Meet the author
Rebecca Campbell describes herself as a reader, a writer, a lover and a fighter. She’s also a cook, a scientist and a little bit punk. As for her drink of choice? That’s a martini, dirty, just like her sex scenes.
Here, she speaks with FOUND Regional about how her career as a contemporary romance novelist began…
I haven’t always been a writer. At university I studied a Bachelor of Zoology with a major in Animal Ecology. My research focused on the impact of climate change on ants. I know, it’s a far cry from a contemporary romance novelist, but there you have it.
I did start writing my first book, Sandalwood, before university though. It sat untouched for close to a decade while I studied – I didn’t have time for creative pursuits. But once I realised academia wasn’t for me, I started reading for pleasure again and finally had time to pursue my creative side. I dug up Sandalwood’s manuscript and decided to rewrite the whole thing in the first person. I dug deeper, changed the setting, some character traits and soon started to feel as though this thing actually had legs.
But after working on it for close to 20 years, I didn’t have the patience for the traditional publishing path – that can take months, years even. So I chose to indie publish. Getting older, you also realise you don’t need validation the way you once did – you feel more comfortable in your own skin and your own abilities. I have a select group of people who I trust to read early versions and provide feedback, and I maintain control of the publishing process throughout.
But you still need structure and routine – mine begins with coffee. Then I’m usually at my desk by 8am and will write until about 4pm. Sometimes I’ll stop to stretch, eat, hang out with the dog. Other times I won’t stop at all.
The series I’m currently working on was originally going to be one book. But I realised I adored my three lead women so much that they deserved their own story. So I decided to split them, intertwine them and release them as The Triptych Series, six months between the publication of each. It was the right decision, I knew it had to be done that way and I wasn’t willing to go back on it – but it was overwhelming too. I felt almost paralysed by it. Every time I sat down to write I froze. I’d end up procrastinating – walk, clean, cook, watch tv, anything but write. I finally broke that by setting myself a word count target – 10,000 words a week. For me, that’s big. It was the most I’ve ever written in my entire life, but it worked.
My next move was to book a trip to Hawai‘i, where my third book is set. That gave me a hard deadline to get that book to final draft stage, because the whole point of that trip is to fact check before publishing. So I’ve actually written the last book first, soon I’ll move to the second and ultimately finish with the first. It’s an unusual way to write, and in fact the whole format of the three-book series is unusual too.
Each of the women’s stories are running concurrently, roughly in the same six-week period. It’s more common for the subsequent books in a series to pick up from where the last left off, whereas mine overlap. The first book also typically introduces minor characters, which evolve to become main characters. But you’ll meet my three leading ladies from day one.
Their names are Yolanda, Annika and Imogen.
I begin with Yolanda’s story, called Disrupted. Her love interest is Jacob who’s significantly younger than her – so in this plot line I’m exploring the reverse age gap. Why is it okay for men to date much younger women, but women who date younger men are referred to as cougars? Disrupted questions this and seeks to break down those barriers.
Annika’s story, Setting the Hook, is about forbidden love. She’s in love with her brother-in-law, but they agree to never act on it. When he dies suddenly, she’s forced to grieve privately and seeks solace in his brother. Here I explore all the messy emotions that come with grief, while the characters ultimately need to determine if they genuinely care for each other, or if they’ve just found comfort in a time of mourning.
Finally, Imogen’s story is called By the Eye, By the Hand. Her narrative dives deep into the machinations of her open marriage, which is in fact stable and loving. And then she discovers that her husband’s current mistress is married, but not in an open marriage. What happens next is Imogen’s way of truth seeking, justice seeking – but yes, it does get messy.
I was drawn to contemporary romance from the start, way back when I wrote the first manuscript for Sandalwood. I like the idea of women claiming their own sexuality – because so often women are seen as less than men for pursuing a lifestyle of short-term, casual sexual relationships. Why should this be the case? I want my characters to be very comfortable in their sexuality, and confident in asking for what they want in a male partner. While I might be writing about sex scenes and casual relationships, they are always explicitly consensual and healthy arrangements. I love all three of these women and I want them to have their happy ending. It was difficult at times, but I got there – and you can read them for yourself when the first book is released mid 2024.
Discover REBeCcA’s Book for yourself…
Sandalwood: a novel
@cleverhelpfulbitter
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