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Member Spotlight: Amanda Gillespie
Author: Jody Wallace
Original Publication Date in Love Notes: April 2008
Q. We’re so
glad to have you as a member of MCRW. Are you a native of Nashville
or somewhere else? If somewhere else, where, and how did you end up
here?
A.
I grew up in
Podunk, AL, just outside of Huntsville. I went to the University of
Alabama at Birmingham for undergrad and grad school. While in grad
school, my roommate joined a dating service and had this parade of
men going on. I told her she needed to share, or at least ask them
if they had friends. One of them did, and he introduced me to the
man that became my husband. He was living in Nashville already, and
since he had a real job and I didn't, I moved here.
Q. What made
you decide to try your hand at writing romance novels?
A.
I've always
loved reading and discovered romance novels in high school. I was
the girl sitting in algebra class with her book propped up and a
romance novel inside of it. I've wanted to be a writer since I was
about 12 or 13, about the time I discovered that the odds of me
being an astronaut were pretty slim. At the time, I wanted to write
SciFi, and I wrote little stories and chapters, including quite a
bit of a Star Trek novel. Except I kept noticing that no matter what
I was writing about, it kept turning into a romance novel.
Q. Tell us
about your "WIP" or work-in-progress? What in specific do you
write?
A. So far, I have one
manuscript that is a historical, set in Elizabethan England. I have
another that I'm almost finished with the first draft that is a
straight contemporary. No vampires or anything.
Q: How do you
balance your writing with your other responsibilities? (Yes, as
always, I'm looking for tips...)
A.
Balance, what's
that? Um, either I'm getting writing done and the house is a
disaster, or the house is clean, and I haven't written a word in
days.
Q. What do you
do when you're not writing? Do you have a "day" job, hobbies,
obsessions?
A. DI'm
fortunate enough to be a stay at home mom, but at times that's a
full time job. I do have hobbies. I love to crochet, and garden and
I'm spending some time every week playing with my friend's horses.
And of course I love to read.
Q. Do you have
children, pets, plants, a spouse, dust bunnies, a thimble collection
or anything like that?
A. I
have 3 kids, ages 5, 5 and 2. The twins are girls, Emma and Ellie.
Sam is my toddler. My husband's name is Bill, and he is a computer
programmer for Tractor Supply Co. Two cats, Bagheera and Moira, and
a small assortment of houseplants. Plenty of dust bunnies, too. I'm
collecting smooshed popcorn kernels under my desk.
Q. What are
some of your favorite books, romance and other?
A. I
am a huge fan of Robert Heinlein. I was very disappointed when I
read his first book at age 13 and wanted to read everything else of
his and Daddy told me he had died that year. Nora Roberts is my
favorite romance writer, because I don't think the woman has written
a bad book. And whatever you're in the mood for, she's probably
written about it.
Q. If you could
go on a dream vacation anywhere in the world on someone else's
perfectly legitimate dime, where would you go, who would you take,
and what would you do?
A.
I would go to
Europe for months, maybe a few years. I would take my husband and
kids, my parents and maybe a few friends. I would start in Italy and
spend as much time as I needed and just see everything, and then
Greece, Croatia, Germany, France, Spain, England, well, you get the
picture.
Q: Tell us a
secret!
A.
I would, but
then I would have to kill you all. Ok, not really. What kind of
secret? The I color my hair type secret? Or the I really enjoy
writing sex scenes and my husband really enjoys it when I write
them, too, if you know what I mean, type secret?
Love Notes, the official monthly newsletter of Music City
Romance Writers, is provided to paying members free of charge. If you are an
MCRW member and would like to submit an article to Love Notes,
visit the main newsletter page for more
information. If you would like to reprint one of these articles in your RWA
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original source. For any other uses, please contact the
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