Happy Monday!
Each Monday I would like to take some time to get to know some of our favorite authors. My hope is that this will help readers connect with the authors.
Today I would like to introduce you to: Amy Lynn Green!
I first met Amy through launch teams since she works for Bethany House publishers. When she first started sharing about her book, I knew that I would need to read it. I’m so happy that I did!
Author bio:
Amy Lynn Green is a lifelong lover of books, history, and library cards. She worked in publishing for six years before writing her first historical fiction novel, Things We Didn’t Say, honored with a starred review from both Booklist and Library Journal. To keep up on her latest releases, and for lots of giveaways, games, and bookish fun, sign up for her quarterly newsletter at her website, amygreenbooks.com.
To help us get to know her, I have given her some questions and here are her responses:
Q: How long have you been writing?
A: I’ve been writing for fun for nearly as long as I can remember—although my childhood stories are so bad that they’re laughable (and don’t even get me started on the illustrations). Starting in college, I published some one-act plays, nonfiction articles, and middle grade fantasy books, but it wasn’t until about five years ago that I started writing historical fiction. I have four-and-a-half completed historical novels in my drawer that I used as “practice books.” They may never see the light of day, but what I learned from them, I applied to Things We Didn’t Say.
Q: What are you currently working on?
A: Right now, I’m working on edits for my book that will be coming out in Fall 2021, The Lines Between Us. Here’s a sneak peek: it follows a group of conscientious objectors during WWII who serve as smokejumpers, parachuting into wildfires across the Pacific Northwest—but when a tragic fire leaves one of them injured, his best friend wonders if it was really an accident after all. Playing with a mystery element in my historical fiction was a lot of fun!
Q: What are some of your writing must haves? (Drink, snack, supplies, etc.)
A: I like to play music—with lyrics when writing, without lyrics when editing for some reason. Sometimes I’ll sip some Hot Cinnamon Spice tea while writing, but other than that, it’s just me, my laptop, and whatever snatch of time I have.
Q: What is your favorite time period to write about? Or read about?
A: My only published book is in the 1940s, and I think for now I’d like to stay in the first half of the twentieth century. There are just so many strong and relevant conflicts, and I love that I can listen to audio or video interviews with eyewitnesses. But I enjoy reading from almost any time period. It helps history come alive!
Q: If you could spend a day with one fictional character, who would you pick and what would you do?
A: This is such a tough one. I can imagine myself digging in the garden with Samwise Gamgee (and Rosie), trading stories and then heading out to the Green Dragon in the evening for a warm hobbit welcome and trencher of food. Then again, Anne Shirley and I could have a fantastic tea, followed by dramatic readings of some of our favorite novels (I’d introduce her to Shallan from The Stormlight Archives, also an artistic redhead) and a walk on the Prince Edward Island beach at sunset. So…it’s a toss-up.
I have saved my favorite question for last!
Q: What would you like readers to take away from your books?
A: There are so many emotions, questions, and conflicts of the 1940s that are still relevant today. In Things We Didn’t Say, the characters wonder what it looks like to love their neighbor, have to fight to find genuine community in a lonely world, struggle to have faith in a world torn apart by war, and face the ugly realities of prejudice. I hope readers enjoy the characters most of all, but that those themes make the story leap off the page to them. And if it inspires some readers to write a letter or two to someone they love, I wouldn’t complain!
To connect with Amy, please click on any of the following links: her website and Facebook.
I’m also featuring her debut book, Thing We Didn’t Say. This book is so good and so unique! I would recommend it for historical fiction fans! Be sure to add it to your Goodreads shelf!
About the book:
Headstrong Johanna Berglund, a linguistics student at the University of Minnesota, has very definite plans for her future . . . plans that do not include returning to her hometown and the secrets and heartaches she left behind there. But the US Army wants her to work as a translator at a nearby camp for German POWs.
Johanna arrives to find the once-sleepy town exploding with hostility. Most patriotic citizens want nothing to do with German soldiers laboring in their fields, and they’re not afraid to criticize those who work at the camp as well. When Johanna describes the trouble to her friend Peter Ito, a language instructor at a school for military intelligence officers, he encourages her to give the town that rejected her a second chance.
As Johanna interacts with the men of the camp and censors their letters home, she begins to see the prisoners in a more sympathetic light. But advocating for better treatment makes her enemies in the community, especially when charismatic German spokesman Stefan Werner begins to show interest in Johanna and her work. The longer Johanna wages her home-front battle, the more the lines between compassion and treason become blurred–and it’s no longer clear whom she can trust.
Thank you Amy for your time! Please leave some love in the comments!
All The Bookish Adventures 