Amy Hagstrom

Amy Hagstrom is a writer and travel industry editor whose work has appeared in US News, OutdoorsNW Magazine, Travel Oregon, and Huffington Post, among others. A lifelong outdoors enthusiast, she served as a volunteer EMT with her local county search and rescue unit before launching her writing career. After raising three children in the Pacific Northwest, Hagstrom traded the Cascade, Siskiyou, and Sierra Nevada mountain ranges for the Sierra Madre mountains, making her home in central Mexico with her wife.

Hagstrom's debut novel is The Wild Between Us.

My Q&A with the author:

How much work does your title do to take readers into the story?

I believe my title, The Wild Between Us, does a succinct job of drawing the reader into the story. It works on several levels because the 'us' can refer to several relationships in the book: the distance between the two protagonists, the distance between them and their search subjects, or even the distance of the decade and a half that has separated them. The 'wild' is fairly self-explanatory, especially paired with the cover of mountains, a lake, and topographical lines. This book is clearly set in the wilderness. This wilderness, the Sierra Nevada mountains, serves as a secondary character in its own right, and I do think it deserves title billing.

How surprised would your teenage reader self be by your new novel?

My teenage reader self would be surprised to see so many familiar places in this novel, as it is loosely based on the wilderness where I grew up and spent my formative teen years. I'd like to think she would be gratified to know her future self did not forget where she came from and why she loved it the way she did.

Do you find it harder to write beginnings or endings? Which do you change more?

As a writer, I find myself changing both beginning and endings over the course of re-writes, and this novel was no exception. That said, I find it easier overall to write beginnings. I tend to know where I want to start, gleaned from a single--yet usually fully-formed--scene in my head. I write character-driven suspense, and I have to know who my characters are before I know how they will react to the situations I put them in. So my earliest scenes are usually quieter ones, in which I get to know them. Inevitably, these scenes get moved around to allow for a stronger start.

I also tend to know how my books will end (usually in the form of another succinct yet fully-formed scene or two), and then I work back from those bookends, dealing with the messy middle!

Do you see much of yourself in your characters? Do they have any connection to your personality, or are they a world apart?

My characters in The Wild Between Us are a world apart from my own personality, with the exception of Silas's two young sons, Spencer and Cameron, reminding me of my own boys at that age. Honestly, Silas is like no one I've ever known, and while I can see aspects of myself in Meg, she's more cautious and deliberate than I have ever been.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

Without a doubt, my time spent volunteering for my county's Search and Rescue unit inspired this novel, combined with my experience with my own kids in the outdoors. I was fortunate to learn the protocols, challenges, and rewards of SAR through months of training exercises, on-the-ground searches, and educational programs and I will never forget my time in the woods with these hardworking and dedicated people.

Additionally, my previous career as an outdoor adventure travel writer has informed all my manuscripts. I love to shine a spotlight on beautiful and rugged outdoor settings, and my years exploring wilderness all over the world ingrained in me a respect for nature and what she can do.

Visit Amy Hagstrom's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Wild Between Us.

--Marshal Zeringue