This week LUV is spotlighting award-winning novelist, Amy T. Matthews who has also written under the names Amy Barry and Tess LeSue. She writes big-hearted stories that make you laugh and cry. LUV: You are an academic and a novelist. Can you tell us about managing these two, at times, opposing careers or if one compliments the other. You have also written under several pen names. Can you tell us why? Amy: I’ve always been a perpetual student – I have degrees in History and Literature, and in Media and Film, and I have a PhD in Creative Writing – but I’ve also always been a perpetual writer. I can’t imagine not doing both, and the studying and research informs my writing and makes it richer. I teach undergraduate and postgraduate Creative Writing and it’s a dream job because I get to think and talk writing all day long, and I learn so much from my students. The only drawback is that it’s a very demanding job, especially as I’m a research active scholar, so it can be a struggle to make time to actually write. But, somehow, I manage. I think finding time to write is a struggle for most writers, as we always have other commitments (family, paid employment, communities), so I don’t feel it’s an unusual struggle. The joy of working in the Creative Arts at a university is that everyone takes your creativity seriously, including your need to find time to do it. My research is focused on popular genres too (specifically romance, historical fiction and fictions of climate change) so I get to really immerse myself in topics that I absolutely love. The pen names came about because I was writing in different genres, and I felt the books were aimed at different audiences. Amy T. has always written more general fiction/women’s fiction/book club fiction and short stories, Amy Barry writes romantic comedies set in history, and Tess LeSue writes mass market historical romance. My dream has always been to write everything. I just love telling stories and would love to tell stories set in all the genres and time periods (which would be very confusing for readers, I imagine!) so pen names is one way to do it.

Posted by LUV Team at 2023-05-22 19:00:00 UTC