Ask the Author: Amanda Meredith
Answered Questions (4)
Amanda Meredith
Thanks for the question, Sharanya!
The inspiration struck for Dark Mountains when I was a senior in High School. Our Creative Writing teacher gave us a unique assignment: free-form writing, but the inspiration/subject had to be a plant. We all picked some type of plant (mine was a bluebell), and had to write about it. We could do poetry, an essay, a song, a short story, etc. as long as it included the plant we picked.
I imagined two little kids, best friends: barefoot, muddy, ripped jeans, tangled hair... basically what I looked like playing outside all day in the summer at that age. A frustrated mom when she saw the tears she'd have to mend, the baths she'd have to start. And those two kids pulling out a bouquet of bluebells they'd picked to help ease any punishment they might receive. Mom's eyes softening, a small smile forming, and those kids knowing that they just escaped whatever consequences they would have normally faced.
It was just a short story when I wrote it, and the focus was the flowers, not the children. But it wasn't long before I began to think about that story, who those children were, why they were best friends, what kind of life they lived, and Dark Mountains took off from there.
I've blogged about finding inspiration everywhere and I know that from experience. A random writing assignment at school became the birth of my first published novel. Who knew a tiny flower could have started something so big? Certainly not that 17-year-old high school student. :)
The inspiration struck for Dark Mountains when I was a senior in High School. Our Creative Writing teacher gave us a unique assignment: free-form writing, but the inspiration/subject had to be a plant. We all picked some type of plant (mine was a bluebell), and had to write about it. We could do poetry, an essay, a song, a short story, etc. as long as it included the plant we picked.
I imagined two little kids, best friends: barefoot, muddy, ripped jeans, tangled hair... basically what I looked like playing outside all day in the summer at that age. A frustrated mom when she saw the tears she'd have to mend, the baths she'd have to start. And those two kids pulling out a bouquet of bluebells they'd picked to help ease any punishment they might receive. Mom's eyes softening, a small smile forming, and those kids knowing that they just escaped whatever consequences they would have normally faced.
It was just a short story when I wrote it, and the focus was the flowers, not the children. But it wasn't long before I began to think about that story, who those children were, why they were best friends, what kind of life they lived, and Dark Mountains took off from there.
I've blogged about finding inspiration everywhere and I know that from experience. A random writing assignment at school became the birth of my first published novel. Who knew a tiny flower could have started something so big? Certainly not that 17-year-old high school student. :)
Amanda Meredith
The freedom to create anything and everything that comes to my mind. I don't trap myself in any one genre. I have romance, suspense, even children's books on the 'back-burner'. When you write, you're free to make your own world, your own characters, your own memories and feelings. The sky is the limit! That's my most favorite thing about being a writer. :)
Amanda Meredith
This week I'm releasing Irish Heart, Book Two in the Irish Treasures Saga so currently I'm finishing and editing book three in the Saga, Irish Sight. This story features one character well-known to the series and a new character. Release for book three is tentatively set for January 2015!
Amanda Meredith
Never stop writing. Even through the worst times in your life. Even when you have severe writers block. WRITE SOMETHING! Even a few words as they pop into your head. You never know what you'll be able to turn into a story at a later time.
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Jul 09, 2015 09:04PM · flag