“Writing books is the closest men ever come to childbearing.” – Norman Mailer
This month, my new book Timeless will be released (yay!), and I was thinking about how both exhilarating and frightening it is to allow other people to read your work. It is, for me, like sending a child off into the world, hoping that you’ve done enough to prepare the child and that the child will be well-received.
Timeless is the culmination of what I’ll call my adult writing life. It is a heavily revised and re-worked version of the first book I wrote almost ten years ago when I realized I needed to write NOW, not when I retire from my day job, and it has a lot of me in it. It is all fiction, of course, but a real part of me is in each character. The heroine, Erin, who still mourns the death of her mother; the hero, Will, whose past weighs down his soul; Erin’s father, who is living with the consequences of old transgressions; and Erin’s grandmother, who loves her family and just wants everyone to get along.
I suppose I am in all my characters in all my stories, but this one is especially close to my heart. In less than two weeks, on March 12th, my book will finally leave the safety of my computer and go off into the big world. I cannot control what people will think of my story, and I know not everyone will love it. But I also know I gave it all I had, and that’s the best any of us can do, for our children and our books.
- Kathryn Amurra
An Interview With Best-Selling Author
Amy Clipston
This past month, I discovered, quite by chance, that I live in the same city as best-selling romance author Amy Clipston. So, I did what any fangirl would do--I read all about her on her website and bought her newest book, With This Ring. Then, ignoring how stalker-ish I was being, I emailed Ms. Clipston, told her an abridged version of the story of my life, and expressed my interest in meeting her to learn more about her and how she became a best-selling author. To my happy surprise, she emailed me back the very next morning. We emailed back and forth and even met for lunch, and she was kind enough to let me interview her for my newsletter so you all can meet her as well.
Q: Amy, thank you for agreeing to be interviewed for my newsletter. Can you start by telling us a little about yourself and how you published your first book, A Gift of Grace?
A: A native of New Jersey, I've been writing for as long as I can remember. I often joke that my fiction writing “career” began in elementary school when I wrote and shared silly stories with a close friend. However, throughout school, I only considered writing a hobby, and I never dreamt of being an author.
After I graduated from high school, my parents and I moved to Virginia Beach, Virginia. I attended Virginia Wesleyan University in Norfolk, and I graduated with a degree in communications. I met my husband, Joe, during my senior year in college, a few days after my father had a massive stroke. Joe and I clicked instantly, and after a couple of months we started dating. We married four years later.
After graduating from VWU, I took a summer job with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Norfolk District, which turned into an eleven-year career. I worked in the Public Affairs Office for four years and then moved into Planning as a writer/editor.
During that time, I continued writing again for fun. It was something I did to escape stress and unwind. I didn't share the stories with anyone except for a couple of close friends. In fact, I was even afraid to admit to my husband that I wrote.
One day while surfing the Internet for a professional editor's group, I accidentally found a local fiction writing group, Chesapeake Romance Writers. I attended a meeting, and I met writers in all stages of their careers. The group helped me realize that I did want to be an author, and it was my dream to see my name on the cover of one of my novels.
Through Chesapeake Romance Writers, I learned how to plot, write, and edit a novel, and I also learned how to pursue an agent. I signed with my first literary agent shortly before Joe and I moved my parents and our sons to North Carolina.
My agent suggested I try writing Amish fiction, and I put together a proposal that included the first three chapters of what became my first book, A Gift of Grace, along with blurbs for the next two books in the series. I’m grateful that an editor at Zondervan took a chance on me and gave me my first contract.
I currently live near Charlotte, NC, and I work full-time for the City of Charlotte. I live with my husband, mother, younger son, and six spoiled-rotten cats. My older son lives near us.
Q: You published your first book in 2009, and I counted 65 books on your website (WOW!). That comes out to roughly 4 books a year that you are writing, editing, and marketing, plus you have a full-time day job, plus you have a husband and two sons (now grown, but they were young when you started). How did you/do you manage to do everything?
A: At times, balancing my daytime job, family, writing deadlines, and book promotion obligations is very challenging. However, I’m very, very thankful to my mother who lives with us and has always kept the house running and my sons on schedule while I’m drowning in deadlines. Life has gotten less crazy since my sons are grown now, but writing books and working full-time can be overwhelming. Now that I’m older, I can’t stay up late writing and function at work the next day, but I often clear my weekends and spend them working on books in order to meet my deadlines. In fact, I often turn my books in early, and when I’m not on deadline, I enjoy watching true crime shows and movies with my mom as well as spending time with my husband, sons, and cats.
Q: You are a best-selling author. When did you achieve this distinction, and do you remember how you found out? Do you have any advice for someone who dreams about being able to write that next to her name someday?
A: I remember being stunned and thrilled when my publisher told me that I was a bestselling author, and having those words added to my covers was truly a dream come true.
As far as advice, I recommend studying the craft. I never took a fiction writing class, but I’m not bragging. I studied journalism in college, which taught me how to write concisely, but I had a lot to learn about plotting a book.
I recommend taking marketing classes. Authors are expected to market their books in partnership with the publisher, so the more you know about marketing, the better.
Also, I would study the business. I learned everything I know about publishing and finding an agent from Romance Writers of America (RWA).
Q: Your new release is called With This Ring, and it is a small-town, second chance romance between high school sweethearts who find themselves on opposite sides of another couple’s proposed marriage (the bride happens to be the hero’s sister, and he doesn’t think she’s ready to get married, while the heroine is all for it). What inspired this story, and what do you love most about it?
A: I’ve also always enjoyed a good love story—from Disney movies to live action movies to books—I seek out stories with a romance thread. My favorite trope is the reunion story, where former couples are thrown back together and forced to work out their issues before falling in love again and ending with an even better relationship than they had in the past.
With This Ring takes place in Flowering Grove, a fictional town based on the small towns near where I live in North Carolina. I planned to write a story about the Fairy Tale Bridal Shop on Main Street in Flowering Grove, and I wanted a reunion story.
In With This Ring, Dakota is dealing with the aftermath of a flood in her bridal shop when her ex-fiancé, Hudson, suddenly returns home.
Hudson left several years ago to pursue his dream of starting his own software company in New York City in order to support his little sister, along with his aunt, who raised them. He’s back and determined to stop his baby sister from, in his opinion, ruining her life by marrying her boyfriend after only knowing him six months.
While Dakota believes Hudson chose his career over her, and Hudson is convinced she simply didn’t love him when she broke the engagement.
When I was a kid, I enjoyed roller skating and the coolest birthday parties took place at the roller rink. Although I haven’t gone in many years I cherish those memories of skating with friends and then eating pizza and ice cream cake.
Throughout the story Dakota and Hudson spend time at the Flowering Grove Rollerama, which her best friend, Kayleigh, and her husband, Brice, recently purchased and brought back to life since they spent their weekends there when they were younger. Dakota and her best friend teach skating lessons, and the rink is the community’s favorite hangout.
I hope romance readers enjoy With This Ring, and maybe it will inspire them to dust off their roller skates.
Q: You have written Amish romance and sweet Contemporary romance. What was the hardest thing about switching from one genre to the other? Are there any other genres you would like to write at some point in your career?
A: I love contemporary romance, and I wanted to write one that contained all the elements I enjoy about contemporary books and movies. I came up with an idea for my first contemporary romance, The Heart of Splendid Lake, and my agent pitched it. I’m so glad Thomas Nelson, my publisher, wanted to publish it, along with other contemporary books.
Honestly, it was nerve wracking to venture out of the genre I’ve known and loved for so long. Amish fiction is comfortable for me, and I had to challenge myself to try something new. I believe it has helped me grow as a writer.
Contemporary romance is much different from writing about the Amish since I had to think about romance from a different perspective. In an Amish book, holding hands on the porch and watching a sunset is romantic, but in a contemporary book, a romantic scene can take place in a hundred different places. I’ve had scenes with the hero and heroine at a car show, at a roller rink, and in a bookstore together.
I wrote a three-book young adult series many years ago, and I loved it. Young adult is one of my favorite genres to read, and if I were given the opportunity, I’d love to try it again.
Q: Here is the bonus question—what is your favorite book of all time (or your favorite author), and why?
A: I would have to choose The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton. I read it for the first time in elementary school, and it had a tremendous impact on me. That was the book that inspired me to want to write my own stories. I read the book fourteen times (I kept track inside the front cover), and I knew the movie by heart. I also consumed all of S.E. Hinton’s books, and I dreamt of seeing my own name on the cover of a book. If I ever had the opportunity to meet Susie Hinton, I would completely lose it and totally fangirl over her!
I read Amy’s newest book With This Ring and loved it. You can find Amy and all her books, including With This Ring, on her website https://amyclipston.com. Be sure to check it out!