Heidi Swain : Welcoming Karen King to the blog!

With Christmas fast approaching, I'm absolutely delighted to welcome Karen King, who has The Best title for her festive release - SINGLE ALL THE WAY, to the blog to tell us all about her love of Christmas Carols.

I love Christmas. It’s a time for family, friends, coming together, helping each other, love and forgiveness and celebrating the joy of living. And for me, carols and Christmas songs are a big part of this. There are so many wonderful carols; ‘O Little Town of Bethlehem’, ‘Once in Royal David’s City’, ‘In the Bleak Midwinter’, I love them all but if pushed for a favourite I’d have to go for ‘Good King Wenceslas’ because it holds such nostalgia for me. Childhood memories of sitting around the coal fire with my family at Christmas time, my older brother, Gary, and I singing ‘Good King Wenceslas’ with Gary singing the King’s words and me the Page’s. I use the term ‘singing’ loosely as while Gary has a good singing voice I am always hopelessly out of tune. It never bothered me then, and doesn’t now, when I hear carols being sung I have to join in. Half of the joy is joining in.

We always sang carols as we decorated the Christmas tree – a tradition I carried on with throughout my own children’s childhood and even now, with my children grown up, I still decorate the tree to the accompaniment of a CD of Christmas carols and songs playing in the background, joining in hopelessly out of tune.

I always loved going to the carol services at the school, listening to the children singing away heartily – and yes, when it was appropriate, joining in, just as Saffy does in my previous Christmas novel, ‘Snowy Nights at the Lonely Hearts Hotel’. Some people dread the knock of carol singers at the door but I love it and always eagerly open the door to hear the carols. I even joined a group of carol singers from the local church for a few years, we went from door to door singing carols to collect money for the homeless – although I think that the money I collected was probably to stop me singing! Even now I live in Spain I go to the carol services that are held locally by expats, and to the ‘switching on the lights’ ceremony in Malaga, as Meg and Sally do in ‘Single all the Way’. Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without a few carols, they bring people together to celebrate the joy and goodwill of Christmas and that’s the feeling I try to bring to ‘Single all the Way’. Despite their heartache, Meg and Sally support each other and join in to help the local community too. They both went down to Cornwall to avoid Christmas but ended up realising where their hearts were.

Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Single all the Way…

Single All The Way...

Snow is falling, bells are ringing… and my heart is broken. I pick up the phone to tell my mother about Oliver and me. Then right after I explain, she says, ‘I don’t exactly know how to tell you this, but you're not the only one who is single again.’

Single together for the first time, 34-year-old Meg and her warm-hearted mother Sally decide to cancel Christmas, and run away to a tiny cottage on the Cornish coast. For Meg, it is the perfect place to heal, away from all the mistletoe, while for her mother it has a special, and secret, place in her heart – from a love story that seems a lifetime ago…

Meg and Sally find they’re getting to know themselves, and each other, better than ever before. But as they are unable to resist getting involved in the village Christmas celebrations, they encounter two handsome local strangers.

Sometimes, it’s being away from home that helps you realise where your heart is. What neither woman knows is that, by the time the new year rolls around, one woman will have fallen in love with their ex all over again, and one relationship will be over for good…

An escapist, romantic and heart-warming novel for fans of One Day in December and No One Cancels Christmas.

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All about Karen

Karen King is a multi-published bestselling author of romance novels, YA and children's books. She has had eight romantic novels, two YA books and 120 children's books published. She has also written several short stories for women's magazines.

Currently published by Bookouture, Karen's latest title, Single All The Way, is out now.