Welcome to BookEnds, Amanda Searcy!

  • By: admin | Date: Jun 26 2017

Credit: Kim Jew Photography Studios

I’m thrilled to welcome Amanda Searcy to the BookEnds team!

Amanda’s debut YA thriller The Truth Beneath the Lies publishes with Random House’s Delacorte imprint this December. I can’t wait for you to be on the edge of your seat with it. Amanda first came on my radar via Brenda Drake’s Pitch Wars, and I haven’t stopped thinking about her manuscript since.

While Amanda and I have been working together for a while now, I wanted to open the floor to clients who might not be on your radar, since we are both new to BookEnds. Hope you enjoy learning more about Amanda!

Tell us a bit about your writing process. Where do you write, and how often?

I write perched on the edge of my couch with my computer either on the coffee table or in my lap. (The cushion is so squashed down in my spot that at this point I’m basically sitting on the wooden frame!) I write every day in the early morning before I go to my day job.

Do you have any writing rituals? (e.g. burning a candle if you’re having trouble getting started at the computer or writing longhand first if you’re feeling uninspired.)

I start every new project by brainstorming in a blank sketchbook. I do this until I feel like I have a good handle on the plot and the characters. Later, if I get stuck or have a problem I can’t work out, I go right back to writing in the sketchbook.

What do you love about writing thrillers?

I love that they are basically giant puzzles. You, the author, have all the pieces and get to decide when and how the reader learns them.

What is the hardest part about writing thrillers?

They are basically giant puzzles…which means that you, the author, have to figure out all the pieces.

Where can readers find you on the web and social media?
Website: amandasearcybooks.com
Twitter: @aesearcy
Instagram: @aesearcy
If money were no object, what would be your dream writing location?

Pacific Grove, California. I would sit on a bench in the fog, listen to the waves crash on the rocks around me, and try to channel Steinbeck.
What advice would you give to other authors in the query trenches?

Keep writing. If your queries don’t seem to be going anywhere (or even if they do), start the next project. You get better with every book you write. Challenge yourself by writing in a different genre or for a different age group. If you keep going, keep practicing and learning, something will eventually click. (My debut novel was the fifth book I wrote.)