2013 author , best seller , bio , blurb , brilliant , interview , spotlight 2 Comments

Alana Munro is not only an author who wrote the best selling book Women Behaving Badly, she’s also an amazing person. She’s always willing to lend a helping hand, and I’m lucky to have met her this year.

Women Behaving Badly has been receiving excellent reviews. I love the cover. It’s brilliant, don’t you think?

Blurb:
Have you ever been hurt by a woman? Are you fed up with the constant bitching, gossiping and manipulation between the
females in your life? Do you want happier and healthier relationships with females? Do you wish to weed out the toxic women and seek out only positive women?

If you have ever wondered why some women are complicated creatures this book will offer you straight talking answers. This book will highlight all the strange, controlling and spiteful behaviours that some females specialise in. This book attempts to understand what actually drives women to be cruel or bitchy to each other. It attempts to make sense of the huge expectations women place on each other. How can you avoid toxic women? What bad behaviours should you be looking out for? This book explores every cruel behaviour possible and attempts to understand what is really going on between the females in your life.

　

Women Behaving Badly – Exposing the Truth about Female Friendship made it to #1 on Amazon Kindle USA during August 2013. She topped the paid books about ‘Emotions and Feelings’ chart on two separate occasions in August. She was even #5 for paid books about ‘Relationships’. This is a massive achievement if you consider the vastness of the American Kindle book market.

Bio:

Alana Munro lives in Australia with her husband, 3 kids and their puppy. Born in Scotland, she acquired a Bachelor of Arts degree from an Edinburgh University before jumping head first into motherhood. Alana spends much of her days trying to ignore the ever expanding pile of dirty washing, trying to write, counting down the hours till it is ‘wine o’clock’ (5pm is a respectable hour for a shiraz?) and sipping on camomile tea that’s went cold – again.
Initially Alana started writing articles and blogging. Through her early work she reconnected with her love of words. After two L-O-N-G years, two house moves and new baby added to the mix - Alana’s debut book, Women Behaving Badly was finally published.

In the first week alone, 500 books were downloaded from Amazon and with lots of pleasant reviews doing the rounds, Alana has been encouraged to write her second book.
In recent times, Alana runs a Google+ community for all writers, bloggers and poets. Support-a-Writer offers support and encouragement to all new writers. The members share marketing tips, discuss their writing ideas and cheer each other on. It is a very active and friendly community, do consider joining if you hope to discover new talent or you are a writer looking to connect. You will be sure to receive a warm welcome!

　

　

Interview Questions:

What were you like as a child?

I was quite shy but engaging with people I knew. I was a little bossy boots when I was really young! I loved time alone but also had no trouble meeting new friends. I was open and friendly to everyone. I wore my heart on my sleeve. I believed people were good and wouldn't hurt me, but sometimes they did hurt me badly. I was a day dreamer and romantic. I was vulnerable. I was trusting. I wanted desperately to believe that other people shared my innocence.

What’s your biggest regret?

I try not to hold onto regrets, but if I am honest I'd say I wish I had studied something completely different at university. Don't get me wrong - my business & marketing degree is useful but looking back there are other subjects that I would've been more passionate about. There's always time to remedy that. It's no big deal really but it is something I think about.

What would you do if the new house you moved into was haunted?

I'd be very freaked out. I'd definitely consider calling in a professional to politely ask the ghost to move on or help the ghost move forward.

What is your biggest fear?

Anything terrible happening to my children and husband. Nothing else bothers me, everything else can be fixed, changed etc, but if anything happens to them my entire world would unravel.

If you can go anywhere in the world, where would it be?

I'd go to France, Spain, or Italy. I'd eat and drink far too much! I love those countries. The lifestyle's brilliant, the foods good, the wines wonderful...what's not to love about that? :)

What’s your biggest turn off?

People who are rude, bitchy, people who think they are superior, and people who are snobby. I find people with these characteristics really off putting and I struggle to connect with them as people. They lack respect for other people and that's just not cool with me. I have become less tolerant to these toxic/negative people as I have grown older. Life is just too short to spend your time with people who bring you down.

I totally agree with you.

What’s your favorite movie?

Groundhog day - anything with Bill Murray wins me over. I also adore a lot of Tom Hanks movies - like Splash and Big. I watched those two movies a zillion times as a little girl. I loved them!

If you had the opportunity to know when and how you’re going to die, would you want to know?

Oh, I don't know! Part of me says yes, but then I'd probably go a bit loopy knowing my future reality. Wouldn't we all lose it if we knew when it was going to happen? I think most of us cope with the reality of our death by blocking it out. It's scary to consider. I have been considering my own mortality quite a lot recently. I think I am beginning to accept that life is short and I better make the most of it! I don't know if the knowledge of my death would bring me peace. But then again, you never know, knowing might be a good thing. If it says I will be eaten by a shark - I won't go near the beach ever again! ;)

What is your ultimate goal in life?

To find inner peace and to witness my beautiful boys grow up to become wonderful, compassionate humans who take their old mum out for her dinner on her Birthday. They can all carry me home after I've had too many martini's. I want to have quality relationships with my kids. That's incredibly important to me. Nothing else matters - so I guess you could say my ultimate goal is ensuring there's special bonds with our children that last a lifetime and beyond us existing. For me, it's all about building strong relationships with the people who matter.

How did you meet your husband and was it love at first sight?

I met my husband when I was 19, he was 20. I was on holiday in Majorca, Spain with a group of school friends, and he was with his school mates. Our paths crossed at the hotel bar. We just looked at each other, sized each other up, but we said nothing. I remember thinking, 'Wow, I need to see him again...somehow.' Thankfully he was thinking the same. That same night, our paths crossed again just a couple of hours later. I walked into a night club, and he was standing at the bar with his mates. My blood pressure must have sky rocketed, but I tried to look very cool and calm! This time I smiled at him. He came over to me and asked me to dance. That night we danced and had so much fun. I had to leave a week before him. Something in the pit of my stomach felt very wrong. It didn't feel nice to leave him. I came back to Scotland, and my parents could see the stars in my eyes and were a little bit worried - well, it was a holiday romance! But he called as soon as he returned and the rest is history!

What a wonderful story.

If you had to be an animal, which one would you be and why?

A bird. I'd love the freedom of flying high above and going wherever I pleased. No more busy airports!

Now to the professional questions:

How did you come up with the idea for your book?

I was exhausted by the negative experiences that were building up in my mind. I had one more grown woman turn abusive, petty and toxic on me, and I just snapped inside. I thought, 'I can't be the only woman in this world who has experienced all these nasty women?' I knew I had to write down my experiences. From those experiences, I started to break them down and try to 'make sense' of why some women would behave so badly. What was motivating their behaviour? Why did some women expect so much from their female friends? What was I doing wrong? How could women ensure they had healthier friendships with one another? Did Sisterhood actually exist between normal every day women? I had a lot to think about. Women Behaving Badly - Exposing the Truth about Female Friendship was born.

Are you an outliner or do you just go for it and write?

I need to have a rough idea of what I am trying to achieve. So I usually write a few pages worth of ideas and then build from the early ideas I have.

What are the things you did to promote your book?

This sounds pretty old school, I contacted the newspaper in my city. They ran a story about my book and from there the ABC radio network wanted to interview me. So from that I discovered that the more old fashioned media is still very worthwhile. I urge other authors to not ignore these more traditional media outlets. Don't just rely on social media. Authors need to use every outlet available. Of course, as it is 2013, I do use social media and my blog http://alanamunroauthor.com/ is a wonderful avenue for people to discover my book.

Do you plan on writing more books and if so what?

Yes, I'd love to. I need to make the time. I am busy with marketing my debut release, and I have a new book marketing business venture I am working on. But in time, I'd love to write another book. I'd like to do a follow up book of Women Behaving Badly. I am also working on a new inspirational, self-help book.

Did you always want to be a writer?
I wanted to be a lot of things! And why ever not, children should be allowed to dream and try new paths. I have always enjoyed writing, painting, photography, fashion, sociology, psychology - you name it, I love it! Whenever the teacher asked me to write what I wanted to be - I'd write so many ideas down. I didn't see why I had to just pick one, couldn't I try a few out? My school friends would say, 'Alana, just pick something!' But I didn't want to trap myself, I wanted to keep my options wide open. I'm still the same. I have a zillion different ideas and things I'd like to try.

If you can do anything in the world to make a living, what would it be?

Ideally I'd love to make enough from my book writing, but I am realistic, these days that is not so easy to achieve. I am looking into other avenues that still allows me to be creative. I am looking into starting a book marketing company with a friend who is a graphic artist. I'd provide the book marketing and she could custom design the book cover. We're hoping to offer pretty extensive packages to ensure authors gain genuine online exposure and we plan to keep our services affordable. I love to support authors, so this venture would certainly be a great role for me.

That would be awesome! I can always use some book marketing help. :)

Where can people find your book?

At Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Waterstones, Tesco, WHSmith, Google Books.

Where can people contact you?

Simply go to my blog's contact page - http://alanamunroauthor.com/

I always make the time to reply to people. People can also connect with me on my social media platforms - all the links are on my blog too.

Thank you so much for stopping by to chat with me. I enjoyed it.