Today marks the 1-year anniversary of Samantha Moran’s journey as a published indie author. It is truly amazing to see what she has been able to accomplish in such a short time. She has grown more confident in her abilities, and her writing has spread so much that her books are now in the hands of over 500 new readers, not to mention all those that have read through services like Kindle Unlimited.
Let’s take a moment to celebrate this new author with a look at what a year in the life of author Samantha Moran has been like:
Samantha started her journey by releasing her debut work, “Stages of Grief: A Short Story, ” at the end of July 2022. This short story started off as a project that was originally posted to her website in a serialized fashion, a new chapter being released weekly for several weeks. She then took the story and made it widely available by publishing through Amazon’s KDP program for the world to enjoy.
Not satisfied to have just the one work out in wild, Samantha began work on her next project, Dealings in the Dark. This spooky tale of demons, hellhounds, and a deal with a demon gone very wrong was meant to be a nice welcome to the spooky Halloween season (Samantha’s favorite time of year), originally intended to be a one-off story. Her writing was so well received that she was convinced that this one novella would be the beginning to an entire series following the main character Alexandria.
After the release of Dealings in the Dark, she got right to work with the sequel, Bound and Betrayed, which she released in December. This book takes place in the same world as Dealings in the Dark but is written from the perspective of Alex’s best friend, Selena. Selena has her own demons to deal with, but our favorite hellbeast makes a return appearance. This second installment in Samantha’s Cursed Souls series expanded the world that she had started previously and paved the way for more to come.
But, we can’t stop there. Due to the glowing reception of her short story, Stages of Grief, she also began work on a follow up story, Without You: A Novelette, which she released in February of 2023, this time writing from the perspective of Owen, the male main character from the story. This new heartrending tale was just as emotionally charged as the first and brought a fresh perspective to how we view life after the passing of a loved one. In order to make reading Stages of Grief and Without You easier to read as a complete story, Samantha released both in a combined publication called Tales of Grief and Healing.
If you know Samantha like I do, you know that she couldn’t stop there. She always has something new up her sleeve. Before she even released Stages of Grief, she had another project that was six years in the making. In May of 2023, Samantha released her full length novel The Ruin, a novel all about how far a daughter will go to save her mother from the cancer that is slowly taking her life. The Ruin is the story of Kara Edwards, a girl who has faced enough hardship for several lifetimes. She is met with financial struggles, a hidden family secret, the return of her lost father, and a struggle between saving her mom or saving thousands.
With that, we come into the home stretch of Samantha’s first year. But, if you thought, “That’s certainly a lot. She can’t possibly have any more, ” you would be incorrect. As if the other releases weren’t enough, Samantha has been working on a collection of short stories that she has dubbed Apothecary of Curiosities. These take place in a little apothecary shop run by none other than Death herself. This series started as a writing project for an event that Samantha will be a part of in September called Sinful Signings. The event will take place in Roanoke, VA on September 16 & 17, 2023. As a special offering to guests, they will be releasing a collaboration anthology with stories from authors attending the event. The first two offerings from The Apothecary of Curiosities include “Death’s Nell” and “Kiss of Death” (coming later this year) .
The party just doesn’t end with Samantha, though. She is always finding new ways to keep herself going. She has had several events now where she gets the opportunity to go into the community and meet some of her readers. From book signings at a local tea shop to larger craft shows, as well as the aforementioned Sinful Signings event, Samantha has been working hard to share her stories with everyone she can.
We can’t wait to see what Samantha does in the years to come! Congratulations on one year!