My name is Amber Nicole Hawkins and I was born October 10th, 1992. I've been writing since I was 8. It has always been an important aspect of my life. I got married at 19 to a Mr. Gary Hawkins. We currently reside in Carterville, Missouri with our many pets that keep me company while I write.

I began to write after realizing that all the books I had read helped me cope with some very bad things that were happening in my life. Those things caused me to have social anxiety. I wanted to write something that could possibly help someone else feel better and gain the courage to push through their own turmoil into a better future. That's when I started writing Forever and Eternity: A Novel of the Pure Bloods. I was 11 years old when I came up with the concept of it, and worked on it for a little more than 8 years. I didn't have the courage to publish it until a couple years after I got married. 

After more somewhat traumatizing things happened, I decided to go through and edit it FaE again. It's true what they say, you know. What you experience influences your work, even when you don't want it to. After my last revision, hopefully, I was finally satisfied with the finished work. With the push of everyone that read it, and loved it, I published it through Amazon. Yes, it's difficult to advertise it by yourself when you don't have any money, or much of a support network like me. But I kept pushing through, because every time I was ready to give up my husband, Mother, or Step-Dad, and even my friends who had become avid enthusiasts of the book, gave me a good verbal slap in the face and told me to suck it up. They told me that I had already known it wouldn't be easy and that it could take me just as long to get it out there as it took for me to write it.

A year or so after I published my book, one of my old teacher from a Creative Writers Club asked if I would come down from where I lived at the time and speak to the Club and English classes. Encourage them and tell them how I managed to make it to where I was. Admittedly, with my social anxiety it was rather difficult to speak in front of so many people that were staring at me. Once they started asking questions it got a bit easier, but I still fumbled.

Even with a very small support network and basically no money to speak of I was able to at least get this far. Those people that supported me, told me what was wrong with my writing without being dishonest, pushed me to get back up, and told me how much they loved my work, I thank them everyday from the bottom of my heart. You are all the reason I still write and haven't been disheartened. 

One last thing. I do not write for money or fame. I have no need for either of them. I write to give back what was given to me from every amazing book I ever read. The courage to keep going. The determination to push forward and fulfil your dreams no matter what anyone tries to say, and no matter how many times others try to stomp them down. Be yourself. Be the important individual you were born as.

Don't let anyone tell you what you will or will not be able to accomplish. If I had listened to the people that told me writing was useless because I'd never get it published, then I wouldn't be where I am today. Living happily and contently with my loving husband and our four-legged and scaled children. 

Take a page from my book, pun unintended, and don't ever let anyone bring you down. Hold your chin high and tread proudly.

 

Here are some odds n' ends about me.

1. In 9th grade my best friend was a thesaurus that my English teacher gave me because I borrowed it so much.
2. My family always tells me that my imagination goes a little wild when I write.
3. I tend to get a little weird when I talk about my work, as if it's all real.
4. My mother has heard my book probably over 100 times and somehow still likes it. (Or so she says.)
5. I've turned about 15 of my friends into characters for my books.
6. My husband thinks I'm annoying when I start talking about my writing, because I go on for hours. (He still tries to help though.)