Author Kim Nash talks about the inspiration behind her fourth novel

Kim Nash had wanted to write a book since she was a little girl and is now celebrating the publication of her fourth novel.

“I was a huge Enid Blyton fan when I was a child. I devoured everything she ever wrote.

“When I was young I used to think that to be an author you had to have a big house by the sea and your desk had to overlook your beautiful garden with a sea view. Maybe, one day,” says the romantic fiction writer, who lives in Hednesford.

Moonlight Over Muddleford Cove, which was published earlier this week, is described as an utterly uplifting and completely hilarious summer read about learning to trust yourself and of finding love and friendship in the least expected places.

“It’s about a young lady called Nellie Wagstaff who is having a pretty bad week.

“She finds out her fiancé is lying to her and the company she works for is closing down all in the same week.

“But then she gets a letter from her solicitor and finds out she’s inherited something from her Auntie Lil who lives in the Dorset town of Muddleford so she goes off to find out what she’s inherited,” explains Kim, who lives with son Ollie and English Setter rescue dog Roni.

“Muddleford is based on the town of Mudeford in Dorset where I spent a lot of my childhood. My aunty lived there and my family used to spend a lot of summer holidays there so it was my lovely memories that inspired me,” she adds.

When Kim isn’t working on her own books, she is helping to promote other authors’ work in her job as Head of Publicity for publisher Bookouture or interviewing them for her blog www.kimthebookworm.co.uk

Having this insight into the writing world is what finally gave her the push she needed to have a go at making her own dream of becoming an author come true.

“Being a book blogger I got to know different authors and because of that I began working at Bookouture.

“Just being surrounded by people who write every day inspired me to have a go at it. I always said I would love to write a book so I knew I just had to get on with it,” explains Kim.

She won the Romantic Novelists Association’s Media Star of the Year in 2016 and is now delighted to be a member of the RNA as an author.

Her debut novel was Amazing Grace which came out in April 2019 and was followed by Escape to Giddywell Grange in September 2019.

Last year, her third novel Sunshine and Second Chances was published and was shortlisted for the 2020 Amazon Kindle Storyteller Award.

She says her inspiration comes from “everyday life” and quite often something she’s heard on television, the radio or conversation heard while out and about will spark an idea.

The days leading up to her book’s publication date are always both exciting and nerve-wracking as readers start to get stuck into her story.

“It’s nerve-wracking when you first send it out into the world. I feel completely and utterly sick until I get that first review. I remember Jill Mansell saying she’s really nervous every time one of her books comes out and she’s sold more than 10 million books,” Kim explains.

She also runs a book club in Cannock, organises local and national reader/author events, and also features weekly chats with women’s fiction authors on her Facebook page.

“It’s something that’s gone down very well and I’ve had some fabulous guests,” Kim tells Weekend.

Writing over the past year has been tougher than normal due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic but Kim is now making progress with her fifth novel.

“It was quite hard to motivate myself but I did it,” says Kim, who like many of her readers also found solace in books.

“I enjoy getting messages on Facebook and emails from readers who say my books have helped them to escape.

“During lockdown I had a lot of messages from people who said my books helped them when they were feeling lonely and put a smile on their face.

“That means the absolute world to me. To be able to do that for somebody is absolutely amazing,” says Kim.

Always keen to sit down with a good book, she admits to having many favourite authors. “I love a good thriller by Angela Marsons and fiction authors like Milly Johnson, Carole Matthews, Nicola May and Miranda Dickinson,” Kim tells Weekend.

Fulfilling her childhood dream of becoming an author has certainly lived up to all of the expectations Kim had as a young girl. “I absolutely love it,” she says. “I love the fact that people get to read my stories and that these stories can help people through difficult situations. I know my books are realistic and people found Sunshine and Second Chances really inspiring because the women in it went off and changed their lives. Books can do that for people and to think I can do that for people really warms my heart,” Kim tells Weekend.

*To find out more about Kim’s books or to read her blog, go to www.kimthebookworm.co.uk or see www.facebook.com/KimTheBookWorm