Anna E. Collins is a Seattle area author of contemporary romantic comedies and women’s fiction who was a dual debut in 2022 with romcom LOVE AT FIRST SPITE, and women’s fiction novel THESE NUMBERED DAYS. Anna grew up in Sweden where she was always a voracious reader with a vivid imagination, but other than occasional poems and songs, she didn’t start putting her own stories into writing until after she had kids. By that point, she had worked as a high school teacher for several years, married an American, undertaken two international moves, and needed a new outlet.

Her first venture into fiction was a gargantuan 260,000-word historical family saga that will never see the light of day but that sparked a passion for creating people and worlds that illustrate and illuminate aspects of the human experience that connect us. A couple more books and a master’s degree in educational psychology later, Anna caught the break that would allow her to consider writing more than a hobby when she got into PitchWars in 2017. Since that crash course in editing and the world of publishing, she has never looked back. She placed 2nd in the PNWA literary contest 2018 and was a RWA Golden Heart finalist in 2019 with two of her women’s fiction novels. Then in 2020, with the pandemic upon us, she decided to branch into something more lighthearted and wrote the romcom that ended up being her debut.

Regardless of genre, Anna aspires to write characters that jump off the page, and relationships that are as complex and imperfect as the ones we find in our everyday life. The sweet spot is where recognized experiences can be infused with fictional sprinkles to create something that’s familiar but just enough “other” to transport the reader and widen perspectives.

When not writing, Anna stays busy driving her teenage kids around, training her eternal shadow and companion Archie the mini goldendoodle, and engaging in other creative pursuits such as drawing, woodworking, and baking. She is currently in the middle of the launch of her second women’s fiction novel, A Life in Bloom (Red Adept), and revising the second of two romcoms scheduled to be released in 2024 and 2025 (Forever).

You can keep up with Anna on Instagram @aeccreates, and on her website www.aecollinsbooks.com where you’ll also find links to order her books

Support your local bookstore & this podcast by getting your copy of A Life in Bloom at https://bookshop.org/a/

A little about today's host-

Shawna Rodrigues left her award-winning career in the public sector in 2019 to consult and publish her first novel Beyond the Pear Blossoms. Her desire to connect and help others led to the launch of her podcast The Grit Show shortly thereafter. When she learned women host only 27% of podcasts, her skills and passion led to the founding of the Authentic Connections Network. She now helps mission-driven entrepreneurs better connect with their audiences by providing full-service podcast production and through a community for Entrepreneurs & Podcasters – EPAC. Podcasting is her primary focus, so she continues to support the writing community through this podcast, and her writing time is mostly focused on