Having grown up in her parents’ bookstore surrounded by stories, it’s no surprise that Alina Bellchambers one day decided it was time to write her own.
The up-and-coming romantic fantasy author is enjoying the success of her debut novel, The Order of Masks, while writing its sequel, which is due for release later this year.
Alina secured a two-book deal with Pan Macmillan Australia and Hodderscape UK and is now experiencing the joy of seeing her book appear on bookshelves in stores around the world.
The Order of Masks is a story of two women, Mira and Scarlett, who navigate a magic world involving treacherous court politics and impossible choices.
Set in a brutal Roman-inspired empire, both women must choose between love and power – each having vastly different outcomes.
Alina does most of her writing in her study on a 16ha farm at Brownhill Creek.
The kookaburras, magpies and distant bleats of sheep are the only sounds aside from the tap of her fingers on the keyboard as she creates the twists and turns in her imaginary world.
“The second book leads straight on from The Order of Masks and I’ve just finished my second round of structural edits with the publishers,” she says.
“I’m very excited to get it out in the world.”
Alina has a degree in psychology from Flinders University and also has a background in modelling, acting and public speaking.
However, it was her childhood spent in her parents’ bookstore, Cosmic Pages, in Adelaide’s CBD that truly sparked a love for the written word and faraway worlds.
“Cosmic Pages was a mind, body and spirit bookstore, but I spent all my time in the fiction section,” Alina says.
“I absolutely loved it there, we had a fountain in the middle of the bookstore and my mum would organise the chairs around so that people would sit there reading.
“It was very tranquil.”
Her transition from reading into writing books began during an overseas flight when she had nothing to read to pass the time.
Her parents suggested she write something for herself and so Alina began dreaming up characters and creating plots and fantasy lands.
She continued writing fantasy novels and science fiction stories just for herself, but it wasn’t long before she realised an ambition to turn her passion into a career.
Alina describes the day she secured the publishing deal as “a dream come true”.
“It was so special,” she says.
The book was launched at two events in 2024, one at Dymocks in Rundle Mall with fellow fantasy author Lyndall Clipstone and the other at Blackwood Library with best-selling author Sean Williams.
“I was very lucky to have a wonderful turnout for both of my launches … it was so special to meet so many local readers,” Alina says.
While she remembers getting lost in books as a child, it’s fitting that others are now getting lost in her stories.
“I think that’s what’s so special about the fantasy genre is the escapism, it’s so immersive and that’s what I find so special and so healing about books, to be taken out of your own mind and into something else,” she says.
“It’s like therapy.
“I find writing really cathartic, it’s so much a part of who I am.
“It’s really my safe place, my happy place.”
