Friday, June 24, 2016

Karen King: My First Chick Lit!

Writing my first Chick Lit

I’m so excited about having my first chick lit ‘I do …or do I’ published. It’s a dream come true for

me as this a genre I enjoy reading and have always wanted to write for, but I’ve been too busy writing children’s books for the past thirty years. Finally, eighteen months ago I took the plunge and decided to have a go. I’d already got my story idea so set about writing it up. I had to slot it in with all the other things I do for a living, commissioned writing (including six picture books for a publisher in India) and teaching writing.


At 75,000 words ‘I do…or do I?’ is the longest book I’ve ever written. Obviously children’s books are shorter, most of my books have been under 10,000 words, many under 500. I thought I’d never finish it. There’s a lot involved in writing a long book. A lot more planning, revising, keeping an eye on timelines, sequencing, continuity, making sure your characters are consistent and that’s before you even get started on the plot, subplots, conflicts and resolutions. I used a lot of post-its and note books to keep a check on it all.

On the plus side, I didn’t have to worry about vocabulary, sentence structure, the age group of my reader and all the other things that children’s writers have to consider as well as coming up with a marketable idea, thinking about where it will fit into the publisher’s list and writing it up in a pacey way that will grab the young reader straight away.

I have previously had two contemporary romance novels published, so had some practice, but at 50,000 words each they were shorter, and my chick lit was lighter, more humorous – I hoped! I angsted a lot over that book, lost a lot of sleep, thought I’d never make it but somehow I did. And Accent Press snapped it up. Then they gave me a contract for two more books. Two more long books of 75k words! I couldn’t believe it. I celebrated, kept reading the contract to make sure. Then I started plotting and planning, angsting and worrying – what if they don’t like this book as much as the first? What if I can’t do it again?  But every time I doubted myself I took a look at the cover for my first book and told myself if I did it once I can do it again. And I did do it again, book number two has been delivered and I’m working on book three. Here’s the covers, aren’t they gorgeous?



 About the story
Local journalist Cassie is getting married to hot-shot lawyer, reliable Timothy and his 'Monster-in-Law' mother Sylvia wants to plan the entire wedding. When Sylvia books the exclusive ID images to take photographs of the extravagant wedding, Cassie has no idea what she's walking into. The elusive JM who is the newest photographer employed just so happens to be Jared, Cassie's first love and ex-fiancée, who broke off their engagement to follow his life-long dreams.

Jared is back to earn some cash before jetting off on his next wild adventure. When Cassie is asked to write an article with top tips and advice for Brides to Be, she jokingly writes a column depicting her current scenario and a co-worker submits it in place of the real article.

Cassie's column is soon making the headlines with readers asking the age old question Who Will She Choose?

About Karen:
A member of the Romantic Novelists' Association, the Society of Authors and the Society of Women Writers and Journalists, Karen King writes sassy, contemporary romance just right for reading on the beach.
When she isn’t writing, Karen likes travelling, watching the ‘soaps’ and reading. Give her a good book and a box of chocolates and she thinks she’s in Heaven.






Links:

Amazon
Twitter: @karen_king

3 comments:

Ann Evans said...

I enjoyed reading your post, Karen. Well done on achieving these longer books. I've thoroughly enjoyed I Do? Or Do I? Can't wait to read the next books.

@juliawildauthor said...

Really enjoyed this post, well done with your contracts, the covers are lovely and I'll look forward to reading them. Congratulations!

Karen said...


Thank you all for your kind comments. :)