Thanks so much to Bobbi Dumas and Ruthie Knox for inviting me to participate in this year’s Read-A-Romance month!

Let’s face it, every month is Read a Romance Month at my house. More like once a week… sometimes once a day…

I read a lot of romances.

One of my favorite parts is the beginning, when the hero and the heroine have met, and you can feel that spark between them. Or maybe you don’t feel that spark between them, which is meaningful in its own way. And you see, there at the beginning, all the struggles, all the past hurts, all the conflict those characters will have to overcome to be together. It’s an admirable thing–I can admire the characters for their struggle and their bravery. But it’s also a selfish thing, falling in love. It’s a human thing, both heartbreaking and inescapable.

One of the earliest romance novels I read, and to this day one of the most powerful to me, is Morning Glory by LaVyrle Spencer. The hero has recently been let out of prison, he’s walking along the dirt road with no money, no food, and no job prospects. He’s just stolen some raw apples from a backyard and he’s one step away from starvation. The heroine is a widow with young children and a house she can’t quite maintain, so she puts an ad in the newspaper for a husband.

The hero, Will, arrives at her house, which is way outside town, and she comes out with a baby on her hip and her clothes stained and “pregnant as hell.” They strike a deal, that he will take care of some chores around the house in exchange for meals and a barn to sleep in. And she tells him, then, that she really can’t anymore kids. So. And he just… he doesn’t want to sleep with her at all. And he’s embarrassed that she brought it up really. She thinks:

“He was a vagrant ex-con; she poor, pregnant and unpretty. Who was the bigger loser?”

I was just completely sold on this book and this couple and this romance, because they had so much to overcome to find it. And because I wanted to deeply for them to find it.

As I write this, I am still recovering from the RWA National conference a week ago. What I love most about the conferences now is seeing my friends–including my friend Carolyn who won a RITA. Yay, Carolyn! There’s such a strong sense of camaraderie and kinship at RWA. I think because we are all in this together: writing and worrying and submitting and being rejected and putting ourselves out there again and again. But I also know those aren’t the only reasons. I also know that not every writer’s conference has that sense of connectedness, of kindness, and I can only find as the reason for this difference, the most obvious and obscure answer of love.

We all write about love. We all think about love. We all break down love into its components and its pieces, and then put it back together again, brand new.

(Or maybe it’s just the way all invade the bar of whatever hotel we’re in. Rum and coke is good for camaraderie.)

But either way, love is the most important topic. It is the Rome of subject matters, where all roads lead to. And maybe I feel that way because that is true in my life. I’m constantly searching for ways to reach more love, more peace, more clarity. But even acknowledging that doesn’t make it easy. I have my own struggles, my own past hurts, my own conflicts, to be resolved on the way. We all do. I am at my own beginning, every day that I wake up–groggy and hopeful. We all are. And that’s why I love reading romance.

So, recommendations. Definitely Morning Glory by LaVyrle Spencer. Another beginning I loved, and the book that my friend a RITA for, is Off the Edge by Carolyn Crane. A series I found recently is the Reveler series by Erin Kellison, starting with Darkness Falls, although my favorite of the series is Lay Me Down. They’re unique paranormal romances with a well developed world and hot forbidden romances.

Questions for Amber:

1. Describe the most daring, adventurous or inspiring thing you ever did.

The first thing that comes to mind are somewhat common. Writing my first book–and publishing it, which takes a different kind of gumption. Having my son and just, his general existence and awesomeness. If I had to pick something more rare-seeming, then I’d say getting my black belt.

2. Tell us about your journey to becoming a writer. (How did you decide to get started? Did you always know or was there a specific moment when you knew?)

There’s a certain romance in always knowing you’ll be a writer and then achieving it–unfortunately, my story doesn’t have that. I always loved books. Really loved them and barely even understood the authors behind them to be real people. They were abstract, like gods, not people you could meet or emulate. So basically, my journey to becoming a writer was, frankly, a little blasphemous

3. Tell us about The (or A) Book That Changed Your Life. (Why?)

Ohhh, I’m thinking back to these books I read as a young girl, formative books, like A Ring of Endless Light by Madeline L’Engle or On Fortune’s Wheel by Cynthia Voigt. Both of those books were hugely important to me, and I held the lessons I learned through the lens of the characters close to my heart.

But since I have to pick one, and since I’m thinking now about my writing and my career, I’m going to say The Witching Hour by Anne Rice. I read it when I was probably too young–there were, predictably, ghosts and witches, but also threesomes and incest and a bunch of “inappropriate” sexual matter. And I learned, through that book, that it was entirely possible to be a powerful and popular female author on a feature bookshelf filled with men.

And maybe more importantly, I learned that I can write whatever the hell I want.

Let’s do a giveaway! I’m giving away an ebook copy of Morning Glory by LaVyrle Spencer, Off the Edge by Carolyn Crane and my new release, Betraying Mercy, a dark historical romance from Harlequin Books. Leave a comment telling me one of your formative books to enter.