Happy Place
Award winning author Bella Ellwood-Clayton’s organisational prowess helps define her creative life.
This is me in my happy place – in my quiet home office, MacBook open, and my trusty kanban board behind me. Everything’s set for some uninterrupted writing time.
I love using a kanban board to set fresh goals each quarter across different areas of my life: (1) writing, (2) book coaching and developmental editing, (3) social media and PR, (4) admin and home stuff, and (5) family and parenting.
[Disclaimer from Liz - I had to Google what a Kanban board was!! It’s a visual WIP template usually populated with moveable headings or post-its in Bella’s case :)]
Bella’s women’s fiction novel with suspense, WEEKEND FRIENDS, was published by Post Hill Press in the U.S. It explores the intensity of female friendships and the challenges of parenting in perilous times.
‘Unputdownable!’ - Nicola Moriarty
About Weekend Friends
For girls, the tween years are like The Hunger Games—for their mothers, it’s worse.
Food photographer, Rebecca, and her tween daughter, Willow, move from Alaska to Boca Raton, leaving behind their terrible secret about the death of Rebecca’s husband. They’re ready to start anew in the warmth of the sunshine state, hoping it will help vanquish Willow’s night terrors.
As her daughter becomes controlled and bullied by the popular group, Rebecca is drawn closer to the charismatic head of school, Mr. Brady. A hot and steamy—though uncertain—relationship begins. Soon, lies, deception, and secrets cause everything to spiral out of control and both mother and daughter find themselves on the wrong side of their gated community with devastating repercussions.
Full of dark twists and turns, Weekend Friends makes you grateful you’re no longer a tween…or the parent of one.
About the author
Dr. Bella Ellwood-Clayton is an award-winning author. She has a BA from Concordia University in Montréal and a Ph.D. from the University of Melbourne in sexual anthropology—and, yes, that makes for interesting dinner party conversations. Bella's nonfiction book, Sex Drive: In Pursuit of Female Desire, was published by Allen & Unwin in 2012. Bella has published short stories, poetry, and written for publications such as Huffington Post and Daily Life. She frequently appears on TV and gives talks, including a TEDx talk. Her work has been featured in a National Geographic documentary. Married to a real-life superhero, she lives in Melbourne and has two spirited—eek—teens and a mini Maltese who truly believes he’s a pit bull. When she’s not on her laptop, you can find her downward dogging, pleading with her offspring to go outside, randomly blurting out, “Oh, that’s a good story idea,” and consuming too many vegetarian dumplings.
Reviews for Weekend Friends
“Unflinching in its portrayal of modern-day parenting, Weekend Friends is a chilling debut that is as confronting as it is compelling. Unputdownable.” —Nicola Moriarty.
“Ellwood-Clayton explores the uneasy path of modern parenting, adolescent angst, and the vast consequences of seemingly small choices, where a parent’s best intentions are fraught with danger—and potentially deadly consequences. Weekend Friends is a deeply emotional tale that will make you laugh, cry, gasp, and ultimately leave you haunted with questions that have no easy answers.” —Annette Lyon, USA Today bestselling author of Just One More.
“A razor-sharp read about the social pressures mothers and daughters face in their respective cliques and how those worlds can collide when more than one person has a secret.” —Georgina Cross, bestselling author, Nanny Needed, The Stepdaughter, One Night Dark.
Follow Bella
Website: drbella.com.au
Insta and TikTok: @bellaellwoodclayton
Purchase Weekend Friends: https://www.amazon.com.au/Weekend-Friends-Bella-Ellwood-Clayton-ebook/dp/B0CLKZ4465/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1699476556&sr=8-1
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