons.  

 

Ideas Stalk Me

(Reminder: this site is now ONLY my blog. If you're looking for my book links or contact options, events, or any other aspects of my writer life, please visit http://dangerouswhenbored.com )

 

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 June 3 posting of the IWSG are Victoria Marie Lees, Sarah Foster, Natalie Aguirre, and C. Lee McKenzie!

June 3 question - Do most of your story ideas come from one place (the news, dreams, etc.) or do they hit from all over the place?

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Story ideas seem to stalk me. They're EVERYWHERE. Some of them just open up like trap doors and I fall in. Others snatch at my ankles and trip me up when I'm trying to go to the grocery store. A few are responses to things I've seen or read or heard.  The weirder ones just sort of drift in like a cloud and rain on me for a moment. Every idea I have calls up her cousins and invites them to the party, too. Sooooo many ideas. 

image source

 The difficulty for me has never been coming up with ideas, but more in the choosing one and staying focused on it long enough to see it to fruition. I think that's part of why it took me so long to "get serious" about my writing life and start finishing things and ushering them down the whole road into publication. 

These days, I'm getting better at assessing quickly which ideas are "good" in the sense of having enough meat on their bones to make a whole story out of and which ones are more like a shower thought that might make a semi-clever social media post. The ones that are going to make it into short stories or books are persistent. They poke me more than once. That's part of how I know. 

How about you?  

A to Z: Going Indie: J is for Joy!

 

Welcome to Blogging A to Z! My theme this year is Going Indie. I hope you enjoy it. Don't forget to check out the other participating blogs. 

So, here's something I didn't know about Going Indie until I did it--the joy! 

I've been proud of every book I've ever written, and it definitely thrilled my little heart to see my work accepted for publication and made real into a paper book I could hold in my hands!

Me holding my first book, back in 2015

 

But there's something EXTRA EXTRA special about holding that book when you made every decision in it. It's *mine* in a whole different way than those other books were. The credit (or blame) is well and fully mine. And there's really no other word for it. It's a JOY! 

A to Z: Going Indie: I is for In-person events

 

Welcome to Blogging A to Z! My theme this year is Going Indie. I hope you enjoy it. Don't forget to check out the other participating blogs. 

When I started my professional writing life, I wasn't thinking about the non-writing parts of the job. Things like selling my books from tables at book fairs, doing interview on podcasts, networking, publicity…wowzers. There's so much! 

But it didn't take me long to learn that in-person events are an important way a writer can build a relationship with an audience and start to develop a following. So, I embraced it. 

Now, I have accumulated a bunch of gear (a tent, several folding tables, banners, signs, bookstands, etc.) in support of "getting out there" and I use it regularly. Introvert that I am, these events do tire me out, but I've come to look forward to them all the same. 

Me selling my books at Geek and Grub

 

Talking directly to my readers helps me learn how to sell my books. Every book fair is an opportunity to hone the pitch and figure out what part of your book is the hook that will get someone to pick it up and read the back, and maybe even buy it. 

Seeing what other writers do gives me ideas about what I might like to try, too. Sometimes that's getting a better tent that's easier to put up and take down myself just like the one Brittany had. Or learning what specific kind of storage tub is both the right size to hold most books and light enough that I can still carry it (Thansk, Patrick!). Other times, it's learning about individual download codes on Bookfunnel and how I can use those to sell eBook versions of my books at in-person events (Yay! Cassie, you're a genius)!  

A few days ago, I shared my tent at an in-person event with a new author who had never done an event before. She was getting a bit "fluttery" about whether she had all the right things or not, but I reminded her that at the heart, this is very simple. If you bring yourself, your books, and a way to take payment for your books, then you're golden. The rest just makes it better and you can gather it a little at a time.  

Honestly, at this point, I really really enjoy in-person events. A little taste of fame, and an opportunity to connect directly with readers and other writers. It's wonderful.  

A to Z and IWSG: Going Indie: A is for Anticipation

 

I'm such a popular girl today, that I'm invited to TWO parties today: Blogging A to Z and The Insecure Writer's Support Group. 

Luckily for me, my theme for A to Z is writing related (Going Indie!), so I'm going to try to put these together.  

Don't forget to check out the other participating blogs in AtoZ as well as the Insecure Writer's Support Group blog hop and its fabulous hosts today: Melissa Maygrove, Cathrina Constantine, Kate Larkinsdale, and Rebecca Douglass!

So, let's talk about Anticipation. 

the infamous moment in the Rocky Horror Picture Show

 

When it comes to Going Indie in my writing life, I considered it from the beginning, which for me was 2014, when I was shopping around Going Through the Change, which would become my first published novel, to small publishers after having already spent two years querying for another novel to Big 5 publishers. 

But, that was 2014. It was harder then. Not that it's easy now, but information is more widely available, some of the stigma and snobbery has abated, and tools and systems have improved. When I looked at it in 2014, I was daunted. I knew I couldn't manage alongside a teaching job and raising two young children, so I put that idea on the back burner. 

But I never let it go. 

There's so much about indie publishing that appeals to me: being in creative control and exerting greater influence over timing ranking high on the list! 

So, in 2025, when my last contracted novel for Falstaff Books was published, I decided my next project would be indie. 

So, that's what, a decade or so of anticipation? Sooooo worth it, though. Hope you'll join me for the rest of A to Z (a post a day, excepting Sundays, in April) to hear about why.   

IWSG's question is all about music today:

April 1 question - If you have a playlist (or could put one together) that either gets you in the groove to write or fits with one of your books, what is it? What type of music or what songs?

 So, how perfect is it that to build a little anticipation for that first indie book, Not Too Late: A GenX Romance, releasing on April 28, 2026, I've got a playlist of the songs that served as my chapter titles.

 

 

 

If that little preview has you humming along, you can can listen to whole thing on YouTube.  I don't always do playlists for my writing projects, but it was a natural fit for this one, with two GenXers meeting again, 35 years after high school and falling in love. Amanda and Chris definitely have an 80s soundtrack playing under their love story. 

 

Thanks for popping by my blog today! 

Celebrating My Releases: Not Always a Party, an IWSG post

(Reminder: this site is now ONLY my blog. If you're looking for my book links or contact options, events, or any other aspects of my writer life, please visit http://dangerouswhenbored.com )

 

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 March 4 posting of the IWSG are PJ Colando, Ronel Janse van Vuuren, and Natalie Aguirre!

March 4 question - What elements do you include in your book launch? Or what do you have in mind for your future book launch? Or what advice do you have to offer to others planning to launch a book?

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There's been quite a variety of types of book launches in my writing life so far. Some were polished, some fell apart, and some just kind of happened when I wasn't looking. 

When my first book, Going Through the Change, was published the first time in 2015, I arranged for a book launch party at a local indie book store and it was FABULOUS! Lots of family came in from out of town, everyone local in my writing life showed up, and I really felt like a feted celebrity. 

A favorite photo from that day: Me, my daughter and my dad showing our genetics. 

 

I tried something similar for my second book in the series, Change of Life, with a party at my local library through the Friends group. People were super supportive, but my publisher let me down by missing their deadlines and I didn't have any books to sell at my launch party! (sad trombone noise)

So, by the time, the third book, Face the Change, was due out, I was wary…and it was a good thing! Because they missed that deadline, too, and the book was delayed. So, I never really had any formal book launch for that book. I was disheartened. 

It was three more years before the next releases in that series came out.  Rough years with a hassle getting my rights back from the publisher (which was folding), signed on and re-released with the new publisher, and dealing with all my feelings about all of that. (I wrote more about that here if you're interested)

My only launch activities for the re-releases, the novellas (Friend or Foe and The Good Will Tour), the shorts (Through Thick and Thin), the fourth novel (Be the Change), the omnibus of shorts (Agents of Change), and the final novel in the series (Change for the Better) were virtual. 

 

 I *wanted* to have a big event to celebrate finishing the series, but the timing lined up poorly with other parts of life. There was a *lot* going on in summer 2025 and I couldn't find the time and energy to put together any kind of celebration, even though finishing my series was a major landmark in my writing life. 

Some of my short story publications have come with online launch parties--things like zoom parties or Facebook parties. They're kind of fun, and they have the advantage of letting you get people together who aren't geographically convenient to one another. 

As I move into my indie phase, I've taken a different tactic when it comes to my book birthdays. I've been seeking early ARC readers and putting my titles up on NetGalley to try to build a little buzz and have some reviews there on day one. I'm still seeking author events, but I'm more interested in multi-author events and I'm not concerned about whether they line up with release day. I'm planning for the long haul and I know that a book can take off on day one, or on day one hundred and one or day one thousand and one, or never at all--and that a lot of that is outside my control. 

Still, I remember that first launch party with a happy glowing feeling in my heart, so maybe I should think about getting something set up again. We'll see what the future holds.  

 

 

Early Works by Young Samantha: an IWSG post

 

(Reminder: this site is now ONLY my blog. If you're looking for my book links or contact options, events, or any other aspects of my writer life, please visit http://dangerouswhenbored.com )

 

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 February 4 posting of the IWSG are J Lenni Dorner, Victoria Marie Lees, and Sandra Cox!

February 4 question - Many writers have written about the experience of rereading their work years later. Have you reread any of your early works? What was that experience like for you?

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I didn't really start taking my writing life seriously, finishing things, and seeing them into publication until I was in my 40s…so "early works" in that sense is really only a decade or so ago, and while I have grown as a person and a writer in those ten years, it's not startling in the way it might be if I'd been at this longer. 

 I *did* write when I was child and young woman: poetry, essays, short stories. Mostly, when I look back at those, I'm kind of charmed at my child/younger self. Sometimes, it makes me cringe a little to see how directly autobiographical I was…but capturing your own lived experiences and considering what they might mean isn't such a bad place to start in a life of making art. 

Young Samantha and her scribblings led to the Samantha I am now, after all, and I like me and the work I do now, so I can't be too hard on her. :-)

 Somewhere along the line, I learned to be a little less "on the nose" but I do still process all the things that worry, bother, or anger me in my writing. And it still works for me. 

 

2026, The year of living dangerously

 

(Reminder: this site is now ONLY my blog. If you're looking for my book links or contact options, events, or any other aspects of my writer life, please visit http://dangerouswhenbored.com )

 

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 7 posting of the IWSG are Shannon Lawrence, Olga Godim, Jean Davis, and Jacqui Murray!

January 7 question - Is there anything in your writing plans for 2026 that you are going to do that you couldn't get done in 2025?

___________________________________

2025 in my writing life was in some ways a year of endings. 

I finished my Menopausal Superheroes series, which has been my major focus as a writer for the past decade, bringing that vision to a close. The last novel (Change for the Better) came out nearly exactly ten years after the first novel (Going Through the Change), which had a nice feeling of perfect timing. 

I've been on this roller coaster a long time, and while it's been a great ride, I'm excited about moving on to other projects and ideas. 

 

 

 

I've also spent 2025 gearing up for  

2026, the year Samantha goes indie! 

It is both exciting and terrifying. But I feel good about what I've done to get ready to make the leap and try to move my "hobby that pays for itself" writing life into a real business. 

• Incorporated as an LLC (Dangerous When Bored)
• Trademarked my Imprint/Business Name
• Built my new website: http://dangerouswhenbored.com
• Moved my newsletter to Mailerlite 
• Sought education on a variety of publishing topics (Women in Publishing has been SO HELPFUL) 
• Quietly published my first book (Stories from Shadow Hill) under the imprint, mostly to learn how to do this
• learned Vellum for formatting
• learned about various distribution options (I went with Ingram, with a separate upload to Amazon) 
• began learning Canva for promotional image creation 
• Wrote three short GenX romance novels and contracted for editing, cover art, and audiobook production. (The first one is already available for preorder and my proof copy is soooooo pretty)

 

So, 2026 is when it all comes to fruition, and we find out if I can make a go of this. It's a lot to juggle, and has definitely already felt overwhelming. But it's also super-exciting to make all the decisions myself and have more control over timetables and other publishing decisions. 

I'd love to hear from others about your publishing journeys and what you learned along the way…and if GenX romance sounds up your alley, let me know if you're interested in being an ARC reader and one of my early reviewers for release day!  

The Best Gift, an IWSG post

(Reminder: this site is now ONLY my blog. If you're looking for my book links or contact options, events, or any other aspects of my writer life, please visit http://dangerouswhenbored.com )

 

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 December 3 posting of the IWSG are Tara Tyler, Ronel Janse van Vuuren, Pat Garcia, Liza, and Natalie Aguirre!

December 3 question - As a writer, what was one of the coolest/best gifts you ever received?

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Winter Holidays, 2010. We had opened all the packages and were sitting there basking in the glow when my husband announced that there was one more gift. He left the room and came back with a little scroll, then handed it to me. 

When I unrolled it, I found that Sweetman had bought me a writing retreat! I'd be going to Pelican House for a week of quiet and writing. 

 It was quite a gift--not only in the dollar value of the retreat itself, but because it was also a promise to take on the extra labor to grant me the time. He'd be a single dad to our kids (they were nine and two at the time), take care of our house and dog, and leave me free to ignore my part of those responsibilities for a whole week and just focus on my writing!

 It was an amazing show of support.  

That week ended up being really important to my writing life. Not only did I make great progress on the book, but I made friends with a group of supportive women who boosted my confidence and helped me see the value in my work. It did a lot to fight my imposter syndrome and make me feel like this was something I could actually do. 

It's easier to find writing time now. Our kids are older. I changed jobs to something less stressful. I've got better at focusing under less-than-ideal conditions. But the writing space inside my head still looks a lot like the room at the top of the cupola at Pelican House. 

What I thought a writing life was, 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 November 5 posting of the IWSG are Jennifer Lane, Jenni Enzor, Renee Scattergood, Rebecca Douglass, Lynn Bradshaw, and Melissa Maygrove!

November 5 question - When you began writing, what did you imagine your life as a writer would be like? Were you right, or has this experience presented you with some surprises along the way?

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 I "began" writing several different times in my life. 

The first time, I was a child, so I had no idea how money and life in general really worked. I imagined that I'd have a tower room to write in, a horse to ride in the forest, and I could simply dream away every day making up stories. 

Image source

Somewhere along the way, I realized that the likelihood of my ever having the money to afford that life, as a writer or anything else, was low. 

I began again as a college student, when I was around twenty. This version continued into my early thirties. Although I taught for a living, I aspired to be poet. Not just to write poems, but for writing poems to be my vocation. 

image source

I understood it wouldn't make me famous and that I'd need to do something else to make a living by then, but I wanted to write poetry that changed and moved people, poems that got quoted and that I was invited to read at big public events. 

It's hard to pin down why--becoming a mother? different kinds of inspiration? the lure of other artforms?--but I moved away from poetry in my mid thirties, at least with the kind of intensity I brought to it when I was younger. I still write poetry, but it's gotten to be a more private art form for me these days, something I do for myself and not something I write to share. 

The third time I began was in my later thirties. I joined a novel-writing critique group to light a fire under my creativity and help pull myself out of a pretty deep post-partum depression spiral. I had never really considered writing a novel before, and most of those early efforts were pretty terrible, but I kept going. I think part of me thought I could still be Jo March all these years later. 

image source

When I finished my first novel (unpublished, and probably never will be--it was the book I wrote to learn how to write a book), I started to imagine what that kind of writing life would be like. I imagined that having a book accepted for publication would be life-changing and allow me to stop my other money-making pursuits. After all, movies and TV certainly present it that way. 

Now I am really am a novelist, with five of them published, and three more in process for next year. It's up and down so far as what it earns me. I'll have a stellar month with lots of sales and new acceptances, followed by a month or two or three with no flow. 

Though the income and reception may not be steady, I am. I write every day, and I'm always working on something new as soon I've finished a project. At this stage, the writing life I imagine and am building toward is the one that comes with being retired and not being tied to the time and mental space the day job takes up now. I've got a writing life that can easily fill full-time hours…but not the income to allow me to give it full time hours. 

All the same, I never seriously consider giving it up, even when the going gets rough. I can't imagine NOT having a book I'm working on. That would be like not reading, not eating, not breathing, it's so ingrained into my life. My tower room may never become a reality, but I can write one for my characters and it feels almost the same. 

_________________________________________________

PS--unrelated to today's prompt. I've built a new author website through BookBub. You can check it out at http://dangerouswhenbored.com  But it's not going to work for blogging, unless they make some updates, because their blog pages don't include comment functionality. Blogger, where I've been since 2009, is no longer well supported. I'd love suggestions about what to use! Feel free to comment here to to contact me another way (email: samantha at samanthabryant dot com, samanthabwriter on most social media) to give me your suggestions or feedback on my new website!

IWSG: Choosing favorites

 

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 October 1 posting of the IWSG are Beth Camp, Crystal Collier, and Cathrina Constantine!

October 1 question - What is the most favorite thing you have written, published or not? And why?

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 Now that's a doozy of a question isn't it? 

 I mean, if I pick a favorite, am I denigrating the rest of my own work? I love all my book-children and their story-siblings!

 But I think I actually do have an answer: it's a poem. 

Happiness—

that elusive animal,

that fluttery, giddy bird—

can only truly be held

when your chosen love

chooses you.  

Strange how slight butterfly wings

so delicately built

(on trust, on faith, on love)

can make you fly.

I don't generally seek publication for my poetry. Poetry is more something I write for myself and those I love, than something I wrote to share with the world.

That's what makes this one special. I wrote it for my husband when we got engaged. We used it on our wedding announcements. He *glowed* when I showed it to him…and the kiss I got afterwards? (fans self). That's how mushy-sweet we are :-)

 

And here we are quite nearly twenty years later, still flying. 

No AI for me, thanks: IWSG September

 

 

      

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 September 3 posting of the IWSG are Kim Lajevardi, Natalie Aguirre, Nancy Gideon, and Diedre Knight!

September 3 question - What are your thoughts on using AI, such as ChatGPT, Raptor, and others with your writing? Would you use it for research, storybible, or creating outlines/beats?

___________________________________

No thanks. 

I've written about this on my blog before, and I'm honestly pretty tired of talking about it. It's a choice people make, and I choose not to. 

Here are my issues: 

1. Ethics. It's all over the news how AIs were trained on the backs of creators with no permission asked or granted, no payments made, etc. There are class action lawsuits in progress for breach of copyright and other types of theft or piracy committed to train these systems. 

Until they get this figured out and learn how to proceed ethically, I'm out. 

So far, the main use case seems to be exploitation or lazy seeking of shortcuts, at least with generative AI (assistive AI like Grammarly and ProWritingAid is another kettle of fish that doesn't stink nearly as badly). 

 2. Environment: The energy and water usage for AI processing is ridiculous. My brain works with way less fuel and does less damage to the planet. You can run a Samantha on coffee and curiosity for days. AI is much more expensive. 

 3. I don't see the appeal: I write because I enjoy writing. I even enjoy the parts that don't feel fun in the moment and get a real feeling of accomplishment from working my way through problems and figuring them out. 

I'm also enough of a control-freak and see enough stories about AI getting it wrong (how about those completely inaccurate search results, like citing books that don't exist? and the doubling down when called on it?) that I don't trust AI even in support roles because it hallucinates and then I'd have to redo the work anyway to make it useful. 

 So yeah, I'll stick to enjoying AI as a fictional concept. 

Some AI themed books I've recently enjoyed. 

How about you? I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments!
 

 

It's All on Me, It's Scary, and I think I love it, 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 August 6 posting of the IWSG are Ronel Janse van Vuuren, Natalie Aguirre, Sarah - The Faux Fountain Pen, and Olga Godim!

 August 6 question - What is the most unethical practice in the publishing industry? 

___________________________________

I'm ignoring the optional question this month because I want to talk about my adventures in indie publishing so far. See, though I've considered myself a professional writer for ten years now, I'm a complete newbie in indie publishing. All my previous work was trad-published by small publishers. 

My decision not to indie publish up till now was not about snobbery, or even need for validation, but about time. I looked around, saw what all I'd need to handle, got overwhelmed and decided to try for traditional publishing first, so that someone else could handle my editing, layout, cover, etc. 

That experience has bruised and buoyed me in turns. Some of it has been fantastic, and some of it felt like it might be fatal. But that's the way of a life in the arts, methinks.  

But a lot has changed in the past ten years. 

My children are both legal adults now if not fully launched yet. I left teaching, that abusive spouse of a job, for something less soul-swallowing that pays better. 

So I have more time and (a little) more money. 

I've spent ten years learning from the wonderful community of writers, editors, and publishers that surrounds me.  So, I've probably gone from "You know nothing, John Snow" to knowing just enough to be a danger to myself and others. 

So my next project is a trio of short romance novels, all featuring GenX characters, and I've decided to go all indie with this one.  

image source

As of this writing, I'm in process on all three of them. I've contracted an editor and cover artist for all three and I'm working towards spring 2026 for their release, bringing the first of the three out as a birthday gift to myself.  

So far, I've spent about $200 on editing of the first book (I got a friends and family rate--she's worth more than she's charging), $400 on the first book cover, and $250 buying ISBNs. So, $850 so far, and I anticipate at least $700 to get each of the other two books this far. That's no small change, at least not at my income level, but I feel strongly about hiring editing and a cover artist to ensure the best quality book I can produce. 

My intention is to "go wide" by which I mean publish the book through Ingram so that I am not tied to any one particular bookseller like Amazon, Kobo, B&N, etc. Amazon and I are going through a long and protracted divorce because of some of their business practices, so while I do want to make my books available there, I don't want to be trapped into exclusivity with them. Working with Ingram makes my book accessible to libraries and bookstores as well, and that's a serious boon. 

Being in process on all three books at the same time is a little scary, but also pretty exciting, because there's always something I can make progress on. 

I'm finishing drafting the third book, while the second book is out for beta reading and waiting its turn on the editor's desk. Meanwhile, I'm working with the cover artist on the cover for the first book and figuring out all the formatting stuff. There's always something I can move forward on and that's pretty amazing given how much traditional publishing is a waiting game of one kind or another.  

image source

 

All this doesn't mean that I won't traditionally publish anymore. Several of the publishers I've worked with are people I would happily work with again and if a big five publisher wanted to give me a shot, I'd take it. But at the same time, doing this all myself feels like a level-up and I'm really energized. 

This feels like the right time of my life to become a hybrid author. I've got more time than I've had previously, enough money for the initial investment, a good base of knowledge about what's actually required (I'm sure there will still be surprises), contacts and a support network when I need advice, and a little footprint out there already from my traditionally published work that might help my visibility.  

I guess we'll find out a few months from now how and if the books sell and how I feel about it all on the other side of things, but it seems a risk worth taking.  

Next, I need to figure out audiobook versions, but I don't think I'm quite ready for that part yet. 

If you're writing with intentions to publish, or already publishing, what route is yours? Why? I'd love to hear about it in the comments!  

 

 

 

 

New-to-me genres, 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 July 2 posting of the IWSG are Rebecca Douglass, Natalie Aguirre, Cathrina Constantine, and Louise Barbour!

This month's question:

July 2 question - Is there a genre you haven't tried writing in yet that you really want to try? If so, do you plan on trying it?  

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I love trying out new genres, themes, styles, etc. For me, that's some of the joy of writing: going "I've never done that before, so let's go!" 

 

I'm in the middle of writing my first romances right now and it's a BLAST! After finishing my Menopausal Superhero series last year, I found that really wanted new project energy. So instead of returning to one of my back-burner projects, I decided I'd write romances featuring women in their 50s finding love: GenX romances. 

 

The first one is off for editing now and I'm nearly done prepping the second one for editing, then I'm back to finish drafting the third one. 

 

What will I do after that? I think I'll go back to the Gothic I started a couple of years back. 

 

Often, when I want to try out a new genre, I write a short story first. It lets me play with something new at a lower commitment (in time, energy, etc.) than taking on a novel. It's been fun, and it's really built my catalogue since I've gotten 24 of them published in anthologies over the past ten years.

 

 

 

There's a lot of horror in that list (I LOVE writing short horror), but there's also urban fantasy, literary fiction, women's fiction, alt-history, fantasy, science fiction, weird, ghost, romance, fable/fairytale, and dystopian in there, especially since crossover genre is a real thing and you can end up with a weird urban fantasy alt-history with romantic elements and have to ask yourself what genre it is. 

 

I haven't yet written any steampunk. Besides the Gothic, I've also got a historical women's fiction trilogy I'd like to get back to and finish, and well as a young adult fantasy. I've never written a thriller or a mystery. OOOOH, maybe a western would be fun. I love to read weird westerns, so writing one would probably be even more fun. 

 

So far, I don't have much interest in writing straight up realistic fiction or military scifi, but otherwise, there isn't much I'm not interested in trying. Trying on new genres is a delight. 

 

How about you? Are you a genre-hopper as a reader or writer? Or do you have favorite lanes to swim in?  

Foundational Books, 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 June 4 posting of the IWSG are PJ Colando, Pat Garcia, Kim Lajevardi, Melisa Maygrove, and Jean Davis!

This month's question:

June 4 question - What were some books that impacted you as a child or young adult?

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There's something special about books you read in childhood and young adulthood, isn't there? The root they take in your heart and mind is deeper and stronger than things you read in other phases of life (at least that's how it's gone for me). 

 

I've written about this before, in particular about revisiting those books as an adult--it can be fraught, because sometimes those works don't hit the same way when you read them with more experience under your belt, and you see unsavory things that sailed past you as a child. 

 

So a few books that have stayed important to me: 

 

Shirley Jackson's We Have Always Lived in the Castle. I first read this when I was 12 or so years old, and it was a revelation. After years and years of "good" and "nice" girls, here was an unreliable, weird, and dangerous young woman narrator. Witchy and wild, and judgmental about the people in the town. 

As the story evolved and I learned more about her family history and her past actions, my heart started beating faster. It felt *transgressive*, like I was getting away with reading something subversive, and that has stayed a part of me every since, both in what I like to read and what I write. 

I still read at least part of this book nearly every October, and it still works for me every single time. If pressed to choose a "favorite book of all time," this is often my choice. 

I did also like fine, upstanding characters…not just the misfits and miscreants. In elementary school, (maybe 3rd or 4th grade?) I plowed through TONS of Nancy Drew books. Some of them had been my mother's and my grandmother's. Others came from the library (the bookmobile ladies would hide them under the seat for me so they'd still be available when they got to my stop). 

So, I saw a few different versions of Nancy--her looks and details changed across her reboots. One version of her had an eidetic memory, which I found almost as fascinating as ESP and really hoped I would develop. 

Nancy was independent and smart and kind, and her father trusted her to take care of herself, even in risky situations. She had wonderful and supportive friends, too. I LOVED that, and I'm still attracted to stories that give the characters agency and skill. 

I haven't read a Nancy Drew since childhood, but she still gets a piece of my heart. 

Another foundational mythology for me was Grimm's Fairy Tales. I had a lot of versions of these--the ones my German great-grandmother would tell me from memory, good old Disneyfications, and various tellings and retellings from illustrated volumes. 

I especially loved all the ones about clever girls escaping harm and rescuing those around them. "The Feather Bird," "The Old Woman in the Wood," "The Twelve Brothers," "The Robber Bridgeroom," and of course, "Hansel and Gretel" (honestly, Gretel's name should go first).  

Childhood can be a time of feeling helpless and small, even when you have a relatively safe, secure, and loving family. So, these stories of girls who were underestimated proving that they do indeed have what it takes? Yeah. That still works for me.

So, if you find me and my work subversive, feminist, and a little feral? Well, it's not my fault. Blame Merricat, Nancy, and Gretel. They helped make me who I am. 

I still LOVE reading, but now I'm a writer and a well-educated critically-thinking adult…so I analyze while I read in a different way than I did when I was only looking to lose myself in a story. That said, I feel like I'm developing a whole new set of foundational books as a writer. They feed and inspire me in entirely different ways. I may have to follow up with a post about those--the books that are making me now. 

How about you? What books made you who you are? I'd love to hear about it in the comments. 

 

What Writers Fear: 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 May 7 posting of the IWSG are Feather Stone, Janet Alcorn, Rebecca Douglass, Jemima Pett, and Pat Garcia!

This month's question:

May 7 question - Some common fears writers share are rejection, failure, success, and lack of talent or ability. What are your greatest fears as a writer? How do you manage them?

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This is an interesting question because I don't have a ready answer. 

 

Rejection? I'm not especially afraid of rejection--I find that the more I submit my work, the less an individual rejection hurts, and plenty of rejections have helped me by making me re-examine the work and improve it. (I have a goal this year of submitting my work 100 times in 2025 and I've already done 47, and collected 22 rejections and 2 sales so far).

 

Failure? Success? Failure and success are only partly up to me, and I've accepted that some of that is out of my control. I have hopes, but not really fears about this. I work to make my writing as strong and meaningful as it can be, and seek opportunities to get it in front of readers, but I don't drive myself crazy wondering if I'll ever make a million bucks or anything like that.

 

Lack of talent or ability? I believe in my own talent and ability, more often than I don't. (I read somewhere that a writer needs a mixture of humility and chutzpah to make it, and I always try to cultivate that balance). 

 

So what does scare me as a writer?

 

Maybe, running out of time? I have SO MANY ideas for stories, projects, series, poems, essays, books, etc. Some of them are started; others I've seen to fruition; and lots and lots of them are waiting for their moment in the sun when they become the "main project" and get my full focus. 

 

I just had a birthday--number 54, if you're wondering--and if I follow the pattern of women in my family, that gives me about 35 more years on this side of the soil. I can only take care of myself and hope that I get all 35 years and that I get them in sound mind and body that lets me continue to create. (so there's a second sub-fear: losing my cognitive or physical abilities and being unable to write).

 

That makes me a little driven. Unwilling to "waste" time. Sometimes it makes me resentful of other responsibilities (like the day job) because those are hours that could be spent developing all these ideas. 

 

So far as fears go, it's not debilitating. Just sort of …motivating. How about you? Do fears hold you back in your creative life? I'd love to hear about in the comments.  

 

 

 

 

Fantasy Friends: Xiala of Between Earth & Sky, an IWSG post AND AtoZ challenge!

 

      

This is quite the Wednesday! Not only is it the first Wednesday of the month (time for the Insecure Writer's Support Group blog hop), it's also April 2nd, which means it's time for letter B in the AtoZ blogging challenge. I couldn't figure out how to meld the two of these, so you get them both: 

Insecure Writer's Support Group:

Our Twitter handle is @TheIWSG and hashtag is #IWSG. The awesome co-hosts for the April 2 posting of the IWSG are Jennifer Lane, L Diane Wolfe, Jenni Enzor, and Natalie Aguirre!

This month's question:

 

April 2 question - What fantasy character would you like to fight, go on a quest with, or have a beer/glass of wine with?

__________________________________________

 

I'm going to pick a recent favorite for all three: Tiala of Rebecca Roanhorse's Between Earth & Sky trilogy: 

 

 

 

image source

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is a pretty new series. Black Sun was a finalist for all the big specfic awards in 2020 and Mirrored Heavens just came out last year. It's an epic fantasy story that pulls from Native American mythologies in the world-building. The main two characters are Serapio, the Crow God incarnate, and Xiala (pronounced SHE-ah-lah), a Teek woman. 

 

The Teek in this series are a matriarchal society renowned for their song, which can be used to magically influence and control others. The Teek put me in mind of Sirens, Mermaids, and Banshees, among other dangerous song-women of world mythologies, with a touch of Amazons, too. 

 

Throughout the book, we learn a lot about the people and what other kinds of people believe about them. I won't spoil it for you by giving too much detail here, but it's fascinating! In fact, the world-building alone is well worth the price of admission in this series.

 

If I recall correctly, Xiala is in jail when we meet her at the beginning of book one because she assaulted a husband who walked in on her and his wife when they were "getting busy." She's a hard-drinking foul-mouthed, "live life to the fullest" woman, exiled from her people for reasons you don't learn until later. She's magical, and on a journey of self-discovery through a life of piracy, debauchery, and alcoholism. 

 

Here's some images of her as imagined by Peri Celeste:  

 

image source

I probably couldn't keep up with her at the bar, but maybe I could get away with sipping my whiskey slowly while she pounds it back and listen with rapt fascination to her stories, both the true ones and the exaggerations. And if I had to go on a quest, she'd make a powerful ally. As for fighting her? No way. I value my life higher than that. 

 

Now, would she want to hang out with me? I dunno. Maybe if I promised to immortalize her in story and song, she'd put up with a physically week, lightweight drinker for a while. One can dream!

 

Blogging from A to Z April Challenge:  

B is for Bidi Bidi Bom Bom

 

So, if you tuned in yesterday for my Songs of my Heart post, you heard Aha Me a Riddle I Day, by Laura Love. I swear not all the songs I picked have a seemingly nonsense phrase for the title. It's just a coincidence of the alphabet that these two are in a row.    

For others visiting my blog, this is a fun challenge, where we all post 26 times in April, one time for each letter of the alphabet, often on a theme. I hope you'll check out some of the other participating blogs!

 

(if my embedded video doesn't work, listen here)

 

Selena Quintanilla Perez was the Queen of Tejano music in the early 1990s, right as I was moving into adulthood and becoming a Spanish teacher. As a person who didn't grow up speaking Spanish, but learned it in classrooms, music was often really hard for me to understand--definitely harder than spoken Spanish. But I could do pretty well with Selena. And it didn't hurt that she recorded some serious bops!

I still remember dancing to this one in my classroom with my students in Nome, Alaska and laughing until we cried. 

If Selena had not died tragically young (she was killed by the president of her fan club), she and I would be of an age, so she's special to me for that reason, too.  

Lyrics in Spanish from azlyrics and in English from lyricstranslate. (Bidi bidi bom bom doesn't exactly mean anything--it's just sort of sounds, representing the heartbeat, so it's the same in both versions)

Bidi bidi bom bom Bidi bidi bom bom Cada vez, cada vez que lo veo pasar Mi corazon se enloquece Y me empieza a palpitar Y se emociona, ya no razona No lo puedo controlar Y se emociona, ya no razona Y me empieza a cantar Me canta asi Bidi bidi bom bom Bidi bidi bom bom Bidi bidi bidi bidi bidi bom bom Bidi bidi bidi bidi bidi bom bom Cada vez, cada vez que lo oigo hablar Me tiemblan hasta las piernas Y el corazon igual Bidi bidi bom bom Y se emociona, ya no razona No lo puedo controlar Y se emociona, ya no razona Y me empieza a cantar Me canta asi Bidi bidi bom bom Bidi bidi bom bom Bidi bidi bidi bidi bidi bom bom Bidi bidi bidi bidi bidi bom bom Cuando escucho esta canción Mi corazon quiere cantar así Me canta así, me canta a ti Cada vez que lo veo pasar Mi corazon se enloquece Cada vez que lo veo pasar Y me empieza a palpitar Así, así Bidi bidi bom bom Bidi bidi bom bom Bidi bidi bidi bidi bidi bom bom Bidi bidi bidi bidi bidi bom bom Bidi bidi bom bom Bidi bidi bom bom Me canta asi, me canta a ti Cada vez que lo veo pasar Bidi bidi bom bom Bidi bidi bom bom Bidi bidi bidi bidi bidi bom bom Bidi bidi bidi bidi bidi bom bom

Bidi bidi bom bom Bidi bidi bom bom Every time, Every time I see him pass My heart goes crazy And it starts to beat And it get excited, It doesn't reason anymore I can't control it And it get excited,It doesn't reason anymore and it starts to sing to me It sings to me like this Bidi bidi bom bom Bidi bidi bom bom Bidi bidi bidi bidi bidi bom bom Bidi bidi bidi bidi bidi bom bom Every time, Every time I hear him speak My legs tremble And my heart too Bidi bidi bom bom And it get excited, It doesn't reason anymore I can't control it And it get excited,It doesn't reason anymore and it starts to sing to me It sings to me like this Bidi bidi bom bom Bidi bidi bom bom Bidi bidi bidi bidi bidi bom bom Bidi bidi bidi bidi bidi bom bom When I hear this song My heart wants to sing like this It sings to me like this, I sing to you Every time, Every time I see him pass My heart goes crazy Every time I see him pass And it starts to beat Like this, like this Bidi bidi bom bom Bidi bidi bom bom Bidi bidi bidi bidi bidi bom bom Bidi bidi bidi bidi bidi bom bom   Bidi bidi bom bom Bidi bidi bom bom It sings to me like this, I sing to you Every time I see him pass   Bidi bidi bom bom Bidi bidi bom bom Bidi bidi bidi bidi bidi bom bom Bidi bidi bidi bidi bidi bom bom

Please check out the April Blogging from A to Z Challenge
#AtoZChallenge
a-to-zchallenge.com