Join us in this episode of Promote Profit Publish as host Juliet Clark talks with fiction author Amber Willingham about her debut novel, Bliss Creek. Discover the hidden secrets of Bliss Creek and learn how Amber created this mysterious world. Amber shares her journey from attorney to author and discusses the inspiration behind her characters. Tune in to explore the fascinating story and uncover the facade of Bliss Creek!
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The Secret Life Of Bliss Creek: Uncovering The Facade
With A. L. Willingham
Welcome to the show. Before we get started with a fiction guest, which is a little bit different than what we’ve done in the past, I want to remind you guys to go over to AIAuthorAcademy.com. We are offering our AI platform-building class again in September 2024, and we’re really excited about it. We had students last time who got so much out of it. They streamlined processes and learned new things. Most of all, they learned how to supercharge their books and figure out, “What are the keywords I should be using? What are the categories I should be using when I publish my book?” and a lot of different things that are a double-check on your publisher.
Go check it out. It is for group classes. We learn as a group, and then we break off in that week and work one-on-one. There are four one-on-ones included with it also, where we work directly on your platform, which I know can be a big help because you can read something and then go, “How does that apply to what I’m doing?” You get direct help applying all the things you learn in the group to your actual platform. Go to AIAuthorAcademy.com.
Our guest is fiction author A. L. Willingham. Her name is Amber, but she has a pen name. Amber is a wife, mother, attorney, and storyteller. She graduated from Oklahoma City University and the University of Oklahoma Law School in the late ‘90s and has practiced law and parenting ever since. She believes that, generally speaking, people have three careers in their lifetime. She was an attorney, then a mom, and then an attorney again, which she doesn’t count separately from the first time. For her third act, she does count writing and telling stories.
Bliss Creek is her first novel, and it looks as if it may become a second, third, and possibly fourth story all wrapped up in the world of Iz. She calls Katy, Texas, home with her husband, Phil, and their four rescues. Her kids Cole and Casey Ray are her greatest accomplishments and the source of much inspiration. I can agree with that. My children are the same. They are far more important than my career on any day of the week. Stay tuned for our interview with Amber.
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Amber, welcome. I’m excited to have a fiction author.
Thank you for having me.
Amber’s Journey From Attorney To Author
You wrote a fiction novel out of the blue. That’s not your first. I saw your thing about how there are three careers every woman has. You’re on your third one. Tell me about your first one and your second one and how it led to your third one.
Easy enough, my first career was as an attorney. I went to college and law school and did all the things. I got a job as an attorney and practiced law for a while, almost twenty years, and then became a stay-at-home mom. It was not necessarily by choice. It was a combination of circumstances that led to me staying at home with the kids in a new place. We moved south. We moved to Houston. It was a huge city for me. It’s a huge city for most people.
We moved here, and we decided when we did this that I would stay at home with the kiddos. My husband traveled, so it was me, a 3-year-old, and a 6-year-old. There were no neighbors because we were the first people to live in our addition. I had no friends and knew no one. It was an interesting transition and difficult, but I made a job out of it.
While I was home with the kids, they eventually went off to school. While they were there, I started writing. I started writing about my feelings, how it was moving to Houston, the experience that we had doing that, and the effects that it had on me mentally. I then started creating this world and writing it. It became fun. In the process of staying home with the kids, for about ten years, I wrote four books. After the kids left the nest, flew off, and became productive adults, I decided to blow the dust off of the books and start publishing. This is my first published book. I self-published. There you go. Career number three.
First of all, I did a stay-at-home mom gig. It lasted about two weeks. If you lasted ten years, bless you, because it is much harder to stay home than it is to work.
Isn’t that the truth? They don’t tell you that part. I was excited and thought, “This is going to be fantastic.” I then felt like a heel because a month in, I’m going, “What have I done?”
That’s exactly how I felt. I lasted about two weeks and then I started taking a test and got into another career because I was like, “24/7.” Thank you. I’m amazed mine turned out to be productive members of society. I have this theory about it. You stayed when you were young. Parents should stay at home with their kids when they’re teenagers because that’s when they need it most.
Agreed. I got in at ages 3 and 6. I was home for about ten years. When I started working again and started working part-time as an attorney, it was 1 to 2 days a week. It was still at home for the rest of their high school careers. It’s more important to be at home when they’re teenagers because they don’t want you there.
Creating The World Of Bliss Creek
They can get into more trouble when they’re teenagers, especially this time. I can’t imagine having teenagers. You built this whole world. Was it an escape from your own world? What was behind it?
I guess so. It was an escape from my world. It was a world that didn’t have cell phones, a world without the internet, and a world without TV, which is Bliss Creek. The only thing on television in Bliss Creek is the news. I felt like that’s where our world is leading. When you’ve got 24/7 news and forum shops as well, decide which side you’re on, and find a channel that agrees with you, in Bliss Creek, you have one channel. It’s the news 24/7.
Creating a world without modern distractions can be a fun escape. In Bliss Creek, there's no internet, no TV, just pure imagination. Share on XI grew up with three channels, so I don’t know. I don’t think it was Bliss Creek, but we have a phone wall.
In Bliss Creek, in my mind, the house that Iz lives in is from the ‘70s. The wood is from the ‘70s. The wallpaper is from the ‘70s. They’ve got phones on the walls, and that’s the only way that they can communicate with the outside world. It was fun to imagine. I hope that’s what people see when they read it. I don’t know that I described it quite that way, but that’s what I picture, the home I grew up in in the ‘70s.
You built this world. There’s a moral component to the story as well. Although a lot of people probably would think that it is bliss to be disconnected from technology.
I liked the idea of the word bliss. Iz is our protagonist, and she has no memory. At one point in time, one of her friends says to her, “You’re lucky because ignorance is bliss.” It was also bliss from not having the technology that we have. The moral dilemma is whether she continues on in this world as the person that everyone wants her to be or does she follow her gut and try and figure out who she was and try and figure out, “What’s wrong with this picture?”
That’s really good messaging for girls. You wrote three other books that are coming out soon. Does that follow the same progression and the same character? Is it all Bliss?
Three of them are Bliss. The fourth one was me spouting about my move to Houston. It’s called Houston Eyes, a playoff on The Egg and I. My uncle had said, “It sounds like The Egg and I, Houston and I.” I thought he said Houston Eyes. I thought that was cute, so I kept it. There are three Iz books, the Chronicles of Iz. There’s possibly a fourth, I’m not sure because the third isn’t done yet. Book two is called the Petroleum Wars, and it is a prequel. You find out why Iz is in Bliss Creek, who Iz was before she was in Bliss Creek, and why. Imagine a world without cars because that’s what they’re facing.
What would we do? I don’t know. That’s crazy. Tell me a little bit about your process. Did you set time aside every day or did you write when you were inspired? How did you do all that?
Honestly, a little of both. I tried to set time aside every day, but it never really worked. I had it set aside, but then I had something else that would come up. It wasn’t an absolute necessity that I sit down and write. Oftentimes, I would wake up in the middle of the night and go, “I need to write this down.” I hand-wrote most of it, and then I would go through and create some sort of an outline that would help me establish what’s going to happen, the events that are going to happen. Once I had the events, I could write. Sometimes, when I started writing an event, it would change what happened next. I tried to avoid that as best I could, but the story has a life of its own.
Handwriting your book and creating an outline can guide your story, but sometimes the story has a life of its own. Share on XIt does when you’re writing fiction. I used to do much the same. I have to ask you. I used to do this all the time. I would go off, have lunch outside, and people-watch. I was looking for little mannerisms, different things about people that would make them interesting. It’s easy to write emotional characters but harder to write that physical thing. Did you do any of that?
I did. Sadly, a lot of those attributes I got from movies and TV. I saw things that I liked in people and thought, “That’s what I want this character to be like. I want this character to look like this, act like that, and have a lisp or have a thick accent.” It’s always fun to go people-watch. I travel a lot. I love to sit in the airport, watch people, and make up their stories for them.
I mentioned it at the beginning. I used to do that with the kids in restaurants when they were teenagers because I wanted the phones put away. It’s a good thing because my son writes fiction. He has taken some of that storytelling. They still do it. Even though they’re adults, that’s our thing. I suppose we could be mature individuals and talk to each other, but that would be too easy.
What’s the fun in that?
The Characters Of Iz And Inspirations
Exactly. Where did you come up with the character of Iz? Did you develop it before you started writing or did she come more to life as you were writing?
She was first. I liked the idea of this strong, young, somewhat innocent character who was really stronger than she thought she was and stronger than anyone else gave her credit for. She’s not showy. She doesn’t have to be the center of attention and yet, somehow, she becomes this quietly, honestly, and organically. I liked that.
When I started writing this, the books for The Hunger Games had come out. Twilight had come out as well, the books. I really enjoyed those books. I enjoyed the protagonist’s character. I idealized Iz off of those two female protagonists. They’re young and powerful and they don’t know it. I also saw a little bit of my daughter. She’s always going to stand up for the little guy. She’s always going to root for the little guy and the underdog. I put that character in Iz.
That is so interesting. I don’t think people realize that a lot of times, fiction is based on someone who’s real. I finished Jack Carr’s latest book and I could tell exactly what politicians he was talking about at the beginning. I was like, “That’s so-and-so.” I don’t think people realize that. My detective was me but somebody else too. It’s a combination of the two of us.
At the time, I was in Taekwondo and I was teaching several law enforcement children Taekwondo who were in it. I got to pick the brains of their parents. Does that sound real? Does that not? Some of them told me some stories. The names were changed to protect the innocent. I got some good traction off that. What about the other characters in the book? Were they based on people that were around you or did you make them up too?
For the most part, they were made up. Iz’s mom has got a little bit of me in her. She, we’ll find in book two, has had some really rough decisions to make as a parent. It’s not that I have, but I had to ask myself, “What would I do in that situation? How far would I go?” The dad is completely made up. Conrad, who is one of the main characters in book one, is based on a TV character that I’ve seen.
When creating characters, ask yourself, “What would I do in that situation? How far would I go?” Share on XDo you want to share who? Is it a secret? You’ll have to guess when you read the book. Will we know it right away like Jack Carr’s was?
You will not know it right away. I did have one of my friends send me a photo. She said, “This is who I picture as Conrad.” I was like, “That’s him.”
That is so funny. My son wrote a fantasy novel. We went over to Fiverr.com and had the guy do the Midjourney and create the characters. It was interesting because I would look at the characters and say, “That doesn’t really feel like what you have in the book,” but it was a good way to promote it. That’s the difference between fiction and nonfiction.
With fiction, you have to get people invested in those characters. Sometimes, that can be a little hard because it’s not like having an expert book and people are interested in the topic. They’re taking a chance that you’re going to create interesting characters. Are there new characters? It’s not season two but we’ll pretend it is. At some point, it will be a series with season two.
There are new characters that are missing in the first book. They don’t go away, but they’re not in Bliss Creek. You have to remember. Book two is a prequel.
That’s right. That’s very daring.
It’s how it came to me. It made sense. It gave it a sense of mystery that I really enjoy. It was not a mystery book or a mystery series, but this gives it that sense of mystery.
Creating a sense of mystery in a series can keep readers hooked and eager for more. Share on XWhat age group would you say you wrote this for?
I kept it very clean because I knew my mom was going to read it. The language is clean. There’s innuendo. I knew mom was going to read it, so I had to watch myself. This is good for junior high up.
That’s funny that you knew Mom was going to read it because I had a sex scene in book two. My mother said nothing, but my best friend’s mother was like, “Juliet.” My mother probably expected it from me.
Your mom probably said, “It didn’t happen.”
Speaking about characters being based on, in my third book, Granny Heist, part of it is my mother’s character. She was horrified. She was like, “Everybody’s going to know it’s me.” I was like, “Everybody is not going to know it’s you if you knew anything about book sales.”
You’d have to know her. The adult figures in my stories, a lot of their personalities come from my parents, for sure.
Target Audience And Writing For Young Adults
Being that this isn’t a YA book, are the rest of them going to fall in line with that? That’s a group that really needs good stuff and good content out there.
It’s all going to be young adults. I don’t even know what that means anymore because I enjoy young adult books more than any other type of book. I do read a lot. My book club takes me outside my comfort zone and I enjoy that. Young adult speaks to me. I enjoy a little bit of clean but maybe some darkness. Is that bad to say? Can I say that?
Where To Find Bliss Creek And Future Books
No, not at all. I had foul language in my book. Back then, I lived in an LDS community. One of the missionaries was like, “Why does everybody cuss in your book?” I was like, “Welcome to real life. It’s a mystery novel, and bad people say bad things.” I know there’s that fine line there with YA because you do have to keep it clean. By the same token, these are people that are old enough. They’re starting to experience the real world and finding out that it’s not all sunshine, roses, unicorns, and all that. Where can we find your book? Your first book, Bliss Creek, where can we find it?
I’m on Amazon.com. I can also be found at Barnes & Noble online.
That’s fantastic. Go out and grab the book. Do we have any idea when the second one is going to be ready?
My goal is January of 2025.
Get that first one read. It sounds like it’d be good summer reading. Do kids buy books, or do their parents buy their books?
Kids buy books. I’m trying to get into the libraries. I would really like to get into the libraries so they wouldn’t have to buy it. The library will buy it for them.
There are a lot of eBooks that people get from libraries too. That’s a great way for people to read as well. Thank you so much for being here. You have a website. Share your website if people want to go over and see what you’re up to. I’m assuming you’re keeping it up to date.
It’s www.ALWillingham.com.
Thank you so much for being on.
Thank you for having me. I enjoyed it.
Important Links
About Amber Willingham
A.L. is a wife, a mom, an attorney and a storyteller. She graduated from Oklahoma City University and the University of Oklahoma School of Law in the late 90s and has practiced law and parenting ever since. She believes that, generally speaking, people have three careers in their lifetime.
She was an attorney, then a mom, then an attorney again (which doesn’t really count separately from the first time), and now, for her third act, she tells stories.Bliss Creek is her first novel, and looks as if it may become her second and third and possibly fourth story, all wrapped up in the world of Iz.
She calls Katy Texas home with her husband Phil, their four rescues. Her kids Cole and Casey Ray are her greatest accomplishments and the source of much of her inspiration.
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