Today’s
guest is author Amber Gilchrist. Thank
you for stopping by Amber; here is a small bio of Amber.
Amber
Gilchrist lives in New Mexico with her husband and three children. She writes
YA for upper teens, as well as LDS Romantic Comedies. She calls her lifetime of
jumping from one job to another 'experience' for her books and not an inability
to settle down. Amber loves mysteries and a good, happy romance. She also loves
to laugh. Sometimes she likes all of them together.
A fan
of quirky movies and indie books, Amber likes to be with her family, is
socially inept, and fears strangers and small yippy dogs. She alternates
between writing and being a mom and wife. She tries to do both at the same time
but her kids don't appreciate being served lunch and told, "This is the
hot dog of your discontent." So mostly she writes when everyone else is in
bed.
Amber
loves to hear from readers and can be reached at ambergilchristbooks@gmail.com
If you
would like to be added to her newsletter please email your address to be
notified about future releases and events!
1.
How long have you been writing, Amber?
Just
for myself and not with the intention of publishing, for about 22 years, give
or take. With the intention of
publishing, probably about six years.
2.
What was the name of your first novel and what compelled you to
write it?
My
first novel was when I was in the 7th or 8th grade. I don’t know if it even had a name. I can’t recall. I am atypical as a writer, in that I wasn't a
short story writer or a poet or anything of that nature until one day in middle
school I decided I wanted to write something and I wrote an entire novel. I was a voracious reader, but I never felt
compelled to write. I’m not sure there
was an inciting incident for that first book, but if there was I just don’t remember
it now. However, I can tell you it was a
plain awful book lol.
3.
I agree, life and work in specific experience, can give writers
great inspiration for a story. Have you
ever used a specific incident from your life in one of your books?
I
don’t typically do that, no. Although
there is a running undertone of my general life experiences in my books. I haven’t always had the best experiences,
especially when I was young, so I used all of those things to help add texture
to every character I’ve ever written.
But generally, I don’t mimic specific events.
4.
Tell us about your favorite YA book you wrote and why you like
it better than any of the others.
My
favorite YA book, bar none, is the one that just came out, Into Darkness
Peering. I feel like it’s ‘the one’, you
know. The book that really comes from my
heart, or my soul, or however you want to phrase it. I wrote that book in ten frenzied days and I couldn't stop. Those characters still
talk to me frequently and I wrote that book about four years ago.
5.
Tell us about your favorite LDS romance book you wrote and why
you like it better than any of the others.
I
think my favorite LDS book so far is one that hasn't been published, as of
yet. It’s also not a romance, though
certainly there is romance in it. It’s a
dystopian futuristic book about a world where everything that distinguishes
people has been outlawed, as well as any religion, among other things. Missionaries are truly ‘the army of God’ and
all hope rests, in the end, on a disillusioned man who works for the
government, raises his much younger sister, and hides the fact he’s the
grandson of the last prophet before ‘the change’.
6.
Have you ever used real people fictionally in any of your
stories?
Probably
parts of people I know have shown up in books, and of course a little of me is
in every character, usually the heroes believe it or not, but I’ve not used a
specific person, no.
7.
How old are your children?
They
are 12, 9 and 3. Obviously there’s a big
gap there. I would have had more
children but I’ve not been blessed that way.
It was a struggle to have all of them and we’re very grateful to have
them in our lives. But we’re also
licensed foster and adoptive parents and we’d love to find a sibling group to
fill in some of the gaps between our kids haha.
8.
Do they understand what you do as a writer, or do they just know
that you spend a lot of time on the laptop?
The
older two understand. And my son, who is
12, especially understands that most of the expendable income, in other words
the stuff he gets to spend on video games, comes from me. So he’s especially respectful of my need to
work. The 3 year old is less interested
in what I’m trying to do and she doesn't care that I’m busy. Which is why I do most of my work late at
night. It isn't unusual for me to be up
until 2AM.
9.
Where do you write? By
that I mean, do you have a specific place in the house you type every day or
just where ever you are when you decide to write?
I
actually hate laptops. I will give up
working off a desktop when someone hauls it away after prying the keyboard away
from my cold, dead hands. So I work at a
desk. I discovered long ago that if I
want to be able to work at all while people are awake, which mostly doesn't work but sometimes I make a go at it, I need to be where everyone else is. Otherwise it would cut into family time and
that’s not acceptable. So my computer is
in the loft, with two other computers that belong to my son and husband. The family hangs out in there so I can
sometimes get a little work done during family movie time or whatever.
10. What
is the name of the last book you published and where can we find it?
The
last book I put out was just a few weeks ago in May. It’s a YA urban fantasy called Into Darkness
Peering.” It’s for sale at both Amazon
and Barnes and Noble.
11. Are
you working on a new book now?
I
am. I’m working on the next book in the
ABQ.LDS.YSA series. “Glitch”, my last
book before “Into Darkness Peering was the start of that continuation. It’s the story of a very type-A woman so
desperate to get married that she’ll do anything to reach the alter, and the
man who is trying to reintroduce sanity to her marriage frenzied brain.
12. When
will your next book come out?
It’s
my hope that “Eat, Drink and Get Married” will be available by the end of the
summer.
Thank
you for your time today, Amber. If
anyone wants to contact Amber and get a list of her titles she can be reached
at: ambergilchristbooks@gmail.com
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