Interview with Amber Jakeman of 'The House of Jewels Series' - 5 Books

Interview with Amber Jakeman- Author of the ‘House of Jewels’ Series

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Partial to sunsets, picnics and poetry, feel-good fiction author Amber Jakeman was a journalist, ghost writer and editor before succumbing to her addiction to uplifting endings.

She writes from her tiny apartment on the edge of Sydney Harbour, creating wholesome historical and contemporary romance with an international flavour.

 All five books are available through Amazon

Visit Amber Jakeman’s website for more details about her writing and other locations (besides Amazon) where you can purchase her popular ‘feel good’ fiction.

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Welcome Amber! What inspired the House of Jewels series? Tell us about the story world you created and who and what is the focus of each book?

While the joy of jewellery may have sparked the House of Jewels series, inspiration wells from mysterious places.

A gracious building from another era in a shopping centre plaza captured my imagination. I could just see handsome James Huntley the Third stride out of his family’s jewellery store and clash with Stella Rhys, indie jewellery designer, fiercely making her way in the world with her own stall, directly outside his Huntleys House of Diamonds.

One by one, the members of the fictitious multi-generational, slightly dysfunction Huntley family began to whisper to me, with all their relationship and retail challenges in Australia, France and the US.

In each of these modern love tales, the main character longs for more in their lives, but love requires trust, a big ask, given their backgrounds. Beyond relationships, each book also deals with a major issue of our times.

House of Diamonds is ultimately about independence and collaboration. It’s a sparkling “enemies to lovers” tale in which the intense and creative indie jewellery stallholder Stella is turning over almost as much stock as the Huntleys, with no overheads. She steals their show on social media and in the plaza. As the blurb says, wait till she steals the heart of handsome James!

House of Hearts is the tale of James’s younger brother Will Huntley, an international playboy who falls in love with his gambling therapist, divorcee Dr Lisa Bakker, in Vegas. That’s a complete “no-no” in the therapy world, with a two-year dating ban for psychologists and clients. It was a real challenge to ensure that this story, which explores addiction and self-improvement, was written in a way that was both realistic and responsible!

House of Spades is the story of Stella’s mother, soft-hearted Flame who has endured a life so tough she’s hidden some of the details from her children. Abandoned by her latest lover, a no-good musician, Flame finds herself washed up on a flooded river bank near Byron Bay, trespassing on the property of hermit Ross Archer. In this “seasoned” romance, Flame inadvertently rekindles Ross’s interest in love. How can he convince her to marry him, when every other partner has let her down? This novel also explores aspects of poverty, incarceration and sustainability.

House of Clubs tells widow Cynthia Huntley’s story. After raising the children (James, Nicole and Will) and holding the Huntleys’ business together, Cynthia tries to retire in the Southern Highlands, but ends up moving to France to fulfil a long-held dream. Cynthia, slightly vain, adores French antiques. At a market, she tussles with a handyman over a chandelier. “She lets him into her house, but will she let him into her heart?” This novel is about looking beyond the surface to find and claim what really matters.

Your current release, Full House, the finale of the series, brings the whole family together. Please provide an overview of the story?

Full House offers two stories in one. This “second-chance” romance showcases Nicole Huntley, a middle child who considers herself plain in contrast to her chic mother.

Back when they were teenagers, Nicole friend-zoned an openly adoring Scottie. Now the Huntleys’ financial advisor and newly divorced, the affable Scottie needs a place to stay. Nicole offers him temporary space, never expecting to fall for him—hard.

Meanwhile, Huntleys is under threat from unexpected quarters. Just as Nicole and Scottie appear and set for their own “happy ever after”, “conflict of interest” threatens to blow apart their fledgling relationship, as well as the Huntley family, their company and their livelihoods.

In this showdown, every character has something to lose and their own moment of redemption.

What obstacles or challenges did you face in writing the final book, Full House?

The first four books of the series use dual point of view. By contrast, Full House required multiple points of view.

In addition, I really wanted each book in the series to be readable in any order. Each character had to be introduced afresh and without repetition for readers who had already read the other books. Many edits were required!

Who are your two favourite characters in Full House? What characteristics do they have that make them special to you?

Old Jim Huntley, the founder of the business, is a minor character in each book, yet a major character in the series. While no book in the series is purely dedicated to Jim’s story, each provides important glimpses of Jim’s life, as a young man damaged by war but prepared to improve himself to win the heart of a stranger in a hat, then struggling to keep the business afloat and clashing with his son Jimmy, and then, in his old age, dispensing wisdom and good humour.

Jim provides the steady bass note for the House of Jewels score. If his family are the weft of the Huntley tapestry, he’s the warp. He’s proactive, particularly in Full House when he takes the family’s future into his own hands by bestowing an unexpected gift. 

Cynthia provides a lighter touch. Once she’s rediscovered love for herself (in House of Clubs) she is eager for every member of her family to find love, too, and desperate to keep her family together. Cynthia is always quick with a bottle of bubbly to celebrate good news.

What themes run through Full House?

Full House explores loyalty, duty, temptation, forgiveness, optimism and the importance of truth telling rather than the pretence of perfection. It also examines the destructive side of multinationalism first raised in House of Clubs.

Which scene or chapter is your favourite in Full House and why?

I enjoyed writing Stella’s contrasting experiences in a posh restaurant and, desperately grieving, fleeing into a rainforest which offers her crucial inspiration.

The argument in which Stella and James finally tell each other the truth about the way they’ve been treating each other was cathartic. 

Best of all was discovering the series of scenes which rush towards a climax I hope readers will love as much as I do!

What was the most surprising thing you learned while writing Full House?

It is endlessly fascinating how, in a first draft, words and ideas swirl and settle and how, in subsequent drafts, beta readers’ feedback adds transformative layers. I’m grateful!

I also learnt that featuring more than two characters in a novel heightens conflict, speeds up the pace and provides welcome complexity and excitement.

If you could choose a book character from Full House to be for a day, who would it be and why?

I would love to be the gifted Stella, creating fresh treasures every day. Then again, the reformed Will Huntley can still surprise us. And old Jim remains nimble and generous. In truth, I’m fond of them all.

Tell us about the genre you have chosen to write in and what is its appeal to you?

A former print journalist, I find the 24/7 news cycle relentlessly negative. My human soul hungers for the reassurance of Desiderata by Max Ehrmann, that “with all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world”.

Humans have shared stories from the beginning of time because we need to be reminded that beyond conflict, joy is everywhere. In a troubled world, I believe feel-good fiction offers hope and a safe haven for our imaginations.

Please share your publishing journey: the highs and lows, the challenges and rewards?

I wrote about five books before producing one worthy of publication. I’d attended Romance Writers of Australia and Historical Novel Society of Australasia conferences and worked on House of Diamonds during an Australian Writers’ Centre (AWC) course.

By the time I’d sought critique partners, including the highly experienced Bernadette Foley of Broadcast Books, I’d also written House of Hearts. House of Spades also was taking shape and House of Clubs was inevitable.

Feedback remains essential as I try to improve my craft and reach new readers, and I happily host a treasured Ficka and Fiction Writers’ Group every month.

I’d love to say that every writer will instantly find an agent, eager publishers and instant exposure to millions of readers, but the marketplace is crowded with books and writers and I have to promote my own work.

Amber Jakeman is on Twitter, Instagram and occasionally Facebook and shares a monthly blog with readers in more than 50 countries. (Follow me! I gladly follow back!)

Book reviewers are rock stars and earthly angels who spread the word to like-minded readers. #Gratitude to Cindy L Spear and others like her around the world who share a deep love of books and words, and value the way books help us reflect on love, life and our choices in a complex world.

The launch of my House of Jewels series at Galaxy Bookshop, upstairs at iconic Abbeys at 131 York Street, Sydney, on 8 October at 2pm with AWC legend and author Pamela Hart, will certainly be a highlight for me, and a welcome chance to thank friends, family and other readers and writers who’ve nurtured my writing dreams. 

I also look forward to meeting more readers at Book Fair Australia on 26th and 27th November 2022 at Sydney Showground.

And I will be signing at the Australian Romance Readers Association Romantic Rendezvous in Sydney on 12th February 2023 and Melbourne on 18 February. 

What special support people (critique partners, writing group, beta readers, editor, etc) do you rely on? How do they help you?

Trusted critique partners and beta readers are essential, as are cover designer Kylie Sek of Cover Culture, supporters who help magnify my reach on social media, open minded bookshop owners and every reader who enjoys my books!

Please provide an overview of your writing process? Are you a pantser, plotter or both?

I love to write at 5am when the world is still. As dawn breaks, thoughts flow effortlessly and without interruption through my fingers, and the work progresses.

Once a few key scenes are down, in any order, I begin to plot.

So far, the technique I’ve found most useful is to use a different coloured post-it note for each character and lay out the story scene by scene along the floor, discovering the best sequence, identifying and rectifying any plot holes, and working my way towards a plausible and satisfying conclusion which has already suggested itself. I then fill in each missing scene.

Even so, my stories tend to escape their plots and take surprise twists and turns.

After the first draft, the huge task of taming the monster begins. I wrestle with it, coax it, comb out the knots, edit and improve it until it’s ready to show to trusted beta readers. Their feedback leads to more editing and refining.

Countless hours go into creating a novel!

Has there been a person, novel, course or experience that inspired you to become a novelist? And how has it/they shaped you into becoming the accomplished writer you are today?

I’ve wanted to be a writer since I was in Kindergarten. I still love books best in a world distracted by social media and visual media. Across time and space, the printed word whispers wisdom. Books offer company, friendship, entertainment, amusement and solace, day and night, anywhere in the world.

Every book I’ve ever read has broadened my mind and deepened my experience of life in some way.

I thank every writer who has taken that lonely journey, pen to paper, or fingertips to keyboard, to entertain, inform and enrich total strangers.

What three books have you read in 2022 that you enjoyed and highly recommend?

Cloud Cuckoo Land by Richard Powers is a masterpiece of literary fiction, with a cast of unforgettable characters from different eras, powerful themes and a plot that will blow your mind.

I also loved Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead for the vivid, sinewy language and the window he offers into survival as a black father in 1960s New York.

Jojo Moyes never disappoints. Her love tale The One Plus One delivered a protagonist who instantly mattered to me, twinned with an initially unlikeable antagonist in an ingenious “forced proximity” trope. The resolution was far from inevitable, but it was convincing. She’s a genius.

Are you working on any new project(s) that you can share a little about with your readers?

It’s a daily challenge not to spread myself too thin by working on marketing at the expense of creating fresh works!

Inspired by eight happy years as a young parent and journalist on the NSW Central Coast, I’ve embarked on a “beach” trilogy, the “escape to the coast” series. Do you hear the waves exploding on the headland and the cry of seagulls?

Thanks again, Amber Jakeman, for being my guest and for sharing your time and for providing such wonderful uplifting reading treasures!

Links to my reviews of House of Diamonds, House of Hearts, House of Spades, House of Clubs and Full House.