Please welcome Amber Leigh Williams author of Madame Rebelle on her book stop tour…
This Writer’s Life-(TWL)-Welcome to This Writer’s Life, happy to have you join us today. Introduce yourself and tell us about yourself, your writing and your books.
Hello, TWL! Happy to be here today. My name is Amber Leigh Williams. I write contemporary romance, romantic suspense, and historical fiction. I’ve been writing…well, almost all of my life, really, and I take storytelling very seriously. While Madame Rebelle is my first historical fiction novel, I’ve published six contemporary romance novels with Harlequin Superromance and eight romantic suspense novels with Harlequin Romantic Suspense with several more on the way for 2026!
TWL-Why and when did you decide to become an author?
I’m not sure I actively made that decision. I realized the greatest outlet for the stories I told myself while I was trying to sleep or self-soothe as an anxious child was writing them down. Then, I became hyper focused on the manner in which stories come together on the page. Once I realized that I could sell those stories, my mind was blown. I remember thinking, “People do this for a living?!” Up to that point, I’d been writing for the joy of the process and the biggest challenge I have for myself now some thiry-some-odd years down the road is to continue to find those moments of joy throughout the process.
TWL-What’s a typical writing session like for you?
I’m a scatter-brained mom of two – one elementary age, the other in middle school. They homeschool and are actively involved in sports, clubs, and their local libraries. Needless to say, there is no typical writing session for me. Writing sprints have happened in the bleachers at the ball park, in the reading room of a library, on the steps outside an auditorium… Probably my one and only superpower is being able to tune out the real world in order to focus on the one inside my head and translate it onto the page.
TWL-What have you learned most from being a writer?
I strive to leave readers with a sense of hope at the end of every novel. No matter how badly things get for the characters, they’re able to overcome the worst thing that could possibly happen to them. There’s something so deeply empowering about that.
TWL-What’s been the biggest struggle and how did you overcome it?
I suffer from Hashimoto’s disease, which can result in significant brain fog and fatigue, so I would say learning self-care has been my biggest struggle as well as learning to accept my body’s quirks and limitations. Until recent years, I would fight against the idea that my system is different from other people’s. I would get especially frustrated when it would affect the way I write or my writing schedule. Once I embraced the realities of chronic disease and the lifestyle changes that needed to happen in order to maintain a healthy balance, I was able to understand myself better, but it’s still a day-to-day struggle.
TWL-What’s been your biggest victory?
Finishing Madame Rebelle felt like a huge victory because I’ve been writing this story in some way or other for two decades. So to not only be able to type THE END and send it out into the world, but to be satisfied with the final result feels incredible.
TWL-If you could give advice to your pre-author self, what would it be?
Strive for joy, even when things aren’t working. Remember it’s not about the words THE END. It’s about the journey you take to get there. There’s nothing more magical than filling a blank page with words.
TWL-What writing tip would you offer to a new author?
Write every day, whether it’s 150 words or 1500 words. Ensure that every scene is moving the plot forward in some way. Above all, find the joy. Writing can be lonely, tedious, and downright difficult at times, but it shouldn’t feel like a chore. Never losing the joy in the process ensures that creativity thrives no matter where you are in the writing journey.
GENRE: Historical Romance
BLURB:
Rebel. Smuggler. Spy.
Champagne, France 1943
Meet Madame Rebelle. Edmee Guillon is a smuggler. She hides people from the German troops surrounding her ancestral home. When a dying man in a German uniform seeks refuge at Maison Boutet, Edmee struggles to believe his claims that he is French. Her life, the maison and the people she loves are already at stake. Can she take the chance that this mysterious spy is who he says he is? And which side of this war is he really on?
Christian Vovk has been betrayed by someone inside his resistance organization. He knows asking the striking young war widow to hide him will put her in certain danger. However, Christian can help Edmee save as many refugees as she can. Falling in love with her will hinder his duty to the operation that brought him to her doorstep in the first place. When love and duty become inevitably tangled, will Christian sacrifice one for the other?
Excerpt:
“Go home, Edmée. Do not come back to this part of the woods.”
As the soldier moved away, Edmée couldn’t believe it. They were letting her go?
Just like that?
Her feet tripped over one another as she moved into the trees. That was far easier than it should have been. They hadn’t asked to search her bags. They hadn’t asked what she was doing in the woods in the dark after curfew.
They’d only asked her name.
It made no sense.
She fled, her hands locked around the handles of the suitcases.
She didn’t risk taking her usual path back to Maison Boutet. She weaved and wandered for a while through brambles that caught her clothes and mud that sucked at the bottoms of her boots.
It felt like minutes…or maybe hours before she was back at her uncle’s vineyard.
The cases dangled weightily at the ends of her arms. Her knuckles had been white around them for so long, she could no longer feel them.
The maison was so dark, she failed to distinguish it from the landscape.
She looked at her muddy shoes, her trousers soaked past the ankles. The suitcases would have to be hidden, half of the contents destroyed…
She rushed into the heart of the rows. Her beacon was now the limestone mound with its rough-hewn back to the sky, the entrance to the hidden network of caves underneath the estate.
She wedged past the rocky entrance and stumbled down the steps toward the light.
At the bottom, the barrel of a pistol greeted her.
Her heart slammed into her ribs. Her knees threatened to fold.
She gaped at the man behind the gun.
Christian’s face was red and sweat-sheened. In the lantern’s low throbbing light, his features looked harsh. Moisture cloaked his bare chest like a second skin.
She’d searched him—his clothes, his personal effects… How did he get a gun?
Her lips trembled. She lifted her chin, regardless. The words were rough against her throat. “Are you going to shoot me?”
AUTHOR Bio and Links:
Amber Leigh Williams writes pulse-pounding romantic suspense, historical fiction, and contemporary romance. When she’s not writing, she enjoys traveling and being outdoors with her family and dogs. She is fluent in sarcasm and is known to hoard books like the book dragon she is. An advocate for literacy, she is an ardent supporter of libraries and the constitutional right to read.
Website: https://amberleighwilliams.com
Instagram: https://instagram.com/amberleighwilliams
Facebook: https://facebook.com/amberleighwilliamsbooks
Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B0030VZW2C?ccs_id=972a6661-be68-4275-b311-8f8e0b259f83
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2713894.Amber_Leigh_Williams
Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/amber-leigh-williams
Madame Rebelle – Purchase Links
Amazon Ebook: https://a.co/d/b7e849S
Amazon Paperback: https://a.co/d/cIS1iOp
Amber’s Website: https://amberleighwilliams.com/madame-rebelle
Amber Leigh Williams will be awarding a $25 Amazon/BN gift card to a randomly drawn winner