Hi Karen! It's so lovely to welcome you to my blog - I'm looking forward to catching up with you and learning more about your latest release, THE YEAR OF STARTING OVER! Wishing you much success and sales - let's get started with my questions...
1.)
What was
your first job? Did you like or dislike it? Why?
I worked as a Saturday girl at Woolworths, and
for a few weeks at Boots the Chemist but my first ‘proper’ job was at an
insurance company in Birmingham city centre. Sometimes the work was a bit boring,
it was pre-computer days, so we had to fill in all the information by hand and file
it away in large binders, but I enjoyed working there, the people were very
friendly, and I liked being in the city centre.
2.)
Do you
have a pet peeve? If so what is it?
Noise when I’m trying to sleep. I can stand all
sorts of noise in the daytime, dogs barking, machinery, lawn mowers, noisy
people, none of it bothers me, but noise during the night irritates me. I particularly
hate a clock ticking in the bedroom. It drives me mad. If I stay anywhere
overnight and there a ticking clock in the room I move it outside, or take the
battery out!
3.)
Would you
describe your style as shabby chic, timeless elegance, eclectic, country or ____?
I don’t think I have a style, it depends what I’m
doing and where I’m going. At home I’m mostly in jeans and tee shirt or leggings
with a loose top. I wear maxi dresses a lot in the summer or cropped trousers
and a tee shirt. I guess I’m quite ‘hippy’, I’m definitely not ‘timeless
elegance’!
4.)
Tell me
about your book {insert title here} and where you got your inspiration for it?
My latest book is ‘The Year of Starting Over’
which was published by Bookouture on 7 February. It’s about Holly, who is
really sweet-natured but gets treated like a bit of a doormat because she’s always
trying to please her boyfriend. Then one day she’s had enough, leaves her commitment-phobic
boyfriend, and her job, and sets off in her yellow mini to start a new life in
Spain, helping her friend, Fiona, and her partner, Pablo, set up an artist’s
retreat. I guess a lot of inspiration from the book came from the fact that my
husband and I moved to Spain almost eighteen months ago, so I had my own ‘year
of starting over’.
5.)
Who is
your role model? Why?
I don’t have a role model. There are lots of
people I admire but I don’t aspire to emulate anyone. Although I do aspire to
grow old like my mum, who is almost 88 but still lives by herself, drives
around everywhere and is often partying until the early hours of the morning.
6.)
How much
of your book is realistic?
The story and characters aren’t realistic, but some
of the incidents are things I’ve personally experienced. We live in a finca in
the Andalusian countryside and our water is pumped up from a well, just like
Fiona and Pablo, so when the electricity goes off we have no water either. The episode
where Holly colours her hair and the electricity goes off, so the water pump
doesn’t work and she has to use a big urn of cold water to wash the colour off
actually happened to me. I’m scared of heights, like Holly, too.
7.)
What are
your ambitions for your writing career?
To keep on writing. 😊
8.)
Share one
fact about yourself that would surprise people.
Gosh that’s a tough one. I’m pretty much a ‘what
you see is what you get’ kind of person but it does surprise people when they
find out that it took me seventeen attempts to pass my driving test. I’m not a
confident driver, but I got there in the end!
The Year of Starting Over
Blurb
What
if – to find yourself – you had to run away?
Last year was meant to be when Holly got her happy-ever-after. But stuck in a job that’s going nowhere, and a relationship that feels more like it’s going backwards… this year Holly has decided it’s time to change her life. She just has to:
– End the relationship with the commitment-phobic boyfriend
– Go on a proper adventure
– Learn to be herself again
– Definitely, categorically not fall in love.
Cramming her belongings into her little yellow Mini, Holly drives on to a ferry bound to Spain, to stay at a remote farmhouse near a beautiful village in the Andalusian hills.
But the day she arrives she nearly crashes her car into a gorgeous guy on a motorbike. He’s called Matias and their paths keep crossing, much to Holly’s irritation. Because as she learns to speak Spanish from the locals, finally starts laying out plans for her own design business, and sips sangria in the sunlit village square, Holly is beginning to remember who she is and what she wants.
So she won’t allow herself to be distracted by Matias. Because this year – for Holly – there are more important things in life than love. And she won’t let yet another bad relationship ruin everything… will she?
A moving and uplifting romantic comedy about living each moment and learning to trust yourself again, for fans of Jenny Hale, Debbie Macomber, and Sophie Kinsella.
Buy Links
Author Bio
Karen King started her writing career writing for Jackie
magazine and children's comics such as Postman Pat and Winnie the Pooh. She is
a multi-published author of children's books and romantic fiction. She has had
120 children's books published, two young adult novels, seven romantic novels
and several short stories for women's magazines. Her latest two romance novels,
Snowy Nights at the Lonely Hearts Hotel
and The Year of Starting Over, are
both published by Bookouture.
Karen now lives in Spain and intends to spend her
time writing romances whilst her husband, Dave, grows vegetables and tends to
the zillions of fruit trees on their land – when she isn’t sunbathing or
swimming in the pool, that is!
Contact links
Twitter: @karen_king
Thank you for inviting me over, Rachel. x
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