Author Facts

Amber Grosjean (author)
5 hours ago
5 min read

Hello! I'm Amber Grosjean, and I am an author.

Here are a few facts about the author....

I began the journey when I was 11 years old. That was in 1987.
I was 12 when I started writing Peterson Estate although that story was originally a short story called My Haunted Castle, which was rejected by 17 Magazine. Their letter inspired me to continue writing the story, and it evolved into a novel-length work called Mysteries of the Peterson Estate. I hand-wrote 7 books for the series, which was totally different from what it is today. I blended mystery, paranormal, fantasy, and science fiction to create the overall feeling of the story. I named the MC after a classmate.
It took me 20 years to publish my first book. Cursed Blood. It was a standalone at the time. After publishing, I received several requests for a sequel, which I was not expecting. So I wrote Spawn of the Curse. Both stories were meant to be horror, but I found out there was more romance than horror, so when I changed pen names, the two stories were rewritten with the focus on the romance.
Stolen Identity was originally written as Erotica with lots of spice. It took me a year to write that book. It was rejected and accepted by the same publisher, one year after Cursed Blood had been published. Two different people read that book--the owner of the publishing house and another person. I forgot I sent the story to them and sent it again. The owner emailed me and told me the reason she'd turned it down was because of the "happy ending". She said if I rewrote the ending, she'd accept the story. I did. When I chose to become an Indie Author, I rewrote this story, removing all of the sex and adding in a few details that weren't there before, making it a paranormal thriller. Then I made it a "series" and changed the title. It is called Stolen now. It is book 1 for the Identity Collection.
When my first granddaughter was born, she had a rough beginning. She was born with a bad heart. After that, something else happened that threatened to take her away from us. I did not want her life to be known for the bad, so I asked her parents for permission, and I wrote a book with her as the full inspiration behind the main character in the story. Fairytale's Truth was born. After this story was finished, I had a hard time letting go of the characters, so I turned it into a series and wrote a few more books. Now there are 5 books in this series! Everything about Maria is actually real! Well, except the name and her age lol. But now my first grandchild will live forever!

Now that you've gotten to know a little about my writing, here are more facts about the author in me....

The writer in me is confident and never gives up. I always believed I was chosen to be an author. I was given the talent, the imagination, and the open-mindedness--so it had to be true. It wasn't something I was "looking" to become. It just happened, with one single idea popping into my mind. While people told me I would never do it, I fought against it and wrote. I was self-taught to a point, reading everything on writing. I am a different person when I'm writing. I take chances more often. In my personal life, I've given up more times than I can count, ruining my life. Thankfully, writing gave me a way to change it for the better.
I've been a published author for 18 years! I still can't believe it. When I read that first acceptance letter from an actual publisher, back in 2006, I was in shock! The book was released on my daughter's birthday--Feb 5, 2007. My first baby, followed by my first book baby! Of course, I had two more kids after the first, but I'll always remember that day because of the birthday lol. My youngest child turned 7 just after that book was released.
The first time I ever did a book signing turned out to be a disappointment. I allowed the store to choose the date for me. I bought 10 copies of the book and gave them to the store for the signing. I advertised the crap out of it, making flyers and such. When the day came, I was nervous, but excited--this was my dream come true, so I was anxious. There was only 1 customer in the store all day. As it turned out, they set the date for the same time as the college graduation day. I left all of the copies at the store for them to sell. They did, but I never went back to collect the money. So they did make a profit, but I was too upset to return to the store. I haven't had another signing since. The book was Cursed Blood. At the time, I didn't have any other books, so I was really new to this world.
My imagination has always been a little too vivid. I remember once, I was on the school bus heading to school when I saw two people walking down the street. They were normal-looking people. I blinked, and they were both gone. They were just gone. I see patterns where there aren't patterns in the flooring (faces), which is kind of cool when there's nothing else to do but dream. I can go back to the same spot and see the same pattern. I can also imagine and see things in my head when I walk into a room. I like interior design, so when I visit places, I can see how "it could be" in my head.
I've always considered myself "weird". For me, that's a positive thing. I can take something normal and twist it, look at things differently. It's not something I try to do; it just happens. When I started writing, I used that part of me to turn my stories from normal to extra special. Before I knew it, twists were popping out of nowhere, shocking me because I was never expecting them. Now I feel it's one thing that sets me apart as a writer.
Many of my stories go beyond the genre and sub-genre. Sometimes, it makes it harder to market because I'm not sure how to categorize it. Instead of fighting it, I just go with it and hope the genre I choose fits the story. I've gotten better at that, but the extra genres that have been included are still there. I've been told I blend the genres seamlessly and am good at it. That's something else that sets me apart.