Beth Williamson Icon

This is my first post as an official Brava author – I’m dipping my toe in the pool, y’all. I’ve got an amazing group of ladies around me, not only helping me, but giving me information, turning me when I’ve gone the wrong direction and making me feel like a new sister. *warm and fuzzy feelings*

:D

I thought about what my first blog post should be about and decided it would be a good idea to introduce myself to everyone and tell you who I am. So, here I am, waving howdy.

My name is Beth Williamson and I’ve been writing since third grade. I’m sure y’all have heard that before, but it’s true. My third grade teacher, Mrs. Freudenberg (who I adored) told my parents I wrote “lovely poetry” and that was the beginning of my love affair with writing.

I could create entire stories in my head, act them out and generally make people think I was odd. I got very good at it. LOL.

All though my schooling I knew I wanted to be a writer, I just didn’t know what kind of writer. Then as a preteen I discovered my mother’s Harlequins. Oh joy, oh rapture! You remember that feeling, right? I read those books over and over and fell head over heels in love with romance novels.

I took a detour in college when I trained to be a screenwriter/playright at NYU and romance novels took a backseat to my grand plans. Of course, the grand plans turned out to be a big bust and after college, I worked as a newspaper reporter.

Talk about a low-paying job! I was happy to be laid off after a year, even if I did get to see my name in print a lot. Romance novels came back into my life and I became a regular at the library, especially after the birth of my first son in 1992.

That’s when the lightbulb went off in my head… Hey, I love to read them, love to write, why not write romance novels? Ta-da! It really was an epiphany for me.

I wrote my first romance novel, a western of course, which took place on a wagon train to Oregon. It was full of cliches and clinches, with cartoonish villains and a sweet heroine. Gads, it stunk like bad cheese.

The second novel took me longer, eight years actually, to get right. In the meantime, I had my second son in 1996, moved to North Carolina and became a technical writer by trade. Turns out I am very good at it and get paid handsomely to do it.

In 2004, that second manuscript, The Bounty, was finally published in ebook. I was a published romance novelist! *tosses confetti*

The rest, as they say, is history. I’ve since published about 18 novels/novellas in ebook and print as well as some short stories in anthologies. And now, I’m stepping into the “big” New York publishing world as a Brava author with the amazing kate Duffy as my editor. :)

I’m 40 years old, have two teenage sons, a husband, a mortgage, a hybrid car and a burning desire to quit my day job and work full-time as a romance novelist. This truly is the beginning of the rest of my life.

Happy to be here y’all, hope to be here for a while.