![]() What is the inspiration behind your latest release? I guess I’d have to say my many years working in marketing. Like Maddy, I’ve worked in advertising and marketing in various account manager / campaign management style roles. Often the demands of the job are intense, with long hours required, and I wanted to write about the challenge of finding and nurturing a relationship in this environment. Tell us about your writing journey/how you got published? I wrote a lot as a child and teenager and inevitably gave it up when I became a responsible adult. I decided to revisit it again around eight years ago as a creative outlet and because I felt like being a little less responsible again. The more I wrote, the more serious I became. Because of my background in marketing, I decided to self-publish my first novel, a paranormal romantic suspense titled Radiant. It had also been listed as a top ten finalist in the Romance Writers of Australia Emerald award, which gave me the confidence to put it out there. After that I decided to write something more light-hearted and The Boyfriend Sessions was created, which is the first book in my contemporary romance City Love series. I had a feeling it would be more appealing to publishers so started submitting and it was picked up by Momentum (Pan Macmillan). I was secretly thrilled about this as Momentum had been at the top of my wish list! Since then I’ve been contracted to complete the series, so four books in total. Maddy’s story, The Pitch, is the second book in the series. What is your writing routine? I am a very structured, organised individual – in every other aspect of my life! Sadly my writing routine has to be flexible to accommodate the demands of part-time work, looking after my school age son and everything else. I’m lucky I work from home so if I’m having a quiet work week, I’ll fit in an hour or so of writing whenever I can. Beyond that, when I’m in writing mode, I write on weekends and at night. I am quite disciplined though. When I was writing my last manuscript I committed myself to a weekly word count and writing five out of seven nights. I can’t keep that up all the time though, only when I’m writing the first draft! Share a writing quote/motto about writing. Just write. Not sure if that’s anyone’s quote, but it’s my motto. What is the one piece of advice about writing that has stuck with you? Similar to my motto: keep writing. The more you write, the better you get. And the more you write, the more likely you are to finish a book! What are you reading at the moment or what’s the last book you read and what did you like/not like? I’m reading Lisa Heidke’s latest release, It Started With A Kiss. She was actually my teacher at The Australian Writers Centre when I did her course on Popular Women’s Fiction, and we still keep in touch. The Pitch She’s in a long-term, committed relationship. With her business. In three years Madeline Spencer has single-handedly grown her marketing agency, Grounded Marketing, into one of the country’s fastest growing companies. But her success has been at the expense of her social life, and her girlfriends have had enough. They’ll do whatever it takes, from speed dating to blind dates, to show her there’s more to life than work. Only Maddy is having a hard time forgetting about her business. She’s about to pitch for her biggest client ever and the mysterious media mogul, Paul Neilsen, has volunteered to mentor her. Maddy might just be in with a shot of landing the account—if she can keep her mind on the job. Working with Paul is not at all what she’d imagined, and Maddy finds herself torn between her ever increasing workload and her feelings for Paul. She’s discovering playing in the big league means making sacrifices…and Maddy must decide what she can’t live without. Purchase Links: http://momentumbooks.com.au/books/the-pitch-city-love-2/ About Belinda Williams ![]() Belinda is a marketing communications specialist and copywriter who allowed an addiction to romance and chick-lit to get the better of her. She was named a top ten finalist in the Romance Writers of Australia Emerald Award in both 2013 and 2014. Her other addictions include music and cars. Belinda’s eclectic music taste forms the foundation of many of her writing ideas and her healthy appreciation for fast cars means she would not so secretly love a Lamborghini. For now she’ll have to settle with her son’s Hot Wheels collection and writing hot male leads with sports cars. Belinda lives in Sydney and blogs regularly about writing and reading here: www.belindawilliamsbooks.com
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![]() It's week 3 of my Wattpad experiment. I have uploaded three chapters on the website and have had 26 reads and 3 votes. I have 13 followers, which is not much. So at this point the Wattpad experiment is not really making much gains, however it has given me much needed space and impetus to really think about my blurb and my cover. I had a cover that I made which was just a typical romance cover of man and woman in bed, however I wasn't happy with it. On the RWA threat I read this article about how self published authors are taking risks with their covers. My original concept was something quirky, but I backed away and went with the typical out of fear, then I realised I have nothing to lose. This is my ship and I can steer it however I want it and so I designed this new cover that I'm in love with. I've also been working on the blurb slowly. I usually have no trouble writing blurbs and my two romance novels and young adult novels I've had published in the past two years have featured the blurbs I wrote (with a few editorial tweaks), but this time around I've struggled to capture the essence of the story. However, once I had the cover that I was enthused about it all came together. Everything I've read about Wattpad emphasizes that it's about the community and that to get readers you have to engage, which is something I really struggle with. There is only so many hours in the day and with a demanding full time job as a high school teacher and finding writing time between corrections and lesson planning, I don't have much left. I was reading on a forum about how to get readers and a thread was posted by a Wattpad Ambassador here so my goal over the next few weeks is to implement some of these strategies. To read my book on Wattpad click here. Vintage Dreams blurb She had to nearly die before she could live again. Can she build a new life on the embers of her old one?
After being diagnosed with breast cancer Allegra Kenton finds new direction using her passion for vintage items by renovating a dilapidated mansion she inherited into a dance studio. When she meets Emmett Dennison and begins falling in love it seems that her new life is on track, until a mistake from her past puts everything in jeopardy. Can she hold onto her dreams and Emmett? Emmett Dennison had a plan: the right type of fiancé, the right time to get married, the right career rung, but his plan took a detour when he became a guardian to his autistic brother and his fiancé broke off their engagement. Now his life is all about the day to day, until he meets Allegra. She inspires him to dream again, but his fiancé’s betrayal makes it hard for him to trust. Will Allegra make him believe in happy endings? |
AuthorAuthor of Return to Me, Hollywood Dreams and Vintage Dreams. Short story is published in the anthology Little Raven Two by Little Raven Publishing. Pen name for Amra Pajalic. Archives
March 2023
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