Guest Post: Bella Osborne's Fabulous Mix of Characters + Giveaway

What if?

Thanks for inviting me to do a guest post! I very much like the subject you have given me - ‘your fabulous mix of characters’. To be honest I hadn’t thought about it to any great extent but if I look at each of my stories I do seem to have a diverse mix of people. I would love to say that I intricately planned it this way but the truth is I didn’t. I do plan my novels (post it notes are my big obsession) and I spend time developing and understanding my characters before I start writing their story but I didn’t particularly look at their diversity. I think that bit came naturally.

 The world around us is diverse, as are all the people in it and I look to real life for my inspiration and then add a little sprinkle of imagination and frequently ask the question - ‘what if?’

I want to know how my characters cope

My characters pop into my head (no really, my psychiatrist says it’s not weird at all) and sometimes they are really vivid and other times I have to get to know them (it’s OK I don’t talk to them. I’m not totally bonkers…) The wonderful Kate Long (Bad Mother’s Handbook) uses a questionnaire to interview her characters so that she can really get to know how they tick. I like this idea and I do something similar but I also imagine them in a number of different situations and see how they cope,how they react under pressure and from that scenes emerge.

Looking at my second book, and the one I am currently writing, they also have an eclectic mix of characters including a nanny, someone with a psychiatric disorder, a free runner, a Caribbean tour guide and a kleptomaniac cat! So I think it’s safe to say that with each of my stories you will continue to find a mix of individuals that you may not have expected to encounter but hopefully you will enjoy.

It Started at Sunset Cottage

For ‘It Started at Sunset Cottage’ I think I have mixed it up a little from the usual cast list of typical Chick Lit characters. I have a five year old girl (Amy), who in many ways, brings the other key characters together, an older lady (Didi), with whom my protagonist builds a sweet friendship. There is Sean, who is malicious and brings a darker quality to the story and his mother, Irene, is the character most people love to hate. Throw in a diva of an actress and a theatrical lovey scriptwriter and away you go! However, the main characters are two strong women, Kate an author and Sarah a part-time barmaid and florist, who just appeared in my mind (this usually happens when I’m trying to get to sleep) and they had very distinct personalities, both are from different backgrounds but coping with difficult situations in their own way. 

The ‘what if ?’question produced Timothy Calder. This character is textbook Hollywood actor and general lothario but I wanted to understand if he’d always been like that and surprise, surprise – he hadn’t and as I dug a little bit deeper I discovered why he was the way he was with women as well as a big secret that he would protect at all costs.

Enter the giveaway to win a paperback copy of It Started at Sunset Cottage via the Bookdepository.

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  I will contact the winner on twitter or via email. If I don't get a reply within 60 hours the prize will go to someone else. All of my giveaways are international.