Meet C.L. Ambrose
My hearts, please meet C.L. Ambrose—a queer romance author with a deep love for slow burns, nature-rich worldbuilding, and stories that make you feel things (sometimes quietly, sometimes wreck-you-for-days style).
JEN: Let’s start at the beginning. How did you first find your way to storytelling?
C.L.: I first got into writing fictional stories when I was 9 or 10 years old in primary school, mainly influenced by the books I was reading at the time. My teacher back then encouraged me a lot and read my homework (fictive short stories) as an example to the whole class many times, which made me feel like there was something that I was really good at. So ever since I was little, my dream job was being an author. However, it’s so tough to actually become popular enough to make a living from it, so my day job is a totally different one, in consulting. But I’m so grateful for self-publication opportunities, like this I can at least get my stories out there and try to find my audience.
JEN: Let’s talk genre love. What do you gravitate toward as a reader—and what lights you up most as a writer?
C.L.: To read: queer romance (FF+MM), thrillers and post-apocalyptic stories.
To write: slow burn queer romances, mainly non-contemporary, so far I’ve got only MM books out there and an FF short story in a charity anthology. As of late, I started to write a post-apocalyptic zombie trilogy which will contain FF as well as MM romance subplots. The first part of it will be out in February.
JEN: Did you have a favorite read of the year?
C.L.: Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid, it has been almost half a year since I read it and I’m STILL not over it! If I ever manage to write a story that makes my readers feel like I felt reading this, I know I’ll have done something exceptional.
JEN: Who are the creatives that shaped you—authors, narrators, artists, inspirations, idols?
C.L.: My favorite indie author is Jae, she’s kind of my role model because she’s also based in Germany and writing queer romances in English, and she’s made it quite big, at least she can live from writing these days, so she’s definitely someone to look up to.
My favorite narrators are Lori Prince and Abby Craden in terms of romance narrators. As for thrillers, I enjoy the ones written by Arno Strobel, who’s my favorite thriller author. They’re all narrated by Sascha Rotermund, who coincidentally is the German voice actor of Benedict Cumberbatch, which I find kind of funny, seeing how at one point in the early 2010s I used to write Sherlock fanfic.
My favorite cover artist actually is my author bestie S.S. Genesee who created the absolutely stunning covers for my books Wild Horses and One Year To Teach You Love Again.
I don’t think I’ve got one particular influence but picked up things here and there over the years. I love to write descriptions of nature when I get the chance to, as I did a lot in Wild Horses and Skyewards. For this of course one of the greatest authors to look up to is J.R.R. Tolkien, I feel like he basically invented worldbuilding.
There isn’t really a rivalry between myself and any of the indie authors I know and am friends with. This actually is the greatest thing about being part of the indie author community on Instagram. I feel there is a strong sense of community and support among the authors I’m close with.
JEN: Speaking of community—who are your people? The ones who cheer you on and make the creative road less lonely?
C.L.: As I mentioned above S.S. Genesee, and also Milo de Moss, they’re both indie authors and artists. They probably are the greatest cheerleaders I have and I feel that whatever I come up with, at least these two might want to read it. It helps to know that there are at least a few people out there who love what you’re doing.
JEN: Paint me a picture of your creative environment. Music, snacks, rituals—what helps the words come?
C.L.: I love typical "Oldies" music from the ‘70s and ‘80s. My favorite band are the Rolling Stones, they inspired me for my debut novel Wild Horses, which is named after one of their songs. While writing, I mainly listen to instrumental songs, otherwise I get too distracted by the lyrics.
To be honest, I mostly only get to write when lying in bed at night (I write on my phone exclusively), so by then I don’t eat or drink anything anymore. On the rare occasions that I get to write on a Sunday afternoon, I’ll have a cup of tea next to me.
JEN: How does where you’re from—and where you are now—shape your stories?
C.L.: I’m from a small place in southern Germany but have occasionally lived in bigger cities for university/internships/work. Currently I’m living in my hometown again because I’m working on building my future home there. It’s actually funny because during my late teens/ early 20s, all I wanted was to get out of here, now a decade later, I want to come back because I can’t imagine living in a big city all my life.
But I need to be in big cities every now and again because I love the vibes, multicultural life, and find it kind of inspiring. There actually is a song by Mick Jagger, “Say You Will”, that has the line "My heart is deep in the country but I live for the city" – I definitely feel like that! My favorite city is London and it’s featured very prominently in One Year To Teach You Love Again.
JEN: You write queer stories with care, intention, and heart. What themes matter most to you?
C.L.: All of my stories have queer characters because I’m a queer person myself and I’d like to contribute to offer queer representation for everyone out there who might be a member of the LGBTQ+ community as well but maybe hasn’t quite found themselves yet or is struggling.
That’s why I’m proudest of my ace rep in Skyewards because you don’t find MM romances a lot that feature an ace character who is sex-averse and still finds happiness and love with a significant other. I just wanted to offer a representation of this aspect of being ace, since each ace person is different and has their own specific experiences.
I also love to write about characters who don’t have an accepting family and still manage to find a way to live the way they want and be happy in the end. This kind of gives me hope for my own life.
JEN: Let’s talk books! What’s already out in the world—and what’s coming next?
C.L.: Wild Horses (2023), One Year To Teach You Love Again (2025), Skyewards (2025), as well as a short story in the Unapologetic Love charity anthology (2025), and another short story in the charity anthology The Leaves Still Fallow (2025), of which all proceeds are going to trans rights charities.
The first part of The Third State trilogy, Project Lazarus, will be out on 10th February 2026. It’s a zombie apocalypse story featuring queer characters and will have an FF and MM romance subplot later on.
JEN: Creating isn’t always easy—especially when your work doesn’t fit mainstream expectations. What’s been the hardest feedback to receive, and what compliments keep you going?
C.L.: There have been a few reviews that made me think readers were disappointed with the fact that they didn’t get smut. I’m an ace person and don’t enjoy writing or reading a lot of spice, all my stories are very low spice, or even no spice. I think it’s unfair to rate books based on the fact that they don’t contain smut, especially when that’s not the focus of the plot at all. I also don’t go around rating spicy books poorly, but instead just skip those scenes and focus on the plot and characters.
The biggest compliments I have gotten fortunately are far more than poor reviews, which I’m so thankful for because they want to keep me going and continue writing because I know that there are people out there who love what I do. It always makes me happiest hearing when people tell me my books made them feel all the feels, e.g. made them cry or smile a lot. This is my main goal; I just want to make people feel something.
I also love when someone tells me that I managed to portray ace rep really well or that they could identify with my characters. Some readers also wrote that my descriptions of the surroundings made them want to jump on a plane and go visit the places I wrote about, which really made me feel that I did something right there!
JEN: What advice would you give to aspiring writers—especially queer writers trying to find their voice?
C.L.: Just write the stories that you yourself want to read most, not what you think is trendy and popular because that way it’s easiest to stick with it and actually pull through! You’re the one who has to read what you wrote most often.
Thanks so much for this opportunity, I really appreciate what you’re doing
JEN: It is my absolute pleasure, C.L.! Thank you for sharing with us. My hearts, please find them at @author.c.l.ambrose on Instagram.
Are you a human author? A human who narrates audiobooks? A human who designs book covers? Or a human who does PR and promotion for other authors? I'd love to interview you, too. Let me know when you’re ready!
