Hello All!
Rather than telling you a bit about Waking Jamal, my latest release from Dreamspinner Press, I thought it would be fun to open up my Facebook feed to questions. Finally the answers you’ve all been waiting for. Or maybe just questions my aunt asked me as a sign of support and you’ll get a chuckle out of.
WHAT ARE YOUR WRITING HABITS?
I just write, no pre-planning, in bursts and fits until I’m stuck and then I might do a Goal, Motivation, and Conflict chart or Discovering Story Magic to help me unstick. The first draft is always pretty thin and I spend all the revisions adding in dialog tags, descriptions, etc.
WHAT WAS THE VERY FIRST THING YOU BOUGHT WITH YOUR VERY FIRST PAYCHECK?
Writing paycheck? With my advance on Rinse and Repeat, I used the money to catch up on bills and took my family to dinner at the Texas Roadhouse.
WHAT HAS SURPRISED YOU MOST ABOUT PUBLICATION?
I think the thing that has surprised me is that it gets harder instead of easier. Which could be a tainted perspective, true, but nothing is as easy and fun as that first book I wrote fifteen years ago. I didn’t have the weight of ‘rules’ or the pressure of striking gold again. I’ve gotten better so I wouldn’t go back but…
WHAT IS YOUR MUSE?
I really love this question. I named my muse Fred back in High School. I don’t remember the essay I read that prompted it but I do remember the class and the teacher. Fred isn’t a specific person but rather the rebellious, flighty subconscious that drags its feet when pushed. By naming my creative side I can cuss it out. That asshat Fred is fucking with my deadlines. A couple of years ago my daughters bought me a build-a-bear bunny and we named him Fred. Fred wares a Harley-Davidson leather jacket and shades.
HOW DO YOU COPE WITH WRITER’S BLOCK?
Wine. I also bake when I’m struggling. There is something about the short minute intervals – six minutes per batch of peanut butter cookies – that allows me to write and yet silences the ADD side of the brain.
WHAT INSPIRES YOU WHEN WORKING TO DEVELOP THE PLOTS AND CHARACTERS IN YOUR BOOKS?
I really like having written. I also like the shiny, endless possibilities of a new idea. It’s the stuff between that’s hard. I am also motivated by knowing that people read what I wrote. Not everyone, of course, it isn’t for everyone. But a couple of people have read my stuff and one even liked it. That feels pretty damn good.
THE BEST WRITING FOODS.
Cheetos and M&Ms (peanut or peanut butter) though surprisingly I don’t eat them all that often. I really like to make tea, the whole ceremony of it, endlessly stirring. I try to include food in each book because so much of real life is about eating and preparing food. In Waking Jamal there is a scene when Rum and Jamal actually make omelets together and Rum realizes that it was like this dance of cooperation and layered _them_ and has a bit of a mental break because of it. He sees things in new ways just because they cooked in their postage size kitchen.
WHAT’S THE HARDEST PART OF WRITING FOR YOU? CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT PLOT? DIALOGUE?
The hardest part, there are two. First, getting down on paper what I see so very clearly in my imagination. Thankfully my beta reader and critique partner prod and poke me because I don’t realize sometimes how much I’ve left out. The second thing is balancing writing and work and family. You know those puzzle games where you are trying to get the little metal balls in the holes by titling the board? Except when one one ball is in family then the writing and work ball is in the friendship alley doing the Charleston.
SO, COME HERE OFTEN? WHAT’S YOUR SIGN?
Yes, I am on Facebook daily and for too many hours. I am a capricorn.
DO YOU USE ANY SPECIFIC WRITING SOFTWARE, LIKE SCRIVENER?
I use Word, especially with edits, and I use Google Docs so I can access my work from any computer and location.
TELL ME ABOUT THE FRIENDSHIPS WHICH INSPIRE YOUR VIVID CHARACTERS.
I actually pull a lot from my siblings. There is six of us, ranging in age from fifty-six to thirty-six. We’ve all married and created lives for ourselves. And though most of us have very different beliefs, we find ways to stay connected, respect each other, get along – for the most part. My book bio includes the word dysfunctional. My youngest asked me what that meant. After I explained it she said, “So, like everyone else? Normal?” Yep, pretty normal family here.
DO YOU PREFER WRITING NICE CHARACTERS OR MEAN NASTY EVIL ONES THAT ARE BASED ON PEOPLE YOU KNOW…..HINT HINT.
I’m always surprised when someone asks to be included in my next novel. I try to make my characters as real and flawed as possible. In Waking Jamal, Rum is arrogant, paranoid, independent and is afraid to believe in love. Jamal is naive and occasionally rash and has very high and gilded beliefs in good vs evil, in what it takes to be heroic. In a lot of ways they become more alike, balancing each other. So I don’t see either of them as nice or evil, just people. Also, don’t worry Kevin, you’ll get your chance to be immortalized in fiction.
NOW THAT YOU’VE PUBLISHED A COUPLE BOOKS ARE YOU MAKING MONEY OFF THEM AND HOW LONG HAS IT TAKEN YOU TO HAVE THE FOLLOWING THAT YOU DO.
I have a following? Huh. How’d that happen. Money is an odd conversation and I tend to answer it differently depending who asks. Usually I ask them what they make or I tell them I haven’t made enough to quit my day job yet. Either way, I don’t write for the money.
Waking Jamal by Amberly Smith
Blurb
Their physical and mental survival depends on them bonding.
Jamal Zumati joins the military, determined to repay the country that fed and housed him. But during his Hamask activation, his senses go offline and he enters a berserker rage. The United States Hamrammr Program, or USHP, has only one option: put him into hibernation.
Despite his extraordinary ability to read and manipulate situations, Vargr Lt. Rum Walker has stepped on one too many brass toes, and the USHP demoted him back to teaching new candidates. Rum is one paranoid thought away from self-destruction when he is recruited for a covert mission: pull Jamal from hibernation.
The problem is, no one has ever survived a berserker fury—at least not officially. If Rum is to challenge the military stereotypes, he’ll not only need to wake Jamal—he’ll need to get him to agree to bond as a Hamra Pair, the ultimate supersoldier team.
When Jamal and Rum team up with an FBI Hamra Pair to stop the terrorist group Dios Provee, Rum thinks he’ll show Jamal their true potential lies in an equal partnership, but Jamal is convinced Rum should take the lead. Will Rum stop Jamal from going berserk again and destroying both of their futures?
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Amberly lives in the Northwest with her husband, two children, and a cat named Cat. She likes to read in bed, write in coffee shops, and cuddle while watching Netflix or Hulu. Her husband is a computer addict who she lures away from the latest PC game with promises of a good story, sex, or food that she hasn’t made. Amberly acknowledges that she has issues with being too succinct. Feel free to ask her questions about herself. She’s not shy, just clueless what anyone would find particularly interesting about her life.
You can follow Amberly on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/amberly.smith.509 or her website http://amberlysmith.com/.