Five Minutes with Keighley Bradford #LoveAusAuthors
Author Keighley Bradford writes mostly new adult contemporary romance novels because she loves the genre as a writer and reader. ‘I love the idea of spreading hope and joy through these types of novels and find this genre to be the perfect pick-me-up to any bad day.’
Keighley is also a freelance writer with a passion for sharing stories about the Arts. What she enjoys most about this, is promoting Australian stories and showcasing talented creatives, as she believes the value this work brings to the Australian community is often overlooked.
‘I never wanted to be a journalist, (I’ve always been more of a creative writer), however I got into student media while at university and that’s how I found my passion for feature writing.’
When she needs a break from articles and novels, Keighley dabbles in short stories. ‘I began this in Year 12 to cope with the HSC workload, as a novel was a bit much to juggle on top of that. Now, I write short stories to get out of my head when I’m stuck on my novels.’
While Keighley is known as a romance author, she also writes YA paranormal/fantasy, which she hopes to one day explore publishing.
Five things about Keighley’s background
- I have an undergraduate degree specialising in writing and publishing and a masters specialising in marketing. Formally my degrees are in the ‘Creative Industries’ so I have a background in the greater arts and admin, as well as these specialisations.
- I’ve been writing since I started high school, diving straight into novels. In fact, I got to the last chapter of my very first novel, but decided I didn’t like how the story was ending, so I rewrote the entire thing from scratch.
- I have a strong background in student media, which is where I found my passion for feature writing and discovered my desire to work in marketing.
- I’m a recent graduate with a strong connection to my local writing community. I’m currently the marketing manager at IF Maitland, (a writers’ festival for indie authors), and founded my university writers’ group.
- I’m from a country town but have always been called a city girl. Since I’m more obsessed with the beach, perhaps I should actually be called a coastal girl – haha!
Five things about Keighley’s work
- My debut title Once We Were was completed as my Masters major project at Uni.
- I began writing this novel on my 21st trip to Europe and through many re-writes it became a completely different story to what I had set out to create.
- My WIP is actually my very first NaNoWriMo project. I began this nearly five years ago and am now editing it for publication, which I hope to release next year.
- My WIP is a contemporary romance about a girl who is so heartbroken, she begins an anonymous love letters page which goes viral.
- I write my stories from an Australian perspective, using Aussie language. While writing in US style is encouraged by traditional publishers, I love that Indie publishing allows me to write using Australian English and terminology.
Five things that help Keighley keep on writing
- Regularly attend a writers’ group – I’m lucky to have a fortnightly one, and I also tap into virtual groups run via social media weekly.
- Recording my progress, such as word counts. This helps with first drafts and rewrites but isn’t as good for editing!
- Posting updates on socials – for me this helps keep accountability. If I’m telling people in my online community that I’m going to do xyz, I want to be able to follow through.
- Connecting with inspirational people on social media – specifically my favourite authors. I love seeing their journey and find it motivational to keep me going with my own work.
- Having an end-game – ie. deadlines. This includes when I want to publish by, which works best for me when it comes to edits and producing publication materials.
In the future, Keighley hopes to finally attend her first book signing, as sadly covid-19 restrictions have continually postponed her signings. She would love to be invited to an international book signing, (seriously, how good would that be?!) and to be invited as an artist to a major writers festival/conference. Finally she hopes to once again be able to travel overseas because it is one of her joys and to keep producing stories that hopefully touch the hearts of many readers.
You can find Keighley’s debut romance novel at The Australian Bookish Shop.