My Writing Journey

By Karen King

I grew up in a family of readers. My parents were avid readers and books were a plenty in our house so it was no wonder that I, and my siblings, became readers too. We were lucky enough to have a well-stocked public library around the corner from the street we lived in and I spent most of my time there in the school holidays, bringing home as many as four books at a time, then retiring to a quiet corner to read them. I read anything I could get my hands on working through the whole rainbow of fairy story books, chuckling at the Just William stories and longing to solve mysteries like The Secret Seven did.  I’m not sure when my love of reading extended to a love of writing but I remember filling notebook after notebook with my stories and poems as a child.

I guess you could say that my writing journey began when I was ten or eleven years old and had a poem about my baby brother published in the children’s corner of a local newspaper. A few other poems followed, published in the same paper and also some in the Bunty comic. My love of writing continued but it was years later, when I was married with four young children, that my career really took off and my hobby became a regular income.  

An article in the iconic Jackie was the trigger point for my long and varied career which has spanned forty years and many different genres. Not long after that article I was writing for well-known children’s comics such as Thomas the Tank Engine, Winnie the Pooh and Barbie, often writing regularly for three or four different magazines a month. The deadlines were tight, the wordcount even tighter and as these were all licensed character comics there were strict guidelines on each character’s personality, likes and dislikes that had to be adhered to.  This gave me a good grounding in writing to a brief and getting to know my characters and meeting deadlines. Later, I was also asked to create puzzle pages, activity pages, quizzes – I even wrote a horoscope and problem page for one tween magazine. Those early writing days also taught me to ‘know my market and know my reader,’ something I still adhere to no matter what genre I’m writing for.

I soon added writing children’s books to my portfolio, working for Scholastic, Penguin, Walker books and many others. A lot of my work was commissioned and my published books include picture books, early readers, fiction, plays, joke books, young adult and non-fiction novels.  I have had over 120 children’s books published and worked for publishers in the UK, USA, Singapore, India and Australia. 

Throughout the years I’ve also taught creative writing, both at Falmouth university and via distance learning and to my delight several of my students have gone on to become published authors. 

However, I always wanted to write a romantic novel so decided to turn my hand to attempting a Mills & Boon. The resulting novel, Never Say Forever, was rejected but was eventually published as a People´s Friend Pocket Novel. It was also published in large print and republished by Accent Press then Headline, who contracted me to write more romance novels.

My move to Spain with my husband eight years ago gave me more time to concentrate on my writing and coincided with me being published by Bookouture, who gave me a contract for three romance novels and supported my move to writing psychological thrillers. The first one, The Stranger in my Bed, was published in 2020 and six more have followed, with another two under contract. 

My first golden years fiction, The Runaway Wives was published earlier this year by Boldwood, with a second one, The Old Gals’ Bucket List, out in October and a third one out next year. My tagline is ‘writing about the light and dark of relationships’. I’m really interested in people, the decisions they make, the relationships they form and see these two genres as both sides of the same coin. My romance novels are when the relationship goes right and my psychological thrillers are when the relationship goes wrong. My books are usually set in places I have lived or visited. Cornwall and Spain are both the inspiration for many of my romance novels, whilst my psychological thrillers are usually set in the Midlands, Birmingham or Worcester.

My women´s fiction novels The Runaway Wives and The Cornish Hotel by the Sea have all become Amazon International Bestsellers, as have my psychological thrillers, The Mother in Law, The Perfect Stepmother and The Stranger in my Bed. Several of my titles, both for children and adults, have also been published in other languages.

This year I´m celebrating my fortieth year as a published author. And to think it all started with that little poem about my baby brother. 

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Karen King was born in Birmingham, UK and has always enjoyed reading and writing. She’s been published for over forty years, in a variety of genres for both children and adults and currently writes about the ‘light and dark of relationships’. In her romance books the relationships come right, but in her psychological suspense novels the relationships go badly wrong. Karen now lives in Spain where she loves to spend her non-writing time exploring the quaint local towns with her husband, Dave, when she isn’t sunbathing or swimming in the pool, that is.

THE RUNAWAY WIVES

*‘We’re leaving. And there’s nothing either of you can do about it!’ 🧳☀️ **

When the surprise holiday Dee thinks her husband has booked for her sixtieth birthday weekend turns out to be yet another solo golfing break – it’s the last straw.

Meanwhile her best friend Babs’s other half has decided to move to Spain and is acting like he doesn’t need to consult anyone. Not even Babs!

Well, if their husbands think they can do what they want, so can their wives. So, with that thought, the two best friends leap into Dee’s trusty car and head for the seaside, and an adventure they’ll never forget.

Back home their furious husbands want them to return immediately. But – as they begin to enjoy their newfound freedom – will either of the runaway wives ever want to come back home again?

An absolutely hilarious, uplifting, escapist story, perfect for fans of Maddie Please, Judy Leigh and Dawn French.

BUY HERE

Tags: featured, women writers

Category: On Writing