Interview Questions for Amy L Sauder:
1. During your time after graduating from Eureka College, has your writing style stayed the same or has it changed? How has it changed or how has it stayed the same?
Both. I still see certain aspects from my Eureka days in my current work, like playing with story structure and a bit of the eerie. But I’ve also grown both personally and as a writer, so there are new aspects now, things I wanted but wasn’t capable of yet, like weaving in strong thematic elements to twisty plots.
2. How has your time at Eureka College influenced you and the work you currently have published?
The initial concept for Unfixed was sparked in my last semester at Eureka College, so that’s a really obvious influence to call out. More subtly though, Eureka had a large part to play in me finally recognizing my interest in being a writer. I had been insistent that I just wanted to study stories and find some adjacent living from that (editing, publishing, teaching, etc.). It took until my final semester to admit to myself and to others the underlying fear that I’d fail at being a writer, then breaking past that to try anyway. The classes at Eureka, the faculty, my peers…all of it had a role to play in that.
3. What was the appeal of writing introspective psychological fiction?
I never set out saying “I want my work to be introspective and psychological.” I wrote what gripped me. With my first book more of a murder mystery (an odd one at that) and my second a fantasy, I was trying to figure out what makes both still clearly me, my voice. They weren’t psychological thrillers, but they did both have psychological elements, and I figured they were more introspective than thrillers, more character driven even with 
all the plot twists. I love twisty plots but I also love deep characters, and I think that’s where I came up with the term “introspective psychological fiction.” Will it stick? Perhaps.
a. How does this challenge your world building for your Unfixed Series and I Know You Like a Murder?
It’s really all about getting into the characters’ heads and understanding where they are, what they’ve been through, what they want. Having so many secretive characters, that can be difficult sometimes. It takes spending time with them long enough for them to open up to me. I solve their mysteries so that we can solve the world around them together through the story, or something like that.
b. What do you hope readers pick up from your introspective psychological fiction?
I hope that readers see a glimpse of themselves and a glimpse of others through these characters. Perhaps they won’t be a puppet trapped in an enchanted circus as it burns to the ground, but my hope is there’s something so real about these characters and their journeys that readers feel it, too.
c. How was the process of writing introspective psychological fiction?
Sometimes there’s a bit more waiting than I’d prefer, writing meandering parts of the story that’ll get cut in edits, taking the time with the characters to get to know them, to get them to open up. After awhile, not only do I understand the characters and what’s next, but the twists naturally appear alongside the rest.
4. In your I Know You Like a Murder it is set to be from the perspective of the murderer. How was it writing this story in that perspective?
A lot of the story actually came from a dream, then I woke up with the first line of the book ringing in my head: “A narrator always gets to know the reader before spilling their deepest secret.” And that day, the murderer wouldn’t stop telling me the story, interrupting my day job and my work on Unfixed. So with this particular murderer, writing from that perspective was a bit commandeering, obsessive, reaching a compromise that I’ll allow a short story, but I can’t commit to another novel right now, and hoping the murderer could live with that (and let me live with that…).
a. What has writing in this perspective allowed you to do that any other perspective may have not allowed you to do?
It was a lot of fun. I got to put on my (metaphorical mostly) villain hat for a bit, break the fourth wall repeatedly, and toy with the reader more than a reliable narrator could.
b. What appealed to you to write from this perspective?
Writing from the murderer’s perspective allowed for a lot of unreliable narration and some twists that otherwise wouldn’t be possible. In a weird way, this book was my love letter to readers, and how their perceptions play into the story as much as the author and as much as the words themselves.
5. Are there any plans to write more novels similar to I Know You Like a Murder?
I love breaking the fourth wall, plot twists, and unreliable narrators, so I could definitely see more of those in the future (in fact, you’ll see those in Unfixed). Some people have suggested a series or sequel for I Know You Like a Murder, for instance, I Know You Like a Romance, I Know You Like a SciFi, etc. I’m not saying never, but I don’t have those in the works, either. I’ll leave that percolating and see what grips me next.
6. Your series, Unfixed Series, has a central setting of a circus. Why did you go with a circus and how does it shape the story and the message?
I mentioned sticking with a character long enough to understand them. I didn’t set out with the plan of Julia running away to the circus. In fact, I wrote the short story at Eureka College for an Uncanny Literature class, and a friend kept telling me I needed to finish the story. I insisted Julia was dead (I wasn’t wrong; she had died twice at 
that point, in fact. But my friend wasn’t wrong either.) So thinking about Julia wanting a place to belong, running away from the doctor and her parents trying to fix her, it made sense that it would lead her to a circus. And the full novel unfolded from there.
7. As the approach of your next release for the Unfixed Series, what can readers expect? Is there a vision for the rest of the series?
For now, I am releasing the Unfixed series as a duology. Picked Up Pieces continues with the circus folk trying to evade the cops investigating the murder of someone who’s no longer dead. I won’t say more than that to not spoil the ending of Unfixed, but you’ll find that Unfixed and Picked Up Pieces tell a complete story. There are lots of opportunities to continue the story or do a spinoff of other characters (the Forgettable’s backstory for instance), so I’m letting those ideas float around to see what comes of them and starting to dabble with ideas of other stories. We’ll see what sticks. In the meantime, if the Unfixed world only has these 2 books, it’s still complete.
8. Is there any advice that you would give to any aspiring writer who is looking into publishing a novel of their own?
One of the big ones I say a lot is don’t write every day. That isn’t to say you can’t write every day if you want to. But if you’re feeling like you should write every day, that’s probably a sign of burdensome expectations to let go of. Writing every day under that weight is a fast track to burnout. Instead, try for writing consistently, whatever that looks like for your life.
Also for both writing and publishing, I would say a community is so important—others who have been there or are going there with you, whether that’s other writers, readers, creatives, or friends who are gungho rooting for you even if they don’t get it themselves (and ideally, all of the above). From the emotional support to the practical tips as you learn from one another, all of it is what makes this not only possible, but worthwhile.