Blog Tour: Guest Post: Me Too by Katharine Light
Today I am helping to start the blog tour for Me Too by Katharine Light. This is the second book in The Millingham series. This one has such a gorgeous cover! Katharine is sharing a guest post about “Do writers make things up, or mostly write about what they know?” Me Too is available now!
Book Description:
Nearly forty, Anna has a successful career, a long-term relationship, and a carefully maintained sense of independence. But as time begins to run out, one question becomes impossible to ignore. What if she’s left it too late for the one thing she truly wants—a baby?
Divorced journalist Rob keeps his life free from complications. But when he runs into Anna at a friend’s wedding, he’s caught off guard. The girl he remembers is gone, replaced by a woman who is impossible to ignore.
When Anna makes him an offer, it’s one he can’t quite believe. No strings. No expectations. Just one simple arrangement.
It should be straightforward.
But the closer they become, the harder it is to stay detached. What begins as a practical plan deepens into something far more tender and much more dangerous.
If Anna allows herself to hope, she could lose not only her dream of motherhood, but the one man who has begun to feel like home.
Now Rob has a choice. Walk away…or risk everything for the woman he was not supposed to fall for.
Because some arrangements were never meant to stay temporary.
Buy Your Copy Here:
Amazon US
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Do writers make things up, or mostly write about what they know? Clive James, the writer and broadcaster, said of his book Unreliable Memoirs, ‘Most first novels are disguised autobiographies. This autobiography is a disguised novel… Nothing I have said is factual except the bits that sound like fiction.’
There are autobiographical aspects to Me Too and to Like Me the first novel in the Millingham series. I spent my secondary school years in Altrincham, just south of Manchester, England, which is the blueprint for Millingham. Going to Altrincham Grammar School for Girls, the Sunday night Youth Fellowship (YF) became a regular fixture in the social calendar because it was the place to meet boys, several of whom sang in the choir at St Mary’s Church, Bowdon.
We were a close group of friends, from when we were about 14 to 18 years old, who had somewhat innocent parties (a lot of snogging, pressed up against one another in the dark, and not much more), drank cider and listened to 1980s hits. Our soundtrack was an eclectic mix of Bowie, The Cure, Duran Duran, Wham, Blondie, Dire Straits, Randy Crawford, The Pretenders, The Clash, U2 and others… Communication was via landline telephones. There were no mobiles back then. When we arranged to meet up, we couldn’t text to change the plan. Nor did we have any social media to contend with. It feels as if it was a simpler, kinder world back then.
Some incidents in the books are based on actual events. There was a snow-laden New Year’s Eve, and night walk along Green Walk to Denzel House and Gardens in Bowdon (Lake Avenue and Lake Court in the books). There was a Brideshead Revisited party just after our A Levels and the evening was captured by some evocative black and white photos. Some of the locations have been changed, but I could point to Jess’s, Sam’s, and James’s houses, all within walking distance of St Mary’s Church.
Anna’s house is based on the home of family friends, but they lived in Dorset, rather than close to Bath. Purseton is mostly a figment of my imagination. Her workplace is similar to my friend Jane’s business premises in Warwickshire. Rob’s flat in Earls Court is inspired by friends who lived in Barkston Gardens for a number of years. Although theirs was a lovely home rather than an unloved living space.
Fiction is about drama, so many episodes from the books are made up. There was no fall from a tree, attack in a downstairs loo, or in a university bedroom. In many ways our lives growing up were privileged, happy and secure. But within our friendship group, there were other elements of family life to navigate: suicide, bereavement, divorce, secrets.
The original idea for Like Me, book one, was inspired by Friends Reunited, the social networking site reconnecting old school/university friends. Launched in 2000, its influence declined after the arrival of FaceBook in 2004. I began thinking about teenage friends who start meeting up again in their late thirties, and the ways these people who have known each other at a crucial and formative time in their lives might have special resonance for each other years later, and what might happen next.
As I was first writing when my children were small, and had to snatch time in the midst of busy parenting, it was very useful knowing what my characters looked like. Several were based on friends from my youth. But once on the page, they became characters in their own right. Anna’s and Rob’s story is entirely fictional, the result of imagining how far she would go to have a child.
My parents still live in Altrincham, and I love walking around the streets I’ve known most of my life. We make a point of dropping into one particular cafe, run by very lovely people, opposite Altrincham Market when we’re visiting, and that is the inspiration for the coffee shop where Rob takes Kate, and various other characters meet. It opened a few years after these books are set. But as I’ve created a fictional world, that’s ok. It’s fiction, after all.
About the Author:
Katharine Light was born in Glasgow and lived there until her family moved to Manchester when she was ten. While in her teens, she began writing stories for her younger sister Emma. These mostly centred around a naïve heroine and a 1980s pop star (some would say the hero was modelled on John Taylor of Duran Duran).
She did a degree in psychology at University College London, and after a year travelling, worked in corporate film production for several years, before taking a break to raise her children.
For many years she wrote mainly during the holidays, around her busy work for a local church.
Her first novel Like Me, published in 2023, was shortlisted for The Selfies Book Awards 2024. Her short story My arms are empty which is based on an episode from her second novel Me Too recently won the City University competition City Writes.
She is a director of the Romantic Novelists’ Association, with responsibility for organising their conferences, gatherings and awards ceremonies.
Katharine lives in London with her husband and quite often at least one of their adult children. She loves singing, walking, painting, looking at art, and going to the theatre.
Contact Katharine:
Threads @katharinelightwrites1
Instagram @katharinelightwrites1