Guest Blogger: Kathy Shay
Good Morning, Romance Bookclub Readers.
How nice to be here with you today. Thanks for the opportunity to get to know me and my work better. I write for Harlequin Superromance and Berkley Press. I have thirty-two published novels, with a few more in the works. I love writing and feel grateful to have this wonderful career.
Actually, I’ve had two great careers. I was an English teacher for a long time and it was really a vocation for me. I loved being with adolescents (no, I’m not crazy) and I enjoyed imparting knowledge and helping them to gain self-esteem. My main academic goal was to instill a love of reading and writing in them.
It’s obviously a love I have myself. I’ve been a voracious reader since my own teen years. I had a beloved English teacher who introduced me to Shakespeare, Henry James and C.S. Lewis and served as a model for my own direction in education. To this day, I turn to books for entertainment, escape, and to learn about the world. I read best sellers like Cormac McCarthy’s THE ROAD, everything Nora Roberts, Susan Elizabeth Phillips and Linda Howard write, and must confess to reading over a few of my own books after they’re published from time to time.
My writing career began early in high school and college where I wrote short stories and poetry and kept a diary every single day until I was nineteen. I planned to be a professional author then, but my life took a different turn when I realized I was meant to teach. Still, I continued to write short stories, essays and poetry until I turned forty and said, “Okay, it’s time to write a book.” My second manuscript was bought by SuperRomance in 1994 (the first never sold) and I’ve continued to write ever since.
I’ve done books about teachers, lawyers, carpenters, lots of cops, doctors, architects, newspaper reporters, pilots, Secret Service agents, senators, judges, stay-at-home moms and counselors. And of course, one of my favorite professions, firefighting, which brings me to TAKING THE HEAT.
This is a story about widower Liam O’Neil who lost his wife three years ago to cancer and is ready to date again. He meets Sophie Tyler, rough and tumble female firefighter from the FDNY, and is attracted to her. But his sons are still suffering over the loss of their mother and Liam feels he can’t risk getting involved with someone in a dangerous profession. Too bad, though, because they can’t help themselves and sparks fly, emotionally, physically and on the line.
So, what do you think? Any questions about writing, me, my work, whatever? I look forward to hearing from you.
Kathy Shay
View Kathryn's latest book trailer!
Tara Green
One randomly chosen person who comments on Kathryn's blog may win a copy of TAKING THE HEAT! Good luck and start posting!
11 Comments
Reader Comments (11)
I'm glad to be here. It's nice knowing I have something in common with readers, like favorite authors.
Kathy
Kris M
Kris M
Enjoyed the trailer and your book sounds like a book I'd truly enjoy.
Kris M.asked what my writing day is like. I ususally get up around seven, sometimes a little earlier, like today, or a bit later. I watch some MORNING JOE, have coffee, check email, then get down to writing. I usually stay at it till mid-morning, then I go for a walk with our little dog, and often with my best friend who lives nearby. I come back and finish my scene(s), and at 11:30, I go out. Two to three days, I do volunteer work at a soup kitchen, a battered women's shelter or visiting an elderly woman from church. The other days I go to yoga class. When I come home, sometimes I revise what I wrote that morning. I do best in concentrated blocks because I was teaching full time when I started out and never had longer than that.
I used to write strictly from the outline I sell the book on, but then about five years ago, my characters started straying from that. They pretty much go their own ways now, often doing something totally unexpected, or adding a new person to the mix, and always saying something surprising, It seems to work best this way, so I let it go, but I worry, thinking, "Oh, dear, what am I going to do with them now?"
Kathy