Samantha Bryant believes in love, magic, and unexplainable connections between people. Her favorite things are lonely beaches, untamed cliff tops, sunlight through the leaves of trees, summer rains, and children's laughter. She has lived in many places, including rural Alaska, Kansas, Kentucky, Vermont, England and Spain. She is fierce at heart, though she doesn't look it.
She's a fan of Charlotte Brontë, William Shakespeare, Emily Dickinson, Neil Gaiman, Nicole Perlman, and Joss Whedon, among many others. She would like to be Amy Tan when she grows up, but so far it doesn't look like she'll be growing up any time soon.
Samantha writes blogs, poems, essays, and novels. Mostly she writes about things that scare or worry her. It's cheaper than therapy. Someday, she hopes to make her living solely as a writer. In the meantime, she also teaches middle school Spanish, which, admittedly, is an odd choice for money-earning, especially in North Carolina.
When she's not writing or teaching, Samantha enjoys time with her family, watching old movies, baking, reading, and going places. Her favorite gift is tickets (to just about anything).
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About the Book
With great power comes…great frustration. Several months after the events of Going Through the Change, retired corporate vice president (and occasional lizard-woman) Patricia O’Neill is embroiled in a search for the mad scientist who brought the “change” upon them all.
Meanwhile, Flygirl Jessica Roark and gender-bending strongman Linda/Leonel Alvarez have joined a mysterious covert agency known only as The Department. They’re training hard, in hopes of using their newfound powers for the greater good.
Patricia thinks they’re being used. Cut off from the other menopausal heroes, she’s alone. And her search has hit a serious dead end.
Then Patricia disappears, and all the clues point to a dead man. It’s up to her friends and The Department to find her and bring her home.
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Keep reading for a guest post by the author:
Ripples in the Stream
One of the tricky things about promoting your work is figuring out what works. You end up trying a lot of things. You might solicit reviews. You might arrange for guest blog posts and interviews. You might buy advertising on Facebook. You might tweet your heart out all the livelong day. You might rent a table at a book festival or a convention. You might start a newsletter.
So, what works?
Sometimes you know right away that something worked. If you are at a convention and someone approaches your table, buys a book from your own hands and asks you to sign it, you know that your presence at that table resulted in that sale. It’s a great feeling. We all want to know that we’re getting a return on our investment, whether we’re investing dollars or time. We want instant feedback.
But it’s usually not that simple.
Sometimes, you have to find your zen, and let the universe works its will. You don’t know where something will lead. That’s why it’s important to treat people well and put your best foot forward all the time.
That guy in your reading club at the library? He might have a radio show he’d be willing to interview you on. That time you had a reading and only three people came? Maybe one of them will remember you and invite you to be a part of a panel at a book festival a few months down the road. Your dentist might turn out to be a fan of paranormal romance. Your child’s teacher might invite you in for career day.
I’ve seen ripples flow around and bring good things my way. Other times, I never knew how an opportunity came about. But life is about connections, and you have already made some, whether you know it or not.
That’s not to say that you should just lie back, smugly expecting good things to come to those who wait. You’ve got to make an effort, put yourself out there. But you’ve also got to be patient and not give into frustration when your efforts don’t seem to bear fruit.
Effort is never wasted, even when it seems like it was. You learn what you enjoy and despise and can use that to plan what you’ll try next. You find out what makes you feel uncomfortable and what flows easily for you and you grow by stretching your personal boundaries. You make new connections.
You toss pebbles into the stream, and the ripples flow outward. You don’t know who’s watching and what might flow back to you.
Have patience, grasshopper.
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