My guest today is Author Amber Stockton, a real live wire. Here’s Amber:
“Hi! Lyn has invited me here today to share a bit about the strong women in my family as well as one of my strong heroines in my latest book. It seems to me that heroines in novels usually stems from two places: your own background or a lacking in your experiences. You either portray aspects of your life through your heroines, or you make up for what was missing in your life by giving your heroines everything you didn’t have.
I had a rather strong woman as an example set before me. My mother always had it all together…or made it appear that way. From the time I was 8 years old, she went to work, managed the finances, prepared meals, took care of the 3 of us kids (at the time; a 4th came 5 years later), and kept a good control over the household.
As the only girl with 3 brothers, I helped out quite a lot. Learning alongside my mom created an inner strength I still carry with me today.
But there were times growing up where I resented the fact that my mother expected so much of me while allowing my brothers to slide by on so many things. It felt like she valued me more for what I could do around the house than for who I was as her daughter. But, she is an adult child of alcoholic parents with a mom who basically drank herself to death after my mom turned 12. By the time Mom was 19, she’d lost her mother. So, she had to be strong. Not knowing how else to respond, she raised me the same way she remembered growing up–handling it all.
Deep down, I resented her for that and unbeknownst to me had built a wall around myself, not allowing people to get too close. I had assumed an air of confidence and conveyed the appearance of having it all together as a way to mask the inner turmoil and desire for acceptance.
It took years before I was able to forgive her and shift our relationship into one of friends. When that happened, we established an amazing friendship that has only grown better with time. We would chat on the phone, send emails and talk via instant message all the time. Now that I’m married and living 2000 miles away, the relationship has seen another change, but the strength and bond is still in tact.
In my latest release, my heroine struggles with helping a young man who has caught her eye return to his faith after a crippling loss makes him falter in that faith. Feeling helpless, she turns to her mother, and the conversation that ensues is similar to one I had with my mother when I was making that lifetime decision on who I was going to marry.
But that conversation didn’t come early in the book. In fact, the heroine had sought advice from several others and had even distanced herself from her own mother almost without realizing it. She had chosen to rely on her own strength and abilities to help this young man change his mindset, but it seemed to only end in disaster. When she took the time to speak with her mother and seek God, the situation started to turn for the better. A few more obstacles still remained, but this time, she was up to the challenge.
In many ways, this heroine is her own creation. I often take bits and pieces from several women to create my characters. That inner strength and determination, though, came from my own experiences. When I set my mind on something, I go for it. Annabelle Lawson is the same way!
Amber Stockton is an author and freelance web site designer who lives with her husband and fellow author and their baby daughter in beautiful Colorado Springs. They also have a vivacious Border Collie mix named Roxie.
Amber has sold eight books to Barbour Publishing with more on the horizon. Other writing credits include writing articles for various publications, five short stories for Romancing the Christian Heart, and contributions to Grit for the Oyster and 101 Ways to Romance Your Marriage. A born-again Christian since the age of seven, her faith in Christ has often sustained her through difficult experiences. She seeks to share that with others through her writing. Read more about her at her web site: www.amberstockton.com.
Book blurb:
William’s is a true riches to rags story…
Once members of Detroit’s elite society, the Berringer family lost everything they had in the financial crash of 1893. From a life of influence and privilege, they now find themselves working a potato patch alongside immigrants and other destitute folk on borrowed land. William’s resentment toward his current situation—and mostly toward God for allowing it—simmers barely beneath the surface. All it takes is one charitable visit to the fields from a lovely society darling to burst his façade of acceptance.
Annabelle Lawson, convicted by her pastor’s admonishing words, begins delivering food and water to the workers on her father’s donated land. But as she learns the stories of the people who work there, she becomes increasingly drawn to their plight. Especially that of the inscrutable William Berringer. Can Annabelle and William overcome the stigma placed upon his family by a society that once embraced them? Will her parents remember their own meeting or forbid this budding romance altogether?
