Book Notes: Author Profile: Oneida Swinton-Lambert

Oneida Katrina Swinton-Lambert grew up in Asheville in the 1950s and 1960s.

Her father, Bill Swinton, came from Charleston, SC, her mother, Allie Johnson Swinton, from Fletcher, NC. He was a WWII veteran, she worked as a nurse, and Oneida grew up at Lee Walker Heights, the first public housing project in Asheville. Because of the number of young families that moved into Lee Walker Heights during the post-war years, the community was nicknamed “diaper hill.”




Oneida,
the third of twelve children, calls her childhood “as normal a life as
a child could ask for.” A normal life, in that era, meant segregation,
in education as well as housing. Most black schools were burdened with
inferior facilities, equipment, and supplies, but not necessarily
inferior education – Asheville’s segregated schools were blessed with
outstanding teachers and mentors. Oneida attended Livingston Street
Elementary School (now the Reid Center), Hill Street Middle School, and
Stephens-Lee, the famous “Castle on the Hill,” before graduating in
1967 from South French Broad High (now SFB Middle School).


She left
Asheville and, after traveling for some time, settled in Brooklyn, NY,
where she married, had a son, and worked in retail. She returned to the
south and switched careers to follow her mother’s footsteps into the
medical field. Her own health problems cut her career short, and after
spending some time caring for her ailing mother and taking business
courses, she took up writing. Her first romance novel, Michael Kates,
published under the pen name O.S. Amber, is the result. It is to be
released September 11.



“My interest in
writing did not come from birth,” Swinton-Lambert says, “but I have
always had a great interest in words, and expressing myself through
them. It is said that English is the most difficult of all languages,
and at the same time, it is the most fascinating; this is what inspired
me to write.”



Her fascination
with the language, and her love for it, can be glimpsed in this brief
portrait of her mother: “She was a positive, strong woman, with a smile
that could melt an ice burg and a voice that could make the angels in
heaven go silent.”



Writing helps
her escape “the real-life cares,” and Swinton-Lambert has, she
believes, grown by writing and faith. She describes her parents as
“good, God loving people, who, like all parents, only want the best for
their children, and a better life than they had.” Clearly the author
shares those hopes.



Romance is
escapist fiction by definition, and the author describes Michael Kates
as a man with “an unorthodox breed of male virility, which makes a
woman glad to be a woman.” The heroine meets him, appropriately enough,
in the Blue Ridge Mountains, and her emotional uncertainty brings her
to wonder if he is real or just a figment of her imagination.



Swinton-Lambert
offers the reader “the perfect man,” which is, after all, the ideal of
the romantic fiction genre. She writes of him: “He activates the
romantic gene, and helps you realize what you’re looking for. The
perfect romance is something a woman never gives up on. He knows what
to say, when to say it, and how to say it. He knows just how to make
you feel special for no other reason than . . . being you!”



The author hopes
that this, her first romance novel, will be the first of a series. She
has a web site (geocities.com/osaladylamb) in development for her fans.
Meanwhile, she can be reached at 828-272-9479 or by email at
[email protected].