Where Writers Write: Amber Scott

Welcome to another installment of TNBBC's Where Writers Write!

Where Writers Write is a weekly series that will feature a different author every Wednesday as they showcase their writing spaces using short form essay, photos, and/or video. As a lover of books and all of the hard work that goes into creating them, I thought it would be fun to see where some of TNBBC's favorite authors roll up their sleeves and make the magic happen.

Attention paranormal romance lovers. Have you met Amber Scott yet? She's a die hard, completely hopeless romantic and author of Wanted: Dead or Alive, Soul Search, and Fierce Dawn, among many others. 

As a happily married mother of two, Amber bangs out the love stories in her head between naptimes and laundry. Though her books will not reverse the signs of aging and cannot shrink your thighs, she does promise that they will take you away from it all. 

Amber is no stranger to TNBBC. We met for the very first time in NYC during the Indie Book Event in 2011, and then she shared her top 3 favorite reads with us here on the blog in December. Today, she shares a story about her muse, Milla, and what it took for them to get a writing routine down: 

Where Amber Scott Writes

If my muse, Milla, had a song to sing, it would be Janet. Miss Jackson if you’re nasty. And she’d sing…“Anytime, anyplace, I don’t care who’s around…”

Milla isn’t a fussy kind of muse. She doesn’t need clean, though I prefer tidy. She doesn’t need atmosphere, though I do love a good coffee next to the keyboard. She doesn’t need silence. In fact a body humming bass thump is excellent by her.

“Let’s do this.” Yeah. As in…NOW!

In the beginning, I had a hard time with a write when and where you can concept. I’m a tidy and scheduled sort of person. I straighten magnets on refrigerators. I color code my plot cards.

I fold underwear.

In the spirit of my organized nature, in those early years, I had created a routine with lots of parameters in place in order to write. My first born would be asleep. Music would be playing softly. My writing tiara would sit high on my head, glinting in the office lamplight. Oh, the hours of quiet space I had.

Then I had baby number two. And routine flew out the window. (Or maybe hid under the sofa due to all that wailing. Mine. Not hers.)

When that routine derailed, I had a really hard time recovering. Having two little ones pushed my writing space and routine to the outer reaching limits and ultimately, my muse and I had to come to terms with the fact that ideas wait for no naptimes.

Milla was handing them over, doing her muse part. I had to figure out a way to get them on paper…er, laptop. The write when you can plan came to life. I assimilated. Fast.

Hard.

Now, my office is my laptop, there is no real routine, and we travel. We hit the café with author friends. We stake a claim on a friend’s sofa. Laptop comes to the doctor appointments, oil changes, all of it. In bed, on the floor, at the airport, a-writing we shall go.

The last thing I ever want to do is ignore my muse. For one, I’ll go nuts. For another, no matter how good they look with her skirt, I never want to be on the receiving end of those steel-toed boots.

Check back with us next week to see where Frank Coles finds his authorly mojo.