When Kate Harrison Ran Away...

Here's Kate's story...

Four years ago, we ran away to the beach.

                  London had nothing left to offer. The banks were all going bust and no one was building anything anymore, which was a problem for my boyfriend, a construction surveyor.

                  We packed the laptop, the cat and the cat’s new pet passport, and flew to Barcelona. We narrowly avoided being arrested when we objected to putting the cat’s basket through the X-ray machine at security, and the look on her face during take-off made me glad there’s no Childline for pets. But after a bumpy few hours, we’d arrived. Run away from chilly England, from council tax bills and depressing headlines (or at least, headlines in a language we could understand). Ahead lay the sunshine and siestas of Spain – though we learned pretty soon that calling Catalunya part of Spain was not a good idea in one of the Med’s most passionately separatist states.

                  Barcelona was brilliant, bracing and bonkers. We struggled with Spanish red tape, but not with the fantastic lifestyle. We made great friends, started running on the beach, took to tapas in a big way, tried mushroom hunting and cava tasting, and went back to the classroom to learn the language of our new home.

                  Running on the beach one morning, I also had a weird but exciting new idea for a strange teenage trilogy set on a glamorous beach… a writer is never truly off-duty.   

                  We loved being runaways. But it couldn’t last forever. I missed family, friends, English cheese and – surprisingly – Boots and British supermarkets. I chased burglars out of our flat one hot summer’s night: petty crime is the downside to Europe’s sexiest city. Plus, once I understood the headlines, I could see that ‘la crisis’ was even worse in Spain.

So we ran back again, carrying our poorly cat via a sleeper train to Paris and then Eurotunnel. But we weren’t running to London this time. If we couldn’t have the southern sun, at least we could have a (pebbly) shore. We’ve moved to Brighton. And with Gatwick half an hour away on the train, it couldn’t be easier to get back to Barca when we need a reminder of our Great Escape…

Kate’s latest novel is The Boot Camp

Five women with one goal: to feel like a million dollars for the first time in their lives. They have nothing to lose but their muffin tops!

SIX...days of dawn runs, blistered feet and non-stop sit-ups...

FIVE...meals a day - if half an apple or an oatcake counts as a meal...

FOUR... poster beds not included - but sleep won't be a problem after a ten hour workout...

THREE... women with a battalion's worth of baggage between them...

TWO... hardcore ex-forces trainers with testosterone to spare...

ONE GOAL: To feel like a million dollars, for the first time in your life...

Leave your Mars Bars and Marlboros at the door... this is Boot Camp!

– and the final part of her Soul Beach trilogy – set on a beach people are dying to get to – will be out later this summer.

















To find out more about Kate and her book go here or find her on Twitter @katewritesbooks...

The Cornish House - London Launch

Wow! Didn't think anything could match the Dubai launch but the London launch was great party...

Here's video clip here.

A huge thank you to the wonderful staff at Waterstones High Street Kensington who helped to make it such a wonderful evening!

Now for the pictures...first thanks to the photographers - Carole Blake, Brigid Coady, DD and DS2

The venue...

Waterstones High Street Kensington

The preparations...

The help...

We're ready...

The guests...

Brigid Coady

Judy Astley, Liz Fenwick and Adele Parks

Judy Astley and Brigid Coady

Marika Cobbold

Kate Harrison and Liz Fenwick

Brigid Coady, Liz Fenwick, Julie Cohen and Christina Courtenay

The reading...

The signing...

The evidence...

The fabulous Gear farm Organic Pasties...just before they all disappeared

It was a brilliant evening...now to rest up for the Cornish signings coming up this week...

31st May Charles Causley Festival Launceston - noon
1st June Falmouth Booksellers 2PM
2nd June Waterstones Truro 11AM

And also a lovely library talk at the St Ives Library at 7PM on the 5th of June...

Back to the 'One Thing I've Learnt' tomorrow...

Kate Harrison - One Thing I've Learnt

One Thing I’ve Learnt ... is that you never stop learning

I hated school. From an early age, I was allergic to authority, royal blue blazers and sub-zero PE lessons.  I couldn’t wait to get out.

Which is why it’s been a surprise to find out I love learning. I don’t mean Physics or Trigonometry. No matter how many A*s you have, certain mysteries remain: the opposite sex, the meaning of life and why anyone laughs at Last of the Summer Wine.

That’s why I became a reader and then a writer: to try to make sense of other people. Putting myself in the shoes of a vengeful colleague, a war-scarred reporter or a bossy Brown Owl has taught me more about people than a psychology textbook.   

Not that I’m against textbooks. I’ve written ten novels now – well over a million published words – but I can’t resist the latest ‘how to’ book. I love to read how other authors write five thousand words before breakfast, or the latest theory that story-telling is buried deep in our DNA.

And then there’s the practical stuff. I’m learning to sew (though girls-only Domestic Science classes instilled a fear of the sewing machine that’s taken two decades to overcome). On my kitchen counter,  there are three noxious-smelling jars of gloop that I still hope might eventually turn into sourdough bread.

My curiosity even drove me to spend an entire week doing military style PT training for my new novel. The Boot Camp. I only remembered how much I hate organised exercise when I was ordered to do twenty push-ups on wet sand. Still, it’s all a learning experience, right?

The best people are those who never stop asking why.  So if you’re also afflicted by an insatiable curiosity, join the after-school club. It’s a lot more fun than Trigonometry.

http://kate-harrison.com/ 

Kate's next novel is available 2nd August 2012 - The Boot Camp

Five women with one goal: to feel like a million dollars for the first time in their lives. They have nothing to lose but their muffin tops!

Orion Author Questionnaire...Gulp

Another new step...I'm an author. It sounds like I'm confessing something truly sinful. I have avoided this word in the past because, well, it sounded serious and important and maybe even a little up myself. I was happier with the tag - writer. I write. I write lots and lots but author implied things... like published books.

So now here I am with an author questionnaire and it's not the first...I did do the Blake Friedmann one, but although it was scary wasn't as scary as this one. This questionnaire asked me to write down TEN things they didn't know about me...ten.

Now I know from being a good little student at all the RNA conferences that these terrifying questionnaires are so important because in these times this is all the marketing department may see of the author. They need this information to find ways to promote my book. I can't remember who mentioned this dreaded device - the author questionnaire, but they knew it was akin to baring your soul.

We writers tend to be quiet creatures (not all of us I hasten to add but most) observing the world and only taking part fully at writers' conference where we meet like souls who don't think we are insane (they know the truth).

So in midst of my despair yesterday filling out this instrument of torture I tweeted that I was having trouble with the TEN things about me and the wonderful Kate Harrison mentioned my shoes obsession and then she tweeted (@KateWritesBooks) how she saw my life....@liz_fenwick I sometimes think your life seems a bit like Grazia/Vogue crossed with an Enid Blyton book. Five go mad by the sea etc.

Depending on how you look at it...it's not far from the truth...it's just that I'm not a celeb and can't afford the designer clothes I covet...but close enough. So thank you Kate....I now have images of me in my one pair of Louboutins playing in the rock pools of Cornwall (hmmm...maybe there's a book in that????). Maybe I should put that on the form...but then again maybe not...

Oh I have to also say it's incredibly exciting to be doing this too, terrifying but a little bit of heaven too be doing all these things that mean I'm a real writer...okay I'm an author - there I've said it.

Romantic Novelists' Association Summer Party

The Library at the Institute of Mechanical Engineers

What can I say - except it was fab! I love the RNA. Not only does it have the New Writers' Scheme and the MOST supportive membership they throw one hell of a party. The Summer Party is when the winner of the Joan Hessayon Award is announced. This award is for a writer who has come through the scheme and is published. It is a celebration of all the excitement and hard work that it takes to cross that hurdle to be published. Katie Fforde said each and everyone of the woman up for the award had won. So a huge congratulation to all of the seven worthy writers but a special shout for Allie Spencer for her Little Black Dress Book Tug of Love.

Speaking of Katie Fforde, she is now the chair of the RNA having taken over from the wonderful Catherine Jones.

As with all these parties there is never ever enough time .....Oh and we had three of the nominees for the Melissa Nathan Comedy Romance Award in attendance - Trisha Ashley, Kate Harrison and Julliet Archer (who was one of the nominees for the Joan Hessayson Award).

Sorry for no names to the photos - connection is not brilliant so I will try and amend when I am at the airport.

I head back to Dubai today having done no writing since I left the plane. I am hoping this means my subconcious will have had the needed break to catch up with where I am going now that I chopped and changed scenes....