Hello, I'm Amelia Levillain

 

I write the James Lalonde amateur sleuth mystery novels under the pen name A. D. Hay.

 

So, why did I choose to write under a pen name? Well, it’s quite simple. My last name is French and isn’t pronounced the way it sounds. It’s pronounced “Le-vi-lla.” And, I write for an English speaking audience. It seemed best to use my maiden name which is Scottish and the initials from my first name and one of my middle names.

 

Just in case you were wondering, I do speak a bit of French but more at a toddler or beginner level.

 

I started this website which is now a blog and podcast to help aspiring writers, just like you, to write, edit, publish, and market your first novel, and document my journey to publishing my first three novels.

 

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More About Me and My Mystery Novels

I write under the pen name A. D. Hay and I’m the author of Suspicion, the first book in James Lalonde Mystery series. My books are set in the world of investigative journalism with a dash of conspiracy, crime, and medical sci-fi, as James Lalonde hunts down the facts in a quest for the truth. The series is heavily influenced by my natural curiosity at what goes on behind the scenes of a newspaper and my love of medical science. As a teenager, I wanted to become a novelist, investigative journalist or a pathologist. I know, I’m both extremes. The series begins with Immunity as book one but also contains two prequel stories about the events that lead to James’s arrival in New York.

 

When I’m not writing and revising mysteries, I’m a book coach for aspiring authors. I help aspiring authors just like you, to write and market their books, so they can create their dream business, build their author platform, and be creatively independent, on my Authorpreneur Blog and through my one to one coaching services. As a coach, I help new writers to prepare their manuscripts for professional editing. Basically, I help writers when they get stuck or are confused about the revision process. I’m also the host of The Authorpreneur Podcast™️. Right now, I’m editing my soon to be published mystery novel, Duplicity which is the second book in the James Lalonde mystery series. 

About Me

When I’m not writing, hosting my podcast or coaching aspiring authors, live in London with my husband Roland, who happens to be the most amazing man in the world, and I can’t believe he picked me. And, no, I’m not at all biased.

 

I’m a self-confessed Louis Vuitton addict. When I’m not drooling over handbags, you can find me in a bookshop purchasing books to add to my never-ending reading list. I love the Harry Potter Series, Agatha Christie, Lewis Carroll, Roald Dahl, Victor Hugo, J. F. Penn, Ben Aaronovitch, JD Robb, and James Patterson. I also consider Dan Brown’s novels as a guilty pleasure; no judging. As a keen traveller with Australian and British passports, I love to travel around Europe with my husband Roland, drink tea, rosé, and eat pizza.

 

My Writing Journey

This is going to sound super cliche, but I’ve always loved books. In fact, it’s something my mother accidentally instilled in me as a child. She used to bribe me with little golden books as a reward for being good during grocery shopping. Thus, an obsession begins. I know, stop the presses another writer has been obsessed with book and writing since childhood.

Roland and outside the Natural History Museum in New York.

As a teenager, I dreamed of being a writer but, I made one mistake. I listened to the never-ending brigade of negative voices around me who all said the same thing ‘you can’t make money writing.’ I followed this well-meaning advice and ended up in my 20’s not knowing what I wanted to do with my life. As a result, I floated from job to job looking for that missing element believing I could only find it in a traditional career. I secretly yearned for flexibility, freedom, and more creativity but I could never find it, but that changed the day I discovered coaching. This led me to create a blog which led me to start writing again.

 

In 2011, I started taking my writing seriously. I studied the craft of storytelling through screenwriting and wrote my first few screenplays. I turned to write fiction novels and independent publishing because I wanted people to read my work instead of it sitting in an archive somewhere waiting many years to be made into a film.

 

About The Authorpreneur Blog

From Day Job to Working From Home

In 2015, I left my soul-sucking nine to five with a profitable online business. By day, I was a coach and by night I was a writer. Well, that was the plan. And, I don’t have to tell you what happens to well-meaning plans. I was spending much of my time marketing my business, coaching and creating content, that it left no time for writing fiction.

 

I’ve since learned the truth behind the ‘he who chases two rabbits chases none’ and decided to merge my two businesses together. This revelation came when I decided to create a two-part Facebook Live Series on How to Write and Edit a Non-Fiction. The live streams were a failure even though the content was great. The reason for my failure as I was marketing my content to the wrong audience. Despite the failure of this series, I realised that talking about writing a book was something I was passionate about. And, with the right audience, this could be a way to merge both of my businesses and essentially have my cake and eat it too.

 

There’s something beautiful about failure. It’s an opportunity to learn, grow, and ultimately improve for next time. When I first started my coaching business I struggled with marketing. I had no idea what I was doing. After each failure, I kept picking myself up and trying again. Over time, I realised what marking really was and the best strategies that worked for my business. I realised I was overcomplicating the entire process.

 

Why Am I Sharing These Not So Glamorous Achievements With You?

Entrepreneurship is about going from failure to failure until you achieve success. The good news is, you don’t have to make the same mistakes I did. This is why I created The Authorpreneur Blog. To guide you through the exact steps to write, edit, publish and market your first and subsequent books, minus the pain and confusion that comes with starting something new.

 

What Can You Expect From The Authorpreneur Blog?

 

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