In the spotlight today is Queensland-based author Susanne Bellamy whose latest novel Engaging the Enemy was released yesterday.

Tell us about yourself, Susanne.
I love travel—new places, new faces, different cultures and endless possibilities. I’ve cruised from Australia to Britain and back through the Suez Canal when I was a child, trekked in Nepal and Vietnam, lived briefly in Noumea, visited western Europe and west coast America among other places. Let me repeat—I love travel! And history.

People’s stories fascinate me. Past and present lives and relationships and the mysterious ways Fate works. Even how I met my husband—Fate. Wonderful and mysterious.

And so my stories explore people engaging with the mate that Fate created for them. And the wonderful and mysterious ways in which they meet. I should probably thank the flat-mate who locked me out of my new house years ago which led directly to
meeting my husband. But that’s another story! 
 
Check out my story boards on Pinterest for White Ginger, One Night in Sorrento and Engaging the Enemy as well as works in progress, including the Emerald Quest for Entangled Publishing. See what else you can find!

What's your latest book Engaging the Enemy about? 
  Andie and Matt both need the same building in the heart of Melbourne’s CBD.
Matt wants it to atone for his past and Andie’s future is tied up with the fate of the old pink granite home. Their differences should keep them apart but the building brings them together in ways neither could have foreseen. 
 
What do you think reader will enjoy most about it? 
  It’s a Romeo and Juliet story but with a happy ending. Bright passion wars with conflicting needs and serious chemistry. I hope readers enjoy the tension and the sizzle!  

Who/what was the inspiration for this book? 
  An abandoned red-brick building I spotted during my first tram ride in Melbourne. It looked like it needed some TLC and what better than to have not one, but two people itching to renovate it! Perhaps there was also a touch of the ugly swan story in the building. My protagonists were able to look beneath the city grime surface to discover the beauty within. I love that idea of what’s on the inside counting for more than the façade we present to the world. 

What qualities do you instil in your heroes and heroines?
  I adore heroes and heroines with sense of humour, intelligence, passion and a sense of social justice.  Engaging the Enemy’s hero Matt is Irish with ideas about justice  shaped by his Irish background. Family is paramount to him; he would do
anything for those he loves, as would Andie. These qualities are responsible for their choices and contribute to the central
conflict. 

  Our personal histories shape who we are but our choices determine who we become. Willingness to change and grow as a person is essential, as is accepting challenges in life and forging our own path. We have the luxury of a peaceful country that allows us scope to set our own challenges. Within this broader context, Andie and Matt do learn to love and to live. 

What was the hardest part about writing this novel? 
  Funnily enough, it was not getting caught up in a secondary character’s love life! Lexie Hamilton-Smythe is Andie’s best friend and has two men interested in her. There were times when I wanted to explore her story, even while loving writing Andie and Matt’s story. 

Where to next? 
  A Season to Remember is a Christmas anthology of four short stories written by four south-east Queensland authors. We write in a variety of genres and this free gift collection will reflect our diversity. There is a sea theme running through each story but I can’t give too much away just yet. However, it will be available in late November. Check out my Facebook page and website then to receive your gift! 
 
  And 2015 will see the release of the Emerald Quest series through Entangled Publishing. Five authors and a two hundred year search for a fabulous emerald and diamond necklace. Mine is the fourth book in the series. Set in Hawaii in 1960, it is the story of Evangeline Abbott, English heiress, and Lucien Martineau, an Island plantation owner. It’s a delicious story. After White Ginger, my debut novel, I absolutely loved revisiting Hawaii for this one. 
 
Congratulations on your latest book Susanne! Thank you for joining me to talk about it.
 Thanks for hosting me, Isabella. I’ve enjoyed my visit so much.

Blurb
One building, two would-be owners and a family feud that spans several generations: all relationships have their problems. 

Andrea de Villiers can’t lie to save herself. But when developer, Matt Mahoney, buys the building she and a friend have established as a safe house in the Melbourne CBD,  she decides that protecting The Shelter is more important than her aching heart.
She will confront Mr Mahoney, and she will emerge victorious. There are no other options. 

But Matt has other plans for Andie, and she soon finds herself ensnared in a web of well-meaning lies and benevolent deceit. To protect the building and the families that depend on her, Andie agrees to play the part of Matt’s fiancée, and play it convincingly. 
 
But lies soon bleed into truth, and what  was once a deception starts to feel all too real. Can Andie accomplish her goals and protect The Shelter, without losing her heart to the charming Irish developer? 

You can find Susanne at the following sites: 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/susanne.bellamy.7 
Twitter: https://twitter.com/SusanneBellamy 
Website: http://www.susannebellamy.com/      
Pinterest:  http://www.pinterest.com/susannebellamy/ 
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/dashboard 
 
Buy links:
Escape:  http://www.escapepublishing.com.au/product/9780857991768#popup 
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com.au/Engaging-The-Enemy-Susanne-Bellamy-ebook/dp/B00LGDXHZA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1404452861&sr=8-1&keywords=9780857991768 
iBooks:  https://itunes.apple.com/au/book/engaging-the-enemy/id895324558?mt=11 
Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/search?q=9780857991768 
Kobo: http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/engaging-the-enemy-5


Excerpt From Engaging the Enemy:
Andrea de Villiers couldn’t have orchestrated the accident better if she’d planned for a year  instead of just one night. 
  Cocktails and hors d’oeuvres were almost finished as she edged closer to the group of Melbourne’s wealthy charity patrons and supporters and lined up her tray of drinks with Matt Mahoney’s chest. 
  One second to launch. 
  She took a deep, steadying breath and stepped forward. 
  His blonde companion’s arms drew a giant circle in the air, collided with the edge of her tray and Mr. Mahoney, corporate developer and all round jerk, was instantly wearing expensive champagne as an accessory to his Armani dinner jacket. 
  Round one to Andie.
  Served him right for refusing to meet her. He brushed futilely at his shiny lapels and a thrill raced through her. 
  I did it. 
  Andie-never-puts-a-foot-wrong-de Villiers had done the unthinkable. If only she could tell him who she was, her triumph would have been complete.  

Thanks for joining me Susanne to talk about Engaging the Enemy. I can't wait to read it!

Jack Edgarson:
The Great War ended six years ago, but not for me. I relive it in my dreams. If that isn’t enough for any man, sometimes I wake up miles from home after sleep-walking. The time I found an axe in my hand convinced me to move to western Queensland – beyond the end of the railway line. It’s safer for others that way. Now I’m a cattleman running my property with just a couple of temporary stockmen and a cook. I keep to myself. It’s best that I stay away from people.
Well, that’s what I thought until Fleur Armitage, an English nurse, turned up in town. Now, I’m torn between keeping true to my promise to stay clear of people and my compulsion to see her, to hear her soothing voice, to inhale her rose scent that reminds me of gentle summer evenings in England before my war began.

Fleur Armitage:
I’ve come to western Queensland to forget the past. As a nurse, I worked in clearing stations and general hospitals during the Great War and saw a lot of suffering and death. My fiancé was killed in action in 1918 and my sister and her daughters died in a bombing raid on Margate in England. I went home to mother in 1919, but she caught Spanish Flu and soon passed away, like so many others. I felt adrift in the world and didn’t dare get close to anyone in case they were taken from me. Until Jack Edgarson. He saved my life. Now I want to know who he is – to solve the enigma. He’s not making that easy.

While working on my latest book, All Quiet on the Western Plains, I looked at fashions in the 1910s and '20s, and have since found some lovely French fashion studies from the period advertised online. They are from hand-painted pochoirs (stencils) - using gouache and watercolour - dating from circa 1912- circa 1925. I think the fashions are gorgeous! See what you think.
Go to the following link, if you're interested (b.t.w. I have no connection to this business) :
https://www.antiqueprintclub.com/c-23-fashionpochoir.aspx

If you would like further information about pochoir and the journal in which they were published (Gazette Du Bon Ton - Mode et Frivolites) see:  http://antique-print-club.blogspot.com.au/   

This week, join three more talented authors as they talk about their writing process... 

Heather Kinnane is the author of fantasy and romance, living in the island state of Tasmania, Australia. With a fascination of all things magical and mysterious, it's no wonder her stories contains elements of the Otherworld as she weaves tales that introduce readers to the beautiful landscapes of her island home. Her blog can be found here: http://heatherkinnane.com/news/

Elizabeth M Darcy author of Historical Romance. From Knights in shining armour to Highlanders and English rakehells, Elizabeth takes her readers on a romantic journey through history with deliciously handsome heroes and strong heroines. Find her blog at: http://elizabethdarcyauthor.blogspot.com.au/

Kris Ashton has been a journalist since 1998. In 2005 he sold his first short story and two years later he published his first novel, a paranormal romance called Ghost Kiss. Kris’s novel Hollywood Hearts Ablaze will be released in March 2014. See his blog at: http://kris-ashton.wix.com/spec-fic#!My-Writing-Process-Blog-Tour/c13oz/D4F51678-5FC2-470C-9FC8-7B567E537295

Today, it’s my turn in the My Writing Process Blog Tour, where authors and writers answer questions about their writing process. Last week, my friend, Noelle Clark, Australian author of the wonderful contemporary romances Let Angels Fly and Rosamanti wrote about her writing
process. You can read more here: www.noelleclark.blogspot.com.au 
 
This week, you can read not only my post but those of Kendall Talbot and Susanne Bellamy.

Everyone has their own unique way of writing. With the help of a few questions, I’ll talk about mine.

 1)     What am I working on?
Currently I’m working on revisions to my historical romance, Colonial Cousin, set in convict NSW and Regency England. This is a story I wrote many years ago and have heavily revised in the last year. The way in which I have worked on it certainly doesn’t reflect my writing process for The Persuasion of Miss Jane Brody, my recent historical romance set in
Regency England. For that book, I plotted it out, knew the character motivations and development, then I wrote it. I wrote in short bursts for the first five chapters, fitting writing in between full-time work and family time, then did an intense burst of writing to finish it while on annual leave for four weeks. A few months of revisions followed. 

2)     How does my work differ from others of its genre?
Like other writers, I try to take the reader into the historical period in which the story is set and into the minds of the characters so that they can relate their story. I’ve been told that my work differs from others in its genre by including social commentary in a historical romance. Certainly, in The Persuasion of Miss Jane Brody, women's rights and their sphere are important component. 

3)     Why do I write what I do?
I write stories that come from an idea for a character or from an interest in a particular time period I want to explore. I try to write stories that I want to read. For me, that means believable characters, period-appropriate dialogue, motivations and plots. 
 
4)     How does your writing process work?
As I’m a plotter, I like to know where my story is going to end up, the character arcs and at least a basic sketch of how I’m going to get there, before I start. Therefore, I spend quite a bit of time on working out the background, although I have been known to write a first chapter with only the most rudimentary outline of the story worked out, because I just have to get my initial idea down in writing. The rest flows from there...

Next week, you will meet some of my fellow Steam eReads authors, each of whom writes in different ways and genres:

Heather Kinnane is the author of fantasy and romance, living in the island state of Tasmania, Australia. With a fascination of all things magical and mysterious, it's no wonder her stories contains elements of the Otherworld as she weaves tales that introduce readers to the beautiful landscapes of her island home. Her blog can be found here: http://heatherkinnane.com/news/

Elizabeth M Darcy author of Historical Romance. From Knights in shining armour to Highlanders and English rakehells, Elizabeth takes her readers on a romantic journey through history with deliciously handsome heroes and strong heroines. Find her blog at: http://elizabethdarcyauthor.blogspot.com.au/

Kris Ashton has been a journalist since 1998. In 2005 he sold his first short story and two years later he published his first novel, a paranormal romance called Ghost Kiss. Kris’s novel Hollywood Hearts Ablaze will be released in March 2014. See his blog at: http://kris-ashton.wix.com/spec-fic#!blog/chun

Today, Valentine’s Day is popular and highly commercialised, but its celebration goes far back in time in Britain. Shakespeare wrote of Valentine's Day in the 16th century and 17th century diarist, Samuel Pepys, mentions observing the day. Special Valentine greetings papers were marketed from the Regency era, which is the period in which my recent historical romance, The Persuasion of Miss Jane Brody, is set. However, it was the standardisation of postal rates in Britain in the 1840s that led to commercially produced Valentine’s cards growing in popularity. In Australia, the first newspaper mention of Valentine’s Day occurred in 1825, but in 1888, observation of Valentine’s Day was regarded as declining by one colonial journalist. He eulogised the earlier custom:

“This day is by no means so generally observed as it used to be. Even the custom of sending those highly sentimental missives called valentines appears in a great measure to be falling into disuse. A few years ago the 14th of February occupied a much more prominent position in the calendar than it does at present. The manufacturers of this description of stationery began their preparation for the next festival soon after the last was past. Hundreds of women and girls found occupation in the construction of these dainty trifles.... A heart from this box, a cupid from that, a wreath, some lace-edge paper and a scrap of tulle – this last to soften the effect and perhaps suggest wedding veils – a few paper springs to make the figures or flowers stand out, and then a daub of gum here and there, and with a few deft touches the valentine is completed.... For weeks before the day itself the shop windows are crowded with them, valentines of every sort, size or description, pretty ones, ugly ones, expensive ones, cheap ones, valentines for the upper ten, valentines for the million, valentines for everyone to choose from as they will. And choose they did; the shop counters were besieged with eager buyers some wanting one kind, some another…. And when the eventful day arrived what an important man the postman became, how he was watched for …”*

This death knell was rung too soon and I, for one, am not sorry. Like my forebears, I love to receive Valentine’s cards. I hope your day is happy and brings you all the tokens of love that you desire!
 
The Persuasion of Miss Jane Brody – available from: Steam eReads and Amazon

 Sources:
*South Australian Register, 14 Feb 1888, p. 6.
http://www.bronwenevans.com/bronwen-blog/77-regency-valentine.html
Hobart Town Gazette and Van Diemen’s Land Advertiser, 18 Feb 1825, p. 3.