Amy L. Bernstein's Blog, page 6

Unexpected Gifts

I'm excited to begin breaking into the romance market with a short story. Christmas theme? Check. Romance? Check. Paranomal goings-on? Check.

Writing a romance is a very freeing experience. It just feels good to end with a happily-ever-after, especially in these dark times.

I look forward to launching into a full-length paranormal romance this winter.

Meanwhile, Unexpected Gifts is available free on Kindle for KU members or $2.99 to download.

Stars and/or reviews so appreciated!

Reading Between Worlds

Reading two extraordinarily different kinds of novels back-to-back is a fun and thoughtful way to think about your own worldview and how the pieces of existence fit together. It's also a wonderful way to put the range of writerly creativity that's out there on display.

I'd never read so-called "hard" science fiction (which refers stylistically to rigorously scientific and technically accurate world-building, not to ease of reading) until I read Seveneves by Neal Stephenson. It's a doorstopper of a book that begins with the shattering of Earth's moon and ends 5,000 years in the future.

Wow. It pulls you into a future that is both remote and yet entirely believable. And it forces you to think about time, culture, and Earth's place within the universe in new and different ways. I'd loved being brought into this parallel and attenuated existence. And what fun meeting the descendants of humans who survived a worldwide apocalypse.

I followed that up with Brit Bennett's brilliant The Vanishing Half, about Black twins who go their separate ways in the 1970s. A compelling and psychologically astute dive into race, class, culture, and perhaps most of all, how individual identity evolves in response to--and sometimes in revolt from--all three.

This book is a microcosm that stands in contrast to the macrocosm created by Stephenson. That's not a judgment, but an observation about the way some books run deep and narrow and others run broad and wide. And there is such richness for exploring the human condition, either way.

I love both these books. Each evokes a different range of feelings and anxieties, and each is so totally committed to its world-building.

Character Encounters

I often wonder what it would be like if the main character from one of my novels met the main character from another. Let's see: Fran (from "Fran, The Second Time Around") is 14, feisty, and troubled. She's pretty self-...

Character Encounters

I often wonder what it would be like if the main character from one of my novels met the main character from another. Let's see: Fran (from "Fran, The Second Time Around") is 14, feisty, and troubled. She's pretty self-involved--and who can blame her, as she struggles to recover from a devastating tragedy...and start her life over again.

Ell ("Ell," coming in June 2021) is in her 20s, an unconventional mermaid who is fiercely independent and very much alone. She's trying to blend in with humans, but she never really can. And she's being hunted by some pretty bizarre cults.

So, would Ell babysit for Fran? Probably not. Would Fran turn to Ell for advice? Hmm. Maybe. Would Ell reassure Fran that everything is going[to be OK? I wonder....


[bookcover:Fran, the Second Time Around|55334865]

Fran, the Second Time Around

Reading the Woods as Pages

���It���s no problem for me to be knee-deep in a river ford at 9 o���clock at night, and not able to see where the trail picks up on the other side.���

Reading the Worlds

Reading two extraordinarily different kinds of novels back-to-back is a fun and thoughtful way to think about your own worldview and how the pieces of existence fit together. It's also a wonderful way to put the range of...

The Truth of Fiction

Fiction offers us a vital first draft of history. Truth-telling courses through the stories we otherwise consider ���made up.��� In the traditional white canon, the works of Austen, Dickens, Dostoevsky, Orwell, Sand, Swift, ...