Q&A WITH KATY TURNER

Check out our interview with agent-turned-author Katy Turner!

Can you share a bit about your journey from agent to author?

I worked at a literary agency in my 20s, and while I was reading widely while looking for clients, I always found myself coming back to romances. And secretly, I wanted to be writing them. In my lunch breaks, I would occasionally jot a few things down, plot out stories. Eventually, I decided that I wanted to write more, so I made a career shift to teaching, thinking I would write in holidays. Only that didn't work, because training to be a teacher takes up all your holidays, and then — about a month after qualifying — I had my first child. Hardly a break, but I wrote during naps and after bedtime, joined the RNA's New Writer's Scheme (which is brilliant) and kept going and going.

What are you currently reading?

I always have more than one book on the go. I'm scaring myself reading Ultra-Processed People (Chris van Tulleken) and crying over Cesca Major's Maybe This Time. I just finished Cressida McLaughlin's lovely from Cornwall with Love and next up is CJ Connolly's newest.

If you could have dinner with one of your characters, who would it be and why?

Can I not have all three? I love Holly, my lead — she's quite a character, but I might go for Paolo. He'd cook something Italian, with plenty of carbs and some good wine, and would be very easy company.

Are you working on anything right now?

I am (when I'm not herding children). I'm a terrible procrastinator, but I'm about a quarter of the way through it. Which isn't to say I might not change my mind and start again.

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