April 29, 2025 • 52 mins
Heatherly Bell transforms everyday love into extraordinary storytelling. In this revealing conversation, she takes us behind the curtain of her creative process as a romance novelist who expertly balances humor with genuine emotional depth.
Beginning as a reader who was always drawn to the romantic subplots in novels across genres, Bell has crafted her own distinctive voice in the romance world since 2010. She shares how she develops characters who feel like people "you'd meet on the street" – pilots, firefighters, cowboys, and other blue-collar professionals who populate her small towns and capture readers' hearts with their authenticity.
What makes Bell's approach to romance so compelling is her commitment to emotional realism. "I'm more about the emotional connection between two people," she explains, detailing how she creates slow-burn relationships where characters genuinely fall in love before falling into bed. Her writing balances life's challenges with moments of humor, creating stories where readers can see themselves reflected in characters' struggles and triumphs.
The interview offers fascinating insights into Bell's creative journey – from researching professional backgrounds to naming characters. She also shares her path from starting with Harlequin to her self-published works. She even reveals her surprising former aspiration to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a singer! For writers, she shares valuable advice about silencing your inner critic and letting your subconscious creativity flow.
Discover Bell's latest works, including her Charming Texas series with "The Ex Next Door" coming in July and a Christmas book later this year. Follow her on social media or meet her at Book Lovers Con in Las Vegas this May to connect with this thoughtful, engaging storyteller who brings warmth and authenticity to every romance she crafts.
To pre-order Heatherly's upcoming "The Ex Next Door," click here.
You can learn more about Heatherly at her website, just click here.
And you can find out about Book Lovers Con in May in Vegas here and Romance Con in Milwaukee in September here.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Nicole Danielle (00:08):
I'm Nicole Danielle.
Meghan Leigh (00:09):
And I'm Meghan Leigh, and this is Romance on
the Rocks, where two bookishbiddies imbibe and talk about
romance novels and theirfavorite authors.
We have got the privilege todayof speaking with one of our
favorite authors, Heatherly Bell.
The privilege today of speakingwith one of our favorite
writers, Heatherly Bell.
Unbeknownst to me, Nicole hadreached out to her, asked if she
was willing to chat with usabout her books, her writing
(00:30):
process, her personal life, etc.
And she said yes, very awesome.
Miss Bell's books seem to centeraround relatable characters
with spunk, personality,redeemable qualities and a dash
of spice.
She has been publishing bookssince 2010 in the romance genre
(00:51):
and shows no signs of slowingdown.
She has written novels aboutpilots, firefighters, cowboys
and a slew of other blue-collarprofessions that make a gal
swoon, because we all love apartner who is good with his
hands.
That make a gal swoon, becausewe all love a partner who is
good with his hands.
I've personally read books fromher Charming Texas series, her
(01:11):
Heroes of Fortune Valley seriesand her Sunset Kiss series, and
Nicole, I think, most recentlyyou have gotten to a book from
her Men of Stone Ridge series,correct?
Nicole Danielle (01:24):
Yes, and I'm excited to read more about the
Men of Stone Ridge movingforward.
They are cowboys right.
Yes, yeehaw.
Meghan Leigh (01:32):
Yes.
So for anybody who's interestedto hear from someone who isn't
me or Nicole, the followingrecording will feature romance
author Heatherly Bell.
Enjoy, this is Heatherly Bell,and she wrote the best book I
(01:54):
read last season for our podcast, which was A Charming Christmas
Arrangement.
I just I loved how relatablethe characters were and I loved
the style of writing, and soNicole was gracious enough to
reach out to Miss Bell and askif she would come on the podcast
.
So if you would like to justintroduce yourself to our
audience and tell them a littlebit about yourself, that'd be
(02:16):
great.
Heatherly Bell (02:16):
OK, yeah, thank you for having me first of all.
I really appreciate it.
I'm Heatherly Bell and I writea little bit of mix.
I write for Harlequin, which isthe book that you're talking
about, and I'm also an indieauthor.
So I have different series fromthis one that I self-publish
myself, but they're all verysimilar.
I would say they're all smalltown, they're all kind of
(02:37):
humorous, but with somewhatserious subjects as well, and of
course, they all have Hefleyand Rafter somewhat serious
subjects as well, and of course,they all have happily ever
after they do.
Meghan Leigh (02:52):
And I think you're right.
It's that combination of thehumor along with the serious
subjects that makes themcompelling, because I feel like
the characters all havesomething that you can relate to
.
If it's a past trauma,relationships that you know were
strained are strained, you knowstressful situations that
they're going through, justeverybody seems to have
something where you can go.
I see myself there.
Yeah, I try for that, thank you.
(03:13):
How did you become a romancenovel writer?
Where did that?
Heatherly Bell (03:17):
start.
Well, I've always liked towrite Initially.
I've always read really widely,and so I would say I used to
read anything from Stephen Kingand Dean Koontz all the way to
Jodi Picoult.
And when I started readingmaybe not Stephen King, but I
always seemed to be veryattracted to the romance subplot
(03:38):
in the story, whatever it was.
And so then I said you knowwhat I really like, this romance
thing.
So I started seeking out romancebooks and it was a good mix
that I was reading still, but Ifeel like the place where I
belong is in romance, because Ialways like a very hopeful story
.
So I started writing that wayand it took me quite a while to
(04:00):
finish my first book.
It probably took about 14months to finish it, which I
thought.
You know, I guess some peopletake a lot longer, but usually a
shorter book like thatshouldn't take quite as long.
But I was just reallystruggling with it so I went
ahead.
It took 14 months and that'sthe longest it's ever taken me
to write a book, and since thenI have a faster pace.
(04:23):
Fortunately, it was just a loveof romance books that led me to
become a writer.
Meghan Leigh (04:29):
So how long does a novel typically take you then?
To me 14 months sounds quick.
And maybe that's because Iwould be overthinking everything
, so 14 months doesn't soundlong.
Heatherly Bell (04:42):
Yeah, I mean, it's true, it really doesn't,
and I think it depends on thekind of book that you're writing
whether it requires a lot ofresearch, things like that.
So, but the book I was writingprobably shouldn't have taken me
that long.
I usually but you know it'syour first time.
I think you just kind ofdevelop a muscle, like anything
else that you do.
(05:02):
Frequently it becomes a musclethat you work and it gets better
and easier with time.
So right now it takes me fromtwo to three months to write a
shorter book.
The ones that I'm writing nowfor Harlequin, although they
have increased the word count.
We started out at 55 and wewent up to 60 and now we're at
70,000 words for these books.
(05:24):
So there's, it's a good, it's agood story.
You have a lot of room there tohave some, some secondary
characters which can be a lot offun.
Meghan Leigh (05:33):
That's actually one of Nicole's favorites.
Nicole Danielle (05:35):
She loves those secondary characters.
Heatherly Bell (05:37):
Yes, yeah, me too.
You know.
I remember when I first startedwriting that people would say
well, sorry, but the secondarycharacters are taking the
spotlight away from the maincharacters, and I was like gosh.
So I guess what I have to do ismake those secondary characters
my main characters.
Meghan Leigh (05:58):
I found reading you know the couple that I've
read from the Charming series.
I've found that it's fun to seethose secondary characters in
the background and know thatthey've got either a novel
coming up or have already beenin a novel and so if I'm
intrigued I can go find them.
So having that kind of smalltown as your base for that does
(06:21):
it feel as though these folks inthis town are real.
Now You've spent so much timewith them and investing into
their stories.
How does that work?
Putting all of that into justlike kind of that one town Right
.
Heatherly Bell (06:35):
I love doing that.
I love putting in thesecondaries and sort of saying,
well, here's what they're doingnow.
But it's hard because you don'twant them to take the story
away from the main characters,you know, and you always want
every book to be kind of astandalone, so people get it out
of order, you know it willstill make sense to them.
But yeah, I mean, I just loveputting them in there because
(06:58):
they really do feel like familyafter a while and like I really
do know them very well.
That's why I think it's easierfor me when I write another book
in an already existing series.
It's much easier for me towrite that book than it is for
me to write a brand new book ina completely new series with new
characters.
It's a lot more work, you know,and speaking to the 14 months
(07:23):
it actually I'm writing, I amworking on something completely
different and it is taking me along time.
So, yeah, it's taking meprobably a good year to write
this book Because you're writingit from the ground up.
Yeah, cause I'm.
It's a, it's a standalone, withall kinds of new people, and it
is hard because it's likeyou're creating this world.
You know it's not the kind ofworld building that they have in
(07:46):
fantasy romance, but it's stilla world, a town you're building
and you want everybody to sortof have their own unique little
quirks or twists so that youdon't confuse them too much.
But I do love it.
I do feel like they're familyand I have a hard time not
putting them, putting more ofthem in there.
You know, ok, who am I going totalk about in this book from
(08:12):
the earlier books and I try tobring them in, but I can't have
them take the story over, right?
Meghan Leigh (08:14):
Well, and speaking of that world building too, one
of the things that really gotme curious is you've got a lot
of characters that have verytechnical backgrounds.
You know pilots, you've gotfolks who were Marine Corps,
you've got folks who are infirefighting.
I mean, there's so much goingon.
How do you do that research tobring that kind of background
(08:35):
alive, where it feels as thoughobviously this is a real person
doing this real job.
It's not just like he's afirefighter and kind of glossing
past it.
There's some good details inthere.
Heatherly Bell (08:47):
Wow, thank you, it's just research, yeah,
although you know I will saythat for the first book in that
series, the one you have, heroesof Fortune Valley I did go to a
local regional airport that wehave not far from me and I
talked to a pilot, you know, andI got some just generalities
about how they do things andwhat they do and some of the
(09:10):
things they talk about.
And I just kind of feel forthings.
And I don't try to overload thebooks with information, I just
kind of want to touch on theinformation but I always wonder
if I'm making it real, if I'mgiving people enough.
So thank you for telling methat, because I'm like I have no
idea.
I just do a lot of research andI try to understand what people
(09:33):
are like, who like, who lovethese things.
So I'm flattered that you thinkit comes across real, because I
always wonder I probably makesome mistakes, you know, in fact
I did.
I think a reviewer once upon atime caught a mistake I made in
the.
It was a novella that I wroteas an offshoot of that Heroes of
Fortune Valley series and I hada.
(09:55):
I had a female former militaryperson and I made a mistake of
the timeline that it would havetaken her to reach a level that
she did.
It's just no, you can't do that,but very few people are gonna
know.
You know I'll be saying so, butI happened to get somebody that
was really on top of it and shecaught it hey, but you know she
(10:18):
was reading it, so that's goodtoo, right yeah, she read it so.
So that's good, I appreciatethat.
Nicole Danielle (10:23):
Well, I felt like even reading Lucky Cowboy,
that the cowboys didn't seemlike caricatures of cowboys.
I felt like they seemed likevery authentic, real, working
people.
It didn't seem like a parody ofa cowboy or something like that
you talked in the story about,you know, actual ranch work and
that type of thing, and so I'mlike, oh, we're not just.
You know riding on a horse, youknow.
Heatherly Bell (10:45):
Yeah, thank you.
Yeah, my son and his wifeactually own horses, so that
really helps.
Yeah, they have horses and theyhave like a little ranch that
it's actually a ranch in herfamily, so they don't own it,
but they're allowed to, you know, have the horses there and so
every once in a while I'll goout.
If I have a question aboutsomething, I'll ask them.
(11:06):
They're pretty good.
They're not ranchers per se,but they can give me information
.
The other I just reallyresearch and when I wrote
Nashville Cowboy, which is thesecond one, eve is a vet and so
I actually talked to my friendwho used to work with horses
(11:26):
when I have a scene in which oneof the horses has colic, and so
I got details from her aboutthe kind of things that they do
when they have colic and stuff.
So yeah, unfortunately, one ofmy son's horses died recently
from colic.
This is a very very seriousthing I know and I do put it in
the book, and that is probablythe main reason that horses will
(11:47):
die is from colic.
Meghan Leigh (11:49):
Horses are very fragile.
They've got so many things thatcan go wrong.
I've not owned horses myself,but I've had enough friends with
horses.
When I hear the list of thingsthat they are dealing with, I'm
like, oh, boy.
Heatherly Bell (12:02):
Yeah, it's a lot .
Yeah, so far they have onlydealt with colics.
I'm hoping it's that way.
Well, one of the things is thevet bills are so expensive, too
Crazy.
Meghan Leigh (12:21):
Well, that brings me to another question I wanted
to ask that wasn't on a list ofanything we sent to.
I wanted to know about pets ingeneral, because I do see themes
in your books about almostevery character has got a cat or
a dog or they're kind of likeconvinced to adopt.
There seems to be a theme ofpets going on.
(12:41):
So pets of your own, and how doyou go about writing that into
the books, because I do thinkthat's kind of a fun way to
build a character.
Heatherly Bell (12:50):
Thanks.
Yeah, you know I am totally adog person.
At the moment we don't have anydogs.
I mean, we grew, we had thekids, we had dogs all the time
in the house and the last onethat we had that we had to put
down.
I was like it's just too muchfor me.
It's so hard with elderly, whenthey get elderly, you know, and
(13:11):
you see them kind of sufferingand just having the ailments of
old age, you know, and it's justso hard.
I really don't want to haveanother one, not right now.
I kind of want my.
I basically am an empty nesterbecause all my kids are adults
and out of the house.
So I kind of want to be anempty nester with pets as well.
But we still have a cat,because it seems like we always
(13:32):
wind up with a pet in the houseand we like to say that our cat
is more like a dog.
As an example, there was onetime I was taking a walk with
one of our dogs and he followedme along the entire way, but he
walks himself.
Obviously you know the cat.
But yeah, I just I love puttingthat's a slice of life in our
(13:54):
books.
We love, we all love our pets.
You know whether we're dogpeople or cat people or horse
people, but we we at one timehad a lot of dogs in the house,
ok, so each one of my kids has adog.
So when they come to visit andmy oldest and his wife have four
dogs and at one time- they hadseven.
(14:17):
Seven dogs and I was like youknow and he was all stressed all
the time and I'm like you knowthat's a lot of pets to have and
eventually he kind of theyfinally rehomed about.
I guess it was about three ofthe dogs, so now they're down to
four, and for a while he wasgoing through a program so we
(14:37):
kept his dog here and we kepthim for about a year or more.
So he was pretty much like ourdog, so we very recently are
just with the cat.
Meghan Leigh (14:48):
I was going to say recent empty nesters with the
dog, recent.
Heatherly Bell (14:51):
Yeah, and my daughter will bring over her two
dogs when she comes a lot oftimes.
So I'm never really.
And the kids are telling usright now you guys have to get a
dog, you don't?
You don't have one, you need adog.
I'm like, why do I need a dog?
You guys bring your dogs overhere all the time and I feel
like I don't have enough of thatand we can travel now a little
(15:13):
bit easier without a dog.
But I'm sure I will get anotherone at some point.
Meghan Leigh (15:18):
It looks like you've been very well traveled
and have lived in a lot ofdifferent places too.
What brought you to California?
Heatherly Bell (15:32):
What brought me to California basically was my
dad.
He was one of those earlysoftware engineers in the area
that would become Silicon Valley.
You know he was with IBM andwhen we moved to this little
town it really wasn't calledSilicon Valley but it, you know,
grew up around us because welive in that San Jose Palo Alto
area, the Bay Area.
So he came out here for thatjob and I was like 18 or 19.
(15:52):
So I was a little bit tooimmature to be on my own.
I tried.
We had lived in Maryland and Ihad all my friends there, so I
did not really want to leave.
But I wasn't quite ready to beon my own.
Meghan Leigh (16:03):
So I came out here to join my family and I just
never left really, do you feellike that has helped with your
writing, because you place thesetowns in a lot of different
states.
Having been all around, do youfeel like that has kind of given
you that more I don't knowopenness to those kinds of
(16:26):
spaces in your writing?
Heatherly Bell (16:28):
I think so.
Yeah, I hope so.
I do love so many differentparts of the United States.
I unfortunately haven't beenable to live in Texas and I
won't because of the heat Ican't stand the heat anymore but
I do love Texas.
I love the openness of Texas.
I've written a few books inCalifornia as well.
(16:49):
You know, in fact, the firstseries, fortune, I evaluate
loosely based on the town that Ilive in actually at the moment,
because it was called Fortuneand we have a lot of very
wealthy people in this area.
I'm not one of them, but itfeels like this is a very sort
of, you know, wealthy area, Isuppose, and so I was writing
(17:10):
about people in that town, butthey're not necessarily wealthy,
but they live in that town.
So but I just kind of takelittle bits and pieces of
different places that I've been,even if I've just passed
through them.
Sometimes you get a really goodfeel about a place and the
people.
And, yeah, I just love writingabout little towns especially.
Meghan Leigh (17:30):
What book or what series do you feel like is your
personal favorite?
Like, if you were going to moveto one of these towns that
you've written, what town wouldyou move to?
Heatherly Bell (17:40):
Oh, wow, that's that's tough.
Move to.
Oh wow, that's that's tough.
Um, I think I would probablypick Stone Ridge, Texas, that is
, you know as a woman, thatwould probably be a good place
to be.
Nicole Danielle (17:57):
I was going to say you'd be in like a special
situation there, right Causeit's a minority selection of
women.
Heatherly Bell (18:00):
Yeah, yeah, yeah , a lot of women, you know,
would do well in a town likethat.
I mean, even if you're an olderwoman, like it says in the book,
they're going to, they're goingto look out for you from the
time you're birth to the timeyou're 80.
You know that the men will letthey really look out for the
women.
And I actually kind of basedloosely based that series on
inspiration from the VirginRiver books from that Robin Carr
(18:22):
does you know and that went toNetflix, and River books that
Robin Carr does you know andthat went to Netflix.
I wanted to have a little townlike that, that you had that
good feeling about the peoplelooking out for each other and
taking care of each other.
So I think that'd be a reallygreat place to live.
If I had to move, I think I'dlike it.
Meghan Leigh (18:42):
That sounds lovely .
Do you have any books sittingon your nightstand right now?
That are maybe something thatyou would like to recommend to
any of our listeners out there.
Heatherly Bell (18:52):
Well, I don't have anything sitting on my
nightstand right now, but I haverecently started reading,
believe it or not.
She's a British author, SophieCousins, and I find that I
really love her books.
She's a British author, SophieCousins, and I find that I
really love her books.
You know, they're very, they'revery funny and uplifting, and
always I like to read thingsthat when I finish reading I
feel like oh good, thank you,yes, good ending.
(19:15):
Sometimes, you know, I feellike I almost have to read ahead
.
Are you not going to give me ahappy ending?
Meghan Leigh (19:28):
Because this is not looking good so far.
But I do find that's.
Heatherly Bell (19:29):
The hardest part about novels is if you've
enjoyed most of it, and then youget to that last chapter and
you're like there's no way theycan wrap this up in a way that's
going to make me happy.
Yeah, it's like, come on, hurryup, wrap this up.
So the last one that I readfrom her was is she really going
out with him?
Meghan Leigh (20:05):
no-transcript.
Nicole Danielle (20:11):
And I was just about to ask the same thing I
wonder that about every author.
Meghan Leigh (20:15):
When I see the names, I'm like, is there like a
name board that's sitting inyour house?
Is it just like divineintervention, like where are
these coming from At this point?
Heatherly Bell (20:25):
I try to think of names I haven't used before
and it's really getting hard.
You know, I looked at my booksand I said, okay, you have too
many Jack, no more Jack.
So I did have a list of names,but it was just the ones that
are already in my book.
I try not to repeat them toooften, but certain names are
just really strong.
(20:45):
Names Like Jack is a verystrong name.
What was the other name?
I do, like I said, all of my, Itry to give my men, my heroes,
very strong names.
And then for the women, I tryto just find a name that isn't
too popular but is still awell-known name.
Find a name that isn't too toopopular but is still a
(21:07):
well-known name, just names thatI like the sound of.
And sometimes I do look at theregional type of stuff, like
this this book, the last threein the Charming Texas, or the
latest three in the CharmingTexas, the one.
The first one was Her FakeBoyfriend, and the guy in that
book is Irish American and hisname is Finn.
And I was thinking you know, Inever it just came out of the
(21:27):
blue.
Sometimes these names just comeout of the blue for me, or maybe
I'll read a book by a favoriteauthor and find an obscure kind
of name in there.
Oh, let's bring back Finn.
Or let's bring back Noah, justnames that I feel are nice and
solid names.
So when I picked Finn I said,okay, so what other Irish
(21:47):
American names do I have?
So I did do like a littlesearch for regional names and
came up with Declan being one ofthem, who's going to be the
heroine in the next book.
And then Ronan is the next guy,so there are two brothers and a
cousin.
So I made the mistake of onlyhaving two brothers.
So I said let's just make thatworks.
(22:12):
Yeah, no, readers really lovebooks with brothers, so I was
trying to do something good forthe readers, so let's just have
another.
He's not a brother, but he isas close as a brother, so they
grew up together and they'recousins.
Meghan Leigh (22:28):
So I think it's that connecting part.
You know, you get thatconnection where somebody
already feels connected to thatmain character.
So if you bring in a cousin,they're like, clearly we're
going to love him as well.
Heatherly Bell (22:37):
Yes, yeah, yeah, and I think they're.
Those are really strong names,you know.
But but again, I had to lookthem up and there were other
Irish names but those justreally jumped out at me as being
sounding kind of strong.
You know, and I always try topick those kind of names.
I'm never gonna pick a namethat just doesn't sound like a
(22:59):
hero's name, right, and I don'twant to say a name right now
because I don't make anybodyfeel bad.
Yeah, they're just some namesthat just don't really sound
like a strong name.
You know, it doesn't mean thatthe person isn't a good person
and a strong person.
That's the name, you know.
Meghan Leigh (23:15):
I just when we've been reading a lot of the backs
of different romance novels aswe're trying to pick out books
for our upcoming episodes.
Sometimes we just giggle somuch at the names that people
have chosen that come from, youknow, just like some big long
made up like you know, featherbottom stone, and I'm like what?
Heatherly Bell (23:39):
is this?
That's funny, yeah, I mean, Ithink my names are all very
names of people that you wouldmeet on the street and so like
people who would be yourneighbors, people who would be
your neighbors, right, yeah, butI do.
Meghan Leigh (23:59):
I mean there are some odd names out there, I will
grant you that.
Heatherly Bell (24:28):
Do you have like any special setup where you do
your best writing be on thecouch, the TV, little patio and
I would go outside under theumbrella and bring my laptop.
I think it's a little hardbecause of the glare, but it's
nice to be outside sometimes.
But right now I really like myoffice and I'm trying to make it
a place where it's just bookseverywhere, bookish things to
(24:49):
kind of encourage me.
But one of the things that Ihave really found it's not so
much the place but almost thesounds.
So I have a favorite YouTubemusic or it's not really music,
it's sounds, and it's rainysounds in a coffee shop, and so
it's like an hour or two hoursof this and somehow I think it's
(25:14):
because you almost train yourbrain this way, but somehow when
I put that on I'm prettyproductive.
So I'll be in my office where Ican now close the door.
It's pretty nice and I can justturn that music on and I am
really productive.
I mean, it just works with mybrain, I guess.
Meghan Leigh (25:32):
I completely understand that.
I will put on those same kindsof videos.
Usually mine will have somekind of rain, but it'll also
have a little bit of classicalmusic and, like the Pomodoro
timing I don't know if you doany of the ones with the timing
in it where it gives you, likeyou know, a half an hour.
Stand up and move your legs andI'll sit back down and write
again that kind of stuff.
Heatherly Bell (25:53):
Yeah, I've done those, definitely.
Meghan Leigh (25:56):
Yeah, I like that.
So any advice for aspiringwriters?
Heatherly Bell (26:01):
I think just write, write a lot and write
what you love.
And we had a thing called theinternal editor.
That kind of sits on yourshoulder and just sits there
critiquing everything you write,like that's not good, nope,
nope, start over.
That's not good, don't do that.
You have to just banish thatperson and just throw her away
(26:22):
and say I'm going to write whatI want to write, just let it all
go.
You know, it's almost like yoursubconscious is working, like
you kick out your conscious mindthat says you can't do this or
you're not very good at this,and just kick her to the curb
and just let your subconscioustake over.
When I first started doing this, I said I think my subconscious
is a better writer than myconscious person is.
(26:44):
You know, because I don't haveany roadblocks that I'm putting
up and I just throw it all outthere.
But I do admit that I think it'sgood to have a little bit of a
roadmap.
I'm not saying somebody shouldjust sit down and just write
whatever.
You should probably have alittle bit of a roadmap, like
okay, what am I going to writeabout?
Am I going to write about awoman who's starting over and so
(27:06):
she moves to a small town,small coastal town, and starts
up a business what am I going towrite about?
And then, depending on the kindof writer you are, I'm more of
a discovery writer sometimes.
So I'd be halfway through thebook sometimes before I realize
who these people really are, youknow.
And then I say, oh, that's whyshe behaves this way and that's
(27:29):
why, and of course then that'swhat a first draft is for right,
because I always can go backlater and layer all that stuff
in just hints as to kind of theperson that she is and why she
would do something like this,you know.
Meghan Leigh (27:43):
Do you usually have the happy ending already,
like something that you'reaiming for?
Do you kind of already know howthe characters are going to be
together in the end, so that youcan kind of bring that all
together?
Or is that also part of thediscovery process?
Heatherly Bell (27:57):
Well, because I write romance, I know they're
going to wind up together rightat the end.
So that's kind of easy.
But what's not easy and what'salways difficult for me is
finding that dark moment when itseems like they're not going to
be together, and then trying tofind a way to get them together
.
So no, I don't always know thatit's not fully a discovery,
because usually I know what theissues are that are keeping them
(28:21):
apart, what issue this personhas.
So, adam and Stacey, it's prettyobvious that he has a fear of
losing someone that he lovesagain, right, and she has a fear
of being second to somebodybecause of what happened with
her ex.
Her ex-husband went off withhis first wife, who he still had
a thing for.
(28:41):
So she's thinking well, I'vegot the ghost of this woman that
Adam loved in our life and soshe's having a hard time with
that.
So I knew that their darkmoment had to be something
relating to that, you know.
And she had to come to therealization that why don't you
listen to what he's saying?
He's saying that he wants to bewith you and that he's wanting
(29:04):
to have this new life with youinstead of like stuck in his
grief or in the past, type ofthing.
I know that's one of the bookswhere my editor said I really
wasn't sure how you were goingto bring these people together.
Meghan Leigh (29:16):
I thought you did a masterful job, so it was
appreciated.
Nicole Danielle (29:20):
Megan and I were actually talking before we
started the recording that thechallenges that your characters
are trying to overcome is veryrealistic.
When I was reading Lucky Cowboy, I was telling her that Lincoln
he really resembles in a lot ofways my husband and then my
sister's boyfriend.
(29:41):
He's kind of a crabby guy myhusband is totally a crabby guy
sometimes and then, in adifferent regard, he had a lot
of challenges with, like, beingable to tell Sadie that he loved
her, which is a huge problemthat my sister's boyfriend had
for a long time because he sawdivorced parents and he wasn't
sure what love really meant.
And now today he was like, oh,I love you.
And I was like it's just luckycowboys.
Heatherly Bell (30:06):
Right.
So well, hopefully, you know,of course this is a book, so it
has to be dramatic, buthopefully he didn't have to face
almost losing her to realizebecause that's what our stubborn
Lincoln had to do realize, ohmy gosh, you know I might really
lose this person, you know, andso, yeah, I obviously love this
person.
Nicole Danielle (30:26):
I just love that with your characters.
It's so realistic.
The dialogue is realistic, thechallenges they face is
realistic.
It's not stuff that is lofty orlives in some magical fairy
tale romance world.
It's everyday love, if thatmakes sense, and I just really
appreciate it personally.
Heatherly Bell (30:43):
Thank you.
Yeah, I do strive for that, andI think one of the things I get
compliments on the most is mydialogue, and I think that's
because I talk so much and Ialways listen too.
I listen to a lot ofconversations, so, yeah, and I
feel like dialogue should reallyexpress who somebody is, more
(31:04):
than relaying information, youknow.
Nicole Danielle (31:06):
So Heatherly, how did you get your?
Heatherly Bell (31:08):
first book published, the one with
Harlequin.
You mean my first book withHarlequin book published, the
one with Harlequin, you mean myfirst book with Harlequin, yeah,
so I it was kind of a long,circuitous route, I think I.
So I wrote this book based on adream that I had, and I really
don't recommend doing thatbecause it made it really
difficult in the end because Ihad to construct this plot.
(31:30):
It was.
You know, you have the littleseed of an idea and then you
realize so this is going to bereally hard because there's a
lot more that has to come intoit.
So I wrote this book from startto finish and then I tried to
find an agent for it because itwas a longer book than Harlequin
usually takes.
But they had the super romanceline at that time, which was
(31:53):
much bigger media books, and Ihad not had any luck getting in
with Harlequin without an agent.
So I decided I'll just try withan agent.
Back when Twitter was a thing,they used to have these Twitter
pitches and you would get topitch like one line idea and
(32:13):
agents would sort of respond tothat and say, yeah, I'd like to
see more, or whatever.
So I did that and I wound upwith this one agent, dawn
Dottaluth-Leweridge agency.
She has since passed away,unfortunately, but she liked it
and said let's work together andshe went out on submission and
I wound up with Harlequin, whichI was really kind of surprised
(32:35):
because it was sort of a longcircuitous route.
You know, harlequin, you don'thave to have an agent to submit
to them.
So I had submitted to them inthe past, but sometimes a book
has to wind up on the desk of aneditor that really loves it,
and I was fortunate enough tohave that happen, and that was
(32:55):
my first book that I hadpublished with Harlequin and
they like to do series a lot.
So they said, okay, well, comeup with two more books.
And so I had to sort of like,okay, yeah, so there's guess
what?
There's two more pilots, solet's do this thing.
And these pilots are in thetown and you know, sometimes you
(33:16):
just have to think very quicklyand get creative, and I was
fortunate enough that theybought three book series and
then, shortly after that, third,book was published Superman
Super Romance closed the line.
So I was like, ok, this is notgood.
I was working on anotherproposal for another book.
(33:38):
So I said, ok, well, what arewe going to do here?
Because they moved me tospecial edition you know, which
is where I am right now and thebooks were going to be shorter.
I had a new editor.
It was a challenge, becausehere I am, I'm coming from
writing these really long booksto writing much shorter.
I had a new editor.
It was a challenge, becausehere I am, I'm coming from
writing these really long booksto writing much shorter, and you
(33:58):
would think that it'd be easierto write shorter, but not
necessarily.
I remember the first book that Iwrote for a special edition,
the editor was saying well, youknow, I think there's a problem
here with pacing.
Yeah, no surprise, because I'mkind of like used to writing
this longer book.
So I think she says I think wealready know why these people
(34:18):
shouldn't be together.
Now let's put them together.
All right, I get it.
Be quicker about this.
So yeah.
So then I moved into specialedition.
I was very fortunate to be ableto move into special edition,
because there was a lot of superromance authors that never got
another contract or they arestill trying to get another
contract.
I just was fortunate that myeditor really, really liked me
(34:40):
and she wanted to put mesomewhere else, so that's where
I've been.
Meghan Leigh (34:44):
I love that you started with Harlequin, though,
because I feel like, even as areader, when you start reading
romance, I feel like thoseHarlequins are the ones you
start with, because your mom hasthem, your grandma has them,
like they're at your bestfriend's house, they're by the
checkout line, they're justeverywhere.
So everybody's got kind of thatsoft spot in their heart for,
(35:06):
like that first Harlequinromance that they read.
So I love that.
Heatherly Bell (35:11):
It's true, and Harlequin was really for years
the name in romance, you know,until other people came along.
But they're still hanging inthere.
Meghan Leigh (35:20):
They are they are.
I know I read on your threadsyou've been talking about really
getting into like the slow burnromances right now.
Heatherly Bell (35:31):
Well, that was the book I was.
I think that was the book I wasreading.
Is she really going out withhim?
Cause that was pretty slow burn, for sure, and a lot of her
books are like that.
But I find that just I love it,because I'm not huge on spicy
Obviously I don't write superspicy but I'm more about the
emotional connection between twopeople and I think when you
(35:54):
have a slow burn, that's what'shappening.
You know, maybe people don'tnotice it, but it's happening.
These people are really gettingto know each other and they're
really falling in love beforethey fall into bed for whatever
reason.
So that's what I like about it.
And also, I think I said inthat same post that it's sort of
like not immediately looking ata guy and thinking he's
gorgeous and that's importanttoo.
(36:15):
Granted, you're probably goingto find something attractive
about this person, but it's.
You know, you're just not like,oh gosh, he's gorgeous right
away and I have to have him, andit's sort of like a slow
learning of wow, look what helooks like without a shirt.
Whoa, I never, I never thoughtof that before and that kind of
a thing.
It's sort of like an awareness.
That's a gradual and awareness.
Nicole Danielle (36:37):
I think it's more real too, for the most part
yeah, emotions, and I thinkMegan and I definitely agree
with that, because there havebeen some books we've been
reading for the podcast.
Heatherly Bell (36:53):
We're like I'm like, they's true.
Yeah, that's true.
You just, sometimes I get it.
Sometimes it does happen fast.
But if it happens fast, thenyou have to show me why it
happens fast.
You know what?
Meghan Leigh (37:05):
I mean exactly, yeah, exactly, and that that's
been our.
Our issue with some of thebooks is I'm like I just don't
understand why these two aretogether.
I don't see the commonalityother than he's handsome, she's
pretty.
Heatherly Bell (37:22):
I wanted to be more than just a superficial
thing, you know.
Meghan Leigh (37:26):
Exactly, which kind of brings us around to the
question.
Nicole and I have been ratingall of these books on what we're
calling our Spicy Scovillescale, and you were just saying
you don't write incredibly spicy.
So on our Scoville scale like,the top one is Carolina Reaper
and I'm going to say your booksare not in the Carolina Reaper
(37:47):
category, they're further downthe list but they are above milk
and green pepper, which is kindof our sad ones down in the
bottom and I think, Nicole and Ikind of feel that yours are
hovering at that likejalapeno-ish, kind of in the
middle.
But you know, I wanted to knowfrom your perspective if you
(38:08):
were poblano jalapeno orhabanero like, are you feeling
like anywhere in that particularpart of the scale?
Heatherly Bell (38:16):
I'm thinking what's the one that, um, so I'm
thinking of my peppers here.
Meghan Leigh (38:21):
Helping is pretty spicy, it's just it's our
middling for, for our scale atleast, yeah yeah, I would say
jalapeno.
Then for sure, yeah, yeah okayyeah, I feel like we're all in
agreement.
Then, ok, I feel like Lucky.
Nicole Danielle (38:33):
Cowboy was like almost habanero, but definitely
jalapeno.
Heatherly Bell (38:38):
Yeah, absolutely true.
Meghan Leigh (38:40):
Jalapenos can can kind of go either way, depending
on you know what part of theseason you're.
You're getting them out of thefield, so you know you got that.
Heatherly Bell (38:49):
Very true, yeah, I would say that.
But you know, a rating scale ofspicy just really is so
subjective and it really dependson who you're talking to.
You know, like I would say theway I say it is, my mother
thinks my books are way toospicy, way too spicy, and you
know, but most people what?
(39:10):
Not enough spice for me.
So it's like sometimes it's lowand mostly medium, you know,
yeah, medium I.
Meghan Leigh (39:19):
I agree it is completely subjective, which is
why we kind of wanted to ask youyour feelings on it, because
now that we've read some of thebooks and it's like, oh well,
this is how I perceive it, butcoming from the author, like
where, where does that fall?
But it feels like, yeah, kindof in that meddling ground.
So which, for me, is mypreference, like I don't, I
(39:39):
don't want something that's soboring that they've never held
hands, and I don't wantsomething where I hear about all
the grotesque details of what'sgoing on in their bedroom.
So I like the middle ground.
Heatherly Bell (39:52):
Yeah.
I do too.
I really do.
It feels like a comfortableplace to be.
You know, it's also languagetoo.
What the language that you useto talk about certain parts of
the anatomy?
And depending on what word youuse, it changes the flavor of
the book and the tone and alsoprobably the spiciness, right?
Nicole Danielle (40:13):
That's a very valid point and I haven't
actually thought about thatbefore.
Meghan Leigh (40:17):
But yeah, the language and the terminology For
sure Everybody receives thosewords a little bit differently.
Like some words that I mightfind to be like, oh, that's
really sexy, Somebody else mightbe like, oh, don't say that,
yeah, exactly.
So do you have some projectsthat you're working on right now
that you want to kind of maybetell us about or steer us toward
(40:40):
, like something recentlypublished that we should all go
out and read, or something weshould be looking for on the
horizon?
Heatherly Bell (40:54):
published book is the Maverick's Christmas
Countdown which came out inNovember and that was a really
fun book to write because it wasa fake relationship between two
friends and it was set atChristmas time and it's just a
fun book.
And then I have the Ex.
Next Door is the next charmingbook Texas book coming out in
July and.
(41:14):
I just shared the coverrecently and that is a fun book
because it's one of the Irishbrothers, not the cousin, it's
the brother.
The cousin is coming out.
The cousin will come out asit's a Christmas book, so it'll
come out later this year, tooPerfect.
I don't even have a title forthat book yet.
(41:35):
I call it.
My placeholder.
Title is A Christmas Rescue.
Meghan Leigh (41:41):
I love the Christmas ones.
So far, apparently, that's whatI'm mostly gravitating toward,
which is so funny because Nicoleand I have had the discussion.
I'm not like a Hallmark movieperson at all, so I think it's
funny that the ones I'm readingthat I've loved the most is the
Christmas ones.
That's been really fun todiscover about myself.
Heatherly Bell (41:57):
Yeah, I try to make every third book that I
write a Christmas book andthey're fun to write because
you've got so much already inthe setting.
You know there's so much, it'sall the things you see.
Everything is just so brightand colorful.
There's so much to see.
There's so much to hear withall the music.
There's so much to see.
There's so much to hear withall the music.
There's so much to smell.
(42:17):
It's just, it's a perfectsetting.
Meghan Leigh (42:20):
All right, nicole, do you have anything else that
you want to ask?
I only have, like, one lastquestion that I want.
Nicole Danielle (42:25):
Yeah, heatherly , what's a fun fact your readers
might not know about you?
I?
Heatherly Bell (42:30):
guess it would be that I really started off
wanting to be a singer in theRock and roll hall of fame, and
so I was.
I was just.
It was the 80s, you know, and,um, probably before you guys
were born oh no, I'll keep heraround but I was out there and I
was like trying to be patbenatar, you know, and I was in
(42:51):
bands and we, we played aroundthe bay area but, um, it never,
never took off for me.
But that is one thing and I andI, you know, I, I have been
told I'm a pretty good singer.
So are?
Meghan Leigh (43:06):
are there mixed tapes out there?
Are there cds out there?
Is there anything we can trackdown that you would be on I?
Heatherly Bell (43:13):
don't.
I have them.
I don't think there's anythingout there, but it's too bad.
We have them.
We have the tracks and thetapes and everything here.
Meghan Leigh (43:22):
I am super into music as well.
I grew up with a dad who wasalways playing in bands and, you
know, grew up in the choir, andmy husband and I have a music
project we work on together, sothat's cool.
I love that.
Heatherly Bell (43:37):
I love that.
You should get back out there.
I guess I should.
You know, that's kind of how Imet my husband.
He was at a party when I wassinging in this band and he was
sound engineer.
They brought in, and so that'show we met.
He's a drummer, but he alsoplays the bass.
So he's got.
He's never let it go.
He's got.
One of our spare rooms is it'scalled the music room.
(43:58):
We have everything in thestudio so yeah, yeah.
So yeah, I can't really get awayfrom it, nor should I.
You know you shouldn't.
It is fun.
I love music.
I don't listen to it while I'mwriting because it's too
distracting for me.
Don't listen to it while I'mwriting because it's too
(44:18):
distracting for me.
I'm going to totally startsinging or, you know, clapping
along.
I can't.
It takes away my focuscompletely.
So that's why I have to havelike rain.
Those kinds of sounds workbetter for me.
That makes sense.
Nicole Danielle (44:29):
So another one on my list here.
On your bio it says that youdrink copious amounts of coffee,
you crave cupcakes andoccasionally wear real pants.
How do you like your coffee?
What's your favorite cupcakeflavor and what's your favorite
comfy outfit to wear?
Heatherly Bell (44:46):
Well, I'll start with comfy outfit, and it's
either my jammies or a yogapants you know, those are
comfortable, they're stretchyand just a sweatshirt or
whatever.
That's my comfy outfit to writein, and I kind of think I'd
live my life in yoga pants if Icould, but that's not realistic.
I don't.
Cupcakes, my goodness.
(45:07):
I mean, I don't discriminate, Ilove every type of cupcake
there is.
I don't get to eat them enoughanymore because I have to cut
back on my sugar, but I would besomething with salted caramel
filling and maybe even thefrosting.
I don't get to eat them enoughanymore because I have to cut
back on my sugar, but I would besomething with salted caramel
filling and maybe even thefrosting.
I love salted caramel.
My coffee has to have somecream, but I don't take sugar.
But also, we're very picky hereabout our coffee.
(45:29):
Lately we just have Peet's, youknow, and we won't do anything
but Peet's.
So we're very picky with ourcoffee, there, with our coffee.
Nothing wrong with that,nothing at all.
It's got to be strong.
Nicole Danielle (45:41):
For me it's got , oh yeah oh yeah, none of this
water, this brown water, likeyeah, exactly yeah, yeah, you
know what?
Heatherly Bell (45:48):
I was trying to get more into tea, but tea just
feels like brown water to memost of the time, you know, and
tastes that way.
But I was.
I was trying trying to get intoit a little bit more, just to
expand my horizons.
And the funny thing is I postedon threads that I was
interested in learning aboutteas and or how can I get to
(46:08):
liking tea better than I do.
It was probably my most popularthread I've done.
I had like 800 responses, wow,and found that people are really
passionate about their tea.
Meghan Leigh (46:25):
Yeah, there's a passionate tea community, a
passionate coffee community andthere are some crossovers.
I will do both, but I'm morewith you on the copious amounts
of coffee.
I mean, I go through way toomuch in a day.
The doctor asked me how manycups and I went two.
Nicole Danielle (46:37):
I don't think that was honest, Meg.
You didn't see the size of thecup.
Heatherly Bell (46:42):
Yes, I'm trying to cut back on coffee too, and
I'm one of those people thatcan't have coffee too late in
the day, or I swear I'll be upall night.
Nicole Danielle (46:51):
That's me for sure.
I can't have it past noon, orit's all over, oh no no, this
girl's still drinking coffee way, way late at night.
Heatherly Bell (47:01):
That doesn't affect you.
The same way, my husband's, thesame way.
He can drink a cup of coffeeright before he goes to bed.
Meghan Leigh (47:05):
It won't affect him yeah, same, same, I could.
I could just intravenous thatkind of stuff.
Good, good to go.
Well, all right.
My very last question then,nicole, unless you had anything
else, no, I would like you tohave the platform here to just
tell everybody where we can findyou.
You know, online and maybe anyupcoming events you have, if
(47:28):
you've got book signings or ifyou're attending any cons or
anything like that, where canpeople find you?
I?
Heatherly Bell (47:33):
will be at Book Lovers Con in May, which is
happening in Las Vegas.
It's May 15th and you can findme just about anywhere.
I'm on threads, I'm onPinterest, I'm on Instagram, I'm
on Facebook, all right.
Meghan Leigh (47:50):
Well, thank you so much for being with us.
Nicole Danielle (47:53):
Yes, thank you, Heather.
Meghan Leigh (47:55):
Yeah, I was so delighted to have you on and it
has just been a pleasure.
Thank you so much for having me.
Heatherly Bell (48:04):
I love to hear that people read and enjoyed my
book, because I don't get tohear that very often.
Meghan Leigh (48:12):
We said you're criminally underrepresented in
our library.
Nicole Danielle (48:17):
Yeah, my library too.
I was like, where is HeatherLee?
Meghan Leigh (48:20):
I'm going to have a word with the library and I
think that's what's going tohappen.
Heatherly Bell (48:25):
Well, my self-published books are on
Ingram so they should be able toorder them.
I tried to make sure they wereon Ingram, so I think sometimes
you have to ask them.
Bring in the ISBN number andask them to put it in there.
Meghan Leigh (48:37):
I volunteer with my local library, so I'll see if
I can strong arm them intotitles.
Heatherly Bell (48:43):
I appreciate that Very good.
Nicole Danielle (48:52):
So, Nicole, was that the best?
It was amazing.
So, Nicole, was that the bestit was amazing.
Meghan Leigh (48:59):
I was kind of starstruck and hopefully I
didn't come across totally stiffand frightened, because that is
a little bit how I felt.
But we got through it and shewas lovely she was.
She was a joy.
If any of you in the audiencehaven't had the opportunity to
read any of Miss Bell's work, Ido highly recommend checking
(49:20):
them out.
And she has a new book slatedto drop in July for the Charming
Texas series.
It's called the Ex Next Door.
I've got it in my ripped bodicecart right now because it is
currently available forpre-order.
And if you use our affiliatelink on the Romance on the Rocks
(49:41):
podcast website man, that's amouthful Romance on the Rocks
podcast website it can helpsupport all the work we put into
the recordings and I knowNicole has been working really
hard on getting our affiliatelinks to be a little more
prominent on the website andhopefully in like the podcast
show notes as well.
But if you do need help findingyour way over to Ripped Bodice
(50:04):
Links or our Amazon affiliatelinks, please reach out.
Let us know If you do click onanything on our website.
You don't even have to buy thebook you clicked on.
Anything you buy during thatvisit actually helps the podcast
.
So that's kind of cool too.
You can go in and you can clickon Dark of the Moon or you can
(50:25):
click on the Accidental Kiss.
You can click on those and goahead and buy socks or a
notebook.
Nicole Danielle (50:31):
On Amazon, yeah , on Amazon, not on the Ripped
Bodice, if you start there.
Meghan Leigh (50:36):
anything you buy counts, but on Ripped Bodice,
like I said, they have got thebook the Ex Next Door ready to
purchase for pre-order.
And then one more plug for MissBell.
Heatherly is incredibly activeon Instagram.
She has a great newsletter thatshe shares and I definitely
recommend giving her a follow onboth Instagram and Facebook
(50:58):
page so you can get access tothat newsletter.
Just another thank you to MissBell for honoring us with her
presence and the interview.
It was a pleasure.
So thank you for joining ustoday for Romance on the Rocks.
Please like, subscribe andfollow, and if you are a
hopelessly romantic fellowbookish bitty like us, think
(51:19):
about giving us a review onApple, itunes, spotify, youtube
and wherever you catch yourpodcasts.
Your support really means theworld to us.
So until next time, stay safeand know that you are loved.
I'm.
I'm Nicole Danielle.
Meghan Leigh (00:09):
And I'm Meghan Leigh, and this is Romance on
the Rocks, where two bookishbiddies imbibe and talk about
romance novels and theirfavorite authors.
We have got the privilege todayof speaking with one of our
favorite authors, Heatherly Bell.
The privilege today of speakingwith one of our favorite
writers, Heatherly Bell.
Unbeknownst to me, Nicole hadreached out to her, asked if she
was willing to chat with usabout her books, her writing
(00:30):
process, her personal life, etc.
And she said yes, very awesome.
Miss Bell's books seem to centeraround relatable characters
with spunk, personality,redeemable qualities and a dash
of spice.
She has been publishing bookssince 2010 in the romance genre
(00:51):
and shows no signs of slowingdown.
She has written novels aboutpilots, firefighters, cowboys
and a slew of other blue-collarprofessions that make a gal
swoon, because we all love apartner who is good with his
hands.
That make a gal swoon, becausewe all love a partner who is
good with his hands.
I've personally read books fromher Charming Texas series, her
(01:11):
Heroes of Fortune Valley seriesand her Sunset Kiss series, and
Nicole, I think, most recentlyyou have gotten to a book from
her Men of Stone Ridge series,correct?
Nicole Danielle (01:24):
Yes, and I'm excited to read more about the
Men of Stone Ridge movingforward.
They are cowboys right.
Yes, yeehaw.
Meghan Leigh (01:32):
Yes.
So for anybody who's interestedto hear from someone who isn't
me or Nicole, the followingrecording will feature romance
author Heatherly Bell.
Enjoy, this is Heatherly Bell,and she wrote the best book I
(01:54):
read last season for our podcast, which was A Charming Christmas
Arrangement.
I just I loved how relatablethe characters were and I loved
the style of writing, and soNicole was gracious enough to
reach out to Miss Bell and askif she would come on the podcast
.
So if you would like to justintroduce yourself to our
audience and tell them a littlebit about yourself, that'd be
(02:16):
great.
Heatherly Bell (02:16):
OK, yeah, thank you for having me first of all.
I really appreciate it.
I'm Heatherly Bell and I writea little bit of mix.
I write for Harlequin, which isthe book that you're talking
about, and I'm also an indieauthor.
So I have different series fromthis one that I self-publish
myself, but they're all verysimilar.
I would say they're all smalltown, they're all kind of
(02:37):
humorous, but with somewhatserious subjects as well, and of
course, they all have Hefleyand Rafter somewhat serious
subjects as well, and of course,they all have happily ever
after they do.
Meghan Leigh (02:52):
And I think you're right.
It's that combination of thehumor along with the serious
subjects that makes themcompelling, because I feel like
the characters all havesomething that you can relate to
.
If it's a past trauma,relationships that you know were
strained are strained, you knowstressful situations that
they're going through, justeverybody seems to have
something where you can go.
I see myself there.
Yeah, I try for that, thank you.
(03:13):
How did you become a romancenovel writer?
Where did that?
Heatherly Bell (03:17):
start.
Well, I've always liked towrite Initially.
I've always read really widely,and so I would say I used to
read anything from Stephen Kingand Dean Koontz all the way to
Jodi Picoult.
And when I started readingmaybe not Stephen King, but I
always seemed to be veryattracted to the romance subplot
(03:38):
in the story, whatever it was.
And so then I said you knowwhat I really like, this romance
thing.
So I started seeking out romancebooks and it was a good mix
that I was reading still, but Ifeel like the place where I
belong is in romance, because Ialways like a very hopeful story
.
So I started writing that wayand it took me quite a while to
(04:00):
finish my first book.
It probably took about 14months to finish it, which I
thought.
You know, I guess some peopletake a lot longer, but usually a
shorter book like thatshouldn't take quite as long.
But I was just reallystruggling with it so I went
ahead.
It took 14 months and that'sthe longest it's ever taken me
to write a book, and since thenI have a faster pace.
(04:23):
Fortunately, it was just a loveof romance books that led me to
become a writer.
Meghan Leigh (04:29):
So how long does a novel typically take you then?
To me 14 months sounds quick.
And maybe that's because Iwould be overthinking everything
, so 14 months doesn't soundlong.
Heatherly Bell (04:42):
Yeah, I mean, it's true, it really doesn't,
and I think it depends on thekind of book that you're writing
whether it requires a lot ofresearch, things like that.
So, but the book I was writingprobably shouldn't have taken me
that long.
I usually but you know it'syour first time.
I think you just kind ofdevelop a muscle, like anything
else that you do.
(05:02):
Frequently it becomes a musclethat you work and it gets better
and easier with time.
So right now it takes me fromtwo to three months to write a
shorter book.
The ones that I'm writing nowfor Harlequin, although they
have increased the word count.
We started out at 55 and wewent up to 60 and now we're at
70,000 words for these books.
(05:24):
So there's, it's a good, it's agood story.
You have a lot of room there tohave some, some secondary
characters which can be a lot offun.
Meghan Leigh (05:33):
That's actually one of Nicole's favorites.
Nicole Danielle (05:35):
She loves those secondary characters.
Heatherly Bell (05:37):
Yes, yeah, me too.
You know.
I remember when I first startedwriting that people would say
well, sorry, but the secondarycharacters are taking the
spotlight away from the maincharacters, and I was like gosh.
So I guess what I have to do ismake those secondary characters
my main characters.
Meghan Leigh (05:58):
I found reading you know the couple that I've
read from the Charming series.
I've found that it's fun to seethose secondary characters in
the background and know thatthey've got either a novel
coming up or have already beenin a novel and so if I'm
intrigued I can go find them.
So having that kind of smalltown as your base for that does
(06:21):
it feel as though these folks inthis town are real.
Now You've spent so much timewith them and investing into
their stories.
How does that work?
Putting all of that into justlike kind of that one town Right
.
Heatherly Bell (06:35):
I love doing that.
I love putting in thesecondaries and sort of saying,
well, here's what they're doingnow.
But it's hard because you don'twant them to take the story
away from the main characters,you know, and you always want
every book to be kind of astandalone, so people get it out
of order, you know it willstill make sense to them.
But yeah, I mean, I just loveputting them in there because
(06:58):
they really do feel like familyafter a while and like I really
do know them very well.
That's why I think it's easierfor me when I write another book
in an already existing series.
It's much easier for me towrite that book than it is for
me to write a brand new book ina completely new series with new
characters.
It's a lot more work, you know,and speaking to the 14 months
(07:23):
it actually I'm writing, I amworking on something completely
different and it is taking me along time.
So, yeah, it's taking meprobably a good year to write
this book Because you're writingit from the ground up.
Yeah, cause I'm.
It's a, it's a standalone, withall kinds of new people, and it
is hard because it's likeyou're creating this world.
You know it's not the kind ofworld building that they have in
(07:46):
fantasy romance, but it's stilla world, a town you're building
and you want everybody to sortof have their own unique little
quirks or twists so that youdon't confuse them too much.
But I do love it.
I do feel like they're familyand I have a hard time not
putting them, putting more ofthem in there.
You know, ok, who am I going totalk about in this book from
(08:12):
the earlier books and I try tobring them in, but I can't have
them take the story over, right?
Meghan Leigh (08:14):
Well, and speaking of that world building too, one
of the things that really gotme curious is you've got a lot
of characters that have verytechnical backgrounds.
You know pilots, you've gotfolks who were Marine Corps,
you've got folks who are infirefighting.
I mean, there's so much goingon.
How do you do that research tobring that kind of background
(08:35):
alive, where it feels as thoughobviously this is a real person
doing this real job.
It's not just like he's afirefighter and kind of glossing
past it.
There's some good details inthere.
Heatherly Bell (08:47):
Wow, thank you, it's just research, yeah,
although you know I will saythat for the first book in that
series, the one you have, heroesof Fortune Valley I did go to a
local regional airport that wehave not far from me and I
talked to a pilot, you know, andI got some just generalities
about how they do things andwhat they do and some of the
(09:10):
things they talk about.
And I just kind of feel forthings.
And I don't try to overload thebooks with information, I just
kind of want to touch on theinformation but I always wonder
if I'm making it real, if I'mgiving people enough.
So thank you for telling methat, because I'm like I have no
idea.
I just do a lot of research andI try to understand what people
(09:33):
are like, who like, who lovethese things.
So I'm flattered that you thinkit comes across real, because I
always wonder I probably makesome mistakes, you know, in fact
I did.
I think a reviewer once upon atime caught a mistake I made in
the.
It was a novella that I wroteas an offshoot of that Heroes of
Fortune Valley series and I hada.
(09:55):
I had a female former militaryperson and I made a mistake of
the timeline that it would havetaken her to reach a level that
she did.
It's just no, you can't do that,but very few people are gonna
know.
You know I'll be saying so, butI happened to get somebody that
was really on top of it and shecaught it hey, but you know she
(10:18):
was reading it, so that's goodtoo, right yeah, she read it so.
So that's good, I appreciatethat.
Nicole Danielle (10:23):
Well, I felt like even reading Lucky Cowboy,
that the cowboys didn't seemlike caricatures of cowboys.
I felt like they seemed likevery authentic, real, working
people.
It didn't seem like a parody ofa cowboy or something like that
you talked in the story about,you know, actual ranch work and
that type of thing, and so I'mlike, oh, we're not just.
You know riding on a horse, youknow.
Heatherly Bell (10:45):
Yeah, thank you.
Yeah, my son and his wifeactually own horses, so that
really helps.
Yeah, they have horses and theyhave like a little ranch that
it's actually a ranch in herfamily, so they don't own it,
but they're allowed to, you know, have the horses there and so
every once in a while I'll goout.
If I have a question aboutsomething, I'll ask them.
(11:06):
They're pretty good.
They're not ranchers per se,but they can give me information
.
The other I just reallyresearch and when I wrote
Nashville Cowboy, which is thesecond one, eve is a vet and so
I actually talked to my friendwho used to work with horses
(11:26):
when I have a scene in which oneof the horses has colic, and so
I got details from her aboutthe kind of things that they do
when they have colic and stuff.
So yeah, unfortunately, one ofmy son's horses died recently
from colic.
This is a very very seriousthing I know and I do put it in
the book, and that is probablythe main reason that horses will
(11:47):
die is from colic.
Meghan Leigh (11:49):
Horses are very fragile.
They've got so many things thatcan go wrong.
I've not owned horses myself,but I've had enough friends with
horses.
When I hear the list of thingsthat they are dealing with, I'm
like, oh, boy.
Heatherly Bell (12:02):
Yeah, it's a lot .
Yeah, so far they have onlydealt with colics.
I'm hoping it's that way.
Well, one of the things is thevet bills are so expensive, too
Crazy.
Meghan Leigh (12:21):
Well, that brings me to another question I wanted
to ask that wasn't on a list ofanything we sent to.
I wanted to know about pets ingeneral, because I do see themes
in your books about almostevery character has got a cat or
a dog or they're kind of likeconvinced to adopt.
There seems to be a theme ofpets going on.
(12:41):
So pets of your own, and how doyou go about writing that into
the books, because I do thinkthat's kind of a fun way to
build a character.
Heatherly Bell (12:50):
Thanks.
Yeah, you know I am totally adog person.
At the moment we don't have anydogs.
I mean, we grew, we had thekids, we had dogs all the time
in the house and the last onethat we had that we had to put
down.
I was like it's just too muchfor me.
It's so hard with elderly, whenthey get elderly, you know, and
(13:11):
you see them kind of sufferingand just having the ailments of
old age, you know, and it's justso hard.
I really don't want to haveanother one, not right now.
I kind of want my.
I basically am an empty nesterbecause all my kids are adults
and out of the house.
So I kind of want to be anempty nester with pets as well.
But we still have a cat,because it seems like we always
(13:32):
wind up with a pet in the houseand we like to say that our cat
is more like a dog.
As an example, there was onetime I was taking a walk with
one of our dogs and he followedme along the entire way, but he
walks himself.
Obviously you know the cat.
But yeah, I just I love puttingthat's a slice of life in our
(13:54):
books.
We love, we all love our pets.
You know whether we're dogpeople or cat people or horse
people, but we we at one timehad a lot of dogs in the house,
ok, so each one of my kids has adog.
So when they come to visit andmy oldest and his wife have four
dogs and at one time- they hadseven.
(14:17):
Seven dogs and I was like youknow and he was all stressed all
the time and I'm like you knowthat's a lot of pets to have and
eventually he kind of theyfinally rehomed about.
I guess it was about three ofthe dogs, so now they're down to
four, and for a while he wasgoing through a program so we
(14:37):
kept his dog here and we kepthim for about a year or more.
So he was pretty much like ourdog, so we very recently are
just with the cat.
Meghan Leigh (14:48):
I was going to say recent empty nesters with the
dog, recent.
Heatherly Bell (14:51):
Yeah, and my daughter will bring over her two
dogs when she comes a lot oftimes.
So I'm never really.
And the kids are telling usright now you guys have to get a
dog, you don't?
You don't have one, you need adog.
I'm like, why do I need a dog?
You guys bring your dogs overhere all the time and I feel
like I don't have enough of thatand we can travel now a little
(15:13):
bit easier without a dog.
But I'm sure I will get anotherone at some point.
Meghan Leigh (15:18):
It looks like you've been very well traveled
and have lived in a lot ofdifferent places too.
What brought you to California?
Heatherly Bell (15:32):
What brought me to California basically was my
dad.
He was one of those earlysoftware engineers in the area
that would become Silicon Valley.
You know he was with IBM andwhen we moved to this little
town it really wasn't calledSilicon Valley but it, you know,
grew up around us because welive in that San Jose Palo Alto
area, the Bay Area.
So he came out here for thatjob and I was like 18 or 19.
(15:52):
So I was a little bit tooimmature to be on my own.
I tried.
We had lived in Maryland and Ihad all my friends there, so I
did not really want to leave.
But I wasn't quite ready to beon my own.
Meghan Leigh (16:03):
So I came out here to join my family and I just
never left really, do you feellike that has helped with your
writing, because you place thesetowns in a lot of different
states.
Having been all around, do youfeel like that has kind of given
you that more I don't knowopenness to those kinds of
(16:26):
spaces in your writing?
Heatherly Bell (16:28):
I think so.
Yeah, I hope so.
I do love so many differentparts of the United States.
I unfortunately haven't beenable to live in Texas and I
won't because of the heat Ican't stand the heat anymore but
I do love Texas.
I love the openness of Texas.
I've written a few books inCalifornia as well.
(16:49):
You know, in fact, the firstseries, fortune, I evaluate
loosely based on the town that Ilive in actually at the moment,
because it was called Fortuneand we have a lot of very
wealthy people in this area.
I'm not one of them, but itfeels like this is a very sort
of, you know, wealthy area, Isuppose, and so I was writing
(17:10):
about people in that town, butthey're not necessarily wealthy,
but they live in that town.
So but I just kind of takelittle bits and pieces of
different places that I've been,even if I've just passed
through them.
Sometimes you get a really goodfeel about a place and the
people.
And, yeah, I just love writingabout little towns especially.
Meghan Leigh (17:30):
What book or what series do you feel like is your
personal favorite?
Like, if you were going to moveto one of these towns that
you've written, what town wouldyou move to?
Heatherly Bell (17:40):
Oh, wow, that's that's tough.
Move to.
Oh wow, that's that's tough.
Um, I think I would probablypick Stone Ridge, Texas, that is
, you know as a woman, thatwould probably be a good place
to be.
Nicole Danielle (17:57):
I was going to say you'd be in like a special
situation there, right Causeit's a minority selection of
women.
Heatherly Bell (18:00):
Yeah, yeah, yeah , a lot of women, you know,
would do well in a town likethat.
I mean, even if you're an olderwoman, like it says in the book,
they're going to, they're goingto look out for you from the
time you're birth to the timeyou're 80.
You know that the men will letthey really look out for the
women.
And I actually kind of basedloosely based that series on
inspiration from the VirginRiver books from that Robin Carr
(18:22):
does you know and that went toNetflix, and River books that
Robin Carr does you know andthat went to Netflix.
I wanted to have a little townlike that, that you had that
good feeling about the peoplelooking out for each other and
taking care of each other.
So I think that'd be a reallygreat place to live.
If I had to move, I think I'dlike it.
Meghan Leigh (18:42):
That sounds lovely .
Do you have any books sittingon your nightstand right now?
That are maybe something thatyou would like to recommend to
any of our listeners out there.
Heatherly Bell (18:52):
Well, I don't have anything sitting on my
nightstand right now, but I haverecently started reading,
believe it or not.
She's a British author, SophieCousins, and I find that I
really love her books.
She's a British author, SophieCousins, and I find that I
really love her books.
You know, they're very, they'revery funny and uplifting, and
always I like to read thingsthat when I finish reading I
feel like oh good, thank you,yes, good ending.
(19:15):
Sometimes, you know, I feellike I almost have to read ahead
.
Are you not going to give me ahappy ending?
Meghan Leigh (19:28):
Because this is not looking good so far.
But I do find that's.
Heatherly Bell (19:29):
The hardest part about novels is if you've
enjoyed most of it, and then youget to that last chapter and
you're like there's no way theycan wrap this up in a way that's
going to make me happy.
Yeah, it's like, come on, hurryup, wrap this up.
So the last one that I readfrom her was is she really going
out with him?
Meghan Leigh (20:05):
no-transcript.
Nicole Danielle (20:11):
And I was just about to ask the same thing I
wonder that about every author.
Meghan Leigh (20:15):
When I see the names, I'm like, is there like a
name board that's sitting inyour house?
Is it just like divineintervention, like where are
these coming from At this point?
Heatherly Bell (20:25):
I try to think of names I haven't used before
and it's really getting hard.
You know, I looked at my booksand I said, okay, you have too
many Jack, no more Jack.
So I did have a list of names,but it was just the ones that
are already in my book.
I try not to repeat them toooften, but certain names are
just really strong.
(20:45):
Names Like Jack is a verystrong name.
What was the other name?
I do, like I said, all of my, Itry to give my men, my heroes,
very strong names.
And then for the women, I tryto just find a name that isn't
too popular but is still awell-known name.
Find a name that isn't too toopopular but is still a
(21:07):
well-known name, just names thatI like the sound of.
And sometimes I do look at theregional type of stuff, like
this this book, the last threein the Charming Texas, or the
latest three in the CharmingTexas, the one.
The first one was Her FakeBoyfriend, and the guy in that
book is Irish American and hisname is Finn.
And I was thinking you know, Inever it just came out of the
(21:27):
blue.
Sometimes these names just comeout of the blue for me, or maybe
I'll read a book by a favoriteauthor and find an obscure kind
of name in there.
Oh, let's bring back Finn.
Or let's bring back Noah, justnames that I feel are nice and
solid names.
So when I picked Finn I said,okay, so what other Irish
(21:47):
American names do I have?
So I did do like a littlesearch for regional names and
came up with Declan being one ofthem, who's going to be the
heroine in the next book.
And then Ronan is the next guy,so there are two brothers and a
cousin.
So I made the mistake of onlyhaving two brothers.
So I said let's just make thatworks.
(22:12):
Yeah, no, readers really lovebooks with brothers, so I was
trying to do something good forthe readers, so let's just have
another.
He's not a brother, but he isas close as a brother, so they
grew up together and they'recousins.
Meghan Leigh (22:28):
So I think it's that connecting part.
You know, you get thatconnection where somebody
already feels connected to thatmain character.
So if you bring in a cousin,they're like, clearly we're
going to love him as well.
Heatherly Bell (22:37):
Yes, yeah, yeah, and I think they're.
Those are really strong names,you know.
But but again, I had to lookthem up and there were other
Irish names but those justreally jumped out at me as being
sounding kind of strong.
You know, and I always try topick those kind of names.
I'm never gonna pick a namethat just doesn't sound like a
(22:59):
hero's name, right, and I don'twant to say a name right now
because I don't make anybodyfeel bad.
Yeah, they're just some namesthat just don't really sound
like a strong name.
You know, it doesn't mean thatthe person isn't a good person
and a strong person.
That's the name, you know.
Meghan Leigh (23:15):
I just when we've been reading a lot of the backs
of different romance novels aswe're trying to pick out books
for our upcoming episodes.
Sometimes we just giggle somuch at the names that people
have chosen that come from, youknow, just like some big long
made up like you know, featherbottom stone, and I'm like what?
Heatherly Bell (23:39):
is this?
That's funny, yeah, I mean, Ithink my names are all very
names of people that you wouldmeet on the street and so like
people who would be yourneighbors, people who would be
your neighbors, right, yeah, butI do.
Meghan Leigh (23:59):
I mean there are some odd names out there, I will
grant you that.
Heatherly Bell (24:28):
Do you have like any special setup where you do
your best writing be on thecouch, the TV, little patio and
I would go outside under theumbrella and bring my laptop.
I think it's a little hardbecause of the glare, but it's
nice to be outside sometimes.
But right now I really like myoffice and I'm trying to make it
a place where it's just bookseverywhere, bookish things to
(24:49):
kind of encourage me.
But one of the things that Ihave really found it's not so
much the place but almost thesounds.
So I have a favorite YouTubemusic or it's not really music,
it's sounds, and it's rainysounds in a coffee shop, and so
it's like an hour or two hoursof this and somehow I think it's
(25:14):
because you almost train yourbrain this way, but somehow when
I put that on I'm prettyproductive.
So I'll be in my office where Ican now close the door.
It's pretty nice and I can justturn that music on and I am
really productive.
I mean, it just works with mybrain, I guess.
Meghan Leigh (25:32):
I completely understand that.
I will put on those same kindsof videos.
Usually mine will have somekind of rain, but it'll also
have a little bit of classicalmusic and, like the Pomodoro
timing I don't know if you doany of the ones with the timing
in it where it gives you, likeyou know, a half an hour.
Stand up and move your legs andI'll sit back down and write
again that kind of stuff.
Heatherly Bell (25:53):
Yeah, I've done those, definitely.
Meghan Leigh (25:56):
Yeah, I like that.
So any advice for aspiringwriters?
Heatherly Bell (26:01):
I think just write, write a lot and write
what you love.
And we had a thing called theinternal editor.
That kind of sits on yourshoulder and just sits there
critiquing everything you write,like that's not good, nope,
nope, start over.
That's not good, don't do that.
You have to just banish thatperson and just throw her away
(26:22):
and say I'm going to write whatI want to write, just let it all
go.
You know, it's almost like yoursubconscious is working, like
you kick out your conscious mindthat says you can't do this or
you're not very good at this,and just kick her to the curb
and just let your subconscioustake over.
When I first started doing this, I said I think my subconscious
is a better writer than myconscious person is.
(26:44):
You know, because I don't haveany roadblocks that I'm putting
up and I just throw it all outthere.
But I do admit that I think it'sgood to have a little bit of a
roadmap.
I'm not saying somebody shouldjust sit down and just write
whatever.
You should probably have alittle bit of a roadmap, like
okay, what am I going to writeabout?
Am I going to write about awoman who's starting over and so
(27:06):
she moves to a small town,small coastal town, and starts
up a business what am I going towrite about?
And then, depending on the kindof writer you are, I'm more of
a discovery writer sometimes.
So I'd be halfway through thebook sometimes before I realize
who these people really are, youknow.
And then I say, oh, that's whyshe behaves this way and that's
(27:29):
why, and of course then that'swhat a first draft is for right,
because I always can go backlater and layer all that stuff
in just hints as to kind of theperson that she is and why she
would do something like this,you know.
Meghan Leigh (27:43):
Do you usually have the happy ending already,
like something that you'reaiming for?
Do you kind of already know howthe characters are going to be
together in the end, so that youcan kind of bring that all
together?
Or is that also part of thediscovery process?
Heatherly Bell (27:57):
Well, because I write romance, I know they're
going to wind up together rightat the end.
So that's kind of easy.
But what's not easy and what'salways difficult for me is
finding that dark moment when itseems like they're not going to
be together, and then trying tofind a way to get them together
.
So no, I don't always know thatit's not fully a discovery,
because usually I know what theissues are that are keeping them
(28:21):
apart, what issue this personhas.
So, adam and Stacey, it's prettyobvious that he has a fear of
losing someone that he lovesagain, right, and she has a fear
of being second to somebodybecause of what happened with
her ex.
Her ex-husband went off withhis first wife, who he still had
a thing for.
(28:41):
So she's thinking well, I'vegot the ghost of this woman that
Adam loved in our life and soshe's having a hard time with
that.
So I knew that their darkmoment had to be something
relating to that, you know.
And she had to come to therealization that why don't you
listen to what he's saying?
He's saying that he wants to bewith you and that he's wanting
(29:04):
to have this new life with youinstead of like stuck in his
grief or in the past, type ofthing.
I know that's one of the bookswhere my editor said I really
wasn't sure how you were goingto bring these people together.
Meghan Leigh (29:16):
I thought you did a masterful job, so it was
appreciated.
Nicole Danielle (29:20):
Megan and I were actually talking before we
started the recording that thechallenges that your characters
are trying to overcome is veryrealistic.
When I was reading Lucky Cowboy, I was telling her that Lincoln
he really resembles in a lot ofways my husband and then my
sister's boyfriend.
(29:41):
He's kind of a crabby guy myhusband is totally a crabby guy
sometimes and then, in adifferent regard, he had a lot
of challenges with, like, beingable to tell Sadie that he loved
her, which is a huge problemthat my sister's boyfriend had
for a long time because he sawdivorced parents and he wasn't
sure what love really meant.
And now today he was like, oh,I love you.
And I was like it's just luckycowboys.
Heatherly Bell (30:06):
Right.
So well, hopefully, you know,of course this is a book, so it
has to be dramatic, buthopefully he didn't have to face
almost losing her to realizebecause that's what our stubborn
Lincoln had to do realize, ohmy gosh, you know I might really
lose this person, you know, andso, yeah, I obviously love this
person.
Nicole Danielle (30:26):
I just love that with your characters.
It's so realistic.
The dialogue is realistic, thechallenges they face is
realistic.
It's not stuff that is lofty orlives in some magical fairy
tale romance world.
It's everyday love, if thatmakes sense, and I just really
appreciate it personally.
Heatherly Bell (30:43):
Thank you.
Yeah, I do strive for that, andI think one of the things I get
compliments on the most is mydialogue, and I think that's
because I talk so much and Ialways listen too.
I listen to a lot ofconversations, so, yeah, and I
feel like dialogue should reallyexpress who somebody is, more
(31:04):
than relaying information, youknow.
Nicole Danielle (31:06):
So Heatherly, how did you get your?
Heatherly Bell (31:08):
first book published, the one with
Harlequin.
You mean my first book withHarlequin book published, the
one with Harlequin, you mean myfirst book with Harlequin, yeah,
so I it was kind of a long,circuitous route, I think I.
So I wrote this book based on adream that I had, and I really
don't recommend doing thatbecause it made it really
difficult in the end because Ihad to construct this plot.
(31:30):
It was.
You know, you have the littleseed of an idea and then you
realize so this is going to bereally hard because there's a
lot more that has to come intoit.
So I wrote this book from startto finish and then I tried to
find an agent for it because itwas a longer book than Harlequin
usually takes.
But they had the super romanceline at that time, which was
(31:53):
much bigger media books, and Ihad not had any luck getting in
with Harlequin without an agent.
So I decided I'll just try withan agent.
Back when Twitter was a thing,they used to have these Twitter
pitches and you would get topitch like one line idea and
(32:13):
agents would sort of respond tothat and say, yeah, I'd like to
see more, or whatever.
So I did that and I wound upwith this one agent, dawn
Dottaluth-Leweridge agency.
She has since passed away,unfortunately, but she liked it
and said let's work together andshe went out on submission and
I wound up with Harlequin, whichI was really kind of surprised
(32:35):
because it was sort of a longcircuitous route.
You know, harlequin, you don'thave to have an agent to submit
to them.
So I had submitted to them inthe past, but sometimes a book
has to wind up on the desk of aneditor that really loves it,
and I was fortunate enough tohave that happen, and that was
(32:55):
my first book that I hadpublished with Harlequin and
they like to do series a lot.
So they said, okay, well, comeup with two more books.
And so I had to sort of like,okay, yeah, so there's guess
what?
There's two more pilots, solet's do this thing.
And these pilots are in thetown and you know, sometimes you
(33:16):
just have to think very quicklyand get creative, and I was
fortunate enough that theybought three book series and
then, shortly after that, third,book was published Superman
Super Romance closed the line.
So I was like, ok, this is notgood.
I was working on anotherproposal for another book.
(33:38):
So I said, ok, well, what arewe going to do here?
Because they moved me tospecial edition you know, which
is where I am right now and thebooks were going to be shorter.
I had a new editor.
It was a challenge, becausehere I am, I'm coming from
writing these really long booksto writing much shorter.
I had a new editor.
It was a challenge, becausehere I am, I'm coming from
writing these really long booksto writing much shorter, and you
(33:58):
would think that it'd be easierto write shorter, but not
necessarily.
I remember the first book that Iwrote for a special edition,
the editor was saying well, youknow, I think there's a problem
here with pacing.
Yeah, no surprise, because I'mkind of like used to writing
this longer book.
So I think she says I think wealready know why these people
(34:18):
shouldn't be together.
Now let's put them together.
All right, I get it.
Be quicker about this.
So yeah.
So then I moved into specialedition.
I was very fortunate to be ableto move into special edition,
because there was a lot of superromance authors that never got
another contract or they arestill trying to get another
contract.
I just was fortunate that myeditor really, really liked me
(34:40):
and she wanted to put mesomewhere else, so that's where
I've been.
Meghan Leigh (34:44):
I love that you started with Harlequin, though,
because I feel like, even as areader, when you start reading
romance, I feel like thoseHarlequins are the ones you
start with, because your mom hasthem, your grandma has them,
like they're at your bestfriend's house, they're by the
checkout line, they're justeverywhere.
So everybody's got kind of thatsoft spot in their heart for,
(35:06):
like that first Harlequinromance that they read.
So I love that.
Heatherly Bell (35:11):
It's true, and Harlequin was really for years
the name in romance, you know,until other people came along.
But they're still hanging inthere.
Meghan Leigh (35:20):
They are they are.
I know I read on your threadsyou've been talking about really
getting into like the slow burnromances right now.
Heatherly Bell (35:31):
Well, that was the book I was.
I think that was the book I wasreading.
Is she really going out withhim?
Cause that was pretty slow burn, for sure, and a lot of her
books are like that.
But I find that just I love it,because I'm not huge on spicy
Obviously I don't write superspicy but I'm more about the
emotional connection between twopeople and I think when you
(35:54):
have a slow burn, that's what'shappening.
You know, maybe people don'tnotice it, but it's happening.
These people are really gettingto know each other and they're
really falling in love beforethey fall into bed for whatever
reason.
So that's what I like about it.
And also, I think I said inthat same post that it's sort of
like not immediately looking ata guy and thinking he's
gorgeous and that's importanttoo.
(36:15):
Granted, you're probably goingto find something attractive
about this person, but it's.
You know, you're just not like,oh gosh, he's gorgeous right
away and I have to have him, andit's sort of like a slow
learning of wow, look what helooks like without a shirt.
Whoa, I never, I never thoughtof that before and that kind of
a thing.
It's sort of like an awareness.
That's a gradual and awareness.
Nicole Danielle (36:37):
I think it's more real too, for the most part
yeah, emotions, and I thinkMegan and I definitely agree
with that, because there havebeen some books we've been
reading for the podcast.
Heatherly Bell (36:53):
We're like I'm like, they's true.
Yeah, that's true.
You just, sometimes I get it.
Sometimes it does happen fast.
But if it happens fast, thenyou have to show me why it
happens fast.
You know what?
Meghan Leigh (37:05):
I mean exactly, yeah, exactly, and that that's
been our.
Our issue with some of thebooks is I'm like I just don't
understand why these two aretogether.
I don't see the commonalityother than he's handsome, she's
pretty.
Heatherly Bell (37:22):
I wanted to be more than just a superficial
thing, you know.
Meghan Leigh (37:26):
Exactly, which kind of brings us around to the
question.
Nicole and I have been ratingall of these books on what we're
calling our Spicy Scovillescale, and you were just saying
you don't write incredibly spicy.
So on our Scoville scale like,the top one is Carolina Reaper
and I'm going to say your booksare not in the Carolina Reaper
(37:47):
category, they're further downthe list but they are above milk
and green pepper, which is kindof our sad ones down in the
bottom and I think, Nicole and Ikind of feel that yours are
hovering at that likejalapeno-ish, kind of in the
middle.
But you know, I wanted to knowfrom your perspective if you
(38:08):
were poblano jalapeno orhabanero like, are you feeling
like anywhere in that particularpart of the scale?
Heatherly Bell (38:16):
I'm thinking what's the one that, um, so I'm
thinking of my peppers here.
Meghan Leigh (38:21):
Helping is pretty spicy, it's just it's our
middling for, for our scale atleast, yeah yeah, I would say
jalapeno.
Then for sure, yeah, yeah okayyeah, I feel like we're all in
agreement.
Then, ok, I feel like Lucky.
Nicole Danielle (38:33):
Cowboy was like almost habanero, but definitely
jalapeno.
Heatherly Bell (38:38):
Yeah, absolutely true.
Meghan Leigh (38:40):
Jalapenos can can kind of go either way, depending
on you know what part of theseason you're.
You're getting them out of thefield, so you know you got that.
Heatherly Bell (38:49):
Very true, yeah, I would say that.
But you know, a rating scale ofspicy just really is so
subjective and it really dependson who you're talking to.
You know, like I would say theway I say it is, my mother
thinks my books are way toospicy, way too spicy, and you
know, but most people what?
(39:10):
Not enough spice for me.
So it's like sometimes it's lowand mostly medium, you know,
yeah, medium I.
Meghan Leigh (39:19):
I agree it is completely subjective, which is
why we kind of wanted to ask youyour feelings on it, because
now that we've read some of thebooks and it's like, oh well,
this is how I perceive it, butcoming from the author, like
where, where does that fall?
But it feels like, yeah, kindof in that meddling ground.
So which, for me, is mypreference, like I don't, I
(39:39):
don't want something that's soboring that they've never held
hands, and I don't wantsomething where I hear about all
the grotesque details of what'sgoing on in their bedroom.
So I like the middle ground.
Heatherly Bell (39:52):
Yeah.
I do too.
I really do.
It feels like a comfortableplace to be.
You know, it's also languagetoo.
What the language that you useto talk about certain parts of
the anatomy?
And depending on what word youuse, it changes the flavor of
the book and the tone and alsoprobably the spiciness, right?
Nicole Danielle (40:13):
That's a very valid point and I haven't
actually thought about thatbefore.
Meghan Leigh (40:17):
But yeah, the language and the terminology For
sure Everybody receives thosewords a little bit differently.
Like some words that I mightfind to be like, oh, that's
really sexy, Somebody else mightbe like, oh, don't say that,
yeah, exactly.
So do you have some projectsthat you're working on right now
that you want to kind of maybetell us about or steer us toward
(40:40):
, like something recentlypublished that we should all go
out and read, or something weshould be looking for on the
horizon?
Heatherly Bell (40:54):
published book is the Maverick's Christmas
Countdown which came out inNovember and that was a really
fun book to write because it wasa fake relationship between two
friends and it was set atChristmas time and it's just a
fun book.
And then I have the Ex.
Next Door is the next charmingbook Texas book coming out in
July and.
(41:14):
I just shared the coverrecently and that is a fun book
because it's one of the Irishbrothers, not the cousin, it's
the brother.
The cousin is coming out.
The cousin will come out asit's a Christmas book, so it'll
come out later this year, tooPerfect.
I don't even have a title forthat book yet.
(41:35):
I call it.
My placeholder.
Title is A Christmas Rescue.
Meghan Leigh (41:41):
I love the Christmas ones.
So far, apparently, that's whatI'm mostly gravitating toward,
which is so funny because Nicoleand I have had the discussion.
I'm not like a Hallmark movieperson at all, so I think it's
funny that the ones I'm readingthat I've loved the most is the
Christmas ones.
That's been really fun todiscover about myself.
Heatherly Bell (41:57):
Yeah, I try to make every third book that I
write a Christmas book andthey're fun to write because
you've got so much already inthe setting.
You know there's so much, it'sall the things you see.
Everything is just so brightand colorful.
There's so much to see.
There's so much to hear withall the music.
There's so much to see.
There's so much to hear withall the music.
There's so much to smell.
(42:17):
It's just, it's a perfectsetting.
Meghan Leigh (42:20):
All right, nicole, do you have anything else that
you want to ask?
I only have, like, one lastquestion that I want.
Nicole Danielle (42:25):
Yeah, heatherly , what's a fun fact your readers
might not know about you?
I?
Heatherly Bell (42:30):
guess it would be that I really started off
wanting to be a singer in theRock and roll hall of fame, and
so I was.
I was just.
It was the 80s, you know, and,um, probably before you guys
were born oh no, I'll keep heraround but I was out there and I
was like trying to be patbenatar, you know, and I was in
(42:51):
bands and we, we played aroundthe bay area but, um, it never,
never took off for me.
But that is one thing and I andI, you know, I, I have been
told I'm a pretty good singer.
So are?
Meghan Leigh (43:06):
are there mixed tapes out there?
Are there cds out there?
Is there anything we can trackdown that you would be on I?
Heatherly Bell (43:13):
don't.
I have them.
I don't think there's anythingout there, but it's too bad.
We have them.
We have the tracks and thetapes and everything here.
Meghan Leigh (43:22):
I am super into music as well.
I grew up with a dad who wasalways playing in bands and, you
know, grew up in the choir, andmy husband and I have a music
project we work on together, sothat's cool.
I love that.
Heatherly Bell (43:37):
I love that.
You should get back out there.
I guess I should.
You know, that's kind of how Imet my husband.
He was at a party when I wassinging in this band and he was
sound engineer.
They brought in, and so that'show we met.
He's a drummer, but he alsoplays the bass.
So he's got.
He's never let it go.
He's got.
One of our spare rooms is it'scalled the music room.
(43:58):
We have everything in thestudio so yeah, yeah.
So yeah, I can't really get awayfrom it, nor should I.
You know you shouldn't.
It is fun.
I love music.
I don't listen to it while I'mwriting because it's too
distracting for me.
Don't listen to it while I'mwriting because it's too
(44:18):
distracting for me.
I'm going to totally startsinging or, you know, clapping
along.
I can't.
It takes away my focuscompletely.
So that's why I have to havelike rain.
Those kinds of sounds workbetter for me.
That makes sense.
Nicole Danielle (44:29):
So another one on my list here.
On your bio it says that youdrink copious amounts of coffee,
you crave cupcakes andoccasionally wear real pants.
How do you like your coffee?
What's your favorite cupcakeflavor and what's your favorite
comfy outfit to wear?
Heatherly Bell (44:46):
Well, I'll start with comfy outfit, and it's
either my jammies or a yogapants you know, those are
comfortable, they're stretchyand just a sweatshirt or
whatever.
That's my comfy outfit to writein, and I kind of think I'd
live my life in yoga pants if Icould, but that's not realistic.
I don't.
Cupcakes, my goodness.
(45:07):
I mean, I don't discriminate, Ilove every type of cupcake
there is.
I don't get to eat them enoughanymore because I have to cut
back on my sugar, but I would besomething with salted caramel
filling and maybe even thefrosting.
I don't get to eat them enoughanymore because I have to cut
back on my sugar, but I would besomething with salted caramel
filling and maybe even thefrosting.
I love salted caramel.
My coffee has to have somecream, but I don't take sugar.
But also, we're very picky hereabout our coffee.
(45:29):
Lately we just have Peet's, youknow, and we won't do anything
but Peet's.
So we're very picky with ourcoffee, there, with our coffee.
Nothing wrong with that,nothing at all.
It's got to be strong.
Nicole Danielle (45:41):
For me it's got , oh yeah oh yeah, none of this
water, this brown water, likeyeah, exactly yeah, yeah, you
know what?
Heatherly Bell (45:48):
I was trying to get more into tea, but tea just
feels like brown water to memost of the time, you know, and
tastes that way.
But I was.
I was trying trying to get intoit a little bit more, just to
expand my horizons.
And the funny thing is I postedon threads that I was
interested in learning aboutteas and or how can I get to
(46:08):
liking tea better than I do.
It was probably my most popularthread I've done.
I had like 800 responses, wow,and found that people are really
passionate about their tea.
Meghan Leigh (46:25):
Yeah, there's a passionate tea community, a
passionate coffee community andthere are some crossovers.
I will do both, but I'm morewith you on the copious amounts
of coffee.
I mean, I go through way toomuch in a day.
The doctor asked me how manycups and I went two.
Nicole Danielle (46:37):
I don't think that was honest, Meg.
You didn't see the size of thecup.
Heatherly Bell (46:42):
Yes, I'm trying to cut back on coffee too, and
I'm one of those people thatcan't have coffee too late in
the day, or I swear I'll be upall night.
Nicole Danielle (46:51):
That's me for sure.
I can't have it past noon, orit's all over, oh no no, this
girl's still drinking coffee way, way late at night.
Heatherly Bell (47:01):
That doesn't affect you.
The same way, my husband's, thesame way.
He can drink a cup of coffeeright before he goes to bed.
Meghan Leigh (47:05):
It won't affect him yeah, same, same, I could.
I could just intravenous thatkind of stuff.
Good, good to go.
Well, all right.
My very last question then,nicole, unless you had anything
else, no, I would like you tohave the platform here to just
tell everybody where we can findyou.
You know, online and maybe anyupcoming events you have, if
(47:28):
you've got book signings or ifyou're attending any cons or
anything like that, where canpeople find you?
I?
Heatherly Bell (47:33):
will be at Book Lovers Con in May, which is
happening in Las Vegas.
It's May 15th and you can findme just about anywhere.
I'm on threads, I'm onPinterest, I'm on Instagram, I'm
on Facebook, all right.
Meghan Leigh (47:50):
Well, thank you so much for being with us.
Nicole Danielle (47:53):
Yes, thank you, Heather.
Meghan Leigh (47:55):
Yeah, I was so delighted to have you on and it
has just been a pleasure.
Thank you so much for having me.
Heatherly Bell (48:04):
I love to hear that people read and enjoyed my
book, because I don't get tohear that very often.
Meghan Leigh (48:12):
We said you're criminally underrepresented in
our library.
Nicole Danielle (48:17):
Yeah, my library too.
I was like, where is HeatherLee?
Meghan Leigh (48:20):
I'm going to have a word with the library and I
think that's what's going tohappen.
Heatherly Bell (48:25):
Well, my self-published books are on
Ingram so they should be able toorder them.
I tried to make sure they wereon Ingram, so I think sometimes
you have to ask them.
Bring in the ISBN number andask them to put it in there.
Meghan Leigh (48:37):
I volunteer with my local library, so I'll see if
I can strong arm them intotitles.
Heatherly Bell (48:43):
I appreciate that Very good.
Nicole Danielle (48:52):
So, Nicole, was that the best?
It was amazing.
So, Nicole, was that the bestit was amazing.
Meghan Leigh (48:59):
I was kind of starstruck and hopefully I
didn't come across totally stiffand frightened, because that is
a little bit how I felt.
But we got through it and shewas lovely she was.
She was a joy.
If any of you in the audiencehaven't had the opportunity to
read any of Miss Bell's work, Ido highly recommend checking
(49:20):
them out.
And she has a new book slatedto drop in July for the Charming
Texas series.
It's called the Ex Next Door.
I've got it in my ripped bodicecart right now because it is
currently available forpre-order.
And if you use our affiliatelink on the Romance on the Rocks
(49:41):
podcast website man, that's amouthful Romance on the Rocks
podcast website it can helpsupport all the work we put into
the recordings and I knowNicole has been working really
hard on getting our affiliatelinks to be a little more
prominent on the website andhopefully in like the podcast
show notes as well.
But if you do need help findingyour way over to Ripped Bodice
(50:04):
Links or our Amazon affiliatelinks, please reach out.
Let us know If you do click onanything on our website.
You don't even have to buy thebook you clicked on.
Anything you buy during thatvisit actually helps the podcast
.
So that's kind of cool too.
You can go in and you can clickon Dark of the Moon or you can
(50:25):
click on the Accidental Kiss.
You can click on those and goahead and buy socks or a
notebook.
Nicole Danielle (50:31):
On Amazon, yeah , on Amazon, not on the Ripped
Bodice, if you start there.
Meghan Leigh (50:36):
anything you buy counts, but on Ripped Bodice,
like I said, they have got thebook the Ex Next Door ready to
purchase for pre-order.
And then one more plug for MissBell.
Heatherly is incredibly activeon Instagram.
She has a great newsletter thatshe shares and I definitely
recommend giving her a follow onboth Instagram and Facebook
(50:58):
page so you can get access tothat newsletter.
Just another thank you to MissBell for honoring us with her
presence and the interview.
It was a pleasure.
So thank you for joining ustoday for Romance on the Rocks.
Please like, subscribe andfollow, and if you are a
hopelessly romantic fellowbookish bitty like us, think
(51:19):
about giving us a review onApple, itunes, spotify, youtube
and wherever you catch yourpodcasts.
Your support really means theworld to us.
So until next time, stay safeand know that you are loved.
I'm.
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