Welcome back, Amanda Cabot!

Talkshow Thursday: Welcome Back, Amanda Cabot

Amanda Cabot is one of my favorite authors, and I'm honored to have her back on my blog today. Grab your favorite beverage and get to know this prolific author.

When did you know you wanted to be an author?

I’m tempted to say “forever,” but it wasn’t quite that long ago. It actually happened when I was seven years old. My family had moved from Texas to Western New York, which meant leaving everything familiar behind and learning to deal with such foreign things as snow and ice while adjusting to being the new kid in school. There were times when all I wanted to do was escape, and so I did – into books. Reading transported me to different times and places and helped me cope with the changes in my life. Books became such an important part of my life that it seemed only natural that I wanted to write one.

How many books have you written, and which is your favorite?

I stopped counting after forty, but it’s somewhere around forty-five right now. As for my favorite, writers aren’t supposed to have favorites. It’s like parents being told not to have a favorite child. But – and this is a big but – I do have a favorite. It used to be A Stolen Heart, the first of the Cimarron Creek trilogy, but now I have a new favorite. Although I’m usually so close to my stories that I can’t judge them impartially, when I finished Echoes of Sunrise, I felt that it was my best book yet. I’ve been delighted – more than delighted, I’ve been thrilled – that readers have agreed with me.

What was the best money you spent as a writer?

Attending the 2004 Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers conference. I can’t tell you about any of the

workshops I attended, but one thing the keynote speaker said turned out to be one of those “aha!” moments. She asked us to answer one question: Is writing what we do or who we are? My answer to that made a lot of things fall into place. It told me why I’d been able to walk away from my day job, even though it had been a very rewarding one. You see, that was “what I did.” And it explained why even when I’d tried to stop writing during the period when I was collecting more than my share of rejection letters, I couldn’t. After a few weeks, I’d feel as if something vital was missing in my life. That’s because writing is “who I am.”

If your book is part of a series: Did you set out to write a series? Why did you decide to write a series?

Echoes of Sunrise is the first book in the Sisters of the Heart trilogy. With the exception of the novella Christmas Roses, all of my books have been written as trilogies. I LOVE writing trilogies! It’s so much fun to have books that can be read as standalones but that have connections between them. There’s only one problem: once I create my fictional town and the cast of characters who live there, I don’t want to leave. Readers seem to agree with me and often ask for “just one more” book in a series. That’s why I wrote One Special Christmas, which extends the Sweetwater Crossing series. And since that was such a hit with readers, I’m planning to write another Christmas story set in Sweetwater Crossing. Assuming all goes as planned, that’ll be available in the fall of 2026.

What is your next project?

I’m currently writing the first draft of Whispers in the Valley, the second of the Sisters of the Heart trilogy, which will be released next spring. And since I received rights back on The Sagebrush Bride, a novella that was published in 2015, I’m going to release it as an e-book short this fall.

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About Echoes of Sunrise

A baby to protect. A town to save. Is a marriage of convenience the only answer?

Sophia Carr knows her recurring dreams of an identical twin sister are just that - dreams. She also knows that eventually she will inherit the hotel her grandfather built. When a fire at the hotel kills her mother, Sophia returns to Carr Valley to rebuild and ensure that a planned railroad line chooses a route that will keep the town alive. But her grandfather’s will states that she must be married to inherit, and the only man she can imagine marrying seems to have forgotten her.

Up-and-coming architect Gideon Spencer couldn’t say no when his dying friend begged him to marry his widow and raise their baby as his own rather than let a cruel grandfather gain custody. But when the young mother dies, leaving Gideon a single parent, the grandfather poses a new threat unless Gideon manages to marry again. Sadly, the only woman he’s interested in is the one he’s ignored for six months: Sophia. Knowing he needs to protect the baby, Gideon heads to Carr Valley. When he discovers that Sophia needs a husband as much as he needs a wife, he proposes a six-month marriage of convenience. Sophia agrees but adds a stipulation of her own, one that will test his resolve, even as their wedding day reveals that Sophia’s dreams of a twin sister might be more than dreams.

As Sophia and Gideon join forces, the stakes couldn’t be higher: a baby’s life, a town’s future, and love.

Purchase Link: Amazon https://bit.ly/3CG0Xd5

About Amanda
From the age of seven, Amanda Cabot dreamed of becoming a published author, but it was only when she set herself the goal of selling a book by her thirtieth birthday that the dream came true. A former director of Information Technology, Amanda has written everything from technical books and articles for IT professionals to mysteries for teenagers and romances for all ages. She is now the bestselling author of more than forty novels and a variety of novellas. Her books have been honored with starred reviews from Publishers Weekly and Library Journal and have been finalists for the ACFW Carol Award, the HOLT Medallion, and the Booksellers’ Best. For her, a day is incomplete unless it includes books and at least one pot of tea.

Social Media Links
Website: https://www.amandacabot.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/amanda.j.cabot