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Amelia Atwater-Rhodes

Books:

• In the Forests of the Night
• Demon in My View
• Shattered Mirror
• Midnight Predator

• Hawksong: The Kiesha'ra: Volume One
• Snakecharm: The Kiesha'ra: Volume Two
• Falcondance: The Kiesha'ra: Volume Three
• Wolfcry: The Kiesha'ra: Volume Four
• Wyverhail: The Kiesha'ra: Volume Five

• Persistence of Memory

• The Den of Shadows Quartet

Cooper Blake has everything going for him—until he wakes from a car accident with his football career in ruins and a mysterious, attractive girl by his side. Cooper doesn’t know how Samantha got there or why he can see her; all he knows is that she’s a ghost, and the shadows that surround her seem intent on destroying her.

No one from Cooper’s old life would understand what he can barely grasp himself. . . . But Delilah, the captain of the cheerleading squad, has secrets of her own, like her ability to see beyond the physical world, and her tangled history with Brent, a loner from a neighboring school who can hear strangers’ most intimate thoughts. Delilah and Brent know that Cooper is in more trouble than he realizes, and that Samantha may not be as innocent as she has led Cooper to believe. But the only way to figure out where Samantha came from will put them all in more danger than they ever dreamed possible.

Most of your novels have some sort of fantasy element, vampires, shapeshifters. Is there another genre that you'd like to write? Is there one you'd most likely stay away from?

Someday I would be curious to try a real, futuristic or intergalactic style science-fiction novel. I grew up on Star Trek and am a fan of writers like Heinlein and Orson Scott Card, but I have never yet had a story from that genre hit me strongly enough to force me to write it.

The only genre I tend to stay away from is real-life fiction. I like the world-building required with fantasy, and would miss it if I tried to limit myself to real life.

What is one of the most interesting comments you've received about your books?

The most interesting comments, to me, are the ones that take me completely by surprise. Sometimes people will find something in my books that speaks to them, but which I never realized was so powerful.
On the fun side of interesting, I love reading analyses of my books. As an English major and an English teacher, I talk a lot about things like “symbols” or “themes.” My books have these things, and sometimes people remark on the ones I intended, but I read reports all the time that find themes or symbols I never noticed, but which make perfect sense. One of my favorites is a running analysis of bird imagery and metaphors currently up on the message board.

Describe your "writing" life in the last three years?

In three years? Let’s see… three years ago it was February of 2007. I had just returned from a semester in Texas and finished the first Mancer book (a fantasy trilogy I started in NaNoWriMo 2006). That story, originally intended to be 50-thousand words of throw-away fun, turned into a three-hundred-thousand word trilogy, plus two other potential groups of stories in that world, which I call Castrili.

In the fall of 2007, I wrote Token of Darkness. In the fall of 2008, I finished All Just Glass, which I had been working on since 2000, and then last fall- 2009- I wrote a story called Promises to Keep, which will cause some major changes in Nyeusigrube if I am brave enough to publish it. I am now near to finishing an untitled work that will decide what happens with Promises. Meanwhile, I have also been editing Poison Tree, which is probably next in line for publication after All Just Glass.
In those three years, I also graduated from UMass Boston with a BA in English and Psychology, and from Northeastern with a Master of Arts in Teaching. I started dating my now-fiancée. March 1, 2007, I moved into my first apartment; my fiancée and I are now buying our first house.

Over all, I think I should describe these last three years as “epic” in all aspects of my life.

If you could travel back in time for one year, where would you go? What three things would you bring with you?

This is not an easy question to answer, because I love history, and there are many historical periods I would like to visit… and also because I am a science-fiction nerd, and time travel makes me nervous for the continuity of the space-time continuum.

Assuming we could avoid paradox or changing history- because I believe in the butterfly effect, and I am not brave enough to try to interfere even with “obviously” horrible events- and assuming I was immune to the diseased belonging to that place and time and could find a way to blend in so I did not get murdered or executed or exiled, I think I would want to travel back to one of the ages about which we know very little about, like the era before the rise of Ancient Greece, or very early Mesoamerica. There are gaps in our history books where we lose track of civilizations (or the lack thereof, which may be why there is so little archaeological record).

Practically, I imagine I would want things like food, antibiotics and basic medical supplies, and some guide to the language if such existed, but tossing practicality to the wind, the three things I would bring with me would have to be a notebook and pens so I could record everything, a camera with a whole lot of film (not digital, since I would hate to run out of batteries, and there would definitely not be any electricity), and… can I bring my piano? I would hate to go a year without my piano, and music is theoretically a universal language, but it would be a little awkward to travel with.

What is an interesting fact about yourself that most people would be surprised to know?

A lot of people are surprised to learn I’m very much a science-and-math nerd. Because I was an English major and am a published writer, I often run into the stereotype that I must be afraid of the other side of academics. Because I’m a *girl* and an English major and a published writer, it often shocks people even more to learn I love football (though I do need to specify that I’m loyal more to my team than the sport in general; I only watch the Patriots) and building things with my hands. I’m looking forward to working with my brother-in-law to strip down and redo the bathroom in my new house.

According to cognitive testing, I’m much stronger in performance than verbal- actually, I have a couple disabilities that effect my ability to process and recall verbal information, which caused me trouble in school despite my being a published writer. I can normally find a way to translate verbal information into a form that work better for me, but I far prefer to learn with my hands, by building things (or taking them apart).

Thursday, March 4th @ Cynthia Leitich Smith
Friday, March 5th @ The Book Butterfly
Monday, March 8th @ Books by Their Covers

Plus! You can check out Random Buzzers where Amelia will be a guest!

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