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.
Chat with readers about a childhood event that still sticks out in your mind, something you'd like to go through again.
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Life feels pretty busy, hectic even, here in my fifties. I'm sandwiched between elder care and youth care, with my mother-in-law facing some mobility issues and my youngest kiddo learning to navigate life with EDS (Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, an auto-immune condition that affects strength and stamina).
Even though I left teaching a few years ago, it sometimes feels like every hour of my day is spent in service to others. I do it out of love, but that doesn't mean it's not wearing.
So, I think I'd most like to go back to one of those seemingly endless summer days when I actually had time to get bored and felt like I had nothing to do. Maybe an afternoon sprawled out on the floor in the livingroom with a pile of comic books we'd just picked up at the local used book store spread out around me, enjoying a little snack plate my Mom provided before she also flopped down to read. We can just sit there for a while, reading companionably together.
Sounds pretty darn good about now.
How about you? Something in your childhood you'd like to revisit, experience again? I'd love to hear about it in the comments!
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.
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.
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:
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:
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!
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
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.
Write a letter to your readers. ______________________
Dear Readers,
Thank you! It means so much to me that you have been willing to spend time and money engaging with my imaginary friends and me. While I love writing, and would probably still write at some level even if no one ever read it, having an audience is very motivating and keeps me going when I struggle.
That writer-reader connection is magic--reaching across space and time and finding someone who picks up what you're putting down? (or when I'm the reader--finding someone who articulate the truths of my heart and lifts me out of my woes with wonderful stories and imaginative characters) Wowzers. Powerful stuff.
I hope you're enjoying the ride! You're already doing me a favor by giving my work a chance, but if you're up to help even further, I can always use more reviews for my books and that even-more-valuable word of mouth recommendation to your reading friends. Making any kind of living from art is difficult, so anything that increases visibility of my work is a boon.
In the meantime, I'm working hard to bring you lots of new things to read and I hope you'll enjoy them when I get them out there in the world. You rock!
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.
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.
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.
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's the best line you've written recently? Or ever? ______________________
It is a lovely feeling to re-read your work and find lines that make you feel a bit of pride and accomplishment. It's fun to look for those jewels, moment that are beautifully crafted or emotionally resonant, and that will help attract readers to your work. I often pull them for use in ad campaigns or newsletters or social media posts.
Honestly, those sparkling little moments feel like magic and they're a big part of why I write. They give me a sort of glowing feeling.
My work-in-progress right now is a trio of Gen X romances I plan to release as my first fully indie projects. I've just finished re-writing the first one, working title Not Too Late.
Here's a line I'm proud of from that one:
A firetruck flew up the avenue, but Chris didn’t get out of bed to see which way it was going. He was far more concerned about a much older flame and whether he was the one who would end up getting burned.
It's an important moment in the romance, establishing Chris's character and his feelings on having his one-time crush come back into his life all these years later. I felt clever, using the firetruck to lead into the flame metaphor as applied to love.
When I'm reading, I also look for these kinds of lines--quotable bits, insights that really hit home. I highlight them (in my kindle edition) or copy them into notebooks, and if I ever want to tell someone why I love a book, that's where I go first.
How about you? Are you drawn to quote-able lines? What kinds of moments in a book (one you've read or written) glow brightly for you?
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's the best book you've read this year (besides your own)? ______________________
I try to read about a book a week every year. At this writing, late November, I have read 64 books (see below for the entire list). I'm pretty good at choosing books that I will enjoy--after 50ish years as a reader, I know what I like. So, most of these are books I very honestly gave 4 or 5 stars to.
I'm always a mood reader, with the exception of promises made to book clubs or folks I promised to review, and my taste ran dark this year. I went on a T. Kingfisher binge and read 12 of her books this year. I revisited some established horror favorites like Grady Hendrix, Silvia Moreno-Garcia, and Gabino Iglesias.
I read a lauded and admired fantasy with dragons, and the final installment of a series I have loved. I picked up a couple of books by friends and a few things I can't even remember how I learned about them.
So, it's been a great reading year.
Picking a favorite…
I'm not good at that. So, I guess I'll tell you what my favorite one is today. But you should know that if you ask me tomorrow, I might give a different answer.
It's a fairy tale, in the tradition of the Brothers Grimm, but isn't a straight-up retelling of any particular fairy tale. It's also a story about escaping bad situation, perseverance and resilience, and found family. Grimm fairy tales were some of my first loves in the world of story, and I love the way Kingfisher pulled out all I loved about those stories and made something new from it. Bonus points for a having one of the heroines be a "woman of a certain age."
How about you? What did you read that was wonderful this year? I'd love to hear about it in the comments!
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.
Do you have any favorite quotes about writing? ______________________
I love reading about writing. It's always interesting to me to learn about what processes other writers follow, especially if I admire their work. So, there are a BUNCH of great quotes about writing rattling around in my brain, but I'll stick to just two of them for this post:
Toni Morrison wrote some of my favorite books. Beloved broke my heart and scared me at the same time. I also loved The Bluest Eye and Sula. But you know what? She never wrote about Menopausal Superheroes and I wanted to read that, so I took her advice and I wrote it. At the most basic level, this is why I write what I write: I am my own intended audience. I'm writing what I want to read.
EM Forster might be best known for the opulent Merchant Ivory films made of his books: Howard's End, A Room With a View, A Passage to India and the like. They are fascinating for the way they capture a moment in time, and encapsulate class issues and explore humanistic themes.
I don't remember where I first ran across this quote from him, but when I read it, it was like lightning in my brain. "Yes! Just like that!" I thought. Story is my major coping and processing mechanism in life. Whatever I'm going through or thinking about, writing is going to be part of how I pull myself through and get to the other side of it. This quote captures that feeling for me of needing that step back, that opportunity to listen to the still, small voice within, and dialogue with my own subconscious on the page in order to clarify my thinking and understand my heart's desires.
So there are two of my favorites. What quotes have you run across that speak to your ideas about creativity? I'd love to hear about them in the comments!
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.
Stolen from an X (Twitter) post: Which genre do you think ghosts prefer: mystery, thriller, horror, fairytale, or magical realism? ______________________
What a fun question!
The answer might depend on your beliefs/philosophy about ghosts themselves and what exactly they are. After all, fiction gives us quite a range of ghosts.
Some of them are basically the same person they were they were alive, just transparent and unchanging now. In some stories, they don't even know they are dead.
Some of them are more like an echo of who they once were, trapped in a small moment, reliving it over and over. I'm not sure they can even interact with the world.
Some of them are malevolent--poltergeists, vengeful spirits, and the like.
I'm thinking that the only types of ghosts who read are that first type: the ones that are still who they always were, just dead now. And for those guys, I bet they read whatever they liked when they were alive. Though it is fun to imagine that, once freed from the limits of the mortal coil, like a need for sleep or to earn money, a ghost could just wander the library reading anything and everything.
Heck! Maybe this is my chance to actually read everything in my TBR!
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.
October 2 question - Ghost stories fit right in during this month. What's your favorite classic ghostly tale? Tell us about it and why it sends chills up your spine.
__________________________________________
I adore ghost stories. I could probably list a top 10 and still have dozens of favorites left to list. But the one that lives in my heart is Jane-Emily by Patricia Clapp.
I first read this one when I was pretty young, an older child or younger teenager, so that's part of it--books that you read at that age imprint on your soul differently because you don't have wider experience and so many things get to the first one of their kind in your life.
I've read it many times since, and it still delights me every time.
It's got everything: an atmospheric old house, mysterious family history, an evil child, and even romance. Honestly, this book explains a lot about me. To this day, I am suspicious of gazing balls in gardens. This is probably why one of my upcoming projects is a Gothic romance, too.
How about you? Do you love to read spooky stories? Tell me about them and add to my spooky season TBR!
