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Amber Smith

Goodreads Author


Born
in The United States
October 16

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Member Since
May 2012

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Amber Smith is the award-winning and New York Times bestselling author of the young adult novels The Way I Used to Be, The Last to Let Go, Something Like Gravity, and The Way I Am Now. Along with her middle grade debut, Code Name: Serendipity, she has also contributed to the award-winning YA anthology, Our Stories, Our Voices. An advocate for mental health, gendered violence, and LGBTQ+ equality, Amber writes in the hope that her books can help to foster change and spark dialogue. She grew up in Buffalo, New York, and now lives in Charlotte, North Carolina, with her wife and their ever-growing family of rescued dogs and cats. You can find her online at AmberSmithAuthor.com.

Amber Smith is currently not accepting new questions.

Popular Answered Questions

Amber Smith Hello, and thanks so much for your question! (I'm sorry it's taken so long for me to respond--I had no idea I had questions waiting for me).

Great ques…more
Hello, and thanks so much for your question! (I'm sorry it's taken so long for me to respond--I had no idea I had questions waiting for me).

Great question! When I first began writing this book, Eden was very similar to me, but then as the story grew and I spent more and more and more time with Eden, she started become her own person. I feel like this happens with every book I write--the main character starts out as almost an alter ego for me, but then by the end is someone VERY different!

With Eden and her story, it was not so much the specific events and characterizations that ended up being based on reality; it's the emotional world of the book is what ended up being very real for me and came out of a lot of real-life experiences I've been through.



(less)
Amber Smith What great questions--thanks for asking!

It felt like a very natural progression for me, moving from visual art to writing. I always wrote--a lot of j…more
What great questions--thanks for asking!

It felt like a very natural progression for me, moving from visual art to writing. I always wrote--a lot of journaling, poetry, that sort of thing. And when I got out of college and grad school, I found that for the first time in many years, I no longer had a studio space to create art in, so I started going smaller and smaller with my artwork, incorporating mixed media and pieces of my writing and poetry into the art I was making, until writing ended up becoming my main creative outlet.

To answer the second part of your question, I don't think any one form of art is necessarily more expressive than another, but they are very different, and I think the way people interact with them is also different. To me, music is very immediate, visual art is more physical, and writing and reading can be more a little more intimate or private (if that makes sense?)(less)
Average rating: 4.12 · 217,586 ratings · 23,693 reviews · 11 distinct worksSimilar authors
The Way I Used to Be (The W...

4.14 avg rating — 174,359 ratings — published 2016 — 40 editions
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The Way I Am Now (The Way I...

4.11 avg rating — 35,679 ratings — published 2023 — 7 editions
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The Last to Let Go

3.72 avg rating — 4,409 ratings — published 2018 — 8 editions
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Something Like Gravity

3.67 avg rating — 1,877 ratings — published 2019 — 11 editions
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Code Name: Serendipity

4.11 avg rating — 91 ratings3 editions
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The Way I Used to Be Collec...

4.50 avg rating — 52 ratings3 editions
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Romare Bearden: Southern Re...

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4.33 avg rating — 6 ratings — published 2011
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Ode to Michael Goldberg: Se...

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3.60 avg rating — 5 ratings — published 2008 — 2 editions
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Bearing Witness: The New Yo...

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3.67 avg rating — 3 ratings — published 2014 — 2 editions
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Sophisticated Surfaces: The...

3.67 avg rating — 3 ratings — published 2012
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More books by Amber Smith…

New Year, New Book! (Code Name: Serendipity + Giveaway details)

Hello Readers!

Wow, 2021 was rough, am I right? But 2022 is finally here...and I am celebrating with a new book! It's called Code Name: Serendipity, my debut middle-grade novel.

Code Name Serendipity by Amber Smith
If any of you follow me on social, you know I have a weakness/passion/calling to help animals, evidenced by my SEVEN rescues (two dogs, five cats).

So, to all my fellow dog lovers...this book is for you.

It tells the stor Read more of this blog post »
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Published on January 03, 2022 10:19 Tags: dogbooks, kidlit, mglit, middle-grade-books, middlegrade
The Way I Used to Be The Way I Am Now
(2 books)
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4.13 avg rating — 209,946 ratings

Amber’s Recent Updates

Amber Smith rated a book it was amazing
All the Fighting Parts by Hannah V. Sawyerr
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Heart-wrenching, necessary, important, and utterly unforgettable. There aren't enough stars! ...more
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The Way I Am Now by Amber   Smith
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" Perfect! Thank you so much, Tami :) "
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The Way I Am Now by Amber   Smith
"I just finished The Way I Used To Be. I have to wait until November to find out more about Josh and Eden???? I need a Josh POV in this book! 😭😭😭"
The Way I Am Now by Amber   Smith
"I CANT WAIT FOR THIS BOOK. PLEASE LET IT BE AS GOOD AS THE FIRST ONE. I’ve been rereading the first book for 3 years coz it’s THAT good."
The Way I Am Now by Amber   Smith
"OMG????"
Amber Smith rated a book it was amazing
Life After by Genalea Barker
Life After
by Genalea Barker (Goodreads Author)
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A heartbreaking and poignant exploration of grief in the wake of tragedy, LIFE AFTER reminds us of the incredible strength of the human spirit - to experience pain and love and loss and still find the courage to start anew. Readers will cheer for Aug ...more
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Nothing Sung and Nothing Spoken by Nita Tyndall
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Quotes by Amber Smith  (?)
Quotes are added by the Goodreads community and are not verified by Goodreads. (Learn more)

“He's not the hero and he's not the enemy and he's not a god. He's just a boy. And I'm just a girl, a girl who needs to pick up her own pieces and put them back together herself.”
Amber Smith, The Way I Used to Be

“I hate that just because you happen to be good at something,people automatically think that's what makes you happy,but it's not really like that, you know? It's not that simple.”
Amber Smith, The Way I Used to Be

“All you have to do is act like you’re normal and okay, and people start treating you that way.”
Amber Smith, The Way I Used to Be

Topics Mentioning This Author

“When a woman tells the truth she is creating the possibility for more truth around her.”
Adrienne Rich

“You have to write the book that wants to be written. And if the book will be too difficult for grown-ups, then you write it for children.”
Madeleine L'Engle

“We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are.”
Anaïs Nin

“Indeed, learning to write may be part of learning to read. For all I know, writing comes out of a superior devotion to reading.”
Eudora Welty, On Writing

“There is no passion to be found playing small - in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.”
Nelson Mandela

220 Goodreads Librarians Group — 255279 members — last activity 0 minutes ago
Goodreads Librarians are volunteers who help ensure the accuracy of information about books and authors in the Goodreads' catalog. The Goodreads Libra ...more
134980 Contemporary YA — 768 members — last activity Feb 17, 2020 10:44AM
This Contemporary YA club is for fans and writers of contemporary young adult books. Read, discuss, and enjoy!
68115 Epic Reads Book Club — 2095 members — last activity Dec 15, 2021 09:11AM
Epic Reads Book Club is a discussion of one YA/teen lit title each month, across all genres. Here’s how it works: Read. Discuss. Repeat. Yup, it’s tha ...more
217 Banned Books — 4697 members — last activity 10 hours, 58 min ago
To celebrate our love of reading books that people see fit to ban throughout the world. We abhor censorship and promote freedom of speech.
179584 Our Shared Shelf — 228602 members — last activity Sep 24, 2024 03:02PM
OUR SHARED SHELF IS CURRENTLY DORMANT AND NOT MANAGED BY EMMA AND HER TEAM. Dear Readers, As part of my work with UN Women, I have started reading ...more
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message 1: by Rick

Rick Schroeder Hi Amber,

Thanks for having me for a friend. Much appreciated.

Rick


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