About Amy

I’m Amy Sue Nathan, and my debut novel, THE GLASS WIVES, will be published by St. Martin’s Press on May 7, 2013.  I’m represented by Jason Yarn of The Paradigm Agency.

I’ve been blogging since 2006, and launched Women’s Fiction Writers in March 2011. In addition to blogging, my stories and essays have appeared in The Chicago Tribune, The New York Times online, The Washington Post online, The Huffington Post, Chicago Parent, Grey Sparrow Journal, Rose and Thorn Journal, Scribblers On The Roof, The Verb, Hospital Drive Journal and The Stone Hobo. I’m also a freelance fiction editor, and a reader for literary agents (that info is below). I’ve also been fortunate to contribute to four amazing writing sites, Writer Unboxed, Beyond The Margins,  The Book Pregnant Blog, and Girlfriends Book Club. I’m currently serving as Secretary for the RWA-WF chapter, a contributer to the Writer Unboxed newsletter, and a member of the 2013 Class at The Debutante Ball blog.

I was born and raised in Philadelphia (Yo!) and am a graduate of Temple University (Go Owls!) with a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism.  I’ve also lived in Hershey, PA, Maplewood, NJ, Cleveland, OH, and Tucson, AZ. I’ve called the Chicago area home since the late 1990′s, and am the proud mom of a son in college and a daughter in high school. I’m the often exasperated mom of two rambunctious rescued dogs and assorted woodland creatures who are partial to our backyard.

You can email me at womensfictionwriters@gmail.com or follow me on Twitter: @AmySueNathan. If you want to be one of the cool kids, you can “like” my Facebook page by clicking the link to the right. (C’mon, you know you want to!)

If you’d like to read one of my published short stories, try: The April Strings of Amber Sweetly (my personal favorite) or The Kindness of Neighbors.  If you’d like to read personal essays, try: Killer Sandals or Learning to Dance at 40.  Want to read my Chicago Trib columns?  Click here. My parenting column, The View From Here, was featured on Imperfect Parent and you can read those essays here.

Want to know even more about me, my book, and my writing? Here’s an 2012 interview by literary agent, Andrea Hurst: AUTHORNOMICS INTERVIEW with Amy Sue Nathan.

And here’s a little about THE GLASS WIVES:

When a tragic accident ends the life of Richard Glass, it upends the lives of ex-wife, Evie, second wife, Nicole, and their children. Still, there’s no love lost between the ex and the new widow. In fact, Evie sees a silver lining in the heartache—the chance to move forward without Nicole in their lives, as soon as they finish sitting shiva. But Evie wasn’t counting on her children’s bond with their baby brother, and she certainly wasn’t counting on Nicole’s profound need to hang on to the threads of family, no matter how frayed.

Desperate times call for desperate measures, they say. And what happens next is living proof of the desperate state of these Glass wives. Evie and Nicole, both emotionally and financially spent by Richard’s death, agree to share living expenses—and Evie’s house. The arrangement, purely financial in Evie’s mind, has its benefits, such as a live-in babysitter. But it also exposes a secret, causing a rift between Evie and her closest friends. But when Evie suspects that Nicole is determined to rearrange more than her kitchen, she has to decide whom she can trust. More than that, she has to decide what makes a family.

Freelance editing for aspiring novelists…

Whether it’s your first fifty pages or full manuscript, let me help you make your pages ready for the dreaded Query-Go-Round. Already on the ride and not getting the requests you expected?  Let’s figure out why and fix it before you get dizzy!

Want to know if it has a good pace? The right voice? Believable dialogue? Need to find out if you’ve dropped any subplots or if you’ve fallen into the abysmal ‘telling trap’ or gotten stuck in a ‘backstory dump’? I can do that AND I’ll point out what you’re doing right so you can keep doing it!

In addition to working with my own agent for almost a year before he sold THE GLASS WIVES to Brenda Copeland at St. Martin’s, I’ve been reading for literary agents since 2009. I also spent a short time reading for a small press. I read, evaluate and edit literary, commercial, adult and young adult fiction.

Together we can decide if I’m a good fit for you and your book!

For more information, email me about your project and what you’re looking for.  amysuenathan@gmail.com or womensfictionwriters@gmail.com

Steve Ross, Director, Book Division, Abrams Artists Agency

“Amy has that rare quality of reading a manuscript from all the requisite perspectives simultaneously: those of the author, the agent, the publisher, and the ultimate consumer.  She is also equally adept and authoritative with nonfiction and fiction of seemingly every genre and for just about every age (I haven’t tried her out on picture books yet).”

Holly Root, Waxman Literary Agency says:

“Amy Nathan has a great eye for prose and an exceptional talent for identifying what’s working, and more importantly what isn’t, in an author’s work. Her feedback would be valuable for anyone who’s wondering whether their work is ready to submit.”

Christina Gombar, internationally anthologized, Pushcart Prize nominated author says:

“The most important thing I can say about Amy is that while her criticism is thorough and spot-on, it’s painless. She never makes it personal – and this saves a tremendous amount of energy in defensive reactions (on my part) and the like. A few other readers I’d hired seemed to get off on cutting me down, or were threatened by what I was saying – not focusing on how I was saying it. With Amy it’s all about the writing. I’ve read her own writing and greatly enjoy it — I’d never hire someone to critique my writing if I didn’t value their own work.

Amy is also very up-to-the-minute on blogging and online marketing and networking – she’s been a great source of advice there.”

Julie Wu, THE THIRD SON,  Algonquin:

“Amy is the rare reader who sees both the trees and the forest. She has the ability to set aside her ego to become emotionally engaged in a story and then, in a very no-nonsense way, pinpoint just what does and does not make it work. She was able in a single critique to tell me both that she was moved to tears and that I needed to fix certain inconsistencies in my timeline. Her comments would be invaluable to a writer of any level of experience and I couldn’t recommend her more highly!”

Pamela Toler, MANKIND, The Story of All of Us, History Channel:

“Amy asks critical questions that open up possibilities within a story while displaying an understanding of the work as a whole.”

Priscille Sibley, THE PROMISE OF STARDUST, William Morrow:

“Sometimes a writer is too close to his/her own manuscript. At least, I was. It takes a keen eye and a true understanding of story to be able to see what the writer is overlooking. Amy Sue Nathan possesses both. And she has the talent to point out what I needed to do to make my story work.”