What I've Been Reading & Watching Lately
in between writing books...
Hi, I’m Amber Eve — author of smalltown romantic comedies, and my long-running blog, Forever Amber. My newsletter used to also be called Forever Amber, but last week I randomly decided to re-name it to The Accidental Author, and you can read more about that here.
Something strange is happening in Scotland.
It’s sunny.
It’s been sunny for a few weeks now.
Naturally, it’s all any of us can talk about. According to a news report I saw yesterday, it’s been the driest start to the year since 1964, and this is now our nation’s entire personality. Max’s school has sent out emails warning us to make sure our offspring are appropriately sun-screened up at all times. Scottish Water have advised us to start taking shorter showers. Max is steadfastly refusing to wear a hat, no matter how much I beg him to. People are playing loud music in gardens, which makes me want to cry. Someone set the forest near our house on fire, and it took 50 firefighters and a helicopter to put it out, not even joking.
Oh, and I’ve been taking photos of my books in my parents’ garden:
Well, someone has to, right?
Other than that, I have very little to report from this week, which has been slightly more awkward than usual as Max’s after school club has been closed, so we’ve had a bit less working time than we usually have (and school’s on holiday on Monday too, which doesn’t help, either). Despite that, I’ve somehow managed to hit 56,000 words on my WIP (70% according to Reedsy, although I always end up going at least 10K over my target, so…), and, last night I sent it to my agent for her feedback, which is incredibly nerve-wracking because, seriously you guys, what if she hates it?
No, but WHAT IF?
Because I’m on such a short timescale with this book, though, I feel like everything else is kind of having to take a backseat to it right now, which makes me constantly feel a bit like I’m about to drown any second. “If I could just get this out of the way, then I’d be able to…” is the main thought in my head at any given moment, but because the nature of the ‘this’ is forever changing and always being updated, I’m starting to feel like I will literally never ‘be able to’, and that’s quite a scary, thought. You know?
Anyway, as I don’t have much else to tell you this week, I figured I’d do a quick catch-up on what I’ve been reading and watching lately instead, even though doing that seems to contradict literally everything I just said above about never having time for anything.1
READING:
I finished reading A Court of Thorns and Roses, which, I’ll be honest, I bought during an Amazon sale, along with Forth Wing and a bunch of other ‘TikTok’ famous books, and I bought them all purely so I could understand what people were talking about on TikTok.
Anyway, I didn’t have myself pegged as a Romantasy reader particularly, but I actually enjoyed both of these (enough to have ordered the second books in each series), although one thing I learned about myself is that I apparently like dragons more than faeries, so… yes. I will file that away for future reference.
Between those two, I also read The Thursday Murder Club, which my friend Claire has been telling me to read for ages now (And which I’ve just this second realised I’ve been referring to as ‘The Tuesday Murder Club’ every time I mention it to someone, so I guess I wouldn’t get to be a member of the murder club, because I’d always be turning up on the wrong day for it…) and Sometimes I Lie, which was exactly the kind of twisty thriller I love, and which also gave me the satisfaction of being able to read about a main character called Amber. Love that for me.
Now I’ve just started Funny Story by Emily Henry, and if you’re thinking, ‘wow, Amber is really behind the curve with all of these books that came out ages ago’, yes, you are absolutely correct, and this is one of the many things I’ve been telling myself I’ll finally get around to once THIS <gestures expansively> is out of the way.
WATCHING
Last night we finished Season One of Silo, which is a dystopian … thriller? Sci fi series? I don’t actually know how to best describe it, but … just imagine that something happened and now everyone lives in a giant underground silo, because that’s basically what happens, and you’re going to have to trust me when I tell you it’s better than I just made it sound. (I actually stayed up past my bedtime last night to finish it, which I never, ever do, because of *THIS*.)
Before that, we binged all of Severance, which I loved and Terry was very ‘meh’ about. I actually ended up watching the first couple of episodes of season 1 twice, because I’m pretty sure I was looking at my phone dozing off during them the first time, and I ended up so confused I decided I didn’t like it and didn’t want to finish it. But, fortunately for me, I decided to give it another go a few weeks later (this time with my phone off), and got totally sucked in, partly because I’m an absolute sucker for a good mystery, but also because the severed floor at Lumon really reminded me of literally every single ‘traditional’ job I’ve ever had. So, yeah, if you haven’t read my post on Why I Don’t Just Get a Real Job yet, you could just watch Severance instead, because THAT’S WHY. I don’t want to have to work for Lumon, guys. Please don’t make me.
If you do want to read my post, though, here it is…
Why I Don't Just Get a 'Real' Job
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Oh, and we also watched Season 7 of Black Mirror, which I was simultaneously entertained and terrified by in equal measure. Like most people, I’m convinced that episode one (Common People) is exactly where society is headed right now, and that seems like a very downbeat message to end this post on, so here is a photo of the shelves Terry just finished installing on one wall of our office, to hold the copies of my books which we’re hoping to at some point start selling via my website and/or my TikTok shop:
(Yes, they look a bit sad with just those 7 books on them, but stay tuned, folks…)
Until next week,
I do obviously have SOME time to do things other than work on the book, but, also, I’ve read and watched this stuff over a period of many weeks/months, so there’s that, too.
Dragons 100% better than faeries!
Just curious, and sorry if you already explained it (I'm so tired I don't remember), but what exactly is the benefit of having an agent over dealing with the publisher yourself?