Belinda Alexandra is an international bestselling author with a whole string of blockbuster historicals to her credit, but she has taken a new path with her latest book, The Mystery Woman.
It has been characterized by one reviewer as “Australian Gothic”, a story of secrets, lies and unexplained death in a 1950s country town. In some ways it has a few similarities to Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca, or hints of it.
Hi there, I'm your host, Jenny Wheeler and today in Binge Reading Belinda talks about her long road to publication, her passion for cats, and why psychopathic personality traits seem to be more evident today than ever before.
Six things you’ll learn from this Joys of Binge Reading episode:
The long road to publication
Writing books with a fulltime job
The family story that gave Belinda breakthrough
Why cats are a life long love
Is psychopathology a sign of our times?
The writers she admires the most
Where to find Belinda Alexandra:
Website: https://www.belinda-alexandra.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/belinda_alexandra_author/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BelindaAlexandraAuthor
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com.au/hellobelindaalexandra/_created/
What follows is a "near as" transcript of our conversation, not word for word but pretty close to it, with links to important mentions.
But now, here’s Belinda.
Introducing Belinda Alexandra
Jenny Wheeler: Hello there, Belinda and welcome to the show. It's so good to have you with us.
Belinda Alexandra: It's so good to be speaking with you, Jenny.
Jenny Wheeler: You are a bestselling and highly successful author. When I started this podcast and asked around amongst my friends, a lot of times they said, “get Belinda Alexandra on”, so your name is really well known.
Belinda Alexandra - Blockbuster international author
The latest book we are going to be talking about today is The Mystery Woman. It has been called "Australian Gothic" by one reviewer, and you have said that it's a bit of a departure from some of your earlier books. Tell us about how it's different.
Belinda Alexandra: A lot of my earlier books were big historical sagas – sweeping generations and across countries and so on. But I think there comes a time in every author's life, especially when we have written quite a few books, when there is that other book inside of us we want to write.
I had been very influenced by classic noir mystery stories. My mother used to gobble those down and I used to watch them with her when I was a child, so I think I always had that desire in me to write something more contained.
It was an opportunity to do that. I think we like to stretch ourselves as authors and to do something a bit different, so I wanted to create a story that was in a more claustrophobic environment in a small Australian town – the sort of thing that you could imagine you would watch on TV, looking through your fingers, with a sense of suspense and an atmosphere about it.
Shades of du Maurier's Rebecca
Jenny Wheeler: As you've been talking, and as I was picturing you with your mother, it does have shades of Rebecca, doesn't it?
Belinda Alexandra: Yes. I wanted to give a nod to that because that was one of the books I've loved, but also the classic film by Alfred Hitchcock was so wonderfully done. When we talk about Gothic, a lot of the time people get confused by that term.
They think it might mean vampire novels or horror fiction, but a classic Gothic story is a story that has elements of suspense, and usually a setting that could be naturally beautiful, but it has a sense of foreboding about it.
Several movie of Du Maurier's Rebecca - which one is your favorite?
You've got a damsel in distress and always the troubled male protagonist and a beast somewhere. It can either be a beast within or an actual physical beast – a wolf or something else that is creating terror.
