Several weeks ago I had the wonderful opportunity to interview Amber Stokes, the author of Bleeding Heart. You can purchase Bleeding Heart
here. I "met" Amber on Twitter a few months ago and we became fast friends. I was able to score an ARC e-copy of Bleeding Heart and review it for the Bleeding Heart Blog Tour. Amber, truly, is a talented writer and I am so excited to read Forget Me Not coming Winter 2014. Once there is a cover for Forget Me Not, I will do another post about that. For now let's get to the interview. Enjoy!
Amber Stokes Interview
Alyssa: First,
tell us a little about yourself, background, etc.
Amber: Thank you so much for hosting me,
Alyssa! It’s a pleasure. J
I graduated from college a little over a
year ago, and since then I’ve started a freelance editing business and explored
this crazy (but awesome!) world of self-publishing – and I’ve spent a lot of
time with my family. I’m back home in Northern California, and I truly love it.
So much inspiration for writers in this beautiful place!
Alyssa: Tell us
about Bleeding Heart?
Amber: Bleeding
Heart
is a shorter inspirational historical romance novel (a little over 50,000
words) set in the late 19th century in the American West. Here’s the
back cover copy:
Five
bleeding hearts. One profound journey.
Summer 1886
Sally Clay’s livelihood has been snatched away, but in its place arises an
opportunity to escape from her sordid past and an unrelenting, unwanted suitor.
Boarding a train with a heartsick rancher and an enigmatic miner, she leaves
Virginia City behind and heads to Northern California, waiting for the chance
to make right what went wrong three long years before.
But the road to revenge is far from smooth. Sally soon learns that the jagged
pieces of a broken heart can far too easily wound the hearts of others – and
hers isn’t the only heart that’s broken. Tragedy and fear dog her steps as she
flees from the redwood forests to the high desert and back again. Will her
bleeding heart ever find a way and a place to heal?
A desperate soiled dove. Three men who come to care for her. One man determined
to claim her.
All on a journey that will show them what true love really involves.
Alyssa: Why did
you decide to write this story, what inspired it?
Amber: As I’ll explain in more detail a little
later in this interview, Bleeding Heart
is actually a sequel, so I decided to write this book because I wanted some
characters from my first book, Forget Me
Not, to have their own story. As far as the plot ideas? Once I had the
title and the characters, they mingled with my own concerns about heartbreak
and my desire to explore different definitions of love and sparked a story that
took me and my characters down some painful paths…
Alyssa: Of all
the characters in the story, which is your favorite? Who did you most enjoy
creating?
Amber: Well, as most authors would probably
say, I love all of my characters for different reasons. J But the one I most enjoyed
creating? I suppose that would have to be Myghal. He snuck into my first book
when I visited Virginia City one summer with my family and we took a tour of an
archaeological dig. We learned that, on the top-level street (Virginia City was
built on a hillside), there used to be a row of homes for Cornish miners. I
think it’s fun to include little historical tidbits that make a story unique
and interesting, so I thought, “I’ll add a Cornish character who will befriend
my hero!” Little did I know then that he would take up his fiddle and dance his
way into a bigger role in the story and into the next book, too. I gave him a
strange accent and a bit of an attitude, but he gave back wisdom and
understanding and a heart that was full of fun and music and even some sorrow
of his own. I love the scenes he stole in BH, and I hope to write more of him
soon!
Alyssa: I noticed
Bleeding Heart is not like other Christian Historical Romances. It’s darker and
very thought provoking unlike every other romance I have read. Why did you
decide to take that path?
Amber: I guess you could say it started with Bleeding Heart’s prequel. Virginia City,
Nevada captured my imagination back when I was in high school, but a 19th
century mining town is certainly not a light and happy setting. Drinking,
gambling, prostitution, the dangers of mining – by choosing Virginia City as a
setting, I guess I set myself up for a darker story! But it was more than that…
In Forget
Me Not, there were certain questions and themes I wanted to explore. I
wanted to work through my frustrations, my uncertainties, my understanding of
different things I believe, and writing those characters gave me a chance to do
that.
So I finished the book after several
years of off and on writing, and then I got feedback on it. There were some
positive things said, and then there were some critical suggestions I needed to
take into account (but I didn’t really want to hear at the time). Instead of
editing FMN, I decided to write another story. Along came BH, which started out
as a story about the spurned suitor from FMN and a secondary character – a
soiled dove who had been in the story for one brief scene but had been a part
of a lot of grief for my other characters. She intrigued me, so I made her the
heroine of the sequel and decided to figure out her story. I created a villain
to amp the tension, chose a title that fit with the flower theme I was going
for, and then wrote – for about two years, also off and on like with FMN. Their
story became a pouring out of my heart, of my fears and my longings and my
hope. I wanted to know what would happen if things didn’t turn out the way my
characters planned, if life gave them heartaches they had hoped never to face.
Could there be healing? What would come of their faith? How would they feel,
and where would they all end up? And, in the process of challenging my
characters, I challenged myself. Perhaps it will challenge my readers, too, to
think through some difficult things and find out what remains.
Alyssa: If you
could go back and do it over, is there anything about your novel that you would
change?
Amber: Wow – that’s an interesting question!
And I’m pretty sure I know why you would ask it… I guess you could say I was
actually given the chance to do just that. My editor expressed concern about Bleeding Heart being accepted by a
traditional publisher, saying that I would have to start the story much later
than I had. She made a valid suggestion, especially if I had been hoping to
query the book. But it wouldn’t be the same story that way, and I had already
planned on self-publishing by the time I sent the manuscript to her. While I
did go through edits, I didn’t restructure the story. I think certain
characters needed to be included and not glossed over, and I think there were
things I needed to work through by letting the difficult plot aspects stay.
Alyssa: Are you currently working on another story?
If so, can you tell us anything about it.
Amber: I actually have a few ideas running
around in my head right now! I’m hoping to finally edit Forget Me Not – something I just wasn’t ready to do when I finished
the first draft a couple years ago – and then publish it as the prequel
sometime this winter, perhaps January 2014. I also have plans to write a
companion short story and a sequel to Bleeding
Heart, which I hope to share later in 2014. J
Alyssa: Last
question and it’s a fun one. Is there any particular author or book that
influenced you in any way either growing up or as an adult?
Amber: The Bible, first and foremost! Beyond
that… I guess some of the first Christian fiction books I remember reading when
I was in elementary school were “The Buccaneers” series by Linda Chaikin and
the “Yukon Quest” series by Tracie Peterson. They showed me how intriguing and
exciting and wonderful Christian fiction could be, and now it’s basically my
passion and my “career.” J And, more
recently, “The Hunger Games” series by Suzanne Collins really caused me to
ponder important questions (and I used it as an example in several school
papers my senior year of college, which was cool, LOL). There have been so many
books, both inspirational and secular, that have blessed me over the years, and
I’m so grateful for each one that caused me to think deeply, challenged me to
grow, and encouraged me in my faith.
Alyssa: Thank you so
much Amber for taking some time to let us get to know you and Bleeding Heart.
Amber: You’re very welcome! Thank YOU for letting me share
with you and your readers!
