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Jan 13

Bella Osborne Writer’s Tip

Bella Osborne

Bella has been jotting down stories as far back as she can remember but decided that 2013 would be the year that she finished a full length novel. In 2016, her debut novel,’It Started At Sunset Cottage’, was shortlisted for the Contemporary Romantic Novel of the Year and RNA Joan Hessayon New Writers Award. Bella’s stories are about friendship, love and coping with what life throws at you. She likes to find the humour in the darker moments of life and weaves these into her stories. Her novels are often serialised in four parts ahead of the full book publication. She lives in The Midlands, UK with her lovely husband and wonderful daughter, who thankfully, both accept her as she is (with mad morning hair and a penchant for skipping).

Today Bella is sharing her writing tips for aspiring authors.

I think specifics will be personal to each writer but I believe all writers can benefit by surrounding themselves with like minded people. Only other writers know what it’s like and they are an incredibly supportive bunch. So my advice is to look up organisations for your genre and local groups and seek out your tribe..

Read more about Bella and her writing journey

Jul 4

Bella Osborne

Bella OsborneBella has been jotting down stories as far back as she can remember but decided that 2013 would be the year that she finished a full length novel. In 2016, her debut novel,’It Started At Sunset Cottage’, was shortlisted for the Contemporary Romantic Novel of the Year and RNA Joan Hessayon New Writers Award. Bella’s stories are about friendship, love and coping with what life throws at you. She likes to find the humour in the darker moments of life and weaves these into her stories. Her novels are often serialised in four parts ahead of the full book publication. She lives in The Midlands, UK with her lovely husband and wonderful daughter, who thankfully, both accept her as she is (with mad morning hair and a penchant for skipping).

  1. To readers of the blog who may not be familiar with you or your writing, can you tell us a bit about yourself and how you got into writing.
    Hi *waves* Thanks for having me on your blog.
    I live in Warwickshire with my husband, daughter and a cat who thinks she’s a dog. I have been jotting down stories as far back as I can remember but decided that 2013 would be the year that I finished a full length novel. I joined the Romantic Novelists’ Association’s new writer’s scheme and after meeting my editor at the RNA conference I was lucky enough to sign with HarperCollins. My debut novel was published in February 2015 and since then I have had four best sellers and two novels short listed for the RNA Contemporary Romance Novel of the Year.
  2. If you were to start your own book club, what authors would you ask to join?
    My first thought is to include my favourite authors – Jill Mansell, Katie Fforde and Milly Johnson. However, these are all in the same genre and the joy of a book club is being able to read a variety of authors. So I would also invite Gail Honeyman because I loved ‘Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine’ and A.J. Pearce who wrote Dear Mrs Bird for the same reason. I might invite B.A. Paris because her writing is brilliant but she’d have to promise not to scare me. Can I throw in Gary Barlow too? I know technically he’s not an author but there was an autobiography and he is rather lovely.
  3. Is there anything that you would change about your writing journey?
    I would have started it a lot earlier. I never thought for a moment that people like me became authors so it was just a hobby for many years. If only I’d known I didn’t suck at it I could have been doing the job I love for much longer.

    4. A Walk In The Wildflower Park

  4. What’s your favourite opening line from a book?
    It’s from ‘Please Don’t Stop The Music’ by Jane Lovering – “You know you’re in for a bad day when the Devil eats your last HobNob”.
  5. What’s your favourite book of all time?
    One? Just one favourite book? That’s mean. Okay, let’s go with ‘Bridget Jones’s Diary’.
  6. If you could rewrite any book, what would it be?
    ‘The Life of Pi’ by Yann Martel, because I loved the story until the last section when it brought the whole tiger experience into question. I’d end it where the tiger walks away.
  7. What’s your favourite part of the writing process?
    The shiny new idea stage where there are lots and lots of post-it notes.
  8. Why did you decide to write female fiction?
    It wasn’t a conscious decision it’s just where my characters took me and my publishers put a label on it.
  9. If you were stranded on a desert island, which three books would you bring with you to pass the time?
    ‘Harry Potter’ omnibus edition if there is such a thing but if not book 3 ‘The Prisoner of Azkaban’, ‘Bridget Jones’s Diary’ and the latest Jill Mansell novel because I always save her books for holidays.
  10. What area do you suggest a budding writer should concentrate on to further their abilities?
    I think specifics will be personal to each writer but I believe all writers can benefit by surrounding themselves with like minded people. Only other writers know what it’s like and they are an incredibly supportive bunch. So my advice is to look up organisations for your genre and local groups and seek out your tribe.
  11. When sitting down to write, what is the one item you need beside you?
    Plenty of custard creams.
  12. And finally, do you have any projects or releases on the horizon which you would like to share with the readers of the website.
    My new novel ‘A Walk in Wildflower Park’ is out on 27th June and will be available from Amazon. It’s my fifth romantic comedy and I can’t wait to hear what readers think.

    Follow Bella Osborne on Twitter and follow her website

Mar 27

Oopsy Daisy Book Tour – Extract

Oopsy DaisyOn the back tour for Part 3 of Bella Osborne’s ‘Wildflower Park’ series, called ‘Oopsy Daisy’, enjoy an extract from the fun tale.

Sophie had been having the same conversation for what felt like slightly longer than forever when Anna pulled up.

Hopefully she’d be able to make sense of whatever Mrs Nowakowski was going on about.

Mrs Nowakowski was now waving her arms frantically. ‘D’ese is not that sort of neighbourhood. You look like you’re advertising burdel. Shame on you!’

‘What’s the matter?’ asked Anna, butting in.

They both started to speak at once and Anna held up her hands to stop them.

‘Sophie, hang on.’ Anna gave her best ‘bear with me’ face before turning to the older woman. ‘Mrs Nowakowski, what seems to be the problem?’

‘You make this nice place look like burdel. That is problem.’ She crossed her arms and gave a sharp nod of her head.

‘I think she means brothel.’ Sophie dissolved into giggles and felt the baby kick in response.

‘Why? What have we done?’ asked Anna.

‘The bra hanging in your window.’ Mrs Nowakowski pointed round to the side of the building where Anna’s lounge window was. Anna walked round and as the laughter died Sophie followed. When they reached the window the three women stopped and stared at the large bright red bra hanging there.

Anna looked at Sophie and gave a tip of her head. ‘What?’ said Sophie. ‘It’s not mine.’

Anna unfolded her arms and pointed to her chest. ‘Well, it’s definitely not mine!’ Anna was grinning.

‘Is it the international symbol for brothel?’ asked Anna.

‘According to Mrs Nosy-kowski,’ whispered Sophie.

As the two friends descended into yet more giggles Mrs Nowakowski shook her head and went home. Eventually they realised they were alone and went inside.

Anna tugged down the bra that was hooked over the handle of the window, shook her head and dropped the bra in the dirty clothes bin.

You can buy ‘Wildflower Park – Part Three: Oopsy Daisy’ from Amazon

Feb 14

A Budding Romance Book Tour – Extract

Wildflower ParkCelebrate Valentines’ Day with an extract from Bella Osborne’s second book in the ‘Wildflower Park’ series called ‘A Budding Romance’.

After a hearty farmhouse breakfast, the farmer announced the morning’s exercise was at a nearby reservoir, which received a mixed response. When the minibus pulled up Hudson was quick to jump in and take the seat next to Anna and she was pleased to see Liam had spotted the gesture. Sophie had also noticed and was giving Anna pleading looks to swap places.

‘I get sick if I don’t sit near the front,’ said Sophie, and she pointed at Anna’s seat.

Anna’s shoulders sagged. Sophie wasn’t helping herself with the Hudson crush if she was going to seize every opportunity to be near him. Although Anna had to admit he did smell mighty fine this morning.

‘It’s okay, I’ll move,’ said Anna, seeing the plea in Sophie’s eyes.

Sophie was about to sit down when Karl stuck his head inside the van. ‘Can I sit at the front too? I hate these things and I might have overdone it on the wine last night. Gippy tummy,’ he said, giving it a rub.

‘Sure,’ said Hudson, and he followed Anna to the back seat where they giggled like love-struck teenagers until Sophie spun around and glared at the pair of them. Anna clamped her lips together to try to stifle the giggles. She glanced at Hudson and he winked at her. For a moment she forgot they were pretending.

Carsington Water was impressive and the weather was far kinder today with a light breeze and a little sunshine glinting off the water making it sparkle and look more inviting than it should. They were introduced to Canadian canoes and got into teams of three while Karl perfected his impression of Roberta by asking ‘Who’s in my canoe?’ Anna was with Priya and Hudson and they had to work together to keep in rhythm.

‘Priya, you don’t need to keep swapping sides with your paddle,’ complained Anna when a trail of water splashed across her back for the umpteenth time.

‘Sorry. But I want to beat Karl,’ she said, lifting her paddle out of the water to point and inadvertently splashing Anna again.

The purpose of the game was to retrieve different-coloured buoys via the shortest route whilst heading off other canoes. Most went for the nearby markers meaning they all squabbled whereas Anna steered them towards the middle-distance ones to avoid bumping into other teams, enabling them to collect their buoys and return victorious. As they were making their final turn she heard a war cry nearby and a canoe came towards them at speed. She wasn’t surprised to see Karl, Liam and Raj from Finance all with clenched teeth and paddling hard.

Hope that little teaser left you wanting more!

Jan 11

Wildflower Park: Build Me Up Buttercup Book Tour

Wildflower Park: Build Me Up Buttercup Book TourI’m kicking off the first book tour of 2019 with an extract from Bella Osborne’s latest book called ‘Wildflower Park: Build Me Up Buttercup’ the first in the Wildflower Park series.

It was a day of back-to-back meetings, never her favourite thing and even less so as she’d found herself going head-to-head with Hudson in the last two sessions. He was overconfident – or cocksure, as her granddad would have called it – and so far he had challenged everything Anna had raised. He had a bunch of ideas he seemed to think he could apply without knowing the first thing about their company processes and it was already starting to infuriate her.

She had a long list of things she would need to explain to him when she got the chance. The next meeting they’d have was with Karl, so Anna hoped that would offer a little light relief. She headed off to the room she’d booked, which she knew was barely more than a cupboard. When she got there the blind was down and the ‘In Use’ sign was on, so she waited. She was mulling over what to have for tea when she recognised the voices giggling inside as Karl and Sophie. She opened the door expecting to be greeted by friendly faces rather than a shifty duo caught in the act of something they shouldn’t have been doing.

Anna stared at the small table where Karl had two teaspoons and a small pile of white powder. She gazed disbelievingly at the guilty-looking pair and hastily shut the door behind her. ‘What the hell are you doing?’ asked Anna. Sophie stepped forward but erupted into giggles. ‘OhMyGod. Have you taken some of that?’ Anna was beyond shocked. She looked to Karl for an answer. They would all be instantly dismissed if anyone saw this.

‘It’s not what you think,’ said Karl, before joining Sophie in hysterics.

‘For goodness’ sake – shhh. And pull yourselves together,’ snapped Anna, anxiety coursing through her at the thought of being caught in this situation. ‘Get rid of it!’ Anna stabbed a finger at the white powder.

You can buy Wildflower Park – Part One: Build Me Up Buttercup (Wildflower Park Series) from Amazon.

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