W ho is Amber Lisa? I’m an author, teacher, and writing coach, who just absolutely loves what I do!  Got a book you need help with? Amber Lisa’s your go-to-gal!  Got anything that you need help with writing? Let me show you the way through! My spa is the right place for you  if you want to know more about writing, teaching, and self-publishing. Remember my motto, Read, Write and Relax!   Amber Maiden, J.D. My Legal Career But I didn’t start out in this field. I began a career in employment law way back in 1996, right after I graduated from law school.  For the next ten years I worked for the City of Alexandria, Fairfax County, and the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority specializing in various areas of Equal Employment Opportunity Law Compliance and Training, Corporate Diversity Management and Organizational Development. Turned Writer/English Professor, M.A. English While I truly enjoyed my first career, something was always missing. Employment Law just wasn’t my passion, writing was! (And it still is.)  So back in 2006, after pursuing a Masters in English, I deciding to make a career change that would allow me to pursue my passion: writing, writing, writing! I quit my full-time, (very stressful and hectic) job with the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority and began teaching English part-time at Northern Virginia Community College, and writing all the time, any time I had a spare moment. But what to write? That was the question! From 1999 until 2006, I pursued all kinds of different genres: romance, sci-fi, chick lit, urban lit, creative nonfiction, and a bit of nonfiction, because I’d always written nonfiction anyway, a sort of business/legal oriented nonfiction, (employment handbooks, training manuals, legal policies, legal directives, legal memos, executive briefings.) During that time of exploration, I outlined over thirty-books! Through trial and error I learned a lot about writing, and I actually finished three books from all of those numerous outlines. Two of the books were fiction books that could most easily be classified as urban literature, and the other book (which was far more difficult to write) was the one where I found my life’s purpose. Finding My Life Purpose in the Memoir I found my purpose in a genre I least suspected the memoir. My memoir, The Way Through Lessons Learned on Love, Life and the Journey is probably the most powerful and significant writing I’ve ever done in my life. I discovered this purpose through sharing this writing from my memoir with my students at Northern Virginia Community College. Writing my memoir, completely changed my life. Sharing my memoir allowed me to encourage my students to completely change their lives; and so many of them did. It was all for the better. It was almost a magical experience for me to not only take that powerful inner journey, but to allow and inspire others to take that journey as well. So based on those experiences, I developed this mission statement that would guide the establishment of my literary business (although at the time, I wasn’t clear on just what that business would be:) It is my intention, my passion and my purpose to write powerful and  healing books about life, love and the journey. It is my intention to connect with, inspire, and motivate others with this work and to live well! Welcome to my Spa and Boutique So here I am, five years later, launching Amber Lisa’s Literary Boutique and Spa,which so clearly allows me to live my mission. In helping others with their writing, I’m helping them to reach their dreams! Sometimes my writing services will assist people in the establishment of their business, or marketing their services. Sometimes my writing services will help people write and publish that novel that they’ve always wanted to see in print. (It is a quite a process, but it can be done. And when it is done, it should be done to the very best of your ability.) Sometimes my writing services will help someone to take a powerful inner journey that will totally transform her life!  Sometimes my writing services will help a family collect meaningful stories, recipes and legacies that need to be permanently recorded in print, so that the younger generations will know the power and strength of their ancestry.  But whatever kind of writing services I provide, I want my clients to feel good about it!