Amie’s 2020 releases were Aurora Burning (book two in the Aurora Cycle), followed by Battle Born (book three in the Elementals trilogy), and then The Other Side of the Sky, the first in a new duology. In 2021, Amie released The World Between Blinks in January, and will publish Aurora’s End (book three in the Aurora Cycle) in November.To see what else Amie already has out, check her books page.
If you’re in Australia, Amie’s local bookshop is Beaumaris Books — you can order over the phone and they’ll ask her to drop by and sign for you. If you’re overseas, check out Amie’s events page — you can place an order for a personalised book at bookstores she’ll be visiting soon, and places she’s been recently may have signed stock available.
I met Meg online, and we wrote together for many years just for fun. We actually played around with the characters from These Broken Stars for a full year before we realised they’d make a good book! I met Jay here in Melbourne when I asked for advice on US tax forms, as they were completely baffling, and I knew he’d done them before. One catch up turned into many, and eventually we started tossing around ideas for a story we might write. I met Ryan when our first books came out during the same year — we’ve been friends ever since! We started writing together when our literary agent mentioned a story she’d heard about a disappearing island. It didn’t take long for the pair of us to start scheming.
Oh, I could give you a list! I’ll stick to my absolute favourite, though — it’s The Dark Is Rising by Susan Cooper. My school librarian, Mrs. Amiet, recommended it to me when I was in grade six as her ‘desert island book’, and I used my very first ever gift card to buy it at my local bookshop. It’s my desert island book too, and I re-read it every Christmas.
Once your novel is as ready as it can possibly be, you’ll want to write a query letter. I learned to write a pitch from Elana Johnson’s From The Query To The Call. I also found a bunch of helpful resources on Nathan Bransford’s website. There are heaps of online resources to help you research agents in your chosen genre, and another option is to check out the acknowledgements of books like yours to see who represents the writer. Agencies have submission guidelines set out on their websites — make sure you follow them!
My agent is Tracey Adams of Adams Literary, though I do a lot of work with the equally awesome Josh Adams as well, as he represents my co-authors Meagan Spooner and Jay Kristoff. Tracey is an actual black belt who also feeds me salted caramel brownies and lets me cuddle with her dogs. She is the very best.
Unfortunately I can’t recommend a book to Tracey unless I’m familiar with you or your writing — and she does check with me when somebody mentions my name. You definitely don’t need an introduction, though, and the vast majority of writers find their agents through a query letter.
I’m sorry, I can’t! I’m super busy with writing, and I simply don’t have the time. Sometimes I’ll offer up a query or chapter critique in a charity auction, but otherwise I’ve got established critique partners I work with already.
I live in Melbourne, Australia, right near the beach. If you drive in one direction you hit the city, which is amazing. Melbourne’s full of wonderful street art, food, music, bookshops and culture. If you drive in the other direction from our house you reach beautiful wineries along the coast. It’s a pretty awesome place to live.
I eat a lot (my husband is a ridiculously good cook, and I’m a dedicated taste tester), I try to go for a lot of walks (because of the eating), I nap, I read, I play with my dog and see my friends. I love boardgames, and video gaming as well. And as often as I can, I pack a suitcase and go explore a new country!
I did not. I majored in Irish history and wrote a thesis on the amazing Irish women who migrated to the US, New Zealand and Australia in the late 1800s and early 1900s. They were kickass and unique, and if you buy me a hot chocolate I’ll tell you all about them. I also majored in English literature, and wrote essays about Shakespeare and Bond girls and Johnson and Boswell. Then I did a law degree, and wrote about human rights law and a lawsuit involving a stampeding elephant, as wrote my thesis on expert evidence. Finally I did a Masters in Conflict Resolution, and learned about different styles of mediation and communication, which I then went on to practice and teach before I became a full time writer. Right now I’m undertaking a PhD in Creative Writing.
I’m a big fan of Cal Newport’s book Deep Work, so I aim to write around four hours a day in one long block, taking only quick breaks. I like to write in the morning when I can, before my brain gets too busy for the day, but I’ll write whenever and wherever I have to. I’m just as likely to be writing on a plane while I’m on tour, or in a cafe before I meet a friend. Sometimes I deliberately head out to find a new place to write, if I need an injection of energy. My advice to aspiring writers is to worry less about your routine — because it doesn’t really matter what it is — and more about finding time to write whenever and however you can. If you wait for a perfect stretch of several hours, your peppermint tea by your side and your scented candle burning, you may never get there! My first books were written in fifteen minute increments, on the train to and from work, at the laundromat, wherever I could! Never underestimate what you can do if you just work whenever you can.
READ. I can’t say it enough. Read the genre you want to write, read genres you don’t want to write. Read high up and low down, because you’re building your writing muscles every time you do it. Other people suggest you write every day — I don’t, but I do think about what I’m working on every day, and I write consistently. Writing a book is a huge thing to do, and it involves making some hard choices — turning down that TV show you love, sitting down at your desk when you’d rather be doing something else. Of course, make sure you get outside, too — you have to live life to write about it!