"It's kind of fun to do the impossible." - Walt Disney
From a very early age, I always knew that I did not want to be a writer. Despite the encouraging efforts of friends, family, and teachers, who insisted that I was meant to do nothing else, I adamantly refused. Like most kids growing up in dazzling neon of LA, I wanted to work in the movies. While attending film school at the University of Southern California, however, I volunteered as a critic for the school newspaper in order to score free tickets to plays and screenings around town. And the rest, as they say, is history...
It wasn't long before I somehow I started getting requested to attend and review major high-profile productions that no other college paper was allowed to attend and I found myself conducting interviews with celebrities such as country music darling Sara Evans and major film and stage stars Annette Bening, Jon Lovitz, Alfred Molina, and Tony Award-winner Sutton Foster.
After graduating from USC with degrees in Cinematic Arts and Clinical Psychology, I continued chasing my dreams of the silver screen and went on to work on such major film and TV shows as "Big Love", "The Riches", "Mad Men", and Disney's upcoming romantic comedy The Proposal, starring Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds, due out this summer! But the writing bug never left me. And so, while I was waiting for Minnie Driver and Sandra Bullock to get out of the hair and makeup trailer, I began jotting notes down on the backs of discarded script pages. The result was my first novel Saints & Angels, which fuses two of my greatest loves: books and music.
Although I will always dream of New York City, my home is Los Angeles...and to quote Randy Newman, I love it! And always at my side, is an adorable, saggy black Labrador named Kitty.
When Amber met Jen...
"A friend is someone who knows the song in your heart, and can sing it back to you when you have forgotten the words."
In 2003, my sophomore year at USC, I joined a women's community service organization on campus called the Helenes. It was there that I met Jennifer Hiranandani, a transfer from Cal State Northridge who was there to pursue her love of music and on her way to earning a Bachelor of Science degree in Music Industry. From setting up for Trojan football games to volunteering in the local community, Jen and I spent an inordinate about of time together and became fast friends. I remember one day senior year thinking to myself "whoa...I've hung out with this girl every day this week...clearly we must be good friends."
Like most friendships, Jen & I built a strong foundation on the fact that we had so much in common. Both of us are theater geeks. We both love USC football (and football players), and we're both of bi-racial heritage. I'm half-Korean and half-Caucasian, Jen is half-Caucasian and half-East Indian. Coming from a multi-ethnic household brought a lot to the table for us creativity-wise. It gives you a different perspective, makes you a little more open, helps you to think and accept things that may be outside the box. But I still believe that the main thing that bonded us together and gave us the deepest understanding of each other was that we both had such giant dreams. It takes a special person to understand the fear and day-to-day pressure that comes with reaching for the stars...
Believe it or not, it wasn’t until later in our friendship that I really knew about Jen’s musical abilities. I knew she was an aspiring singer, but it wasn’t until one night in the fall of our senior year that I finally heard her perform. As long as I live, I’ll never forget that night. One night she came over to the Helenes House and brought her keyboard. The girls and I were all floored. How such deep and soulful notes could come out of such a sweet, tiny person was mind-boggling. And the songs themselves were simply gorgeous. Emotional, thought-provoking, and haunting. I was completely in awe of her…and I still am.
After graduation, Jen and I remained fast friends, seeing eachother through our first real-world jobs, first apartments, and that all-too awkward, displaced feeling of being fresh out of college. We became eachother's support system, encouraging one another's artistic dreams, providing a shoulder to cry on or a face in the crowd to each eachother on. In the summer of 2007, I got to watch from the stage--or altar, as it were--as Jen took the greatest leap in her life thus far...marrying her best friend Justin and becoming Mrs. Jennifer Stuler.
Earlier this year, Jen took another huge leap in her career...a leap of faith. You see, because the protagonist in my book is a singer, I had always envisioned my character being able to express herself through song. And so I asked Jen to read this "slag rag" of a manuscript that I'd been fiddling around with and see if she wanted to be a part of it. To my overwhelming shock and joy, she said "Yes" without even a moment's hesitation. I don't know if any of you know what it feels like to have some agree to take on the world with you, but I pray that you do. Its such a privilege and an honor and a blessing to be part of such a remarkable and inspiring friendship and partnership.