We had the good fortune of connecting with Amanda Arista and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Amanda, have there been any changes in how you think about work-life balance?

I had one of those child things a few years ago. The Bean has changed a lot about my life, but mostly, made me completely rethink what the work life balance needs to be. And maybe the notion of work and life as well.

To add a few caveats, I have two careers. One as a school administrator and another as a writer. Both are full time and both feed a part of me that I need. Both are work where I have to challenge myself and constantly keep on my toes to deliver a deeply thought out and crafted product to another human who needs it.

On the flip side of that coin, in my life, I am also a mother, a wife, a daughter, and a friend, and I need those individual relationships. I need to be able to relax and have fun and drink in life. Ironically enough, my muse for my writing lives on this side of my brain, the experiences side, and also needs to be paid attention to. Muses need snacks just like kids to to sustain them.

Firstly, I realized that I need all of the above function. Me without work is just as not fun as me with no life. The work and the life seem to feed into each other. If I have worked more than I have played, the work starts to suffer. My muse won’t talk to me and no writing gets done. But, if I have been enjoying life too much, not pushing myself to learn or grow, I get sort of crabby at life, itchy almost. The more plates I spin (worker, mother, daughter, writer, teacher), the calmer I tend to get and the more understanding I have. It forces me to step back a little and not only appreciate everything that I have, but the fact that I have made it and I am in control of it (to a certain extent).

Secondly, I now carry with me the notion that everyone has plates spinning. Everyone has a battle they are fighting (internally or externally). Everyone else is also somewhere in their struggle to find balance, whether they know it or not, so respect another person’s struggle. I think in life, this makes me just try to wait one second to consider someone else’s story. We are all characters in our own journeys figuring out how to be heroic. Everyone is working through a path they might not know about, so just be kind.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?

Ten years ago if you asked me what I did, I would have said “I’m a medical secretary.” It’s where I spend most of my time and it’s what pays the bills. That writing thing I did was simply a very strange hobby that kept me up late at night. Concocting the moving of dark armies over the American landscape was just something I did in my spare time. It didn’t bring in money and it certainly wasn’t something that I told everyone I did.

Ten years ago, I was floundering. While being a medical secretary is interesting, I’m not passionate about typing up reports everyday. Seeing I was struggling, my husband issued me a challenge. He said “Write a book or go to grad school.” It was the type of challenge that I hadn’t had since college, one that would stress me out just enough to keep me motivated. And being the stubborn girl that I was, I took him up on it. I was going to write a novel.

And the first time I told someone that I was going to write a book, they laughed and joked “Yeah, the next great American novel.” Several people actually had the same response. It was disheartening at best. But I sucked it up and joined a class at the local community college. I could do this; I just needed a little more guidance and a little less sarcasm.

The very first thing the professor said was that if you write, you are a writer. Just like if you swim, you are a swimmer. If you walk, you are a walker. If you do it because you love it, then it becomes more than what you do, it becomes part of who you are.

Did I run out of that first class proudly proclaiming that I was a writer? No. But it was the first step in a long line of small steps towards realizing that this writing thing was not a hobby. Being a writer changes the way I look at the world, makes me ask more questions to understand the world around me. This is why it’s more than what I do.

Some of those first steps were just talking about my story out loud. This provided its own set of problems. Saying the words “werewolf” to a person outside of my inner sanctum was the next challenge I had to face. If the response wasn’t a snicker, it was a full-blown laugh.

I have to admit that I backed off telling people that I was writing a fantasy novel. I was defeated again, or at least tired of the crazy writer looks. I kept my head down and wrote my silly little book because I was still determined to win my husband’s challenge. I worked my tail off writing every Saturday morning, finding time to slip away to coffee shops with a few other writers who were in the same boat as me: they needed someone who wouldn’t snicker when they needed to talk about their books. It was a great second step- getting a group of people who understand the need to write and keeping them on task while you keep on task.
As we know from all good tales, the hero must endure some challenges. While mine were mostly snickers about my genre, I’m proud to say “My name is Amanda Arista, I am a writer.” I have my weapons of choice: a one-line pitch that doesn’t scare my 70-year-old uncle, an arsenal of other writers who are one the same journey as me, all facing down their own demons, and frankly a solid outcome I can point to when people snicker and say “I showed you mine, now show me yours?”

And when you look at the seven books I have written since, the same story can be found in them as well. A woman trying to find her family, trying to find her place in this world, and when she does, it is amazing. Also, there are monsters.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Dallas is an amazing place to live, with a spectrum of activities to feed a muse and just have some fun. I’m an animal lover, so we would have to go to the Dallas World Aquarium. Everything from monkeys to manatees. Also, they have a jaguar there, so I might be bias because I write about them (Diaires of an Urban Panther). Then over to the Guadelupe Cathedral because I’m a church buff and I just love the solemnity of that place.

Then a pop over to the Dallas Museum of Art. Stories can be found in all mediums and their collection has some good ones.

And now for coffee, my other favorite past time. Its a bit out of the way, but there is a little Argentina Bakery in Irving that has the BEST snacks and coffees. Now, if we wanted to browse the warehouse Half Price books on 75, the Black Forest cafe there also serves up a mean coffee and I’ve spent SO MANY Hours at that place, it feels like a second home. It pretty much where I wrote my first series.

Then probably some live music- Dallas has so many venues like House of Blues or Granada. And then we’d have to end the night with drinks- the Woolworth.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I’ve got to shout out to J. Suzanne Frank and Keith Goodnight and all my Writer’s Path people. They are a group of writers who took courses together, and they have become a rock for my creative soul. We work with a book called THE WRITER’S JOURNEY by Christopher Vogler, and honestly, sometimes in my life, that is more a self-help book than a writing guide.

Website: www.amandaarista.com

Instagram: @pantherista

Twitter: @pantherista

Facebook: @pantherista

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTxK1Bbv5_I&t=2755s

Other: Diaries of an Urban Panther: https://books2read.com/u/mZrjp2 Claws and Effect: https://books2read.com/u/mdDlPZ Nine Lives of an Urban Panther (out October 26th) : https://books2read.com/u/bzdjrD Truth about Night: https://books2read.com/u/3RJKPv Truth about Blood: https://books2read.com/u/3JZjGP Truth about Shadows: Our Spring 2022. Vampires gone Wild (short story in anthology): https://books2read.com/u/bPQGAr

Nominate Someone: ShoutoutDFW is built on recommendations and shoutouts from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.