Buy Christine Betts a coffee

I wrote my first book at age ten. It was an illustrated travel memoir about our long drive from Queensland to Western Australia that culminated in our car self-immolating on the roadside just outside of Esperance. It wasn’t much of a seller with a print run of just one copy.

I always wanted to write but just fiddled with it over the years. Working as a commercial artist was my creative outlet. I wrote stories for my son when he was little and in the years after a bereavement, found writing cathartic. Those pages were just for me (and my therapist!)

In 2012, I started writing fiction. A ‘Girls’ trip to Paris inspired a story about love, regret, and fashion, with a touch of time travel to spice things up.

Since 2017, I have written close to a million words with two complete novels, two novellas, dozens of short stories, and three manuscripts in progress. The early pieces were set in France (Hotel Déjà vu and Alia Henry and the Ghost Writer– both Contemporary Fiction.)

In-progress pieces are set in England and Neolithic France (Circle of Ash-Contemp. Fiction/Historical Fiction), Los Angeles (Mimi gets away with Murder–Crime/Literary), and country Australia (Homecoming–Cosy Mystery/Contemp. Fiction.)

My short story, Death of a Show Princess, was shortlisted for the Scarlett Stiletto Awards in 2021 (Highly Commended.) Work-in-progress, Homecoming, is based on this short story. Another short story, Tough Crowd, won the Queensland Writers Centre RightLeftWrite competition in November, 2021.

I write a blog, WriterPainter, where I ramble about Writing, Travel, Life, and Writing.

Read Death of a Show Princess.

Read Tough Crowd.

Media – You can listen to me swoon about all things French on Loulabelle’s Francofiles podcast. I am on episode 41 - Paris Time Travel.

If you like my writing and want to say thanks you can buy me a coffee, or a gin :)