{"id":46942,"date":"2023-06-23T20:01:09","date_gmt":"2023-06-24T03:01:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wantonreads.com\/?p=46942"},"modified":"2023-06-23T20:01:09","modified_gmt":"2023-06-24T03:01:09","slug":"author-interview-chantal-bellehumeur","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wantonreads.com\/author-interview-chantal-bellehumeur\/","title":{"rendered":"Author Interview: Chantal Bellehumeur"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
About the author:<\/strong> <\/p>\n What inspires you to write romantic fiction?<\/strong> <\/p>\n Tell us about how you write.<\/strong> <\/p>\n Do you listen to or talk to to your characters?<\/strong> <\/p>\n What advice would you give other romance writers?<\/strong> <\/p>\n How did you decide how to publish your books?<\/strong> <\/p>\n What do you think about the future of book publishing?<\/strong> <\/p>\n Which romance sub-genere(s) fit your stories best?<\/strong> <\/p>\n My books are available in the following formats:<\/strong> <\/p>\n
Chantal Bellehumeur is a Canadian author born in 1981. She has 18 published books of various genres as well as numerous short stories, memoirs, poems and articles featured in compilation books, eMagazines, plus a local newspaper.<\/p>\n
I am actually a multi-genre writer. The type of story I decide to write in the moment depends a lot on my mood and what is going on in my life.<\/p>\n
To be honest, I don't usually plot out everything ahead of time, nor create characters sheets. I have a basic idea of what I want to write about and form a general story in my head, then come up with all the details as I go. My characters talk to me, and I just go with the flow. They often surprise me.
\nI get the best ideas in my sleep, so I often have to get up to jot things down.<\/p>\n
I definitely listen to my characters. I don't believe I've talked to them yet, but it could happen day and I am sure my family wouldn't even blink if they heard.<\/p>\n
Write for yourself, first and foremost.<\/p>\n
I always loved writing. As a child, I created little books and continued writing in my teen years. I didn't think about publishing anything until a friend of mine told me should.
\nAt first I used a publisher, but not in the traditional sense. After my manuscripts got approved, I would sign a contract and the publisher in question would put my books together and design the covers etc, but I had to pay for their services and they were not cheap. I found that they didn't really help me in terms of marketing and felt they overpriced my books.
\nI was so happy about the publications of my first novella, a fictional diary called "Veronica's Soap Opera Life." that I published a sequel, "Veronica's Attempt at Romance". I turned it into a series with "Veronica's Happily Ever After." I published a few other books until I realized I could do it all myself; except the proofreading and editing of course.
\nI find the writing process very therapeutic, so once I published my first books and saw that people were interested in reading my work it gave me extra motivation. Since I write as a hobby and my main goal is to obtain readers as opposed to money (even though that's nice too), I decided to try self publishing. It has its challenges, but I have more freedom and it doesn't cost me anything.
\nI have no budget for marketing, but like to offer most of my work for FREE when I can. I have stories that were published in anthologies and e-magazines. I submitted them to the various publishers because I wanted to expand my readership and also have the pride of knowing my work was published by traditional publishers.<\/p>\n
I think a lot of aspiring writers are going to end up self publishing.<\/p>\n
historical romance, chick lit, fictional diaries, light romance<\/p>\n
eBook, Print<\/p>\nFind this author on:<\/h2>\n\n