Samantha Bryant's Blog, page 13

My Favorite Cover, 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.

Post your favorite cover from your books and explain why it's your favorite. 

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When my Menopausal Superhero novels moved from their first publisher to their second, they got a new look. 
The books are dramedy in tone (part drama, part comedy), and my first publisher (now defunct: you can read about that saga here) played up the comedy aspect with bright colors and focused on the torsos of the heroes. 
I liked those, but in the marketplace, they proved a little misleading, making readers think the books would be funnier than they are--comedy primarily instead of secondarily.
So I was really pleased when the team at Falstaff Books came up with the new branding. The novels would all use silhouettes and city scapes, beginning in pastels and adding darker/brighter colors and more detail to the silhouettes as the series progressed: 
Top row: the novels; Bottom row: the shorts



When we decided to release some shorter work in the universe, novellas and short stories, Falstaff wanted to do something that set those apart, but still made them feel connected to the longer works, so they came up with the rays of light/stripes and brighter color palette, while still using the silhouettes. I love that! Those rays are so old-school comic book feeling!
So my favorite of the bunch is the cover for Agents of Change . 

Since this volume contains all the short work collected, the cover designer worked to meld the look we were using for the novels with the look we were using for the short work, and we ended up with these lovely sunset colors, a subtler version of the rays, and the silhouettes and cityscape. 

I really admire the work of a good cover artist, and I'm so happy to have worked with a great team to get covers that capture the vibe of my work. The cover is the best advertisement for the book, giving the reader a feel for the tone and genre as well as the content. So the right cover makes all the difference!
What works for you when it comes to book covers? Are there tropes you find off-putting? I'd love to hear about it in the comments!

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Why settle for egg drop soup when you can have Massaman Curry? An Open Book 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 do you order from your local Chinese restaurant? Do you order it every time or mix things up? 

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The truth is I'm a bit of a food snob, and my local Chinese restaurant is nothing special. It's not bad. It's fine, completely adequate, but ordinary. 
So, if it's up to me alone, I don't bother. I feel that way about most of the restaurants in my adopted hometown of Hillsborough, North Carolina--they're fine, but not special (though that's changing! there are a couple of newer and more interesting places I'm hoping will take root). 
If I'm going out to eat, I want something more interesting, preferably something I've never tried, and there are a LOT of much more interesting restaurants near me. It's one of the cool things about living between two university towns--lots of culinary possibilities.
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My current favorites for eating out are a local Mexican restaurant (Tacos Los Altos), a Thai restaurant in downtown Durham (Thai at Main Street), an Indian restaurant in another part of Durham (Tandoori Bites), a Turkish place in downtown Chapel Hill (Talulla's) and a Himalayan place in downtown Chapel Hill (Momo's Master).  
image sourceBut, still, the kiddo gets a hankering for egg drop soup from time to time, especially if they don't feel well. 
And if I'm getting egg drop soup for the kid, then I get an egg roll for me while I'm there, and if I'm trying to avoid multiple stops, I might pick up some garlic chicken, or cashew chicken, or orange chicken for my own dinner and chicken and vegetables for Sweetman. 
So, I'm not completely averse to patronizing our local Chinese restaurant if the circumstances are right. And I do like to keep up the Jewish tradition of eating Chinese food on Christmas. 
How about you? Do you favor a Chinese restaurant near you? What do you like to eat from there? I'd love to hear about it in the comments. 

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Where do your stories come from? 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. This month's co-hosts are:  PJ Colando, Kim Lajevardi, Gwen Gardner, Pat Garcia, and Natalie Aguirre!

June 5 question -  99% of my story ideas come from dreams. Where do yours predominantly come from?

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I don't think I've ever written anything that came directly from a dream, at least not that I knew I was doing. 
My dreams don't usually make enough sense to be of any service in fiction, other than perhaps for imagery. 
But, it's an intriguing question all the same. Ideas are an essential part of a writing life. My problem is not usually coming up with them, but finding time to develop them all into finished pieces! 
But still, where do they come from?
I think most of my ideas come from juxtaposition.
By this I mean: there are lots of little thoughts and bits of information and observations bouncing around in my brain all the time, some pingponging around like high bounce balls dropped from a great height, others floating gently by on some unseen current. 
Sometimes a couple of them bump off each other and there's a spark, like one was flint and the other tinder. And boom! There's a story idea. 
For example, the idea of the Menopausal Superheroes was probably a combination of my apprehension about getting older and having just watched an X-Men movie where the characters were just so-very-teenagery that I found them frustrating. I thought something like: 

What is it with teenagers and superhero stories? If hormones cause superpowers, then menopausal women should have these pubescent kids beat!

When I'm not working on a particular project already under contract, I also really love to play with writing prompts. A fair amount of my short horror fiction got its start as a noodle from writing prompts in Bliss Morgan's Nightmare Fuel challenge held each October. I've written more than one piece after reading the call for a themed anthology and thinking the idea sounded like a fun one to explore. 
Other times, it's as simple as thinking, "What if?" and following that question where it takes me. A recently finished horror story (not yet published) came about because I'd gotten a new car with all kinds of fancy sensors and warnings and my brain asked some weird questions about that. 
Getting from idea to story sometimes comes from noodling on my own, but a lot of times, it comes from conversation. I've hashed out many a plot line in conversation with my husband or with one of the members of my critique group. 
How about the other storytellers out there? Where do your ideas come from? I'd love to hear about it in the comments!

To AI or not to AI? An open book blog 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.

Have you played with AI in your writing? Tell us what you think about it. 

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As much as I enjoy reading stories about AI, I haven't really had much interest in trying it out in my writing life in the real world. I've got a process that's working for me right now, and it doesn't involve using AI. 
For starters, in these early days, the ethics are unclear. Is this really just a form of plagiarism? Can people really take credit for work co-written this way? Is it just another way exploitative method of undercutting and devaluing writing and art? 
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Obviously technology evolves and it changes the way art is produced. I'm not against that. I'm grateful to be typing this blogpost on my laptop rather than turning over my longhand notes to a literal typesetter who lays it out in trays and presses copies. I enjoy eBooks and audiobooks and am happy about some of the ways new technologies increase access. 
But, something about AI tools in writing, at least so far, stinks of exploitation and laziness. 
When ChatGPT was all everyone was talking about earlier this year, several well-respected magazine were deluged with submissions that had been AI-created. 
More people looking for a shortcut and thinking they can make some moolah without investing any effort, let alone a slice of their soul. (I haven't read anything about this actually working for anyone so far, by the way--a story written by AI, copied and pasted and submitted has yet to find fame or fortune in a news-making way). 
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I do have a couple of writing friends who say they find it helpful in the brainstorming phases of things, that they use it to get unstuck. I can see that. I can respect using a tool in support of your creativity, but in place of it?
But I don't have anyone in my writing life using it in the place of their our creative impetus. But then again, I don't hang with a mercenary literary crowd. While we'd all love to make money from our work, we do the work because we love it and it expresses an essential part of our selves. Why would you hand the best part over to a computer mind? 
So, yeah, I'll stick to reading about AI and talking to the one in my kitchen. 
Some stories about AI I've enjoyed recently: 

How about you? Any AI in your real life? Any AI you've loved in fiction? I'd love to hear about it in the comments. 

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My Dream Writing Space, 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.

Describe what your dream writing space would look like. 

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For most of my adult life, I didn't have a designated writing space at all. But when my eldest left for college, we played "room-capades" at la casa Bryant and I scored a room of my own! 
I put a LOT of work into making it just the way I wanted and did nearly all the work for it myself, from peeling the old wallpaper and painting the walls to hanging the curtains. So, in a way, I feel like I *have* my dream writing space. 
The best part is my plant window. Instead of curtains, I just have shelves across the windows and they are lined with plants and pretty stones and little knick-knacks from my life. 


Now that I'm settled into my Writing Oasis, I mostly wish it was just a bit bigger. It's only a ten by ten room and I have a LOT of books, decorative items, houseplants, and memorabilia, not to mention "writing business" stuff like my inventory of books for events, bookmarks, swag, etc. It feels a little cramped sometimes, and getting rid of some of these belongings would be heartbreaking. 
Since this is an absolute fantasy, maybe I can transport my room to a turret in a clifftop mansion with a secret passageway through the closet and a dramatic, rocky seascape vista. Or some kind of magic door so that I can walk through it into any setting I want and take my writing break on a beach or in the mountains or in Paris on a whim. 
But really, I'm just so grateful to have my own space, designed to support my writing life and not shared with any other purpose. I'm truly spoiled. 

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What else do you do (besides write)? 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.

Besides writing, what other "subjects" are you good at?

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Well, I do have a few skills besides writing. 

I'm a good home cook and baker. My banana bread is pretty famous among friends and family, and my husband swoons over my curries. I'm not afraid to tackle complicated recipes and love a chance to use an ingredient or kitchen tool that I've never used before. I can speak, read, write, and understand Spanish. That has come in handy in MANY situations, not just in travel, but here in Hillsborough, North Carolina, too. I'm an excellent organizer/planner (I have to keep to keep the chaos we call family life flowing). You should see my color coordinated google calendar.I'm comfortable with public speaking and presenting, something that served me well in and out of my writing life. and I'm getting better at plant care. Only killed one plant so far this year. 

How about you? Do you have hidden talents or knowledge that serve you well? I'd love to hear about them in the comments.  

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Overthinking it: An Open Book Blog 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 keep from overthinking your story? 

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Sometimes I feel like thinking is the bulk of writing. While I'm walking around living my life, some part of my brain is always working on writing. So the idea that you can overthink it is a little odd to me…but I can see how you can get stuck thinking and never actually produce. 

My cure for that: deadlines!

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Before I had publishing contracts, I had my critique group. Besides all the help they gave me on polishing my writing, they also served as a source of external pressure. I needed to crank out some words because my partners were expecting them. So, that helped me move forward, even if I wasn't entirely happy with what I wrote. 

I've use National Novel Writing Month in a similar way. If you're not familiar with it, NaNoWriMo is an invitation to write 50,000 in one month (November each year), which is enough words to count as a novel by most counts. That's faster than I usually write, and though the work definitely needs a lot of revision afterwards, it can be helpful to jumpstart a project. 

Since I have a tendency to fall down Research Rabbit Holes, a feeling that I have limited time to finish is good for me. So that I don't give up on the good by trying to get to perfect. Getting closer to perfect is what revisions are for!

So, how do you pull yourself out of it if you find yourself overthinking something? I'd love to hear your suggestions in the comments! 

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If I had to give up writing… An IWSG blog 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. This month's co-hosts are: Patricia Josephine, Diedre Knight, Olga Godim, J. Lenni Dorner, and  Cathrina Constantine!

June 7 question - If you ever did stop writing, what would you replace it with?
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First, /shudder/!  The thought of giving up writing is horrifying. Though I have sometimes considered giving up publishing, I have NEVER considered giving up writing. That seems like giving up breathing to me--it's so integral to my life and wellbeing. So, this is definitely a very hypothetical question for me. 
When I was younger, I might have pursued another art--focused on music or drawing. Those were also among my early loves, alongside writing, and scratch a similar itch for self-expression and creation. 
image sourceBut these days, my fingers don't work so well (they never really worked all that well, to be fair), and I don't have the finger dexterity to get very far with instruments or sketching anymore (at least not by hand--the way I loved them as a child). 
So, if I had to give up writing (and it's hard to imagine what could make me do that), I'd maybe take up film making. 
There's a lot of exciting story telling happening in short film (though maybe that's cheating--I'd still be writing, just in a new-to-me format). 
How about you? For my fellow writers, what would you pursue instead? For readers and other creative folks, what if you had to give up your favorite mode of self-expression? What would you do then? I'd love to hear about it in the comments!

What kind of muppet are you? 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.

If you were a muppet, what would you look like? Are you a person, monster, animal, something else? 

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What a fun question! I've always had an affinity for Kermit, so maybe I could be added to his family. I mean, he's got a nephew already, right? How about a niece? 

Oooh---oooh! Or maybe I could join The Electric Mayhem. They certain have some diversity of appearance.

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I think my multi-colored hair would fit right in…and I'd get to hang out with Animal, one of my favorite muppets. 

Honestly, I'd take any role the creators wanted to give me, just for the privilege of hanging out with my childhood heroes. How about you? Can you see yourself as a muppet? If so, what kind? 

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The Dreaded Blurb: 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.

We've talked blurbs before. Do you have any tips for writing blurbs? 

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Ah! That great joy in the life of a writer: the writing of the blurb.  

It's easy right? Just take everything you've spent months or years turning into a novel, and present it in a paragraph or so in such a way that every who reads the blurb will want to read the book!

I'm joking of course. 

Even writers who have mastered the task get a sort of haunted look in their eyes when they talk about blurb-writing. 

It's a high pressure piece of writing. 

In a very small space, you need to tell enough about your book to arouse curiosity, but not give it all away, and inspire folks to want to read the rest. 

Honestly, I'd rather just write another novel. 

But I do have a few tips for how to do it, now that I've been through it a few times.  

1. Remember that the blurb is not a synopsis. Do not try to describe all that your book is. Piquing curiosity is better that being fully descriptive in this case. 

2. Try to match the tone of the book. Is it funny? Then your blurb should also be funny. Is it heartwarming and sincere? Snarky? Serious? Inspiring? Reading the blurb should give the reader a sense of the tone or feel of the book. 

3. Workshop it. If you've got beta readers, critique partners, or friends who've read your work, they can be a great resource. It's easier to blurb someone else's work than it is to do your own, so I always ask for help when it's blurb writing time. 

So, yes, definitely one of the great challenges of a writing life, but so important! The cover and the blurb are the two best tools you have for helping a reader decide if your book is one they'll enjoy. 

What attracts or puts you off in book blurbs? I'd love to read your thoughts in the comments! 

Blurb for  Going Through the Change , book 1 of the Menopausal Superhero series: 

“The Change” is difficult for everyone, but for these four women, the transformation is bigger than they ever imagined!

They all led completely normal, and completely different lives, with two things in common: they used natural products made by the same small company, and they were all going through menopause. Now instead of finding her hot flashes under control, Helen shoots fire from her fingertips! Patricia’s thick skin isn’t nearly as metaphorical as it used to be – now she’s bulletproof! Jessica’s mood lightened, but so did the rest of her! And Linda’s gone through the biggest changes of all, but she doesn’t have any trouble opening the pickle jar anymore!

Four ordinary women suddenly living extraordinary lives, with one common thread – there’s one person in common in all their lives. Now the Menopausal Superheroes are looking for the woman responsible for taking their “change” to the extreme!

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