First off before all the official questions, could you please introduce yourself and share any facts about yourself you’re comfortable sharing.
Hi! I’m Amber. I’m an interracial romance author, poet, and dancer. I write of love which fractures and repairs. Of yearning which hangs densely in the air. Of dark depths and of light. With spice. 😉
Seriously, my stories dance to their own tune and won’t quite fit in boxes. So if you’re after something a bit off the beaten path, I’m definitely your woman!
My debut novel Within You and its spicy sequel novella Into the Woods are out now. Both free on Kindle Unlimited. You can also grab a free short-story prequel to get a taste for my writing by signing up to my newsletter. All links here: linktr.ee/ambernightauthor
Oh, and do follow me on instagram! @ambernightauthor
1.) Where did your writing begin, was there a catalyst that sparked all of this?
I’ve told myself stories for as long as I can remember, really. I started writing fanfiction as a teenager and spent many years on and off in various fandoms writing various things (but always with a focus on romance) and learning a lot about the craft. I worked in non-fiction writing/editing roles for a while and only had the energy for the odd poem scribbled on my phone. Then, when I was pregnant with my daughter, I desperately longed for some romance which represented my relationship a bit better and found it hard to find any. I dreamt the rough plot of Within You in a pregnancy hormone dream, and thus the idea was born. (Although I didn’t start writing it until my daughter was almost 2.)
2.) During your childhood was being a writer something that ever crossed your mind?
I’m not sure it did! I read a lot, but as a child (as opposed to a teenager) I think I mainly wanted to be an astronaut. (So disappointed when I realised my motion sickness rather put paid to that.)
3.) What do your family and friends think about your books?”
That’s too generic a question, lol. They’ve jointly been incredibly supportive, but of course each person takes something different from their reading. A couple of my closest friends who I met through writing in the past are probably my biggest fans. Some others told me that they hadn’t had a chance to read in years and yet picked up and loved my book—that felt so very special. I’ve actually put my brothers on a reading ban for my novella because I decided it was too spicy. xD And last but not least, my husband reliably informs me that there’s just a lot of romance in my romance. Damn it. Caught out again.
4.) Do you like to listen to music when you write or do you prefer the sound of silence?
Absolute silence is a must. I get a lot of inspiration from music as I wander about and listen to it whilst daydreaming, but I can’t complete complex thinky tasks with background noise. Ask me sometime how well that fits in with mumlife. (Not! xD)
5.) What’s your relationship with your characters like? Are they cooperative muses?
Depends on the character! And on me and where I’m personally at. Sometimes they ride me hard and push me to get a story down faster than my time allows, sometimes I need to listen to them more patiently. Right now they’re proving recalcitrant. But life has kept pulling me out of the flow, so that never helps.
6.) Which celebrities would be perfect to play your characters?
I joke a lot about Idris Elba (I mean, look at that man!), but the truth is, I’m not much of a celeb person. I don’t even know who half of them are or remember their names. Sorry. XD Nor am I very visual, in fact. My characters all incorporate elements of real people in one way or another (although they are not any one particular person), so sometimes I have stronger mental pictures based on that, but I don’t want to cage them, either. I want my readers to be free to see who THEY see.
7.) If someone robbed you of your emotions, do you think you could still be a writer?
No. Unless we’re talking technical writing, lol.
I believe that all art is ultimately driven by emotional expression. And that emotion is our fundamental connection point as human beings. I notice this every time I go (social, partner-) dancing—I can connect with people there who are so vastly different from me that in any other setting we might struggle to have a conversation. But the music and the emotion in the music still ties us together like an invisible thread. Dancing is non-verbal communication.
Writing is more abstract an art, because it’s verbal communication, so it’s open to interpretation. But emotion remains the connecting thread.
8.) How much of yourself do you put into your characters?
I am many people. Lol.
I mean, can we truly express what isn’t already inside us in some way? Even those aspects of humanity we choose to reject and NOT allow to be part of our personalities are still a shadow of potential in our minds somehow. Including the grittier, darker aspects of humanity. Writing is just one way to explore that, I think. To connect with the wholeness of human potential, for better or for worse.
So yes, I’m in all my characters in that way, and they’re all in me. Just as they all contain pieces of people I’ve met, but they’re not them.
But we’re all connected anyway. Just like you and me.
9.) What’s your favourite part about being a writer?
I love those moments of flow, when the story almost tells itself. When that connection to the characters is open and real and it allows me to dive deep, to explore and process both myself and the world around me through the act of creation. When puzzle pieces you hadn’t even consciously put in place randomly line up and slot together into a whole. (This happened to me with the deeper storyline beneath Into the Woods, and it was magical.) It’s really something special.
10.) Finally, what do readers have to look forward to in the future?
I’m currently working on my second historical romance, set in Victorian London. I’ve one Victoriana already complete—the one with the MC who rode me hard 😉 ;)—but as I write sloooowly, I wanted to make sure I’ve got something to follow it before I put it out there.
Once we get there, expect dramatic cliffs in the Cornish countryside, a tortured, reclusive hero with a seductive streak a mile wide and a working class heroine trying to come to terms with her past.
In the meantime, please check out my existing books! And let me know if you enjoy anything in them. 🙂