Please welcome friend and author...

...Kate Field to my blog today.  Hello Kate and thanks for sparing your precious time to be here today.  So I'll get straight to the questions.  What is your current release?

KS   My second novel, The Truth About You, Me and Us, will be published on 25 August 2017.  It's a contemporary romance set in Lancashire, and features a community of artists who work at a craft gallery based in a former church.  The heroine is Helen, a single mother and crazy patchwork artist, and the story focuses on what happens when she unexpectedly encounters a figure from her past.

AW   Hmmm that sounds very interesting.  What first got you into writing and why?

KS   The first thing I wrote for pleasure, rather than a school project, was a novel about a schoolgirl detective who looked and soundly exactly like me, and lived in a village just like mine, although I changed one letter in the name of the village to make it seem different!  It was a shameless copy of a book I’d read and enjoyed – an early form of fan fiction!

My next attempt at writing a novel came many years later, and was again inspired by what I was reading at the time, as I was ploughing through Georgette Heyer’s books.  I tried writing a Regency romance, with much enthusiasm but little accuracy.  It taught me the valuable lesson that an easy book to read isn’t necessarily an easy book to write.

AW  And I'm with you on that one!  You write Romance.  Is it all imagination or do you also undertake research?

KS   There’s a surprising amount of research involved, even for a contemporary romance. I'm a perfectionist, even over tiny details such as whether a character's car has front or rear wheel drive, or the traits of a particular breed of dog.  For my debut novel, The Magic of Ramblings, I undertook a lot of research into certain medical conditions; most of the research didn't appear in the book, but I wanted to understand as best as I could, so that the characters’ actions weren't inconsistent with their condition.

I like to have visual inspiration, so I spend a lot of time finding images of the house a character might live in or visit, or even the clothes they might wear in a significant scene.  If I’m ever struggling with writing, I find this a great way to take a break while still doing something vaguely productive, and research often throws up just the inspiration I need to carry on.

The model for the chuch in the novel

AW  And what about other types of writing?  Have you ever dabbled with short stories, for instance, or other genres?

KS   I think it takes a great deal of skill to write successful short stories, and I’m not sure it's a skill I have!  So far, I have only written romantic fiction, although I have moved to contemporary rather than historical fiction.  I haven't ruled out writing in other genres.  I would love to try a time slip novel one day, if I can face the amount of planning it would involve!

AW  Famous authors, such as Roald Dahl and Dylan Thomas, had a special space for writing.  Do you have a writing ‘shed’ of your own?

KS   I don't have anywhere special to write, although we do have a flat tarmacadamed area at the top of the garden, and I often think it would be the perfect place for a writing ‘shed’.  It would definitely need to be heated: it can be cold and windy up on the Lancashire moors!

I always write a first draft with pen and paper, so in theory I can write anywhere.  Most of my books so far have been written either in the car or slumped on the sofa!

AW  Finally, if you had a whole afternoon to yourself and could choose to spend it with any one individual, living or dead or a character from a book, who would it be, and what would you want to discuss?

KS   That's a great question, but also a tricky one!  It will become harder the more I think about it, so I’m going to stick with my instinctive answer, which is my favourite author, Jane Austen.  I’d like to take afternoon tea with her and discuss her characters, particularly which ones she likes the best; I've always thought that she preferred the ‘bad’ characters such as Willoughby and Henry Crawford to some of the heroes.  I’d like to ask her about what plans she had for other books, if she hadn't died so young, and how it feels to have written stories that are loved hundreds of years later, and that have inspired so many other books, films and television shows.  Above all, I’d like to thank her.  My childhood enthusiasm for reading waned at secondary school, and only revived when I was given a copy of Pride and Prejudice as a GCSE set text.  My love of books has been constant since then, and if I hadn't been a reader, I would never have been a writer.  I have a lot to thank her for.
AW   I'm a great fan of Austen myself and have read and re-read her books.  And I think, if I met her, I would be saying thank you too!

... about the book   Five years ago Helen Walters walked out on her ‘perfect’ life with the ‘perfect’ man.  Wealthy, glamorous and bored, she longed for something more.

Now a talented artist with a small business, Helen creates crazy patchwork crafts to support her young daughter, Megan. Penniless, content and single, she is almost unrecognisable.

But when her past unexpectedly collides with her new life, Helen finds herself torn.  She knows what the easiest choice is, but is it what she wants?

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