Belinda began writing stories in the fourth grade.
Born and raised just outside Los Angeles, Belinda grew up surrounded by books. She turned to writing during a phase where she was obsessed with Scott O’Dell’s The Island of the Blue Dolphins. As she grew, she had other obsessive phases, including but not limited to: Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight, Frank Beddor’s Looking Glass Wars, JK Rowling’s Harry Potter, and Cornelia Funke’s The Thief Lord.
Belinda made writing stories a priority during high school and college. She branched out to playwriting and creative nonfiction and found some success. Her alma mater, Kalamazoo College, produced the one act play she wrote for her senior thesis, “Family Crimes.” Additionally, in 2015, the Fancy Pants Theatre produced a staged reading of her ten-minute play “Beached” as part of Theatre Kalamazoo’s New Play Festival. Belinda received her BA in English and Theatre Arts in 2016, with honors in Theatre and a concentration in Media Studies.
In 2020, Belinda received her MFA in Writing, focusing on fiction, from Lindenwood University. Over several workshops, she developed a fictional theme park inhabited by a child-stealing demon and for her thesis, she presented a collection of stories set at this park.
For the last three years, the majority of Belinda’s focus has been on a trilogy of fantasy novels, tentatively titled Scion of Victory.
Most of her stories focus on women of color and queer women. Though she lost herself in many books growing up, Belinda always struggled to find protagonists she truly connected with, and so she’s made an effort to tell stories about people like her. She hopes that someday others will find the connection they yearn for in her stories.
Some of Belinda’s favorite books not mentioned above are: Red Rising by Pierce Brown, Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo, Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado, The Round House by Louise Erdrich, and Graceling by Kristin Cashore.
Belinda currently lives in Los Angeles with her partner Sam and their skittish cats Dobby and Mayday. When she isn’t writing or reading, she can be found sampling Sam’s stellar cuisine, rolling for initiative as her latest D&D character, or binge watching trashy reality TV.
Belinda McCauley 