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In this episode of The Resilient Writers Radio Show, I’m joined by Alexa Bigwarfe, USA Today bestselling author, publishing coach, founder of Write|Publish|Sell, and creator of the Women in Publishing Summit.
Alexa has spent years helping women and underrepresented voices publish professional books, build author platforms, and grow businesses around their work. But in this conversation, we also get to talk about her fiction side: the romantic comedies she writes under the pen name Lexi Haddock.
Alexa shares the story behind her Paris-inspired fiction series, beginning with 4 Days in Paris, a book that was more than ten years in the making. The novel began with real-life inspiration from Alexa’s own time living and working in Paris, including a romantic New Year’s Eve encounter in 1999. As she says in our conversation, she wrote the story the way she wished it had ended.
We talk about what it means to draw from real life while still creating fiction that works for readers. Alexa opens up about the challenge of honouring real people and true memories while also shaping the story into something with enough tension, conflict, and emotional movement to become a satisfying novel. She also shares how friendship, Paris, and even the Eiffel Tower itself became central characters in the book.
One of the things I loved most about this conversation is how candid Alexa is about the timing of creativity. She began the original version of the book years earlier, but it wasn’t until 2020, while going through a divorce and living through the pandemic, that she returned to it. At a moment when writing something heavy felt impossible, romance gave her a way back into hope, possibility, and joy.
We also talk about the other books in the Sparks in Paris series, including the Christmas novella set in Strasbourg, France. Alexa shares how much she loves European Christmas markets, how she brought in elements of her military background, and how a small character from an earlier book found her way into the starring role.
Of course, because Alexa is also a publishing coach, we talk about marketing too. She shares what it’s like to market her own fiction while also running her businesses, and why tying a book to a theme, season, or reader mood can make a big difference.
Her Christmas novella gave her a chance to connect with readers who were already actively looking for holiday books, and she got to see some of the strategies she teaches authors actually working in her own author life.
In the second half of our conversation, Alexa shares what’s changing with the Women in Publishing Summit and why she’s moving toward a more community-based model. We talk about networking, business skills for authors, content strategy, and the importance of having a generous writing and publishing community around you.
And yes, there are more Lexi Haddock books on the way, including Back to Paris and a World War II novel set in France.
This is such a lovely conversation about romance, reinvention, publishing, community, and the long, winding path a book can take before it finally becomes what it was meant to be.
