Samantha B. Cummings's Blog

Beyond Hogwarts: Essential World-Building Elements for Modern Magical Schools.

The Stepping Stone to Something Darker

When we think of a magical school, Hogwarts is the default mental blueprint—I can categorically say this since I recently rel...

5 Tropes the Best Dark Academia Novels Always Get Right

Why We’re Obsessed with Dark Academia

The appeal of Dark Academia isn't just about tweed and late night rituals; it’s about the inherent conflict between the pursui...

Another year older and all that June has to offer…

May was a quiet month for me - after finishing up the last of the edits on Curse of the Wild and sending the manuscript to my brilliant formatter, and nailing the book cover with my designer, I have to admit; I took time off.

I can’t say what I did - I read, cooked, walked a lot, and played video games for hours. Spent sunny afternoons in my allotment trying to dig up all the weeds and constantly feeling like I was failing, all the while, feeling full to the brim with excitement that CotW was rol...

Curse of the Wild - synopsis

Lucy never intended to leave her pack. Family was everything when you were born and raised a werewolf, but when her younger sister turned Wild and received a death penalty for the untreatable disease by the Alpha’s of the pack—their parents—she disappears. Now it’s up to Lucy and her older sister June to find Cassie and try to save her life.

Following a trail of dead animals across the country, the girls land in a dusty desert town where everyone seems to hate them, and secrets and drama hide aro...

Jan-April Wrap Up!

It’s May… how is it May?

As I baffle at the ever speeding time as it whips past me, dragging the year with it, let me also marvel at the progress I made with all of my projects.

If you remember, I wrote a rough guide to how I was planning out my writing year in a previous post. As I split the year up into quarters I thought it would be cool to check out how well or… not well, I had done with everything I set my sights on.

Reader, it is safe to say I am genuinely impressed with myself.

Yes, I pack...

Baby Steps has a NEW COVER!

It’s been a long time coming and I’m so happy to reveal the new Baby Steps cover!

For the longest time I’ve been meaning to release this, but the idea of faffing with Amazon’s cover system put me off. It’s sometimes a real pain in the neck and, at this moment, this new cover available in Kindle as I’m waiting on the paperback proof before I put it live, but no matter what happens… the new cover now matches the Etta! cover!

I hope you like it!!

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In the editing trenches…

I am going to start off this blog post by saying I had already written it, but I accidentally closed the window and it didn’t save the draft. Let this be a lesson to all that you should always save your work as you go!

Recently I realised that I was changing.

In a good way? Yes, hopefully.

Spring always brings with it the notion of blooming. Leaving the awful cold and dead winter behind is my favourite time of year. I hate winter. I hate being cooped up and having no day light or warmth in my bon...

It’s getting very WILD over here…

This is in no means a teaser for the book I’m working on right now… OK, you caught me red handed.

I do, in fact, have a particularly wild book which will be coming out later this year. I have been sitting on this story for a long time, it was actually written a good while ago for NaNoWriMo… followed by the other two books in the series, and this first book will soon be out there in the world.

That being said… editing is underway but not yet completed. I have high hopes I can do it all by the end ...

January wrap up

How is it the end of January already?

The start of this year has been energetic and, dare I say it, enjoyable?

Although I hate winter (generally) and the cold, especially the few days of snow we had recently, I think I’ve managed to skate my way through the hardest part by sticking to my new year plans and generally staying high in spirit.

Sometimes I worry that starting the year with such gusto is the recipe for disaster. I live in constant fear of falling out of love with my interests or routin...

What to expect in 2023

At the end of last year I began thinking about what I wanted to achieve in 2023. I didn’t write anything down, I just mulled. Fun fact, I’m really good at mulling. I can sit and mull for hours. It can look like I’m just staring into space and can often be confused with my ‘overwhelmed’ expression, but trust me when I say thoughts ARE happening.

The weekend just gone was a big one. Whilst I had been mulling, I had decided to use the first weekend in January to sit down and plan the year so I took...