It often feels like we’re living in shapeshifting times, where the familiar unpredictably morphs into something strange. Chaos is the one certainty we have and speculative fiction allows us to look at our reality in a new way to gain new perspectives on our lives.
These days I find myself turning more and more to speculative fiction to comfort me and help me navigate through life. Dr. Amber A. Logan is an expert tour guide through the uncanny and familiar-but-strange times we live in not only as a writer of speculative fiction but also as someone with a background in Psychology, Liberal Arts and International Relations, as well as the recipient of a PhD in Creative Writing from Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge.
Amber believes in creating a meaningful journey for characters and she is dedicated to creating an immersive world for characters and readers to meet and play. Her debut novel, The Secret Garden of Yanagi Inn, takes readers to Kyoto, Japan where past intermingles with the present as the main character Mari discovers ghosts and hidden truths of her own life.
While Amber isn’t writing, she’s teaching as a university instructor, working as a freelance editor and hanging out with her husband and two children. She also enjoys trips to Japan, exploring unusual vegetarian foods and reading fellow speculative fiction writer Haruki Murakami. If you’d like to know more about Amber, you can find her on Twitter (@AmberAnnLogan).
We’re ecstatic that Amber is joining us this year for our Writers Conference as a research panelist, as well as a presenter for two classes: Personalized Tools for Your Writer’s Toolbox: Words to Watch and Beloved Materials List and a class on “rounding out” flat characters.
-- written by Jesseca Bear, adult services information specialist