Local Author Profile: Amy Roberts
Local author, Amy Roberts began her career as a journalist working in TV news and transitioned into writing features and travel articles for magazines. “The economy crashed in ’08 taking the print media industry down with it. I had to get a ‘big girl’ job and began working on the opposite side of the business in PR and communications.” Today, in addition to her magazine articles and a weekly newspaper column, she is the Senior Director of Marketing and Communications for the Kimball Art Center.
With a desire to entertain an over-active imagination, writing a book occurred to Amy in the form of a challenge. “I woke up one morning and thought… I wonder if I could write a book. There was only one way to find out.”
For Amy, the writing process was an unstructured adventure. “I didn’t have an outline, or even an idea of where the story would go until I typed the words. I often stayed up way later than I should because I had to find out what happened next.”
Amy’s mom is a college English professor so she had built-in editors with mom and her colleagues. “They gave me fantastic feedback, even though first drafts were marked in so much red pen; they looked like a murder scene.”
Amy hopes her first book will not be her only book. “Remorse is set up for a sequel. Remorseful, is the title of the follow-up, I have loosely drafted in my head. I would also love to compile my travel journals into a semi-nonfictional memoir. I’ve enjoyed countless adventures, people, and WTF moments across the globe. I often travel solo so I’ve already titled it, A Broad Abroad.”
Advising potential authors, Amy says, “don’t write a book expecting to make money, or even get published for that matter. It’s a tough industry and your ego will get trampled. The responses I received from the my first few query letters left me feeling like I had the writing skills of a drunk three-year old. Write a book for the love of storytelling and with no other expectation attached.”
Remorse is available on Amazon and proceeds are donated to Leap For A Cure Foundation, begun by Amy’s family when her sister was diagnosed with brain cancer in 2008. “My sister was unabashedly hopeful and relentlessly charitable. She wanted to start a nonprofit to help others with the same diagnosis who were not as fortunate. So we did. To date, my family has raised over $1,000,000 for brain cancer research and treatment for those who cannot afford it.”