Providing Guidance and Support
Author and certified book coach Amy Bernstein’s paranormal romance, The Nighthawers, was published by The Wild Rose Press, so we sat down with her to hear about her experience.
What are you most looking forward to in the publication process?
Finding and engaging with new readers willing to take a chance on an author they do not know—yet.
What are you most proud of in terms of this book’s journey?
The book is getting many positive reviews, which is gratifying. I think I satisfied the basic tropes of the genre while remaining true to my need to be inventive and substantive as an author.
Was there ever a moment of doubt about the book?
Doubts? Of course! I wrote about 30,000 words of the first draft before realizing it was, ahem, crap. I had to scrap it and start over with a revised story line and clearer stakes. Then, based on the advice of my publisher's editor—before we inked a deal—I was told to change the whole book from first- to third-person POV. It's much better as a result.
What is your favorite passage from the book?
At the tree line, she indicated the spot to begin digging, counting on her lover’s single-minded pursuit of ancient treasure to prevent him from asking pointed questions. He’d reassured her he wouldn’t, but he also wouldn’t brook mistakes—especially not by her, not now.
They strapped on head lamps, the focused beams enabling them to work hands-free without lighting up the surrounding area, then started in on separate trenches. She positioned him directly above the sword, which stood hilt-side up in its soil coffin. She pictured it with perfect clarity, every facet as well as its precise position. Then, without warning, she left Grey behind.
She hovered just above a small brick factory outside Strasbourg, France, where weapons of war were hammered, smelted, and assembled for export to the American colonies battling to free themselves from Great Britain. A French worker in soiled breeches whistled a folk tune as he loaded horsemen’s sabers into a wooden crate packed with excelsior for the journey across the Atlantic.
Now someone called her name. The Frenchman?
No. Surely not.
“Penny! Penny! Hey!” Grey hissed loudly. “I hit something. Could be a rock.”
She wrenched herself back to the present. “That was fast.” As planned.
“I figure, eighteenth century, maybe.” He tapped the back of his shovel against the hard object just beneath the surface dirt. “We wouldn’t find Indigenous artifacts this far up.”
“No, probably not.”
“Maybe I should keep digging? See what else is down there? I hate to leave treasure behind.”
“Grey, let’s do one thing at a time, okay? Let’s do this right. We shouldn’t press our luck, out here in the open.” She scanned the horizon.
Grey sighed, then switched from shovel to trowel and got on his knees to poke at the object. A small, knob-like shape the size of a grape protruded from the soil as he excavated its circumference.
Over the next several minutes, while Pauline aimed her head lamp toward his trench to provide maximum illumination, he revealed more and more of the sword’s hilt, which was gently curved with a decorative knob (the “grape”) at the tip. She handed him a putty knife so he could begin to loosen the soil vertically beneath the hilt. They worked in silence, but Grey’s rapid breathing gave away his mounting excitement.
She continued scanning the horizon for...what?...Police? Competing nighthawkers? Or something else entirely?
He cleared the hilt, revealing the top end of the worn blade. At that moment, a gentle, unmistakable whooshing filled Pauline’s ears, and she shivered.
Looking up sharply, she threw off her head lamp and stepped away from Grey.
“Hey! I need that light. What are you doing?”
“Thought I heard something.”
“I’m not stopping unless I absolutely have to. Check it out and let me know.”
She began walking across the field under a starless, overcast sky, ready to confront whatever was heading her way, and dreading it too.
What did you do to celebrate the publication of your book?
I used social media vigorously. Otherwise, I didn’t do anything out of the ordinary to be honest.
What’s next for the book?
I'm continuing to promote fairly aggressively on a variety of podcasts and will continue looking for ways to engage with readers.
What are the next steps in your career?
I have a mystery-thriller coming out from a different publisher in early August, followed by another book in September. So I'm working on building my author profile and finding meaningful ways to engage with readers across genres.
Why would you recommend book coaching to get to this point in the writing journey?
A book coach plays a critical role in helping fiction writers see the forest for the trees, especially when it comes to aligning a book's structure, tone, emotional and transformational arcs. And when you get lost in the middle—as so often happens—a book coach can help you achieve new clarity of purpose and provide guidance and support to keep you writing productively.
