Lynne Mowbray
Author Amber Jakeman was at the Marina Café in Yamba on Thursday last week, for the launch of her three-book series ‘Escape to the Coast’.
Although not a local, Amber said that her grandmother was born on Goodwood Island.
“I love this part of the world and the east coast and I’m very excited to be back in Yamba,” she said.
In describing her writing genre, Amber said that she writes feel-good fiction.
“I’m thrilled to be able to roll out my latest series – the ‘Escape to the Coast’ series,” she said.
“I did some of my research for this series here in Yamba a year ago and I’m very grateful to the members of the Yamba Museum and to other generous local people, including Canon Lenore Parker who I’ve known for about 10 years, as part of my writing journey.
There are 3 books in the Escape to the Coast series – there is Summer Beach, which is a rock star romance then ‘Midnight Beach’ which asks, how long true love will wait.
It’s actually a double romance about an older woman (Nola) who is a shop keeper and her forbidden love. It’s also about her niece Bronte, who is a difficult child. She’s left school early, and Nola takes her under her wing. There’s a little romance for Bronte as well. There are many questions in that book and many mysteries in all of the books.
Then there’s ‘Sunset Beach’ which ended up being a romcom (romantic comedy). It’s about a would-be writer and a jaded publisher. They meet at a writers’ conference in a coastal town at the surf club where the conference is being hosted, and you’ll have to read the book to find out what happens,” she said.
Amber said that for anyone wanting to read her books, they could ask their local library to get them in, or the local bookshop or go to her website www.amberjakeman.com. They can also search for all of her books on Amazon. The books are in e-format as well.
“I used to be a journalist, and I am so grateful to all of the many people that I’ve interviewed in my career about a whole a whole range of different issues and I’m incredibly grateful for the opportunity to write fiction,” Amber said.
“I find that the freedom to write, in some ways you can get closer to the truth when you’re writing a big piece of work. It’s not the truth about individuals, but it’s the truth about relationships.
“I think we all care about hearts and hope and the power of love, and I want to acknowledge Australia’s first story tellers. We all come from a long tradition of storytelling.
“Hearts matter, and I’m proud to be able to add to the storytelling that we do so that our relationships are stronger, our communities are stronger and I’m thankful,” she said.