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| Credit: Jenny Jimenez |
Amy Dressler writes witty, engaging contemporary fiction featuring heroines who wrestle their emotional baggage while maintaining a sense of humor. As a literature major, theater nerd, and believer in the cathartic power of humor, Amy has always gravitated toward Shakespeare’s comedies. In the Shakespeare Project, she transposes those stories into contemporary settings that highlight the heroines’ emotional arcs.
Amy is an active member of the Author's Guild, Women's Fiction Writers Association, and the Pacific Northwest Author's Association, where her books have twice been recognized as contest finalists. She holds a certificate in Popular Fiction from the University of Washington, as well as a BA in English from Whitman College and a Master's in Library and Information Science, also from the University of Washington. She spends her days shepherding government documents but has also worked as an academic librarian and freelance pop culture writer.
Amy’s hobbies include barely running (she’s completed ten half marathons, slowly), cooking and baking, hiking, tending her neighborhood Little Free Library, relaxed traveling, and attending live theater. When she’s not writing, Amy can often be found cozied up reading, eating fancy cheese, shopping for fancy cheese, or cooking with fancy cheese. She lives in the Seattle suburbs with her husband, two senior rescue cats, and next door to her sister.
Her love language is jokes.
Meddling in other people’s business is kind of her thing. Rosalind writes a popular advice column in a magazine. When she butts heads with her editor over a controversial letter response, she loses her job and byline. To keep writing, Rosalind establishes a fake identity with a male pen name at the dubious suggestion of her friends.
Retreating to a small town on the water, she starts a new column for a local newspaper. The unexpected online success of her advice writing only serves to exacerbate her bad habit of meddling in real life. This threatens to damage her relationships with family and friends. It also complicates her budding romance with ruggedly handsome travel television star Andy Arden. He’s gorgeous, he’s outdoorsy, and he writes her (terrible) poetry. But he also thinks “Gavin,” the guy giving him relationship advice via text, and his new love interest are two different people…
Rosalind juggles it all because her advice is ALWAYS right. Usually right. Would you settle for sometimes right? Can she outgrow her game-playing and confront her grief in time to untangle the mess she’s made of her personal and professional life? (Courtesy of Amazon.)
One of my beta readers for my first book, How to Align the Stars, said I made her "literally wish public gastric distress on fictional characters." It made me laugh, while telling me my writing was working as intended.
In one sentence, what was the road to publishing like for you?
Long, because I've wanted to be an author since I was a teenager, but kind of like one of those road trips where you have to do a hundred chores before you get around to leaving the house, because I didn't start writing fiction until I was in my thirties.
If The Best Advice were made into a movie, who would you cast in the lead roles?
I think Kaitlyn Dever would be perfect for Roz and Harry Richardson has the right look for Andy. Ashley Park would make a great Olivia. Celeste was one of the only characters I pictured as an actress as I was writing--that's Anna Baryshnikov.
What is the best piece of advice you were ever given?
This is not writing advice, but it's on my mind because I am saying goodbye to the world's sweetest cat right now. It's this: Animals only understand quality of life, not quantity. When it is time, the kindest thing we can do for our pets is to gently let them go.
If your life was a TV series, which celebrity would you want to narrate it?
Lauren Graham, because I know she can talk fast enough to keep up with my spiraling thoughts, and she's good at sarcasm, which is a must.
If we were to visit you right now, what are some places you would take us to see?
I'd take you on the trip the characters in The Best Advice take--a ferry from the Seattle waterfront to some of the cute small towns on the Olympic Peninsula. We'd walk through Pike Place Market first for snacks, and go to the Norwegian bakery in Poulsbo for an afternoon treat.
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9 comments:
Forgive yourself for the mistakes you have made.
There was a show that was on tv years ago called Once & Again, the mom on the show was telling her teenagers that people would always talk about them and she used to the phrase "let them" and that has stuck with me for years..& as I was parenting my own teenagers, I would say "let them"..meaning be your own person because someone is always going to talk no matter what!
Do or do not. There is no try. Commitment and dedication. Fully commit to the task.
You must always have faith in yourself.
Love endures
Trust your inner feelings.
Keep your friends close but your enemies closer.
Just keep going. No matter what.
Follow your dreams. Thank you for the giveaway.
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