Belinda Jones is one of my favourite authors. I’ve read and loved Divas Las Vegas, The California Club, Cafe Tropicana and Out of the Blue. So I was thrilled when I received a proof of Belinda’s new one Living La Vida Loca a few months ago. I really enjoyed it and you can see what I thought of it tomorrow when my review goes up! I asked Belinda’s publishers if we could do an interview with her and I was so pleased when I was told yes. It is one of the best interviews I’ve done and it’s a fantastic read so I hope you enjoy it!

1. Tell us about your latest novel Living La Vida Loca.

A reality TV crew follow two best friends - Carmen and Beth - to Argentina, Spain and Cuba on a dance odyssey. As well as the sultry gauchos, proud matadors and rum-flavoured Cubans who provide the romance, there is a very special cameo from one of the original cast members of Dirty Dancing: Miranda Garrison who played Bungalow Bunny Vivian gave me a private dance lesson while I was observing the filming of Living TV’s dance show searching for a new Johnny & Baby in Virginia and she made such a big impression on me that I created a character entirely around her!

2. Why did you decide to make Living La Vida Loca all about dancing?

I’ve always been entranced by dancers, ever since my mum took me to my first ballet age six, and watching Strictly Come Dancing and Dancing With The Stars just fuelled my obsession. When I was going through a really horrible time in my life, watching all those novices in their gorgeous glitzy costumes giving it their all and bonding so beautifully with their professional partners really captured my imagination and I wanted to put myself in their shoes. So I did - literally! But as well as taking classes I wanted to find out more about the real essence of the dance - hence the trips to their countries of origin!

3. Why did you choose the tango, the salsa & the paso doble as the three dances of choice for Carmen and Beth?

They just worked so well with the story - the Argentine tango is the heroine’s period of mourning, with the paso doble/flamenco she gets to stomp out her feminine independence and the Cuban salsa is all about her regaining her joie de vivre. Aside from being three of my favourite dances to watch, I also liked the fact that they’re all from Spanish-speaking countries so there was a common thread of passion and intensity.

4. I’ve read most of your books and I love the exotic locations in which you set all of your books. Which comes first - the plot of the book or the destination in which you’d like to set it?

The destination! Which I realise is totally the wrong way round! Basically I will feel a compulsion to visit some distant shore and then work on a story that best showcases exactly what makes that location so special. For example, with The Paradise Room the setting was Tahiti and I found that they had these unique black pearls so one character was in the jewellery business and then I loved all the paintings Gaugin did of the islands so I made the leading lady an art historian… As far as the emotional plotting, that is usually pretty close to what ever is going on with my love life at the time!!

5. Usually your books only feature one exotic location (California in The California Club, Italy in The Love Academy) but Living La Vida Loca features three in Argentina, Cuba and Spain, was it harder using three locations compared to the one you usually use? How much research do all of your books require so you can sufficiently write about a destination?

This definitely was harder. And longer. Instead of the usual one year to write a book, this has taken three! My mum says I should have made the story into a trilogy and in a way I regret using up three amazing destinations in one book because each of them offered so much story potential and local colour. I take my research very seriously - typically the first visit will be to get ideas, I’ll write up all the key scenes and then return to make sure I get every detail spot on. This usually amounts to spending a total of a month some place, with a lot of supplementary reading. (The dream of course would be to write the whole thing on location and be totally immersed!) For Living La Vida Loca I spent 3 weeks in Argentina, 6 weeks in Spain and 5 weeks in Cuba. I don’t know why it didn’t occur to me until now that this would wipe out my entire bank account. The next book is going to be set in my lounge.

6. I love all of the plots in yours books but the stand-out one for me is The California Club, where did you come up with the idea for the California Club?

That’s very kind of you! I suppose it is the most ‘high concept’ idea. I was thinking about how we say we like going on
holiday to relax and chill out but really, for me, I’m always secretly hoping something major will occur and I will have a life-changing adventure! At the time I had so many interests pulling me in different directions (from surfing to tigers!!) and wished there was some organisation that could size you up and tailor-make the perfect adventure - one that would be fun and exciting but also bring about profound revelations! I also liked the idea of being given a wish, but one that had a twist to it. Because we think we know what we want to make us happy but we don’t always know what we need!

7. On The Road To Mr Right is different to your other books - namely because it’s non-fiction - why did you decide to travel across America looking for Mr Right?

This was actually my first book - the one I wanted to write above all others, but my agent insisted fiction was the way for me to go and my publisher demanded three novels before they agreed to print this! The idea of taking a road trip was my absolute dream - I’m always happiest when I’m in motion! Plus my best friend Emily was single at the time, a total man magnet and my greatest muse, in as much as things tend to HAPPEN when I am with her! This actually turned in a mammoth, multi-year, multi-travelling-companion trip but I have to say, it was one of the most fun experiences of my life. What I have never actually revealed was that I made the most appalling choice for Mr Right and Troy the Trucker turned out to be an utter nutcase. One day I will write up what happened when he came to stay… It makes me shudder just to think of it now!!

8. You recently changed publishers from Random House to Hodder, what’s it like working with an entirely new publisher?

Hodder won me over with their cakes. They were just so warm and enthusiastic as an ensemble, I felt very at ease with them. I have to say Random House were superb with me and I was with them for 8 years. Plus they were the only publisher willing to take a chance on my first novel, Divas Las Vegas, and for that I shall be eternally grateful. Plus my editor, Kate Elton, always had a good stash of sweets in her office. Are we noticing a theme here?

9. How did your original publishing deal come around?

As I mentioned, the first book idea I sent in was On The Road To Mr Right, along with a bunch of magazine cuttings. My former agent read everything and then suggested I try chick lit fiction! I told her I wouldn’t have the first clue where to begin - I was a magazine journalist and liked to write from first-hand experiences. She was quite insistent I give it a try so I chose to write about my spiritual home - Las Vegas - and fictionalise certain wayward events that had occurred there! Months and months of re-writes later she finally took me on and many agonising rejections later, Random House gave me a break. My first deal was for £18,000 for two books.

10. What would you say is the best thing about being a published author?

The emails from the readers. When I’m writing I’m in my own little solitary bubble and then I’ll get some lovely, chatty email from a girl in Russia or Greece or my birth town of Tunbridge Wells in Kent and I’ll get a warm feeling, as if I’m connected to all these wonderful women around the world. (One of my favourites was a girl who read I Love Capri and decided to get married at the Villa Cimbrone as a result, and bought all the women in her wedding party a copy of my book! Love that!) And I don’t mean to brag but I really do have the best readers. They just all seem so big-hearted and fun and a lot of them are very talented writers themselves, I expect quite a few to have book deals before the year is out!!

11. When you’re not busy writing your own books, what books do you like to read yourself?

I just finished reading Elizabeth Gilbert’s Committed (very clever author of Eat, Pray, Love - met her at a talk in Palm Springs and she is exceptionally radiant human being) and I have Marlena De Blasi’s That Summer in Sicily waiting on the nightstand. Her writing is heavenly. Bill Bryson is my all-time favourite author because he’s so darn hilarious but I probably read more self-help books than anything! My current favourite is The Bounce Back Book by Karen Salmansohn. Aside from being jam-packed with witty, insightful advice, the design is gorgeous!

12. What’s your normal writing day like?

Two weeks ago, before I got my dog Bodie, I would do my best work while everyone else was sleeping. (I do think there’s something about those after-dark hours that let your imagination run wild and I’d happily write until 5am.) However, these days I’m propelled out of bed at 7am by a grinning face and wagging tail, staggering around the neighbourhood in last night’s make-up and seeing as the shops aren’t even open at that hour, I start to write a lot earlier! I aim for 1,000 words a day, 7 days a week, even if it’s just rambling nonsense.

13. What can you tell us about your next book? Where will it be set?

I am currently living back in Los Angeles so I wanted to explore a different side to Hollywood with the new book. I have some very special settings in mind. One that really amps up the romance - I was feeling a tad cynical about love and then I saw this particular image and swooned. I think you’re going to like it!

14. Finally what advice would you give to those who would like to write their own book?

Getting started can be the hardest bit so I would say, don’t feel you have to write your story in the order in which it occurs, whatever element excites you most in the moment, just let it splurge from you. You can link it up later. Also, when you’re really on a roll, don’t completely finish that section. If you leave a sentence mid-thought you’ll find it easy to get back into your groove next time you sit down to write. Plotting a story out scene-by-scene is often advised but the most fun comes when your characters surprise you and misbehave and do their own thing. Experiment with letting the story tell itself - start writing some dialogue between two characters and and see where the conversation leads you! Oh and don’t worry if you cringe at your own work - I don’t know any writers that aren’t riddled with self-doubt!

Thanks so much to Belinda for answering my questions, this is one of my favourite interviews I’ve ever done!

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