My Writing Journey by Belle Henderson
Writing was never on my agenda. In fact, I didn’t even entertain the idea until I was on maternity leave and had not long turned thirty-five. There was a niggling in my ear, a strong presence urging me to try it and that voice wasn’t my conscious or some form of higher self. That presence, or rather that person, was my mum. Five years later, I’ve written six Chick Lit books and it’s all thanks to her.
My mum, CJ Morrow (author of rom-coms, fantasy, and psychological thrillers) has always loved to write. As a child I would listen as she celebrated her short stories being published in magazines and when I was a teenager, I remember her going to an award ceremony for her writing and although she didn’t win, she came close. Meanwhile, I was deciding on what career path I wanted to take, I’d always been creative, enjoying amateur dramatics and art as a kid and I just couldn’t see myself in a ‘normal’ job. I ended up studying Radio Production at university and enjoyed it immensely including two stints of work experience at the BBC.
When I left university, I set my sights on saving to go travelling. After my travels I did apply for a job at my local radio station, but I didn’t get it and I think it all boiled down to the fact that the person interviewing me just didn’t like me; that’s the vibe I got anyway. Sometimes that’s just life.
It just so happens that one interview changed the whole trajectory of my career because after that, I gave up on radio and proceeded to do a range of jobs that went from car hire assistant, clothes shop assistant manager, wedding and events planner and finally operations manager at a family run cruise tour operator.
Throughout the last two jobs I got involved in writing copy, more so in my last job where I put together copy for the cruise ship tours and it was here that my relationship with writing slowly started to develop. I’ve always enjoyed words, sometimes I even make up my own, but it was here that I could really play with them and use them in a persuasive manner to entice the reader in. There was something romantic about writing tours for stunning locations where guests visit quirky and beautiful places. I threw myself into that aspect of the job, enjoying piecing the different elements together and experimenting with alluring, enticing language.
After the awards ceremony that my mother went to when I was eighteen/nineteen, I didn’t really hear much about her writing until 2013 when she decided to write a fantasy novel and publish her first book by herself. She was still working full-time when she taught herself how to use KDP; luckily, thanks to her job in desktop publishing, she was adept at formatting, and this helped her immensely in the self-publishing process.
The first two books that she published (fantasy) trickled along with a few sales and then she wrote ‘Blame it on the Onesie’ a romantic comedy, which took off and did tremendously well. Subsequently she was offered redundancy at her job and at the age of fifty-nine she was then free to finally write full-time. She couldn’t believe her luck; her lifelong dream had finally come true. She’s now written seventeen books across a range of genres and her success has inspired not only me, but my aunt who writes as Marina Johnson/Joanne Ryan and my sister, Amelia Watchman, to write and self-publish our books. In 2018 our family run imprint, Tamarillas Press, was born.
So back to maternity leave, my mother somehow convinced me to co-write a book with her. I liked the idea of having something just for me, a little project to work on other than the demands of new motherhood. Luckily, I had an easy-going baby who loved her naps. During nap time, once every two weeks on a Monday afternoon we’d have a meeting at my parents’ house whilst my daughter slept in the spare room in the travel cot.
Meanwhile we would be desperately trying to supress our giggles and excitement as we created characters and scenarios for We Can Work it Out – a romantic comedy. The idea was that I would write the female POV and my mum would write the male POV and no, we don’t write steamy romance or that could have been very awkward. Yuck. There’s keeping it in the family and then there’s just plain weird! It was during this time, once every two weeks on a Monday afternoon, that Mum taught me how to outline a book, how to tell a story with speech and how to plan chapters, amongst many other things. Interestingly, it was my sister who is very analytical but hadn’t written a book herself (at that point) who had helped my mum plan her first book.
We released our first co-written book in 2019 and it was exciting to see it do so well but no sooner had the book been released than I had to return to work. Mum tried to persuade me not to and to carry on writing, but I had a baby and a mortgage to think of, and it wasn’t plausible, but fate had other ideas. I’d been back at work just ten months when lockdown was thrust upon us and the new word furlough was frequently the topic of conversation.
It didn’t take long for murmurings of redundancy to begin to surface and the company I was working for sadly had to say goodbye to two thirds of its staff – no one was going on cruise ship holidays during a pandemic. I saw this as my chance to volunteer for redundancy, I’d been there seven years so I would get a little lump sum. From there, I was inspired to write Livin’ La Vida Lockdown. My daughter is almost five now and I’m just about to start planning my seventh romantic comedy book. My Latest release, You Grow Girl – a poignant and uplifting romantic comedy – was inspired by my friend’s beautiful plant shop and was released in February 2023.
This incredibly rewarding and sometimes frustrating career change is all thanks to my mum, CJ Morrow, who has created an empire of writers and a family legacy; who knows who could join the clan in years to come? I’m so excited for the future of Tamarillas Press. Mum’s time, knowledge and patience have been invaluable to me as a writer and a self-published author. I count myself extremely lucky. Collectively as a family we’ve written over 40 books across a wide range of genres, and we all have a lot more stories to share. Mum laughs when I call us the modern-day Bronte family, but I feel that my dream of being really recognised in the publishing world isn’t too far away.
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Belle co-wrote her first romantic comedy in 2019 whilst on maternity leave. In 2020 she was made redundant and in-between parenting and tearing her hair out, she has created another five stand-alone Chick Lit books, all set in the fictional seaside location of Coolsbay, based in the South-West of England. People’s idiosyncrasies fascinate and occasionally amuse Belle. She loves to home in on these quirks which subsequently help to breathe life into her characters. Belle’s books are quirky, romantic, laugh out loud and always a little toe-curling.
Follow her on Twitter https://twitter.com/BelleHe21599883
https://www.instagram.com/bellehendersonauthor/
YOU GROW GIRL
Lottie’s just been dumped, or at least she thinks she has.
With a university reunion looming she has nothing to show for the past ten years except a part-time job in her friend’s plant shop and a jar of pickled gherkins. To console herself Lottie seeks solace in her favourite corner of the internet, a mysterious level-up life guru who preaches words of wisdom from the comfort of stunning exotic locations, and it’s definitely cheaper than spending money on tarot readings.
With her big dick energy ex off travelling the world in search of the perfect veneers, Lottie finds herself sleeping in her brother’s spare room until his chirpy Irish best friend shows up and she’s forced to move out.
A tarot card reading steers her in the direction of an absurd panic purchase to impress her university peers.
Will Lottie learn to listen to herself instead of seeking validation from elsewhere? Or will she continue to plod along in a grumpy self-sabotaging haze forever? Will she learn to get along with her brother’s best friend even though he’s pinched her bed?
Let the spiral of events commence.
If you’re a fan of Sophie Kinsella, CJ Morrow or Sophie Ranald, don’t miss Lottie’s witty, uplifting and poignant, feel-good journey.
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