Thursday 29 October 2015

Debut Spotlight: Katey Lovell

Today it's my absolute pleasure to welcome Katey Lovell into the debut spotlight to talk about her Meet Cute series, the first of which The Boy in the Bookshop is published today with two more, The Boy at the Beach and The Boy at the Bakery, being published in November.

Katey Lovell is fanatical about words. An avid reader, writer and poet, she once auditioned for Countdown and still tapes the show every night. Getting the conundrum before the contestants is her ultimate thrill.

She loves love and strives to write feel-good romance that'll make you laugh and cry in equal measure. 

Originally from South Wales, Katey now lives in Yorkshire with her husband and their seven year old son.

Twitter: @Katey5678
Website:  http://kateylovell.blogspot.co.uk


Can you tell us a little bit about your debut #MeetCute series?
They’re a bit different to the majority of romance out there, mainly because they’re short stories. Each story focuses on a different couple and plays out the scene they get together for the first time – hence the ‘meetcute’ of the series title.  I like to describe them as the ‘once upon a time’ before the ‘happily ever after’ and I hope they’ll bring a little bit of cosy romance to commuters, coffee break readers and anyone looking for a bite-sized romantic fix.

Describe the first story The Boy in the Bookshop in one sentence?
Ooh, this is hard!  Although they’re short stories, I think they pack in quite a lot of detail.  I’m going to go with ‘the sweet, romantic story of when often-misunderstood book store assistant Jade first meets literature loving Marwan.’

This is a bit of a cruel question, do you have a favourite out of the 3 stories?
This is even harder as I love different aspects of each of them!  As a bibliophile myself I have a soft spot for The Boy in the Bookshop, but my favourite couple is probably Toby and Lauren from The Boy at the Beach – they have one of those bonds where they’re a bit cheeky about each other but their true feelings are obvious.  Of the 3 stories being published The Boy at the Bakery was the first I wrote, so that has a special place in my heart too.  But as I have to say one, I’d probably say The Boy at the Beach.

There are currently 3 weekly eShorts being published, have you plans to add more at a later date?
When I originally submitted The Meet Cute I’d envisaged them as a collection of short stories to be published as a package.  Back then there were seven ( one of the stories I’d written entitled The Boy at the Barn Dance didn’t make my own first-round of cuts – it wouldn’t turn out how I’d hoped no matter how many tweaks I made!) 

After Harper Impulse said they wanted to publish the stories as individual titles, editor Charlotte Ledger asked if I’d considered writing a festive ‘boy’ as well as one story which would wrap up the series to give readers the opportunity to get just a taste more of the characters.  So in all there are actually nine stories in the series…hopefully they’ll all be out there in the open one day!

What can we expect from you next?
Whilst I’m extremely passionate about short stories I’d love to have a novel or novella published!  I spent the summer working on two quite different projects.  The first is a women’s fiction book that I’m very proud of - it’s still essentially a romance but also touches on the sadness that weaves in and out of life.  The second is a romantic novella set in Hollywood and it’s definitely a bit raunchier!  I’d describe it as ‘hot with a plot’.  

And I’m working on something else now that’s been on my mind for a while, so hopefully one (or all!) of these will make it to publication.

Did you always know you wanted to be a writer?
I didn’t always want to be a writer!  I’ve written on and off all my life, mostly poems and short stories with the odd abandoned novel attempt in my teens, but I never thought anyone would be interested in reading what I wrote.  However, once I decided I was going to get my writing published there was no going back.  I’ve always been determined like that!

Are you going to treat yourself to something to celebrate publishing your debut?
I keep meaning to do this actually!  I really love the Alex and Ani bangles and I’m wanting to get the one with ‘Let Creativity Rule’ written on it as a treat to mark publication day.  And completely coincidentally I’m going to watch One Direction on October 29th which is the day The Boy in the Bookshop comes out, so that’ll be another way I’ll be celebrating.

Amazon links:
The Boy in the Bookshop (today) http://amzn.to/1GoOEOD
The Boy at the Beach (5th November)  http://amzn.to/1MZOBd8 
The Boy at the Bakery (12th November) http://amzn.to/1MZOJcM 

2 comments:

  1. Great post, ladies! Lovely to learn more about you and your books, Katey. Congratulations and best of luck going forward :)

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  2. Thank you so much! Sharon is a fabulous hostess and made this great fun x

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