The Seven Deadly series has been one of my all-time favorites… I love how Fisher Amelie weaves a deeper message, moving and true, into each of her stories. How her character’s journeys challenge us and surprise us at every turn. Fury is such a story, but with a harder, edgier approach. It’s Ethan Moonsong’s story… a story of revenge and redemption, love and forgiveness. I’m thrilled to feature a guest post from the wonderful Fisher Amelie, who talks to us about how her stories take flight.
✦ Fury: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | iTunes ✦
Revenge is an euphoric thing. Trust me on this. Nothing compares to the release you get when you ruin someone’s life. When they’ve stolen important things. Things that didn’t belong to them. Things I revel in making them pay for.
What? Have I offended you? I’m not here to appeal to your delicate senses. I have no intention of placating your wishes or living within your personal belief system nor do I care if you hate me. And you will hate me. Because I’m a brutal, savage, cold-blooded murderer and I’m here for my revenge.
I’m Ethan Moonsong…And this is the story about how I went from the world’s most sacrificing man to the most feared and why I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world.
Let me just start out right here by declaring that at first, funnily enough, I hate hearing, reading, or watching anything that is going to take me out of my comfort zone. Detest it. But I always do it anyway because I know I’ll be a better person, usually, when I step away from it. It always wakes me up a little bit and that’s a high, let me tell you. Enlightenment is the ultimate drug, baby.
Okay, so now let’s flip back to 2012- No, wait, we must go back further still to 2006. I was planning my wedding to Matt. I think everyone knows Matt. (Hi, Matt!) Anyway, we were all happy, innocent, and ready to take on the world. We’d chosen a little reception hall in downtown Fort Worth at the YWCA. Now, I know how that sounds. You’re imagining commercial carpet, that gym smell, and basketballs lined up on carts in the halls, but the YWCA of Fort Worth is actually an older building, built in the late 1800’s, made of stone and plaster and is just utterly gorgeous. The reception hall itself had plaster ceilings and the wood floor was original to the time period. Needless to say, it was a flawlessly beautiful building.
We’d gone up to the building to have one final looksy before making our final decision. I’d shown up just a bit earlier than Matt had and was standing outside waiting. While there, I group of girls, as luck would have it, came out in search of some sun. I think one or two passed a ciggy back and forth. Anyway, long story short, we struck up a conversation.
I asked the girls what they were doing there and they told me that they lived there. Well, this dumbfounded me. To be frank, I didn’t believe them. They were all very young girls, the oldest looked, at the most, nineteen. That’s when they explained how they’d come to live at the YWCA.
Turns out, at eighteen, they were kicked out of their foster homes. I discovered that many, many children who age out of the foster system aren’t asked to stay with their latest foster parents. I say latest because the majority of them had been passed around from home to home for years. I’d further discovered that the girls were usually tossed out into the streets with nothing but a hundred dollar check from the state and a pat on the back.
Many of these young girls have absolutely nowhere to go, much like the girls who lived on the top floor of the Y. Apparently there were only a very few places, privately funded or otherwise, that offered them asylum. Needless to say, I was heartbroken for them.
I sat there in front of that building and let each of them tell me their life stories. I listened with an open heart and mind and discovered that many of them were gorgeous on the inside, that they had brilliant minds, and they each had goals and dreams.
I said goodbye to the girls once Matt had arrived and we ascended the staircase to the hall’s reception area. In an excited rush, I asked the receptionist all about the girls living on the top floor. She told me that they had free room and board while the Y assisted them in finding jobs or attending school. Their rent and food was paid for by people like myself that rented the hall. One hundred percent of the proceeds went to their livelihood. The only thing required of them was to come down the mornings after the receptions and clean the hall.
I left that day with a profound sense that my world had been altered. I’d lived a relatively sheltered life before that and as much as it pains me to say it, I was totally unaware of the real world around me.
Fast forward to 2009, I’d finished my freshman effort in The Understorey (which, thank God, no one but a handful has actually read) and was looking for a new subject matter. I wanted something gritty and untried. And that’s when I remembered my conversations with the girls outside the Y. And that’s how Callum & Harper came about.
You see, I never intend to write anything of real life. I want a fun story. I crave to write about things that makes me feel good, and requires no real sacrifice on my part. And don’t get me wrong, fun reading is such a large part of my life, I don’t know what I’d do without it, but, to be honest, no matter how hard I’ve tried, Thomas & January aside, I can never just sit down and write a simple love story, though my books are always centered around a profound love. It always seemed I had just watched a documentary on Joseph Kony or was thrust into Zander’s House in Plano, Texas listening to Vietnamese victims tell their stories of survival in a sex trafficking ring. Where they explained to a group of a hundred other people how we could help them help current victims in Vietnam, and how there was hope for those victims because they themselves had gotten out and they were happy, healthy, and had purpose. Every single time, a story, a topic, a persistent purpose enters my mind and sets up shop, it makes it impossible for me to write about anything else.
Because I’ve discovered something about my writing.
I don’t choose my topics. My topics choose me.
I’d like to thank my readers who are brave enough to bend back the metaphorical spine of all my gritty novels. Without you, I am nothing.
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Each novel can be read as a standalone.
Fisher Amelie resides in the South with her kick ace husband slash soul mate. She earned her first ‘mama’ patch in 2009. She also lives with her Weim, Jonah, and her Beta, Whale. All these living creatures keep the belly of her life full, sometimes to the point of gluttony, but she doesn’t mind all that much because life isn’t worth living if it isn’t entertaining, right?
Fisher is the author of The Seven Deadly Series, The Sleepless Series, and The Leaving Series, and was a semi-finalist in Amazon’s Breakthrough Novel Award.
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jenndonald00 said:
I’m excited to read this book! I absolutely loved Vain, although I honestly didn’t expect to, it total took me by surprise. This is such a great series!
lorainediaz49 said:
Thanks so much for the chance to win in this contest and I can’t wait to read this new book and I added to Goodreads!
typicaldistractions said:
I loved FURY so much! My favorites has always been VAIN but this one may have knocked it out of the park. I think I need a re-read before I decide 😉
Chanpreet said:
Both Vain and Greed are fabulous. They’re inspiring, motivational, and emotionally devastating. I haven’t read Fury yet, but I have no doubt it’ll have those same characteristics. Choosing one is so difficult!
Misty Trevino said:
So excited to read the next in your series!! I have my signed Vain & Greed on my bookshelf
Michelle Monroe said:
I’ve only Read Greed and Fury so far and it’s SO hard to choose a favorite. I might be leaning a little towards Grred though, I loved Spencer and Cricket!! And Bridge!
P.s. I’d love to sign up for Amelie’s newsletter via the raffle copter, but when I clicked the link, it gave me an access denied error. 🙁
Kiersten said:
When will Fisher release the next book in the series??? Loved Fury, love them all!
Kiersten said:
AND – Vain is still my FAVORITE! (So far!)
Deniz said:
Definitely Fury. Fury left me totally and utterly flabbergast and thoughtful and amazed,
natasha said:
I love your books. You had me hooked with Callum and Harper. And I fell more in love with the story in Vain.