Episode 53: Bette Lee Crosby, USA Today bestselling author

Bette Lee Crosby, USA Today bestselling and award-winning novelist

Key Topics:

Bette Lee Crosby writes Southern fiction that touches the heart. She talks about how you can be guaranteed a happy ending in her books, her writing advice and the real life family inspiration for her latest novel, When I Last Saw You.

Interview Notes:

We chat about how Southerners are borne storytellers, Bette’s mom being one of eleven children, and how that inspired this dual-time period novel, which has been described in reviews as “truly epic” and “compelling and heart-warming”.

Bette shares her thoughts on how different the time period of the novel (early 1900s) was in terms of a woman’s options, and why Bette loves to write the modern day parts of her dual timeline set in the 1960s.

 This is a book I truly enjoyed, and it was such fun to chat with Bette Lee! She shares the power of great reviews, even after so many best sellers, and where she keeps finding her ideas after so many bestsellers.

After 20+ books I ask Bette what her advice for other writers might be, and funnily Bette doesn’t consider herself prolific, only writing “two books a year” on average (which made me almost fall off my chair! She also shares what her edit process and timeline looks like.

Her advice is reading- read as much as you can. What you learn from reading; how to pour your heart out, how to make that character “real”, lovable and sometimes dislikable at the same time.

Reading wise, Bette enjoyed THE TRUTH AND OTHER HIDDEN THINGS by Lea Geller and THE WORDS BETWEEN US by Erin Bartels.

And we wrap by talking about a very special deal and why you might want to get on Bette’s email list.