The accidental novelist

“Billie Burke is a young beauty editor at the world’s leading fashion magazine, a black woman in a traditionally white industry. She’s worked hard to rise to the frothy top of her trade, where paying tribute to the perfect pink lip gloss is serious business. …” So reads the dust jacket blurb for “The Accidental Diva,” the debut novel of U.Va. alumna Tia Williams (English ’97).

Like the fictional Burke, Williams has earned a name for herself in the glamorous world of magazine publishing. She is the beauty director of TeenPeople magazine and has been a beauty writer and editor at YM, Elle, Glamour and Lucky. But that’s where the similarities end.

“The book is all fiction. But it takes place in a world I know very, very well,” said Williams, whose real-life tale is as gripping as her fictional heroine’s.

Williams moved to New York City the summer after graduation and immediately enrolled in a publishing course at New York University. The class opened doors for her, and she quickly landed a job as an editorial assistant at Doubleday. “The pace was just too slow for me. So when I heard about an editorial assistant position in the beauty department at YM, I jumped on it,” she said.

Williams is a self-proclaimed girly-girl who says she loves working in an industry that celebrates makeup and hair. It’s not unusual for her to be greeted at the office by a lineup of gift bags, compliments of the cosmetic companies competing for her attention. Her job also requires attending several over-the-top product launches every week.

“The prize for the silliest event was a waterproof mascara launch at the indoor pool of a fancy midtown hotel. It involved synchronized swimmers wearing said mascara,” said Williams, who added that attending such affairs is like “a never-ending summer party.”

Although Williams pokes fun at the to-do made over a new lipstick or blush, she knows that beauty is big business, and she takes her job seriously. “It’s a pretty cut-throat industry. So many women would love to have your job and everyone at your magazine knows it,” Williams said.

Her talent has landed her increasingly loftier titles at the world’s top beauty magazines. She also appears regularly on MTV, CNN and Fox to discuss beauty trends. “You can’t really rest in this industry or it will move right past you,” she said.

Fortunately for book lovers longing for a diversion from ordinary life, Williams did take a rest — to write “The Accidental Diva” during a six-month sabbatical in Spain. “Once I was away from the business, it became very clear to me that the life I lead is not normal and that other people might find it very funny and entertaining,” Williams said.

Williams has always wanted to be a novelist. When she was 7 years old, she wrote her first book, complete with an “About the Author” page. Finding something to write about (and finding the time) had kept the English major from putting pen to paper.

William’s describes her first novel as a love story. “Billie’s struggle is how to have it all — love and a career.” The book might be seen as a comical beach read, but Williams feels the story also brings attention to a more serious, more personal matter.

“I have a group of friends — black women — and we’re pretty much the only ones in the room all the time. We’re publicists, writers and fashion designers, and no one really knows about us … because people just don’t think of black women making it in the so-called glamour professions. That was a story I felt needed to be told too — that there’s not just one black experience,” Williams said.

Williams says that her U.Va. experience boosted her confidence to go after a career that most women — and certainly most black women — would never even consider. She and her best friend, Lola Oguinnakie, now an editor at The New York Times, were the first black “Life” editors at the Cavalier Daily. “It was our dream to break down barriers and rewrite rules — to be the first black girls, always,” Williams said. “Doing so made me realize that I have the freedom to write about lipstick and sex — that I don’t have to feel like I must write about ‘our struggle.’”

That said, Williams does not intend “The Accidental Diva” to make a statement or become the next great American novel. “As crazy as it sounds, I want to be the black Danielle Steele!” she said. “I want my books to be funny, sexy, delicious — an escape.”