Interview with historical fiction author Amber Leigh Williams

Historical novelist Amber Leigh Williams chats with me about her new novel, Madame Rebelle.

During her virtual book tour, Amber will be giving away a $25 Amazon or Barnes and Noble (winner’s choice) gift card to a lucky randomly drawn participant. To be entered for a chance to win, use the form below. To increase your chances of winning, feel free to visit her other tour stops and enter there, too!

Bio:
Amber Leigh Williams writes pulse-pounding romantic suspense, historical fiction, and contemporary romance. When she’s not writing, she enjoys traveling and being outdoors with her family and dogs. She is fluent in sarcasm and is known to hoard books like the book dragon she is. An advocate for literacy, she is an ardent supporter of libraries and the constitutional right to read.

Welcome, Amber. Please tell us about your current release.
Is she a rebel, smuggler, spy, or all of the above? Meet Madame Rebelle, aka Edmee Guillon, who risks her life every day to hide people from the German troops surrounding her ancestral home in Champagne, France. When a dying stranger in a German uniform seeks refuge at Maison Boutet, Edmee struggles to believe his claims that he is French. Her life, the maison and the people she loves are already at stake. Can she take the chance that this mysterious man is who he says he is? And which side of the war is he really on?

Christian Vovk has been betrayed by someone inside his resistance organization. He knows asking the striking young war widow to hide him will put her in certain danger. However, Christian can help Edmee save as many refugees as possible. Falling in love with her will hinder his duty to the operation that brought him to her doorstep in the first place. When love and duty become inevitably tangled, will Christian sacrifice one for the other?

What inspired you to write this book?
I’ve always been interested in the lives of everyday people living in World War II Europe. It started in middle school when I read The Diary of Anne Frank. It wasn’t until I read firsthand accounts of resistance women in 1940s France, however, that the idea for Madame Rebelle was born. Once I heard Edmee’s voice in my head, I had no choice but to write her story.

Excerpt from Madame Rebelle:
“Go home, Edmee. Do not come back to this part of the woods.”

As the soldier moved away, Edmee could not believe it. They…were letting her go?

Just like that?

Her feet tripped over one another as she moved into the trees. That escape was far easier than it should have been. The soldiers hadn’t asked to search her bags. They hadn’t asked what she was doing in the woods in the dark after curfew.

They’d only asked her name.

It made no sense.

She fled, her hands locked around the handles of the suitcases filled with contraband.

She didn’t risk taking her usual path back to Maison Boutet. She weaved and wandered for a while through brambles that caught her clothes and mud that sucked at the bottoms of her boots.

It felt like minutes…or maybe hours before she was back at her uncle’s vineyard.

The cases dangled weightily at the ends of her arms. Her knuckles had been white around them for so long, she could no longer feel them.

The maison was so dark, she failed to distinguish it from the landscape.

She looked at her muddy shoes, her trousers soaked past the ankles. The suitcases would have to be hidden, half of the contents destroyed…

She rushed into the heart of the rows. Her beacon was now the limestone mound with its rough-hewn back to the sky, the entrance to the hidden network of caves underneath the estate.

She wedged past the rocky entrance and stumbled down the steps toward the light below.

At the bottom, the barrel of a pistol greeted her.

Her heart slammed into her ribs. Her knees threatened to fold.

She gaped at the man behind the gun.

Christian’s face was red and sweat-sheened. In the lantern’s low throbbing light, his features looked harsh. Moisture cloaked his bare chest like a second skin.

She’d searched him – his clothes, his personal effects… How did he get a gun?

Her lips trembled. She lifted her chin, regardless. The words were rough against her throat. “Are you going to shoot me?”

What exciting project are you working on next?
I’m currently working on a five-book series for Harlequin Romantic Suspense that follows the lives of five brothers living in the fictional town of Shatter Pointe, North Carolina. I love exploring the dysfunctional environment of a large family unit, but I also love the mystery and edge-of-my-seat feeling I get from writing suspense. In fact, it wasn’t until I approached writing Madame Rebelle as both a historical fiction novel and a suspense/thriller that I felt the story finally come together the right way.

When did you first consider yourself a writer?
In elementary school. I was a slow reader so I was placed in a remediation class. There, I was so busy telling myself my own stories rather than reading the ones assigned to me that my teacher challenged me to start writing them down. As a result, I developed a lot more quickly as a writer than a reader and writing led me to being a devoted reader at my own pace. To this day, I’m still a slow reader, but I love both writing and reading so deeply. There’s an incredible amount of power in words and stories.

Do you write full-time? If so, what’s your workday like? If not, what do you do other than write and how do you find time to write?
I’m a homeschool parent so I work from home. My primary focus during the day is educating my kids. In the late afternoons and after dinner, I write. When I’m deadline, I set aside time for writing sprints during the day. This could be while my kids are taking tests or at the library while they’re participating in D&D Club or during soccer or softball practice. My routine orbits around their schedule so a typical work day changes from one day to the next.

What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?
I drink a lot of hot tea. I like to be cocooned in blankets, too, which doesn’t always work when I’m writing in a public place. At home, I have four dogs and there is nothing better than having a sixty-pound lab snoring beside me as I reach my word count for the day. They help keep me active and remind me to take breaks when they need to go outside. From the beginning of my writing journey, being a writer and a dog mom have gone hand and hand.

As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
I think a simpler question would be what didn’t I want to be when I grew up. I wanted to be a writer, but I also seriously considered being a mermaid. I wanted to be a singer/songwriter. I wanted to be a marine biologist, a teacher, a historian, and a lot of other crazy wonderful things. The magic of being a writer is being allowed to explore different careers and disciplines through the eyes of my characters.

Anything additional you want to share with the readers?
I love to hear from readers! If you enjoy my work, I would love hearing your thoughts so don’t hesitate to leave a review. If you’d like a sample of my work, join my newsletter for a free 160-page contemporary romance novella and access to more free reads and recipes from my books in my website archives!

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