Today we’d like to introduce you to Amanda Hughes.
Amanda, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
Haint Blue Creative® was born from a vision.
One day after work in 2014 I went for a walk at the park, Fred Howard Park in Tarpon Springs, Florida, a quaint little island connected to the mainland by a causeway. While walking the causeway, the wind in my hair and the seagulls cackling over the water, I was considering what I might write next. I had just finished my first novel and was ready to get started on something else, but I didn’t have a clue what.
As if in a vision, a woman appeared in my mind. She was older, with dark skin and long silver braids. She was sitting on a porch hunched over a table, and on the table were a selection of tarot cards: the Knight of Wands, The High Priestess, the Five of Swords, and the Queen of Cups. I remember stopping mid-stride and saying aloud. “Tarot cards?!” I’d never touched a tarot deck before! Why in the world would I have a thought like that?!
The woman in my vision was Pinkie Perideaux, “Ms. Pinkie,” one of my main characters in my duology THE SCARS WE CHOOSE. After that day, I somehow knew I was supposed to learn who she was and what those cards meant. And so, I did just that. I bought my first Smith-Waite deck and started researching. Then I used the cards to finish writing my book series, which took several years from that moment by the water to the publishing of Book Two. I even included the cards I “saw” in the story.
After publishing, I learned that several of my readers were also writers who worked with the tarot, but they had never thought about using the cards to enhance their writing. Inspired to help my fellow storytellers, I began Haint Blue Creative®, a space for readers to explore, learn, and create. I offer books that haunt the heart and storyteller resources to help elevate writing and publishing. Today, I’ve written 14 book, many of them self-published and the most recent, MYSTIC STORYTELLER, being published by La Panthère Studio in August 2024.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
The book publishing road has never been smooth, and I don’t foresee it getting any easier. Whether you are a self-published or traditionally published author, marketing never ends, planning and plotting never end, and feelings of self-doubt ebb and flow. The choice is whether to keep trying to reach those personal success benchmarks or give up. For me, giving up is not an option.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I am the author of more than a dozen works of literary and Southern Gothic fiction by pen names A. Lee Hughes and Mandy Lee. In 2019, I founded Haint Blue Creative®, a space for readers and storytellers to explore, learn, and create. I’m a tarot enthusiast, using the cards to enhance creativity and foster wellness, and I also enjoy teaching other storytellers how to do the same. My new book, “Mystic Storyteller: A Writer’s Guide to Using the Tarot for Creative Inspiration,” is coming to La Panthère Studio in August 2024. When I’m not writing, and in my Muggle role, I work as a visual and instructional designer.
We all have a different way of looking at and defining success. How do you define success?
Success is relative to the individual. Personally, success looks like the ability to be content with the outcome of my endeavors, no matter what that looks like. The only thing I can control is my attitude, so I feel like I am a success when I’m just as happy in the journey toward my goals and can be content even if nothing ever manifests from the effort invested.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.haintbluecreative.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/haintbluecreative
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/haintbluemandy/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/haintbluecreative/
- Other: https://substack.com/@haintbluecreative
Image Credits
All images belong to me, Amanda Hughes, of Haint Blue Creative®.
