Interview with 'Amber Jakeman' author of Summer Beach

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Link to my book review of Summer Beach

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Interview with 'Amber Jakeman' author of ‘Summer Beach’.

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1. Please tell us about your new series and how many books you have planned for it?

Readers will be invited to Escape to the Coast with three novels – Summer Beach, Midnight Beach and Sunset Beach.

2. Summer Beach is the first instalment. Please give us an overview of the story.

I’ve called Summer Beach “a love song” not just because the hero, Jake Bannerman, is a reluctant rock star who denies his song-writing talent, but because songs and music have a way of infiltrating our defences, to speak to our souls.

In this first novel of the Escape to the Coast series, I explore the motivations and emotional armour of Jake and LA computer coder and loner Samantha Kelly who are thrown together when Samantha returns to Burradeer Bay, an east coast Australian backwater, to sell her family’s old beach house. Gruff neighbour Jake, who carries his own emotional scars, stymies her efforts. It is music which fuels their strong mutual attraction. 

Another key character is Sam’s best friend, Fliss, from their boarding school days, who invites Sam to be her bridesmaid, despite their previous vows to never marry. 

As Sam cleans out the old house for the last time, she hits a tripwire. A memory resurfaces that shocks her deeply and shakes her fledgling faith in Jake, who is once again writing songs. 

Without Fliss’s intervention and Jake’s own emotional recovery, Sam might never allow herself to accept Jake’s offer of living a loving life together. 

Readers tell me they find this novel gripping. Will Sam embrace her future – before it's too late?

3. What themes do you explore in Summer Beach?

For me, themes from Summer Beach are continuing to emerge. So far they include the power of employers over employees; the complex and invisible defence systems our minds adopt to protect us from harm, and the fact that these may themselves become harmful to us; the importance of generosity and creativity; the changeable nature and power of memory; and the interconnectedness of our lives.

4. Tell us about Sam, what she does for a living and her positive and negative qualities.

Sam is a self-sufficient workaholic who never looks beyond her next work challenge. As years pass, she remains disconnected not only from people, but from other opportunities, and particularly from the chance to build a fulfilling and loving relationship. 

Ironically, Sam's work as a computer coder enhances connectivity between people, systems and communities! One of her great frustrations at the start of the novel is to discover that Burradeer Bay has no internet connection and very poor phone coverage, which she would love to address, but she remains blind to her own emotional isolation for most of the novel.

5. Jake is a hideaway rock star but also a guitar maker. Why did you choose these professions and skills for him? Did you need to do much research to learn about these creative fields or do you have knowledge or experience of your own?

I’ve always loved the way music connects people and takes them places emotionally. As a flautist, I’ve loved playing in duets, bands and other ensembles. Listening to good music is almost as essential to me as food!

The romantic simplicity of voice and guitar is reminiscent of the first love ballads of the troubadours of the Medieval and Renaissance eras. Even Sam, who wears the emotional suit of armour of a Middle Ages knight, cannot resist the pull of Jake’s music.

At the start of the novel, Jake has retreated from the world to make guitars instead of play them. It will be Sam who reawakens in him the desire to fully share his creative gifts with the world once more.

As always, as a former journalist, I loved the research opportunities provided by my fiction writing, including the processes of guitar making, inlay, Vegas, real estate transactions, Australian flora and fauna, rock bands and more. 

Importantly, as with my previous novels, I consulted psychologists to ensure my characters’ behaviours and emotional journeys were realistic, believable and responsible.

6. Who was the most difficult character to write in Summer Beach and why?

It is always a challenge to create a lead character who is flawed and strong, yet likeable. Why would a reader invest in the fate of Sam when she is so abruptly self-sufficient, especially as her extreme vulnerability does not emerge until the last part of the novel? 

Through Sam’s experience of jet lag and annoying mosquitoes in the opening pages, through the affection she shows Fliss and her father’s old dog, Scoobie, and especially through her initial frustrations with Jake, I hope to successfully invite readers into her story.

7. What drew you to reading and writing romance fiction and what is it about the genre that you love?

For me, the great attraction of romance is the “happy for now” or “happy ever after” ending. In the 24/7 news cycle of tragedy, it’s too easy to forget that love and joy are all around us. 

Reading and writing romance remind me that while everyone experiences challenges and setbacks in their lives, both external and internal, we all have the power to take risks and to reach out and make changes and connections that can improve our lives and the lives of others. Emotions and relationships matter!

8. Do you write poetry? There’s a song lyric in the book called Mermaid. Can you tell us what inspired its creation and its purpose in the story (without giving anything away)?

I do write poetry and have always loved its succinct power. In poetry, every word and phrase evokes more than one meaning, and it conjures vivid and memorable emotions and scenarios. 

Because music also speaks to our emotions, lyrics can be even more powerful than poetry. Like much of my writing, Mermaid welled up from somewhere deep in my psyche, to express Jake’s longing for Sam, the love of his life.

The final verse emerges towards the novel’s end, to deliver the joy that every love story promises.   

9. What books have you currently been reading that you would highly recommend?

I adore the ingenuity, humanity, wit, grit and sublime resolutions of Jojo Moyes, and Someone Else’s Shoes is no exception.  

I’m also savouring everything by Emily Henry. She really knows how to milk a good love story!

10. Can you tell us a little about what you are working on now? Book 2 of the series?

I’m loving returning to the beautiful bays, beaches and bushland of Burradeer Bay to create Midnight Beach and its cast of characters. Two love tales intertwine around a pivotal crime scene and a lost coral ring.

Thanks for being my guest today Amber! I wish you much success on your wonderful new novel.

Go to Amber’s website for more details on her novels.