Interview With Amber

Editor’s Note:It’s been a couple of years since I last did this, but Michael Hyatt recently posted about some of the things novelists can blog about and it rekindled my desire to interview a character from one of my books. I decided to sit down with Amber from Mother Not Wanted

Timothy Fish:

Amber, some of my readers may not have read your story. What would you tell someone who may be trying to decide whether to buy the book or not. What is it about your story that you think makes it special?

Amber:

You really know how to make a girl nervous, don’t you?

Timothy Fish:

I wasn’t trying to. Just tell us how it all started. The novel starts with you an Lizi on the train from St. Louis. Maybe you can tell us what was going on before that. What was it that convinced you to get on that train?

Amber:

I had to do something. I was at a point in my life where I couldn’t take care of Lizi properly. We’d recently gotten into church and our pastor was doing this series on the importance of men in a family. I kept thinking about how Lizi had a father out there somewhere and he she needed him.

Timothy Fish:

But you weren’t sure who he was.

Amber:

No, and I didn’t know if he could be trusted. You see, Lizi isn’t mine. I’ve raised her like she is, but I got her by default. Her mother died when Lizi was young. We were roommates, and I’d been taking care of Lizi a lot of the time anyway, so I went on doing it. If anyone knew that she wasn’t mine, I guess they didn’t care. Anyway, Lizi’s mother didn’t tell me very much about her family before she died and what she did, it wasn’t very clear. She was that way.

Timothy Fish:

And yet, it was enough for you to buy a couple of tickets to Fort Worth.

Amber:

Yeah, I was able to piece together enough information to find someone who knew Lizi’s mother. I knew that Fox was either Lizi’s grandfather, or he would know who was.

Timothy Fish:

But why the train? Why not call him up? Why not send him an e-mail or a letter?

Amber:

Is that what you would’ve done?

Timothy Fish:

Probably.

Amber:

That’s not the way I do things. I had to know she’d be okay. You don’t raise a kid from the time she was a baby and then just dump her off on strangers. And I had to know I could control the situation. If I’d called, they might have sent the authorities to take Lizi. I might have gone to jail and never met her father.

Timothy Fish:

But you didn’t have complete control. Any thoughts on why not?

Amber:

I got too close. When you’re trying to con someone, its never good when you have more to lose than they do.

Timothy Fish:

You were afraid you would lose Lizi.

Amber:

I think that goes without saying.

Timothy Fish:

What was your life like before you left St. Louis?

Amber:

Pretty normal. I worked in restaurants most of the time. But there’s not always work available.

Timothy Fish:

Do you have any regrets?

Amber:

You mean about leaving that life behind?

Timothy Fish:

That or about anything. Is there anything you would do different, if you could?

Amber:

Yeah, I wish I hadn’t messed with those silly birth certificates.

Timothy Fish:

Do you think things would’ve turned out different?

Amber:

Maybe.

Timothy Fish:

Thanks for stopping by.

Amber:

My pleasure.