Book Talk with River Ames

River Ames spent the first eighteen years of her life in Southern California. Here is a partial list of some of the cities in which she lived: Pasadena, South Pasadena, Duarte, El Monte, Arcadia La Puente, Lomita, West Covina, Pacifica, Santa Monica, Palmdale, and Hacienda Heights. In some of those cities, she lived at six different addresses.

In the city of La Puente, River’s family lived in four different houses on the same street. The non-glamorous reason for all the moves was habitual eviction necessitated for non-payment of rent. It was an interesting way to grow up.

River attended twenty-six different elementary schools, two different junior high schools and four different high schools. In one elementary school, she was a student for only three days.

Perhaps, because she was so frequently identified as the “new girl,” the pattern of River being an observer instead of a participant in the interactions going on around her seemed a logical fit for her personality.

When she was thirteen, River read Gone with the Wind. She skipped three days of school in order to finish the book in one sitting. Disappointed in Rhett for “not giving a damn,” River wrote her own sequel–in long hand, on three-hole punch, notebook paper. The opening line? “Tomorrow dawned bright and fair.” In less than fifty pages, Scarlett had been transformed into Jane Eyre and Rhett had fallen in love with her all over again.

After Southern California, River has spent the next part of her life living in the semi-rural town of Idaho Falls, Idaho. She is a graduate of Idaho State University, majoring in Health Education Sciences and Addiction Counseling. She’s worked the past ten years at a Behavioral Health Center where she assisted children, teenagers, and adults committed in a 24/7 secured facility because of mental health challenges they are experiencing.

River’s books celebrate the good-natured humor that lays at the heart of most of our human predicaments. The conflicts are significant, yet it is her characters and their quirky (yet somehow universally relatable) thoughts, words, and choices that reflect a light-hearted peek into a world we wish was real. The amazing thing is that these worlds are real to readers for the time they visit there.

Readers have said:

“In a River Ames book, one minute I’m laughing out loud, and the next I have a lump in my throat.”

River is currently readying a historical novel, Gideon’s Justice. This three-part novel is Book I in a three volume western series set in the Colorado Territory.

Are your characters based off real people or did they all come entirely from your imagination?

My characters begin as two-dimensional people. I know their physical appearance, and I know what they most want out of life. Achieving their goals is the genesis for the conflict they must face and overcome.

Then, I look into their pasts. What events have shaped their core beliefs about themselves and the world? Why are their goals so important to them? What view of themselves will be crushed if they fail to accomplish their goals?

At this point, I write in-depth biographies that include their early childhoods and the pivotal events they experienced when they were twelve years of age. That’s an important benchmark for all of us.

I know who their parents and grandparents are. I know the landscape in which they grew up. I know their parents’ weaknesses with which my characters had to grapple. I know who their greatest nemesis is or what chronic obstacle they must overcome to achieve happiness.

This is my starting point. If you’re a beginning writer, my advice is to filter this information into the first three chapters of your novel without dumping it all at once. I do this by weaving their backstory throughout the beginning scenes to give texture to their characterizations while keeping the action going.

As the novel progresses, I often go back and add significant details to their pasts that I didn’t realize at the beginning of my story. The really cool part of writing is this: At this point, my characters are talking to me. They speak for themselves, telling me why they are the way they are. I can ask them questions, and (if they’re feeling cooperative) they will answer me.

For me, this is the best and most rewarding part of being a writer.

As a writer, what would you choose as your mascot/avatar/spirit animal?

I visualize a warrior woman who protects her clan.

Describe your writing style.

My style is fairly direct. Sometimes, though, my characters are astonished by the natural beauty of their home planet. My style is to let my characters tell their own story. I try to disappear as the author and allow their thoughts and feelings to take center stage. My purpose is for my reader to be my heroine and experience her world through her eyes, mind, and skin. The reader has the advantage over her of being able to access the hero’s viewpoint. Inevitably his thoughts are in direct opposition to my heroine’s interpretation of events. My heroes are such “guys”. This results in the often poignant and humorous battle of the sexes.

Describe yourself in 5 words or less!

Kind. Loyal. Funny. Creative. Determined.

Did you learn anything during the writing of your recent book?

I’m currently working on Book II of my Guardsmen Trilogy. “Youngblood’s Rules”. As I’ve been working on this novel, I discovered that its core theme is: People can change. Some of the characters in this novel are considered by society to be significantly flawed. By the end of the story, transformation has taken place, and they are more than they ever thought they could be.

If my characters can change and grow, than so can I. Nothing I’ve done is unforgivable. I am alive and capable of becoming the person I want to be.

What was the very first story you ever told? Was it a romance?

As an older sister to a younger brother and sister, I use to make up stories for them. We would go on evening walks through the neighborhood, and I would let them choose if they wanted to hear a mystery, monster story, fairy tale, shoot-em,-up western, or a dinosaur story. Sometimes I would mix things up. Mermaids and space aliens… Cowboys and dinosaurs… A police detective who was tracking a for-real monster.

My actual first, written-down story was the sequel I wrote for Gone with the Wind. I was thirteen, and I just couldn’t believe that Rhett couldn’t fall in love again with Scarlet. I didn’t understand about borderline personalities. As for Rhett, good grief. How shallow could he be not to give the woman he’d so passionately love one more chance? In my story, Scarlet became Jane Eyre. Rhett had no choice but to lose his heart to her again.

About the Book

Detour to Paradise by River Ames
Genre: Sweet Contemporary Romance

Synopsis

Lucas Rockworth—a hard-driving force of nature has been ordered by his doctor to take some time off and get his blood pressure under control. You would think buying a cabin in the natural splendor known as Gray Horse Lake, Idaho, would do the trick. All that mountain greenery, crystal blue lakes and rivers, and nature-run-amok had to be exactly what the doctor had ordered.

Enter Sarah Burke… The innocently enticing young entrepreneur who’s opening an equestrian camp for children with handicaps.

Her initial impression of him is clearly wrong. For some reason, known to the reader but unknown to him, Sarah mistakenly believes that Lucas Rockworth is a shy, sensitive man. After having to deal a lifetime with a dominating older brother and controlling father, she finds these traits very appealing.

Her recent breakup with someone who could best be described as a bully has Sarah longing for a kinder, gentler man in her life.

Lucas tells himself that, since he makes his living as a general contractor, he has the hands-on experience to make himself into anything Miss Sarah Burke is looking for.

It shouldn’t be that great a stretch to become a modern, sensitive kind of guy, should it? She wants Mr. Rogers… Well, darn, he can manage that for the short time he’s in Idaho.

How hard can it be to tame his darker, more cynical side?

As for Sarah Burke? She thinks she’s met a real life version of Mr. Rogers. But, the reader knows its Rambo who’s come a’courting.

Would the real Lucas Rockworth care to step forward?

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