Interview with Amy van Rijthoven, Author of Shadows and Black in the Light

What’s the story behind the story? What inspired you to write Shadows and Black in the Light?

Similar to Millie, I’m a bit of a daydreamer. Like little movie scenes playing in my head, ideas would come to me that I had to piece together. Sometimes I would just get the title of a chapter and then have to work around that. The first snippet came to me many years ago when I was 19 or 20. It was Millie in the car with a stranger on the way to his place with rows of flowers in the distance that I knew were to be used for drugs. I wrote it all down and thought nothing of it. Then, many years later, I picked it up again and just couldn’t stop writing until I had completed a whole book.

If you had to pick theme songs for the main characters of Shadows and Black in the Light, what would they be?

Here is a personal playlist of mine with songs that I feel relate in some way to my book, including the four already mentioned within it. Cemetery-Coin, Searching for the Light-VHS Collection, Ordinary Human-One Republic, I’m in Love with Everybody- Laureline, Parallell Universe-Transviolet, Dare You to Move-Switchfoot, Wate of Emotion-ELIO, In My Head-Aaron Taos Carter Ace, Ok-The Runaway Club, Jump Into the Fog-The Wombats, Power and Passion-Midnight Oil, Ride This Feeling-Kate Miller-Heideke, The Nosebleed Section-Hilltop Hoods.

What’s your favorite genre to read? Is it the same as your favorite genre to write?

My favourite genre is anything supernatural or paranormal. Though even as a 35-year-old adult, I’ve only really read young adult fantasies. Anything with angels or mystical beings also really intrigues me.

What books are on your TBR pile right now?

Mostly new age and self-help books. We need your art. Words that hurt, words that heal, and Think Like a Monk by Jay Shetty are amongst them.

What scene in your book was your favorite to write?

Smoke in mirrors. My dad helped me a little with this one. He gave me his ideas on how to perform a high-speed car chase that I mixed with my own. Then he said something about watching the smoke in the rear-view mirror, and I said, “Dad, you’re a genius.” After that, it all came out so quickly, and I realise there are pacing issues with my book, but I just had to get it out.

Do you have any quirky writing habits? (lucky mugs, cats on laps, etc.)

I like to sit in my egg chair upstairs by the window. I feel like there’s a great channel of energy there above me, to write.

Do you have a motto, quote, or philosophy you live by?

I like ” never regret anything because at the time it was exactly what you wanted.

If you could choose one thing for readers to remember after reading your book, what would it be?

I feel like I can have two because I had two narratives going on. One is that through questioning the reality of the story, readers also stop to question the reality we exist in. The other is live for the moment. Don’t think, just do.