I’m so delighted today to feature Katey Lovell, author of the Meet Cute series. I don’t think Katey and I have ever met (mmm – maybe we did once, ages ago?) , but we’ve known each other on-line for many years as blogging friends – she has an excellent book blog at Books With Bunny. Having followed her writing progress for all those years, and knowing how hard she’s worked at her writing, I’m so thrilled to see the wonderful reviews appearing for her new series of short stories. I’ve read all three issued so far, and my thoughts are below – but first, I’m thrilled to welcome Katey to Being Anne, talking about the power of Pinterest.
When it comes to social media, I’m always late to the party. I was still languishing on the ghost-town of MySpace whilst everyone else had migrated to Facebook and it took a lot of persuading to get me to open a twitter account. I didn’t think I had a need for Instagram and when people starting talking about Pinterest I couldn’t see how it’d work for me. Boards of pictures stored on my computer? What’s the point in that?
It was only when I started looking at the boards other writers had created that I could see exactly how I’d benefit from a Pinterest account. Being able to collate pictures into groups for chapters, setting, characters – it makes it so much easier to create a story.
I’m definitely a visual learner. Whenever I had exams to revise for I’d copy out chunks of text, adding diagrams and charts to help me retain those all important facts. And having Pinterest boards has definitely helped me tighten my writing skills. Creating a visual world of pinned images that matches up to the fictional one in my mind makes it much easier for me to write, and on the days where words are really slow (and all writers have them) searching for images which will help when I next sit down to write is a more productive form of procrastination than watching TV or playing my ukulele. Sometimes one image will be all it takes to reignite the spark and get me back writing.
I’m not saying Pinterest is the answer to beating writer’s block – the only answer to that is to write.
But if you’re a writer don’t discount a Pinterest board of random images as pointless, don’t think of the time collating it as time wasted. Those images might be just the bricks you needed to build on the foundations of your ideas.
Katey, thank you! I failed to come to grips with Pinterest some time ago, but given your enthusiasm I really might give it another try…
The Meet Cute series – my thoughts
I’m really not an enthusiastic short story reader – they usually leave me wanting more – but these three stories were quite lovely. Katey has a real talent for drawing her characters in a few deft strokes – in the first, The Boy In The Bookshop, I immediately loved both Jade and Marwan, and was enchanted to watch their unfolding story. The setting was perfect – what reader doesn’t love a book shop? – and for the short time the story lasted I was totally absorbed, watching the magic moment happen. The Boy On The Beach and The Boy At The Bakery were equally enjoyable. In the first, I really liked the way love blossomed for Lauren and Toby even before they met – very real, very touching, and that sense of excitement at first meeting is so well done. In the third, I think Cole might just be my favourite of the heroes – and I so loved Lily’s awkwardness!
These are very short stories, perfect for a coffee break or late running appointment, but Katey delivers them so well. Her descriptions are really excellent – she has an easy, readable style, perfect for a lighter short story, and a succinctness that’s appropriate to the format without ever giving you the feeling that more should have been said.
Katey, this was a lovely introduction to your writing – I enjoyed the stories very much. I do hope it won’t be too long until I’m reading the first full-length novel.
Katey Lovell is the author of The Meet Cute series. The Boy in the Bookshop, the first short story in the series was released on October 29th, published by Harper Impulse. followed by The Boy at the Beach on November 5th and The Boy at the Bakery on November 12th.
Katey 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.
You might like to visit Katey’s Pinterest boards, and you can also find her on Twitter, Facebook and through her author blog.