I am passionate about animal welfare and am an active member for several animal charities.Belinda Alexandra has been published to wide acclaim in Australia and internationally. When I’m not writing, I enjoy flamenco and belly dancing, playing the piano and attempting to wrap my tongue around foreign languages. I currently live in Sydney, Australia, with my three black cats, Valentino, Versace and Gucci, and a garden full of the beautiful Australian wildlife I love so much. A dream! Finally, I was to be a published author.

That book was sold in an auction between major publishers, and resulted in a contract for a two-book deal. Writing at 4am on cold winter mornings, on planes, subway trains and in airports, I finished the book that was to change everything: White Gardenia. After one novel was rejected by every publisher in Australia, I went to lick my wounds in New York, where I had accepted a job with a conference company. I can’t say that it was because I had incredible confidence in myself and knew that one day I would be published. Things did not happen quickly! For the next ten years everything I wrote was rejected. It was only after attending the University of California to complete my undergraduate degree that I was inspired enough by the other big dreamers around me to finally go for mine. I met wonderful people and had fun while working in those ‘real’ jobs, but it always felt as if my soul was sad and that I wasn’t fulfilling my true purpose. But I persisted.īut like most people with a creative dream, I followed the advice to get a ‘real’ job. For the next ten years everything I wrote was rejected.

I spent most of my student years travelling and my friends would compliment me on my vivid letters and emails. My journey to becoming a published writer is not a tale of overnight success, however. My mother would hold my brothers and me in awe as she told us stories of Old Harbin in China, where she had been born into the Russian community, while my father would make us laugh at his stories of a youth spent as a volunteer lifesaver on Bondi Beach. I also inherited the ‘storytelling gene’ from them. Thanks to my parents I have a fascination with other cultures, world history and why people do the things they do. I conjured up stories in my head as I revelled in the natural world around me or lay on my back on the grass and watched the clouds float by.

Silver Wattle by Belinda Alexandra