The St Leonards author rewriting the romance rulebook

But then you get to 29 and realise you haven’t achieved what you thought you would at that age.

This forms the basis of the debut novel Thirty by Christina Bradley.

Bella is days away from turning 30 and still single so she decides to undertake 30 dates in 30 days before she turns 30 in a bid to find ‘the one’.

“I remember finding myself surrounded by the same conversations of single friends worrying about the fact they hadn’t found ‘the one’ yet, and about how what they expected to have at that age hadn’t come true,” explains Christina.

“So I had the idea and I wrote a first draft with the basic plot of 30 dates in 30 days before she turned 30 and sort of left it.”

Christina then went away to a cabin in Canada and found it was her now or never moment to go back to the book.

“I looked back at that first draft and it was awful,” she laughs.

“The story was very one dimensional, I needed to develop subplots and characters more so I basically started again.

“When I came back to the book I was older and I suppose a little wiser that I could look at it from a different angle, whereas before I was very much in the moment.

“It led me on a journey of discovery.”

But Christina admits that the writing process wasn’t an easy one.

“I was working full time and would do two hours in the morning before work at a coffee shop,” she explains.

“Once the characters were there I knew what they wanted to say and what they wanted to do and it went from there.

“It was really enjoyable experience but there were ups and downs.

“I knew how I wanted the book to end and there were a number of twists that I wanted to incorporate before the end of the story.”

Christina is now working on another book, an idea she had before Thirty.

“I am writing that at the moment but I also want to do a sequel for Bella,” reveals Christina.

“See where she goes, potentially when she turns 40. Looking at the expectations that age brings especially looking at the impact of social media, which I touched on in Thirty but think it is evident more so now.”

Thirty was initially self-published but has since been picked up by Headline Publishing group.

“I knew before I started writing there was an audience for it, and people it will speak to,” she explains.

“Although it’s a book about dating and being single, it’s not only for single woman. It’s a story that is relatable in some way to most women.

“I wanted Bella to be normal and honest, I just wanted people to root for her.

“People who know me say that Bella is very much me but I didn’t do that on purpose. I took a number of friends experiences and stories to create her.”

It is exciting to see where Christina’s stories take us all next.

Website

www.christina-bradley.com Twitter @cbradleywrites Insta: @christinabradleywrites