About The Author

Favorite color: Blue

Favorite Style: Country

Favorite Music: combination of country, Christian rock, pop, soft rock

Favorite Movie: combination of all, mostly Horror (the bloodier, the better)

Favorite Holiday: Christmas

Favorite Season: Spring (also enjoy summer)

Favorite Age: Newborn lol; life is so much more simple when you don't have to make your own choices.
Your day consists of sleeping, eating, and pooping; and everyone still thinks your cute. Seriously, she doesn't really have one.

Dream House: If Amber could really choose for real, she has to say a castle because she's always admired them. That was why she chose a castle as her setting in Peterson Estate. But to be realistic, Amber would choose a large farm house as her second choice. Amber loves the larger, older homes because they have that special charm about them. She loves plenty of storage, even though she couldn't possibly use it all. She generally goes for eclectic design, fusing many elements into one including country. She doesn't like homes that are "square" but rather filled with many shapes giving it interest and feeds the imagination.

Amber was born on March 11, 1976. It was about 6 in the morning.

Her parents are David and Mavis Rigby. She is the second of 3 girls. None of them look alike.

She grew up in Monroe, Indiana until 1992 when she moved to Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Amber began writing when she was 11 years old, starting with a short story that she never finished.

Amber's schools: Adams Central in Monroe (until her Junior year) and North Side in Fort Wayne.

At Adams Central, Amber was a member of Sunshine, PALS (Peers Assistance Leadership by Students), and volleyball.

At North Side, Amber was a member of SADD (Students Against Drunk Driving), volleyball manager, and The Northernor (school newspaper).

Amber majored in English, and studied Journalism, Creative Writing, and Typing.

She also studied Interior Decorating, a second passion of Amber's. Amber was told to have a backup plan if her writing didn't take off.

Amber chose Arctitechure as her second choice which grew into interior design, decorating. It still is an enjoyalble passtime of Amber's.

Amber has done a lot of traveling over the years, speading the news about her books. Her favorite places include: Tampa, Florida; Texas; Oklahoma City, Ok; and more.

Amber married Jack Grosjean in June, 1996. They met after she returned home from Basic Training in the National Guard.

She had 3 children. Faythe, David, and Ruth-Anne; beginning in 1997

In 2006, Amber was half-way finished with Stolen Identity when she moved to Muncie, Indiana.
It was at that time when she had a nightmare leading her to the writing of Cursed Blood.

When Cursed Blood was released in 2007, many people who read this book enjoyed it and asked for more. This lead to the writing of Spawn of the Curse.

Cursed Blood was released in Feb. 2007.

Stolen Identity was released in Feb. 2008.

Spawn of the Curse was released in May 2009.

Peterson Estate was released in May 2010.

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"They" say a little of each writer can be found in his/her own work and that is true. Amber lived a difficult life; being teased, laughed at, left out, and forgotten; and it followed her throughout her life. Her past is always inspiring her in her own writing. In each book, something about her experiences, personality, and more can be found somewhere hidden within the pages. It keeps her stories real even though they are all fiction.

Amber writes in many genres because she doesn't want to be tied down to just one. Her mind doesn't work that way. Her imagination wonders in many different directions and she lets her stories guide her. She discovers the genre somewhere in the process of writing the story. Amber lets her characters tell the story and she doesn't know the ending, just like a reader would, surprising her at times! Sometimes the journey to the end of the story can be an emotional one for Amber. At times, when she reached that tear jerking scene, Amber is beside herself, unable to hold it in. She hopes she can reach her readers in the same way.

When Amber first began writing, she put her words to paper by means of a black pen. When she made a mistake, she would just cross it out and keep going. Once the page was covered with mistakes, she would rewrite the entire page over. With each edit, she would rewrite the entire story by hand until she felt it was "perfect" in which she would begin typing the story as she edited again. Now, Amber depends solely on her computer where she saves time and energy writing and editing her stories. She doesn't miss the days when she wrote long hand. Her advice to other authors? Write how ever you feel comfortable; as long as you're producing something, who cares what it looks like.

Before Cursed Blood was written, Amber hadn't even thought of the perfect horror story to write. It was something she did want to do since she loved watching those types of movies.

Amber was quickly awakened by a terrifying nightmare. As she sat there stunned by the horror, she knew it was the right story to use. She found a pen and paper and jotted down what she could remember and that very scene ended up being the opening scene for the book. She thought it over for almost a year, working out the plot and how the story was going to be told. It was her first attempt in brainstorming and making up a physical plan. Once Amber began writing the story, her plan was tossed out the window and a month later, she was finished! She hadn't written anything that fast before and she was impressed!

Amber began sending her work to many publishers and it finally made its home with Publish America. She did research on the company before signing the contract. It was her first publisher but she knew she wanted to do her own marketing even though she didn't know the first thing about how to do it or even where to start. She jumped in and got her feet wet. Getting published put her foot in the door, making way for her second book, Stolen Identity, just one year later!

Stolen Identity actually came about by accident, some of it anyway. Amber read a book on getting ideas and there were brainstorming jumpers in the book. One of those ideas talked about twins. The actual idea of one brother killing his twin and taking over his life just happened. And the sex was also something that just happened, something that took Amber by surprise.

It took Amber two years to write Stolen Identity, the longest length of time without beginning the edit process. She had to take many breaks due to the steamy scenes. Then got stumped when it came to one part of the story. She wasn't sure where to take the story. After getting some suggestions from a close friend at the time, Amber went back to writing her new book, a genre she never thought she'd write.

During the editing process with her publisher, Amira Press, Amber learned that using simple words all the time wasn't working for this book. She enjoyed coming up with different words that moved the story to its different ending. Amber enjoyed working with the editor and loved her suggestions to bring out the story in a more colorful fassion! She can't wait for her next book to reach that level!

As a request from a fan, Amber began writing a sequel to Cursed Blood. Originally, she called it Cursed Blood 2: Spawn of the Curse but decided to shorten the title some time later. Now its called Spawn of the Curse as it may stand alone. A reader could possibly understand what's going on in the story without reading the first one but Amber doesn't want her readers to miss out on the story by skipping the first book.

Spawn of the Curse litterally picks up where Cursed Blood leaves the readers. Without spoiling the story for anyone, this new story is about how far a mother would go to save her child. Any mother could relate to this story on a different level. Of course, a mother isn't going to be dealing with demons on a real level so this part is fictional.

Amber's imagination has no boundaries and she hopes her readers will get that when they read this book as well as the others she writes. This isn't going to be her last horror so be sure to keep an eye on this site for more books coming soon!

Peterson Estate was the first book Amber ever finished. She was 12 years old at the time. The idea just came to her as she attempted a short story called My Haunted Castle. When she finished the story, she searched for magazines to send it to and found "17 Magazine" in which her older sister read. A week or so passed and Amber recieved a letter from the company telling her it was a good story but wasn't the type of story they put in their magazine. Amber was heart broken but instead of sulking over her first rejection, she decided to make the story better. By doing so, the short story grew into a novel--her fist novel and the title was changed to Mysteries of the Peterson Estate. Over the years, Amber decided to continue the story in a series but before she could finish the series, she lost the story.

The main character would not let Amber give up on this one. She couldn't get the characters or the story out of her mind so she decided to rewrite it from memory. Some of the chapters were changed but it improved! At this time, she wrote in first person putting herself directly in the story and many of the characters "told" their part making it unique. Being rejected so many times, Amber decided to give her other books a chance so she sent them to publishers which were accepted.

After Stolen Identity was accepted and released, Amber knew she couldn't keep Peterson Estate the way it was. So over another course of a couple years, Amber began a major rewrite making the story even better again. She changed the story to just one point of view, deleted a couple chapters and added a little here and there. She also changed the first person to third taking Amber out of the story so she could be a better writer for it.

When Amber finally found the right publisher, she was excited because of all the work she put into the story. It was even better because this published saw the same potential Amber did and didn't want to change a thing!! Some edits were still performed to make sure grammar and spelling was correct. This book will be released in 2010!