There’s nothing as wonderful as a wedding, especially when it’s your sister getting married. But for Maria, who struggles with social anxiety, being a bridesmaid is a struggle as well as an honour and when she finds herself overawed the person by her side is the last person she’d expect to understand…
I’m really delighted today to be featuring author Katey Lovell as the publication of the final Meet Cute short story approaches: The Boy and the Bridesmaid is published by Harper Impulse this Thursday, June 16th, and is available to preorder now. I’ve written about this lovely series a couple of times before on Being Anne – here and here – and I’ve really loved every one I’ve read.
Welcome to Being Anne, Katey…
I’m writing this blog post a week before the release of The Boy and the Bridesmaid, the final short story in the Meet Cute series, and I’ve got to say I’m feeling quite emotional. From speaking to other authors, I know it’s absolutely normal to run the gauntlet, experiencing every possible feeling during the course of writing a book (phew – it’s not just me!) but before I was published I didn’t realise that unleashing a book into the world would do the same.
The Boy and the Bridesmaid was written last summer, but it’s over two years since the first short stories in the series started buzzing around my head, refusing to leave me alone until they were finished. Two years is a long time to commit to any project, and it was a commitment. I was incredibly poorly as I wrote the earliest Meet Cutes, battling constant fatigue (which I now know was related to Crohn’s disease – my whole large bowel was inflamed) and panic attacks. My mental and physical wellbeing was at an all-time low which made it very hard to concentrate. My creativity was stifled. But I kept going, even though progress was slow.
When I had the initial seven stories completed, the next step was getting them into the public domain. I sent them to agents, publishing companies, competitions…and although the feedback was generally positive, people didn’t know what to do with them. However, I always believed in the series (which I’d initially packaged as a collection), knowing romance readers are always looking for their next swoon-worthy fix! I was over the moon when in March last year Harper Impulse said they loved the stories, the idea and my authorial voice and wanted to publish them as a series.
My fabulous editor Charlotte Ledger suggested I write a Christmas Meet Cute (which ended up being The Boy Under the Mistletoe) and a wedding Meet Cute which linked all the couples together (The Boy and the Bridesmaid). By the time I was announced as a Harper Impulse author last September, they were written and ready to go. I was also off anti-depressants and being treated for Crohn’s disease with an injectable anti-inflammatory drug which made me feel like a different, more able person.
The past eight months have been a whirlwind of excitement with publication days coming thick and fast. The support of authors, bloggers and the whole book-loving community has been absolutely fantastic and made the whole experience even more special to me as a new author. That’s why it brings a lump to my throat to think The Meet Cute Series is coming to an end.
Of course, new readers will (hopefully!) keep discovering them and there will be future publication days – my first full length romcom novel The Singalong Society for Singletons is due for release this autumn (and there’s more romantic comedy in the pipeline although I can’t tell you about that yet!) But The Meet Cute stories will forever have a special place in my heart, the mini romances that kick-started my career and proved I’m more resilient than I would ever have believed.
Thank you for such a lovely personal post Katey – the very best of luck with this one, and I’m really so excited we’ll finally be reading a full-length romantic comedy from you in the Autumn!
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 son.
You might like to visit Katey’s Pinterest boards, and you can also find her on Twitter, Facebook and through her author blog. To view – and purchase – the full Meet Cute series, visit Kate’s Amazon author page: each of the short stories is available for 49p for kindle.