An Interview with….Kate Lace
Singletitles.com chats to novelist Kate Lace about her books, her alter ego and the universal appeal of romantic fiction
(1) What made you want to become a writer?
That all happened by accident. I joined the army straight from school. (I wanted travel, a well-paid job but I knew I was going to be hopeless about looking after myself. With food and accommodation thrown in as part of the employment package and the fact the ratio of men to women back then was 500:1 – well… It was a no-brainer.) But the army doesn’t go in for much in the way of creative writing. It was only after I left, 8 years later, that it all began to happen. I was invited to run the admin for a magazine for army wives. We were about to go to press with our first edition and we discovered we were 200 words short. I was around and told to write ‘something about life on the married patch, and make it funny.’ I was good at obeying orders so I did as I was told, the readers liked it, I was asked to write another column for the next edition and then another army wife suggested turning the columns into a book. It all sort of went on from there.
(2) You started your career writing contemporary romances as Catherine Jones, but last year you switched gears and released your first novel, The Chalet Girl, written under the name of Kate Lace. What prompted this change? And did a change in name, also mean a change in your writing style?
I heard about Little Black Dress books a couple of years ago and I was instantly attracted to the idea of writing for them. I was told they wanted books like the early Jilly Cooper novels – Harriet, Emily, Octavia etc – books which I had adored when I was in my teens and twenties. I’d decided that I’d probably exhausted my supply of stories about the army and I ought to move on. I also decided that if I was going to make a complete change then I could do worse than start with my name. Besides I was born Catherine Lace so becoming Kate Lace wasn’t really that big a jump. And anyway, ‘Lace’ is far too good a name to waste if you’re a romantic novelist! And yes, it did involve a change of style but it wasn’t a huge shift. I’ve always put a certain amount of humour into my books but with writing for Little Black Dress I could shove in more.
(3) Tell us something about your debut novel The Chalet Girl…
It’s about a girl called Millie Braythorpe who is – errr – a Chalet Girl for a package holiday operator. She’s working as a chalet girl as she needs a job that provides her with a roof as she’s just escaped from a pretty grim time at home. In her spare time she moonlights as a singer in a bar in the resort. It’s the end of the season and the last lot of guests has just pitched up at her chalet and she falls for one of them – Luke. She lets slip to him about a scam some of the reps have been running at the resort and when Head Office turn up and fire them all she blames Luke. She makes sure their paths don’t cross again as the reps finish the last few days of the season before being sent packing but Luke refuses to give up on their relationship. On her return to UK her best mate, Freya who’s at uni, manages to get her a gig, singing, at the Union bar and Millie’s career as a singer song-writer begins to take off. Then Luke comes back into her life.
(4) What are the challenges of writing contemporary romance?
I think the hardest thing is to make your main characters really likeable without them becoming saccharine. It’s very easy to overdo the ‘niceness’ factor and end up with people who are sickeningly perfect. Also, readers want to be entertained. They want vicarious experiences whether that is to be gained from the setting for your book or the life-style of your protagonists. Thinking up new and interesting ones can be quite taxing. On the other hand, doing the research can be a lot of fun. I managed to get a ride in an army helicopter for one of my books. The pilot tried to make me sick but as I’m a complete junkie for white-knuckle rides I was perfectly composed. I think he was faintly impressed!
(5) Readers all over the world cannot seem to get enough of romantic fiction. What do you think is the genre’s universal appeal?
It’s the feel-good factor; no nasty surprises, no gruesome events. If you want that you can read crime or mis lit – and plenty do. I do. Moreover, I don’t think many people read just romance or, indeed, just crime. We all want something to suit how we feel at the time we pick the book up. But if you’ve had a rough day at work, or looking after the kids, and you want to have a wallow in the bath and just unwind, I don’t think you can beat a good love-story with a proper happy-ever-after ending
(6) You are also the Chairman of the Romantic Novelists’ Association. Could you tell us something about what this association does? And what does it offer unpublished writers?
The aim of the RNA is to promote romantic fiction and to encourage good writing. We do that with the four prizes we award each year – The Romantic Novel of the Year, the Romance prize, The Elizabeth Goudge Award and the Joan Hessayon Prize. The first award is pretty self-explanatory and is for a main-stream romance. The second is for category romance e.g Little Black Dress, Mills and Boon. The third is for the opening chapter of a novel and is only for our membership and I make the award at our conference and the last prize if for the best debut novel by one of our New Writers. Our New Writers’ Scheme is a fantastic part of the RNA as a whole and we’re the only body of professional authors that offers membership to the unpubbed and really helps them to achieve that elusive contract. I suppose we get about 5 out of 250 New Writers through to publication each year – which when you consider that only about 1/10,000 m/s submitted to publishers makes it, our hit rate is truly impressive. Over and above that we run an annual conference, hold the occasional workshop, have quarterly meetings, publish a magazine… Oh and have the most wonderful support network; whether it’s to celebrate good news or commiserate over the bad, there’s a great gang of other writers out there ready to do it.
(7)You’ve written eight successful novels under the names of Catherine Jones and Kate Lace, but do you have one which is a particular favourite of yours?
I think you always have a spot for your first published book so, for me, that’s Army Wives. Like many first novels it’s also quite autobiographical so it has got more of me in than any of the others, which gives it even more of a connection.
(8)And what about characters? Out of the many characters you have created, are there any which are particularly close to your heart?
I think Edwina, in Sisters In Arms was my favourite. I have to say she is the exact opposite of me; ran marathons, a complete rebel, terrible brave… I might have been in the army but I was never any of those things!
(9) Who are your favourite authors?
That is always such a tough question as there are so many other writers I am so envious of – their style, their ideas, their characterization. But I think Nancy Mitford has got to be right up there. Tolstoy for War And Peace, Anya Seton for Katherine, Audrey Niffenegger, Terry Pratchett, John Le Carre, Sara Craven, Katie Fforde…. How many do you want?
(10) What’s next for Kate Lace?
Well, the Movie Girl is just about to come out in paperback, then the Trophy Girl. (Do you detect a theme?) I’ve got a meeting with my editor shortly but I think she’s going to want some more of these ladies so… The Party Girl? The Pit-stop Girl? After that, who knows? I’m having a lot of fun doing this and it certainly beats working for a living! I’d like to think that Kate Lace has a lot of books in her still and that some kind publisher out there will continue to want to publish them.
Thank you for joining us at Single Titles, Kate! Make sure you visit Kate’s website at www.katelace.co.uk for more information on Kate and her books!
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