Kimberly Belle: Treat Your Writing Like the Job That It Is

Kimberly Belle worked in marketing and nonprofit fundraising before turning to writing fiction. A graduate of Agnes Scott College, Kimberly lived for over a decade in the Netherlands and currently divides her time between Atlanta and Amsterdam. She is the bestselling author of The Marriage Lie, Three Days Missing, Dear Wife, as well as The Last Breath, The Ones We Trust, Stranger in the Lake, My Darling Husband, and The Personal Assistant. Follow her on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

Kimberly Belle

Photo by Sara Hanna Photography

In this interview, Kimberly discusses the process of writing about a place that she loves with her new thriller, The Paris Widow, her advice for other writers, and more!

Name: Kimberly Belle
Literary agent: Nikki Terpilowski, Holloway Literary
Book title: The Paris Widow
Publisher: Park Row Books
Release date: June 11, 2024
Genre/category: Suspense/Thriller
Previous titles: The Widows series (Young Rich Widows, Desperate Deadly Widows), The Personal Assistant, My Darling Husband, Dear Wife, Stranger in the Lake, Three Days Missing, The Marriage Lie, The Ones We Trust, The Last Breath
Elevator pitch: A dream vacation turns tragic when Stella’s husband Adam goes missing after an explosion in a Parisian square. But according to French police, the bombing was no accident, and Adam wasn’t an innocent victim … but the target.

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What prompted you to write this book?

This is my favorite question because I wanted to write this story for SO LONG. It started with the fact that I live half the year in Europe, so it only makes sense for me to want to set a book there, in a place that I know and love. There’s a lot of Stella in me—her wanderlust, her love of exploring new and exciting places. Paris gets the starring role, but the destinations that made it into the book are some of my favorite spots in all of Europe.

How long did it take to go from idea to publication? And did the idea change during the process?

Like I said, the idea was one I’d been batting around for years, but once I got the approval from my editor, The Paris Widow took me about eight months to write. That’s pretty standard for me, as I work from an outline so much of the plotting is done before I write the first word. Sometimes the story changes as I go, but The Paris Widow stayed fairly true to the outline. The only real change came with the flashback chapters; originally, they were to be from Stella’s POV until I realized they would be much more interesting coming from Adam. He disappears in the bombing that opens the book, so his chapters were an easy way to give insight into his backstory and motivations.

Were there any surprises or learning moments in the publishing process for this title?

When I’m under contract, it can sometimes be a struggle to come up with a premise my editor is as excited about as I am to write it. Sometimes it takes pitching a half dozen ideas before we land on my next story, but The Paris Widow was one-and-done. I sent her a couple paragraphs, she made a couple tweaks, and voilà—I got the green light. It wasn’t so much of a learning moment as it was confirmation to find a premise that I am passionate about, and the rest falls into place.

Were there any surprises in the writing process for this book?

One of the early tweaks my editor made was around Adam’s profession, which the book’s crime centers around. Originally, he was in finance, but my editor preferred something less complicated and more concrete, and boy was she right. The trading of rare antiques is a profession that lends itself perfectly to shenanigans, and it became a central part of the plot. Turns out the antique market is flooded with blood antiquities—treasures ripped from temples and churches and tombs in war-torn countries, snuck over international borders, and sold for big bucks on the black market. My research was both shocking and fascinating.

What do you hope readers will get out of your book?

First and foremost, I hope readers will feel like they’re right there, strolling along the banks of the Seine or standing under the Eiffel Tower when it lights up at night. This is one of those stories where the setting is just as important as the characters, and I hope that the reader gets swept away to foreign lands for a few, spine-tingling hours, no passport necessary.

But secondly, I hope readers will be just as appalled at the trade of blood antiquities as I am, at the many people who take a cut and then turn a blind eye when the pieces land in respected galleries and museums. There are real-life heroes out there working to stop it—and I based my character Kat on one of them—but like most illegal activities, there’s too much money involved. Kat and her courageous counterparts are fighting a losing battle.

If you could share one piece of advice with other writers, what would it be?

The best advice I can give to any writer, aspiring or otherwise, is to keep writing. Don’t wait for an agent, a publisher, a contract, just keep writing and editing, every single day. Treat your writing like the job that it is. Set your alarm and go to “work” every day, five days a week, because if you wait for inspiration to strike—or for a story idea to land in your lap—you’ll never get anything written. Some days you’ll end with a lot of words, other days you’ll stare at your screen and pull out your hair. In the end, it all evens out and before you know it, you’ll have a whole book.

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