Behind the Scenes with Kearton Bay
It’s almost impossible for me to believe, but in March I’ll be celebrating ten years as a published novelist! I was going to say published writer, but I did actually have a short story published four months before that - in November 2014. But it was on March 28th 2015 that my long-held dream to have a published book came true, with the release of There Must Be an Angel.
I have such love and affection for the Kearton Bay series for several reasons:
I genuinely do think they’re good stories.
The setting is fantastic. Kearton Bay is based on the real-life North Yorkshire coastal village of Robin Hood’s Bay, and believe me, there are few places more picturesque than that.
I followed a group of characters over four books, and I can honestly say I love each and every one of them.
While dreaming up the area around Kearton Bay I accidentally created Bramblewick! I also created Moreton Cross and Farthingale, the settings for Saving Mr Scrooge. I used Whitby as an anchor for my fictional villages, and Whitby is one of my favourite places so it’s always fun to include it in my books. And I used the market town of Helmsley as my own market town of Helmston, which came in very handy not only for the Kearton Bay books, but for Bramblewick, and the Moorland Heroes series, too.
Most importantly, if it hadn’t been for the three Kearton Bay characters who popped into my head one day and stubbornly refused to leave I might never have had a writing career, and I might never have got my life back...
Beautiful and inspiring Robin Hood’s Bay
I’d always written stories - for as long as I can remember, anyway. It seems to me that as soon as I learned to write I was away, jotting down my little adventures on any scrap of paper I could find. Backs of envelopes, the back of spare wallpaper, the blank pages in my Enid Blyton books (sorry!)… Honestly, I’d find a way somehow.
When I was deemed old enough to start getting pocket money I must have bought a new notepad every week. The problem was, I’d write the first chapter and then decide it was rubbish and throw it in the bin to start again. Yes, even at the tender age of seven I was my own harshest critic. Looking back, I do think it would have been wiser to start with short stories, but I’ve never been one to make things simple for myself.
I did manage to write one full-length book, though, complete with chapters and illustrations. It was about a boarding school that was also a ballet school. I’d never been near a ballet class and I certainly didn’t go to boarding school, but I did my best! I dread to think how bad it was, but I wish I still had that book.
By the time I was eight I had another passion in my life. Ponies! I was absolutely obsessed with them. I still love horses and ponies (and donkeys) and if you look at my own published books you’ll find I’ve managed to sneak at least one equine into almost every series I’ve ever written. Anyway, my stories began to be about ponies and mysteries and adventures (I was mad on the Famous Five books by Enid Blyton). Sometimes they were pure, out-and-out pony stories, about young girls whose families were suddenly desperately poor and had to leave London, but somehow managed to end up in gorgeous cottages in the country, with conveniently attached paddocks. The girls couldn’t afford much but by a miracle they always ended up owning their own pony through chance and circumstance. Basically, like nearly every pony book I ever read.
The first one of my books to feature a horse on the cover. I was thrilled! Childhood dream come true.
Even so, I never managed to write a complete book. I don’t think I ever got beyond chapter three before giving up in disgust.
When I got married and had children the writing stopped dead. I didn’t have the time or energy to think about writing when I had five young kids to look after. I was also suffering from depression and anxiety, and spent most days hiding away in my house, as my confidence dropped to an all-time low and I avoided seeing people.
I honestly don’t think I realised how depressed I was, nor how lonely and sad my life had become, until I started writing again. Writing seemed to work a miracle. When I started to create stories again my mood lifted, my confidence grew, and I even started to socialise once more. It really was incredible.
And that’s all thanks to three characters who appeared in my mind when we were on our way to Somerset for a week’s holiday. It was just me and The Husband - the kids had all grown and left home by then (yes, that’s how long I didn’t write for!) - and he was driving while I was half dozing on the long journey to the south-west. And then, without warning, there they were! A young couple and a middle-aged man.
At the time, I had no idea who they were or where they lived, but I knew that the couple were friends and he’d secretly fallen for her. I knew he came from a wealthy background and she didn’t. I knew the middle-aged man was connected to them somehow, but I wasn’t sure how. And I knew he was warm and funny and supportive. I also knew, fairly quickly, that he was called Joe, and the young man was called Will. Lexi’s name came much later. In fact, she was called Beau for ages, until my beta readers told me that was a male name and I should change it.
I hadn’t felt so enthusiastic about writing for years. As soon as we arrived at our holiday destination I went to the shop and bought a writing pad and pens and began plotting.
I was absolutely determined that, this time, the story wasn’t going to die out in chapter three. In fact, I was already convinced there’d be more than one book about these people. Talk about thinking big!
But writing was hard. I chopped and changed my mind about locations, setting the book firstly in Glastonbury before moving it to the Yorkshire Dales, and struggling because I knew it just wasn’t right.
I’d also realised that, although Will and Lexi were definitely going to get their own story, it wasn’t going to be the first book in the series. Will and Lexi’s romance needed to be a slow burn. I’d been working on Lexi’s backstory, and her dad interested me a lot. I really wanted to know what made Gabriel Bailey tick, and I also wanted him to have his own happy ever after. But who would make him happy?
Before I knew it, Eliza appeared in my imagination. She was sitting on the floor in her pyjamas, sobbing into a bag of Maltesers, while her disapproving mother-in-law told her to pull herself together. She was so real and vivid to me that I knew she had to find happiness, and that Gabriel could be the one to make her happy. They would save each other! So book one became all about Gabriel and Eliza (and I relegated the horrible mother-in-law to an off-the-page existence).
I can’t tell you how many notebooks I filled with ideas and outlines that died or were changed. Eventually, I did at least settle on a rough plan and - best of all - I found my perfect location. As soon as the memory of visits to Robin Hood’s Bay, years ago, popped into my mind, I knew that was where they all belonged. And once I’d figured that out, the story started to come together.
I could picture The Hare and Moon pub, sitting on the cliff top. I saw the landlady, Rhiannon Bone, and my imagination went into overdrive as soon as I thought her up. I could picture beautiful, Elizabethan Kearton Hall, and knew that was where Will lived. Whisperwood Farm was next to arrive in my mind. But how did that fit in with Eliza’s story? And who was that extraordinary pink-haired woman who kept pushing her way into my thoughts? Ah… That would be Rose!
Honestly, I was obsessed with these people. My biggest fear was that I wouldn’t have the gumption to finish the story, and I was determined that wasn’t going to happen. To make sure of it, I signed up for NaNoWriMo, which is National Novel Writing Month. You commit to writing fifty thousand words in a month. I wasn’t sure I could do that many words, but I was willing to give it a go. NaNoWriMo takes place every November, and I spent the couple of months beforehand jotting out a story outline, chapter by chapter.
On November 1st 2012 I began writing, and by November 30th I had a first draft of a hundred and twenty thousand words. Don’t ask me how I did that, because believe me, I’ve never come anywhere close to writing that much since.
I’d done it! I’d written a book! Of course, I hadn’t really. I’d written a very, very messy first draft that would take me another two years to pull into shape, with the help of the New Writers’ Scheme run by the Romantic Novelists’ Association, and the help of my new friends, Jessica Redland, Jo Bartlett, and Alex Weston, whose encouragement and support was invaluable.
Even so, the sense of achievement was incredible. I’d known, from the moment they appeared in my mind, that there was something different about these characters, and I was right. I’d written so many chapter ones in my life, but I knew, I absolutely knew, that this time I was going to tell the whole story.
The original 2015 covers for There Must Be an Angel and A Kiss from a Rose
There Must Be an Angel (working title Angel in the Marble) was published on March 28th, and in September that same year I published A Kiss from a Rose. Rose wasn’t meant to be a main character, but she insisted, and who was I to argue? Her story took me just six months to write from start to finish, and I laughed and cried all the way through it. Rose and Flynn really won my heart. If ever two people deserved a happy ending it was them, and I was delighted to give it to them.
I then wanted to tell Will and Lexi’s story, but I couldn’t decide exactly what it was. It’s funny because they were the two characters who really began my writing adventure, but I struggled to figure out what it was they were trying to tell me. I realised I was going to have to be patient and wait for the ideas to come, but I didn’t want to put writing on hold. Part of me was still scared that this was all a dream and that if I didn’t keep writing I’d go back to the bad old days of not being able to finish a book.
I’d had an idea about a gorgeous farmer who lived on a sheep farm up in the remote Yorkshire Dales. He was a widower with three young children, and he was desperate for someone to take care of them while he worked. And there was a young woman, but she wasn’t who he thought she was, and she wasn’t supposed to be in the Dales at all…
Skimmerdale was born, and I quickly set to work writing This Other Eden (now Summer Secrets at Wildflower Farm). I loved working on that book, and it was published the following April. But then it was clear to me that I needed to tell Will and Lexi’s story, and I’d realised it was going to be about saving Kearton Hall, as well as their friends-to-lovers journey.
I can’t even tell you how much research I had to do to write Once Upon a Long Ago. I’d thought researching sheep farming in the Dales was hard enough, but it had nothing on this. I had to find out about inheritance laws and how they affected stately homes, about caring for such a large and historic property, about art, about the English Civil War… I was buried in paperwork and books! I did, though, have a couple of nice trips to “Kearton Hall”, which is inspired by an East Yorkshire stately home called Burton Agnes Hall. You can read about one of my research trips here.
Writing the third Kearton Bay book was hard, I won’t lie. But I really do think it was worth all the effort, because I love this book, and I love Will and Lexi. I also realised I was really interested in the English Civil War, and that interest emerged again when I was writing The Witches of Castle Clair series. Nothing is wasted.
But what about the fourth Kearton Bay book? Once Upon a Long Ago was published in September 2016. The Whole of the Moon wasn’t published until 28th May 2021. Yes, almost five whole years later!
Why did it take so long? Well, I always knew this was going to be Rhiannon and Harry’s story, and I knew that there had to be some change and growth in both their lives before the story could happen. Where we left them at the end of book three was a very different place to where we find them in this final one.
I also think that, deep down, I was reluctant to write the fourth book. Partly because I was scared I wouldn’t do the series justice. Partly because I didn’t really want to say goodbye to Kearton Bay.
When I finally decided it was time to tell their story, I was determined to make sure the series went out on a high. I’d written quite a few books between Once Upon A Long Ago and The Whole of the Moon, and I was more confident in my storytelling. I also knew and loved Rhiannon. As for Harry… I don’t know what it was about him. Did he deserve a happy ending? Some might say not. But I do love to redeem my characters when I can, and I found Harry’s journey fascinating. I truly believe he was worth it. I’ll admit, he always made me laugh, even when he was being awful in There Must Be an Angel. And I love his interactions with his daughter, Amy, in this fourth book. She really could wrap him round her little finger!
So that was the Kearton Bay series finally completed, six and a half years after the first publication day, and ten years after that journey to Somerset when Will, Lexi, and Joe popped into my mind and refused to leave.
It seems quite fitting that, on the tenth anniversary of There Must Be an Angel, my first book with Boldwood Books, Kindred Spirits at Harling Hall, will be published. They will share a publication day and I’ll be raising a glass to both of them.
The Ghosts of Rowan Vale series secured me a publishing deal with Boldwood Books.
The Kearton Bay series started my journey as a professional author. More than that, it gave me back my confidence, helped me through my battle with depression, introduced me to new friends, and aided me with my anxieties and social phobia.
To be honest, it gave me back my life.
That’s why Kearton Bay will always be special to me.
Have a great week.
