Book Chat with Karen Hollis

In my final book chat interview of the summer I’d like to welcome author Karen Hollis to my blog. Karen, who lives in Lincolnshire, has chosen the magical location of Stonehenge for our chat, so naturally my first question has to be why Stonehenge? Over to Karen….

It’s my favourite place in the world. I’ve only been there once, maybe 5 years ago. I wasn’t expecting to feel anything special, but it was so breathtaking, I cried!!!

That’s quite a reaction, although I think it’s impossible to visit the site without acknowledging it’s unique sense of history and mystique. (Note to self, it would be a great setting for a novel…)

Welcome to my blog, Karen. Please tell me about your latest book.

My latest novel came out in April. It’s called Starting Again in Silver Sands Bay and it’s a second chance romance between two single parents – a divorced man aged 48 and a widowed woman aged 50. They both have children aged 11 and spend the summer in a caravan in Lincolnshire where they meet up.

What part of the writing process do you enjoy the most?

I’m a pantser and I love seeing what happens! I have some ideas of what will happen, but often my characters decide otherwise and that’s the best bit. I have one novel on my laptop that is planned, I know everything that happens in each chapter, but when I was writing it, I got bored because I knew what was going to happen.

In my current WIP, guinea pigs suddenly became a part of the story!!

I’m a total pantser too, and love it when the characters start dictating the plot. When I’m surprised by a turn of events I know readers will be too! Where do you do your writing?

At home, on my bed. Not great for my back, as my chiropractor keeps telling me. But I live in my mum’s house (I’m her carer), so my bedroom is like my office space.

Do you ever suffer from writer’s block, and if you do, what’s your cure?

Not too often thankfully. I write non-fiction as well as fiction and always have several projects on the go, so if I’m stuck on one thing, I’ll try to work on the other. I write lots of books on gymnastics and am always interviewing gymnasts, which is pretty much my dream job! So if the novels aren’t working, I’ll concentrate on interviewing gymnasts instead.  

What inspired you to first put pen to paper, or fingers to the keyboard, and start writing novels?

My parents were journalists, so I’ve always been surrounded by people writing. As a kid, Dad would take me to the theatre and he’d be interviewing someone while I watched.

I first self-published a poetry collection in 2003. The novels came later. I have often started novels, but until probably three years ago, I could never finish one. I’d get halfway through and the gremlins on my shoulder would tell me it was rubbish, so I’d stop writing.

It’s only through finding some amazing, supportive authors online (especially the Chick Lit and Prosecco Facebook group) that I finally had the confidence to finish a novel. Welcome to Whitlock Close came out in 2022.

How many unfinished novels have you got on your laptop?

There’s Welcome to Whitlock Close 2 and a cosy mystery that I’ve started and still intend to finish. Then there’s maybe another four that I’ve started, but I’m not sure if I’ll go back to. I’ve nearly finished my WIP which is exciting.

How do you come up with names for your characters?

Most of the time, they tell me. They turn up in my head, I can see what they look like and they tell me their name. Now hopefully, other authors reading this will completely understand this and not think I’m mad.

In my WIP, there’s a cat called Poppy. My son, who’s 11, said “Did you name her after Poppy in my class?” I said “No, she told me her name was Poppy.” He then told me I must be mad, because that couldn’t happen, the characters come from my head, therefore so do the names. Well, yes, but it’s not quite that straight-forward to explain!

Only very occasionally do I struggle with names. A character in Welcome to Whitlock Close was called Tony, but I also had a Toby so I had to change Tony’s name, but it took a couple of tries before I found the right name.

I’m totally with you on the name thing. Sometimes my characters go through several name changes before I find the right one that fits. Other times the name is there before the character!

About Karen:

I was born in Lincoln, England in 1969. I loved writing from an early age, being the daughter of two journalists. I am a mum to five children and have three grandchildren. I have had over twenty books published and have written about a variety of topics including motherhood, poetry, Doctor Who and gymnastics. My first novel Welcome to Whitlock Close came out in 2022 and my second one Starting Again in Silver Sands Bay in 2023.

IG – https://www.instagram.com/karenlouisehollis/

Blog – https://iheartbooks.blog/blog/

Twitter (X) – https://twitter.com/KarenLNHollis

Amazon Author Page – https://www.amazon.co.uk/Karen-Louise-Hollis/e/B00NSLQME6?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1&qid=1691925796&sr=8-1

Starting Again in Silver Sands Bay – https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0C1H5BFBG/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0

Blurb

Becki is fifty and a single mum to eleven-year-old Jemima, after being widowed five years ago.
Dan is forty-eight and a single dad to eleven-year-old Freddie, after his wife left him five years ago.
They have both given up on love.
But when they all go to Silver Sands Bay on the Lincolnshire coast for the summer, will they be able to put the past behind them and find love again?

Many thanks to Karen for taking part, and inviting me to Stonehenge. Now I just need to come up with a good name for a Druid….

The Joy of Paperbacks

I’m delighted to announce that paperback copies of Trouble on the Tide are now available. It’s always a time of great excitement in our house when the delivery van pulls upside. Who knows what or whose parcel you’re going to get next, but to find a box of your very own creations on your doorstep is pure joy!

I’m old and wise enough to know these paperbacks are not going to sell like hot-cakes.  Self-publishing through Amazon KDP means these books don’t come cheap – when you can get two for one bestsellers in Waterstones and WHSmith, and £3 bargains of the popular commercial titles in the supermarket, I appreciate the Amazon selling price of £9.99 isn’t an attractive proposition, but for a low-key self-publisher like me, KDP is the most viable option for producing print copies.

Books bought directly from me will be sold at a discount of course, but I know the only people who will buy – or receive – copies of this book will be people who know me personally.

So why do I do it? For that precise reason. Family and friends. Personalised books make marvellous Christmas presents and my Christmas list is sorted.  I’ve had a huge amount of support on my writing journey from my family and various acquaintances, and this is a wonderful way to pay them back. (Pay back sounds wrong, like a threat…Reward? Show my appreciation?)

In addition, what writer doesn’t want to hold their very own paperback? I’m a true book lover, I grew up in a house surrounded by books and reading has always been one of my main hobbies. I have a Kindle, and yes I use it, especially when I’m travelling, but you simply can’t beat the feel and smell of a paperback.

When I do talks to groups I like having paperbacks to illustrate the fact I am a genuine writer – because, let’s be honest, nobody has ever heard of me.  I’m so lucky I found the marvellous Berni Stevens who has created such attractive covers for the Eliza Kane series. Even if I don’t sell an awful lot of physical books at events, the covers do make an impression and I might see a spike in ebook sales afterwards.

The three books look wonderful together and I now have five of my own creations nestling amongst my favourites on my bookshelf.

Anyway, the whole point of this brief little post is to announce that paperbacks are now available to purchase either from me (happy to post within the UK or deliver by hand in the local area), or the big A.

Meanwhile, I’ve also updated my social media author pic to something I think gives me a more serious author-ish look as I embark on my next project (basically I’ve balanced my glasses on my head to look more intellectual). I’m still having a little bit of trouble getting inside the psyche of my new leading lady, young Kat, or old Kat, as she is at the start of the novel. She’s already telling jokes, which has to stop, because my WIP (Work In Progress) covers very serious matters. I need to lock myself away and concentrate, hard when the sun is finally shining and the temptation beckons in the form of a deckchair in the garden and a good book…

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