About Me — Samantha Leighanne
A 30-something southern aspiring horror writer and sometimes YouTuber. Mood reader extraordinaire, coffee enthusiast, and cat mom. Forever yelling about books on the internet.
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Hello! I’m Samantha Leighanne, or Sam, or Leighanne. I’m a retail manager by day and an aspiring horror writer by night. I am a coffee enthusiast and a mood reader extraordinaire. I read tarot and take ritual baths with the moon cycles. Mindfulness is something that I work towards on most days, and I like to be transparent about mental health. You can find me in a plethora of different places on the internet, including Twitter, Goodreads, and Instagram. I’m a sometimes YouTuber, or Booktuber, that focuses on the spookier side of things, but I enjoy a well-crafted, character-driven story no matter the genre. Reading, writing, and yelling about books on the internet are my main interests, but there’s more to me than books. Thanks for being here; I hope you decide to read on to learn more about me, why I am here, and what content you can expect.
My Journey to Writing
I have been a voracious reader for most of my life. Some of my earliest memories are reading with my mother, visiting places like Narnia and the Catskill Mountains, hanging out with The Babysitters Club, and being scared with the kids in the Goosebumps books. Growing up, I tried my hand at writing stories. Getting my first computer in my room as a teenager (which, as a 30-something, this was in the age of dial-up, so it was used for games, and that is about it), I had a folder full of notepad documents with various stories. Somewhere along the way, I stopped writing — but I never stopped daydreaming. As I got older, I kept reading, and as I immersed myself into the bookish part of the internet, I continually told myself that I was a reader and not a writer. I always said that there was nothing that I could think of that hadn’t already been done better than I could do it and that it just wouldn’t be good.
But earlier this year, amid the pandemic that changed our reality as we knew it, that had brought me lower than I could remember being in a long while, I got an idea. This idea stuck in my head, so much so that I just had to get down on paper. Or a word document, or whatever. So I began writing, having no idea what I was doing. I’m still actively working on this idea, but in the meantime, I have written a handful of short stories and have been working to find my voice as a writer. As a reader, I know what makes a good story (to me anyway); It’s the technical part and mechanics of writing that I am still trying to learn and find and solidify my own personal style and voice. My stories may never be published, but I think the act of writing has brought something out of me, out of my soul, that I didn’t know was hiding. It has been cathartic for me as I have poured myself into the process. I have been lucky that it came out at the very best time, and I am looking forward to pursuing it further.
“The purpose of writing is to turn blood into ink .”— T. S. Eliot
So, that is essentially what brings me to Medium. My goal in being here is to connect with other writers, learn from them, and work on my own skills as a writer, all while getting to write about the things that I am passionate about. But that begs the question, what else am I passionate about?
When I’m Not Writing
As I have said, reading and books are a huge part of my life. I am a sometimes YouTuber who is wildly inconsistent with content creation, but if you like curated lists of books in different sub-genres of horror, you can check out my channel here.
Bookstagram and Twitter are also places I like to yell about books and give writing updates, so if you are at all interested in what I am working on, you can head over there to connect.
Outside of the bookish corner of the internet, I also have been getting a lot more into watching films lately. Which is another form of storytelling, so I guess you could say I like storytelling in all of the forms it comes in. It’s no surprise that I have an affinity for the genre of horror. I think that horror is so much more than being scared, and that is a subject that I could go on about, but I think I will save that for another day.
Speaking of outside, hiking is also something that I really love doing. Working in retail, it can be hard to take time off, but one of my bucket list items is to visit all the parks in the national park system. So far, I have….two. So, I have some work to do. I can’t wait until it is safer to travel.
Other interests I have been into recently are tech-related things, iOS customization, productivity methods, and designing your workspace to be as productive as possible. All of these topics are things that may crop up here from time to time to keep you on your toes.
I also have recently gotten into astrology and tarot. I love the idea of tarot and how intentional it can be, really helping me to ground myself and increase my mindfulness so that I may share my journey in those areas of my life from time to time as well. I think transparency in mental health is so important. If sharing my journey can help someone else feel more confident in their own, then writing about it is definitely worth doing.
So, there I am in a nutshell. I am so excited to find other writers to connect with, hone my craft as a writer, and talk about books and all other things that bring me joy in life. If there is one thing, the last two years have taught me, finding joy in life is important. I hope you stick around! Tell me where you are from in the comments!
— Samantha Leighanne
