Book Tour – “A Day to Remember” by Katharine O’Neill

Book Tour – “A Day to Remember” by Katharine O’Neill

Months after ending a long-term relationship, Bryony Murphy still lets it control her. She’s scared to let anyone else in, just in case her ex, Tara, comes back to torment her again.

It isn’t easy to keep her heart to herself around beautiful journalist Georgia Bing, who works with Bryony on the TV show Crooked Cowboys. Georgia makes Bryony want to forget everything else and enjoy simply her.

After a one-night stand with Bryony, Georgia wants more with the lovely researcher. She knows Bryony’s hurting, but she also knows of Bryony’s past. Georgia is willing to go slow at first, but soon the sexual tension becomes too much to bear and she just has to make Bryony her own.

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Katharine has wanted to be a writer for as long as she can remember. She wrote her first novel when she was 15. In her A-levels, she spent lessons preparing dialogue for scenes. Then she studied Creative Writing and Film and TV Studies at Derby University, graduating in 2010.

For a few years, Katharine worked in the community as a care support worker before becoming a stay-at-home parent. In 2015, she made the leap into becoming a freelance ghost writer of romantic fiction. Since then, Katharine has written over 300 short stories, novellas and novels for various clients.

In June 2018, her first novella, A Day to Remember, was published. Katharine lives in Derby with her fiance, a mental health nurse, and their two children.

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Who is your favorite author?

It’s varied over the years, and I don’t have much time to read right now, but my favourite is definitely Karen Rose. She has the ability to keep you gripped to the pages. I’m unable to put her books down, ending up finishing it in one sitting. That’s even if I have to stay up until two in the morning. I can’t do that now with children, but I still get her books so I can set aside some time when I’ve got an unexpected day to do nothing other than the school run.

How do you describe your writing style?

I’d like to think it was different. There’s that expression where a writer is told ‘show don’t tell’. There’s a fine line between that because you’re not sure if you’re showing too much or telling too much. I try to make the scene in question vivid, write it down as it is being imagined in my mind as much as possible. I do draw upon Karen Rose again for writing style. She manages to keep me turning the pages, so I want to do the same in turn.

Use no more than two sentences. Why should we read your book?

Something different and something fresh. It’s intense but can be read in one sitting.

Have any of your characters been modeled after yourself?

I’ve modelled one of the protagonists, Georgia, after British TV presenter Matt Allwright, but I haven’t modelled any characters on myself. A few times a snippet of my life or an event that has happened to me will slip in to round out the character, but often I write a female character into what I would love to be.

If you could exchange lives with any of your characters for a day which character would you choose and why?

I’d like to be Georgia Bing for a day. As I mentioned, she is modelled on Matt Allwright, who is a consumer TV presenter. I’m a fan of Matt and I like his sense of humour. He’s made Georgia a lot of fun.

What books have most influenced your life?

I’ve read a wide variety, but the ones that grip me are the Sexton Blake stories. He was the first private detective before Sherlock Holmes and his stories were written as serials in magazine by a huge group of writers. They went on right into the 60s. My grandfather collected dozens of them as a young man when they were put in booklets, and he passed them on to my mum. I found them when I was about 11 years old, along with booklets of love stories from Woman’s Weekly he had also collected. I liked reading before then, but these cemented it. I was drawn into so many different worlds, as Sexton Blake was ageless and only changed with the times. It had me thinking ’I want to do that’.

If you could select one book that you could rewrite and add your own unique twist on, which book would that be and why?

It hasn’t come out yet, but I would like to rewrite Hilary Mantel’s final book in the trilogy of Thomas Cromwell’s life, The Mirror and The Light. I’d change it into an alternate history where Cromwell manages to escape his execution and goes after the privy council for setting him up for treason. I do actually have an idea for that in the future, so watch this space!

Beatles or Monkees? Why?

Beatles. Mainly because I had to google who the Monkees were! But my mum grew up with the Beatles and she’s a music teacher, so she has a wide variety of music. We listened to the Beatles all the way from our home in Cambridgeshire to Kent, where my grandma lived at the time. That was about 2/3 hours, so lots of Beatles songs!

Who should play you in a film of your life?

Maisie Williams from Game of Thrones. My life isn’t as spectacular as Ayra Stark’s, but she would do my place in life justice.


Note: may contain sexually explicit scenes of a homoerotic nature.

“Oh, hello, Georgia. Fancy meeting you here.”

“How much have you had to drink?”

“I don’t know. I’ve lost count.” Bryony downed the rest of her glass, slamming the glass down on the countertop. “But I’m going to keep drinking until I don’t remember my own name.”

Georgia was not having that. She caught the barman’s eye and signalled him over.

“Get me a strong coffee. And don’t serve anymore alcohol for this one.” She indicated Bryony. “She’s had enough.”

The barman nodded and moved away. Bryony scowled.

“Why are you spoiling my fun?” She grumbled.

“This is hardly fun.” Grabbing the woman’s arm, Georgia helped her off the stool and led her towards the booth. “You and I are going to sit down and talk.”

Bryony tried to pull away but Georgia wouldn’t let go. She wasn’t about to let Bryony bolt. Nudging Bryony into the booth, Georgia sat beside her, effectively crowding Bryony against the wall. Bryony grumbled and glared at her but Georgia didn’t react. They sat in silence until the barman brought the coffee, giving them both curious looks before leaving. Georgia nudged the coffee cup towards Bryony.

“I thought you could handle this assignment, Bryony.”

“I can.” Bryony protested. “This has nothing to do with it.”

“I think it does. We had cameras watching you, remember? Joyce also told me about your reaction. Now tell me drinking yourself into a stupor when you’re supposed to be in the office is nothing to do with your breakdown earlier.”

Bryony glared at her. Her pupils were wide, almost swallowing the color of her eyes.

“Save your journalism for your job, Georgia, not for analysing me.”

Georgia pushed the coffee towards her and leant forward, placing her hand on the back of Bryony’s neck. Bryony didn’t shake her off. If anything, her breathing seemed to get faster.

“Bryony, we’re all worried about you. I’m worried about you.” That much was true. “Please, just talk to me.”

It was all she could do not to pull Bryony into her arms. Georgia wasn’t one to do public displays of affection but she was tempted with this woman.

Bryony looked like she wanted to run. But she slumped, leaning into Georgia until her head rested on Georgia’s shoulder. Georgia didn’t say anything, simply leaning back to settle against the booth, her arm going around Bryony’s shoulders. Bryony let out a shuddering sigh.

“Tara and I were together since I was eighteen and she was twenty. We would’ve been together fifteen years this week. And for the first twelve years, it was amazing. Tara was amazing. But then she changed. She got into a car accident and was diagnosed with bipolar. Tara had to go on pain medication and meds to control her bipolar. Her mother, Krista, found out and accused me of making Tara into an addict.” Bryony sniffed and reached for her coffee. She lifted her head enough to take a sip and placed the cup back down, snuggling against Georgia again. “She’s always hate me, Krista has. She decided to mess about with the meds and eventually stole them, telling Tara she didn’t need to take them. Tara didn’t do anything; she had started developing psychotic delusions and believe Krista that I was the one at fault. So she started lashing out at me.”

Georgia had suspected something like that. She had been there at Tara’s trial and sentencing while Bryony had been in hospital but because Tara had pleaded guilty early on, she hadn’t heard everything. Just hearing all this made the anger bubble up.

“Did you call the police?”

“You know I did.” Bryony sniffed. “And you know what happened at Thanksgiving.”

Georgia did know. She had come into the office early and had found Bryony unconscious. She looked as though she had been hit by a car and was bleeding from the neck. Georgia had called for an ambulance and got the whole story. Tara had tried to come to the hospital but Georgia and a few of their co-workers had blocked her way. Tara had screamed at them and tried to attack Georgia but security had dragged her out.

Georgia wasn’t about to forget that day in a hurry.

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