Samantha GarnerTag

5 Tips For a DIY Writing Retreat

Now that we're peeking around the corner at a post-pandemic world, I've been starting to crave a DIY writing retreat. I don't get to do them as often as I'd like, but there's something magical about blocking ...

On Writing Essentials

Much as I admire highly regimented and disciplined writers, that's simply not me. Believe me, I've tried! However, no matter how unstructured my writing day might be, there are five essentials that I ...

Character Development Tips from Dungeons & Dragons

Full disclosure: I don't play Dungeons & Dragons, much as I'd like to. However, I've read a few D&D-based novels and enjoy watching others play the game, so I was pleased to stumble upon a fun ...

It Takes As Long As It Takes

Like many writers, I'd been writing for many years before I decided to pursue it professionally. It might sound like a cliché, but I've been creating stories for as long as I can remember. So when I ...

When Research Influences Life

In my novel The Quiet is Loud, tarot cards form an integral part of the life of the novel's main character Freya Tanangco, a tarot reader. They serve as a career choice and legitimate outlet for her prophetic ...

Isolation Creation: How the Pandemic Improved My Writing

Do you remember the person you were before the pandemic? Do you remember making plans, getting excited?The end of 2019 seems like ten years ago, but a couple of things stand out: signing my book deal ...

June 2021 Writer-in-Residence & Star Debut Novelist Samantha Garner on Skydiving, Kirtles, & Her Spy Passport

In a world where the gift of prophecy can turn you into a second class citizen, Freya loses everything when she has a dream foretelling her mother's death. Not only does she lose her mother when the premonition ...

Book Therapy: The Quiet is Loud

 “The more people we can have around us that who we can trust, the more we can work on finding ways to thrive in this world we live in.The one that sometimes hates us.”—Samantha Garner, The Quiet ...

"I Had Internalized the Belief That the Stories I Could Tell Had No Audience" FOLD Guest Authors on Progress & Process

If you haven't already marked May 1-15 on your calendar, now's the time. The Festival of Literary Diversity (FOLD), the brainchild of author Jael Richardson, is now in its sixth year and returns again ...