Name:
Rachel Amphlett
The Title of Your Work or Group:
Under Fire
Where are you from?
Originally from Hungerford in Berkshire, UK, I now live in Brisbane, Australia
In what genre do you write?
Thriller
In your own words, what is your book about? If you were not the author and trying to explain this awesome book you just read to a friend, what would you say about it?
An explosion rocks a Qatari natural gas facility… a luxury cruise liner capsizes in the Mediterranean… and someone has stolen a submarine…
Are the events connected?
Dan Taylor doesn’t believe in coincidences – all he has to do now is convince his superiors that they’re next in the terrorists’ line of fire.
As Britain enters its worst winter on record, Dan must elude capture to ensure the country’s energy resources are protected. At all costs.
In an action-packed adventure, from the Middle East through the Mediterranean to London, Dan and his team are on a quest that will test every choice he makes. Helped by the exotic Antonia Almasi, Dan realizes he faces an adversary far greater than he ever imagined.
And not everyone is going to survive.
What is your writing style? Do you follow all guides and rules? Synopsis, outline etc. or do you just sit down at the computer and type to see what happens.
I learnt a really hard lesson writing Under Fire. I’m not naturally a planner when it comes to writing, other than having a general idea of the plot and what needs to happen, but with my first thriller White Gold, the characters really dictated the story. With Under Fire, the plot line is more intricate and after 20,000 words I had to stop, scrap two-thirds of what I’d written and start again – this time with a scene-by-scene plan. It worked, so I’m going to be a better “planner” in future!
Have you ever written anything and thought; "The world has got to see this!" ?
My debut thriller White Gold. There was just something exciting about it – I really wanted the world to know about my protagonist, Dan Taylor, and what he’d been through. It must’ve struck a chord because a lot of readers demanded to know more about him – hence why Under Fire was written.
Do you have an editor and Cover Designer or do you do this yourself?
I work with a cover designer. I usually have the idea in my head, so I send him some stock photos which appeal to me, together with a rough draft of the book blurb and we go from there. Often it only takes a couple of tweaks – we usually work on the same wavelength!
I do have an editor – I get a structural edit done as soon as the first draft is almost complete, and then a full edit once I’ve finished tweaking it. I must stress to anyone starting out that the cover design and the editing are the two most important things you will need to do – so start budgeting for them now and don’t cut corners!
Who is your favorite author. Not just someone that you read allot. I wanna know whose book you read that made you suddenly know that if you didn't do this for the rest of your life then you would never be happy.
I’m going to cheat here because I can’t possibly just choose one. My Grandad started me on to the thriller genre when I was about 12 or 13 – I’d outgrown everything my contemporaries were reading. He had a shelf full of Dick Francis, Alistair MacLean and Jack Higgins books, so those authors were definitely my writing foundation.
I now read across all genres but if I had to choose authors whose work I enjoy in my own genre then Stephen Leather, Lee Child, Robert Crais, Michael Connolly and Daniel Silva. All of them are brilliant storytellers, create characters the reader can empathize with and still manage to come up with the goods after having so many stories to their name!
Is there anything you find particularly challenging in your writing?
The last 15,000 words – that’s usually when I’m flagging because I’ve written all the exciting bits first, and I can see the end in sight but I’m not quite there!
Do you write your characters or do they write themselves through you?
Often they are imagined at about the same time as the idea for the story pops into my head. As the idea develops, they begin to write themselves. Alexandra Sokoloff (Screenwriting Tips for Authors) sums it up beautifully – she says that at some point in the writing process, the characters take over and you’re just the one trying to keep up with them whilst taking dictation!
Do you ever write yourself into the characters?
No.
Is writing your full time job or are you "Keeping your day job"? So to speak.
The day job pays the bills; the writing keeps me sane – sort of!
If you could go back in time and meet one famous person or legend in history, who would it be?
Leonardo di Vinci. The man was such an incredible engineer as well as being a creative genius.
There are millions of new books released every year. What in your mind makes yours stand out from all those millions in your genre?
That a female author can take on the military action thriller genre and deliver the goods.
In the world of Indie, marketing is very difficult, especially if you don't have the funds to pay for it. Have you found a great free way to market your work that you think other Indies will benefit from?
Twitter has been working wonders these past nine months – much more so than Facebook to be honest. Having a professional-looking website is imperative and set-ups such as Weebly enable an author to set up a website for very little.
Links to find and follow Rachel's work:
Twitter: @RachelAmphlett
Website: http://www.rachelamphlett.com
Where to buy link on her website: http://www.rachelamphlett.com/
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