The Perfect Girlfriend by Karen Hamilton

I am absolutely delighted to welcome Karen Hamilton to my Blog to write a Guest Post as part of the Blog Tour for her sensational debut novel The Perfect Girlfriend which is released on 22^nd March through Wildfire. A terrifying and compelling read about an obsession and pure hatred go hand in hand at 40,000ft. Welcome to Juliette’s world. A must-read thriller for the Spring.

GUEST POST BY KAREN HAMILTON

The Perfect Girlfriend will be published nine years after I decided to take writing seriously. It was always ‘the dream’ but I only ever dabbled over the years, as I loved my job as cabin crew and enjoyed travelling. When my middle son was a year old, I decided to set myself a word count of one thousand words a day, which I stuck to (as much as possible) and began to enter competitions, attend literary festivals and author events. A big boost was when I came second in a first chapter competition for a magazine and this spurred me on.

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I wrote a (really bad) book, but at least it taught me what I didn’t want to write. I wrote a second novel however; it wasn’t good enough to attract the attention of agents. I joined a local creative writing group and it was here that I first found the courage to read my work out loud.

In 2014, having left my flying career I went on the Faber Writing a Novel course. On the first evening, our course tutor suggested that we experiment, so I decided to write about a character who had been hanging around in my subconscious for a while, someone who came to me when I was changing out of uniform one day before travelling on public transport. I had already started writing the book in the third person, but switched to the first person and this seemed to bring Juliette’s character alive. I received such support and encouragement from our tutor and everyone else on the course, that it gave me the confidence to carry on, develop Juliette’s character and finish the first draft.

At the end of the course, students are given the opportunity to read their work out loud to a roomful of agents and editors (extremely nerve-wracking) but as a result, I am now represented by a wonderful and insightful agent. The Perfect Girlfriend is the result of many drafts, and a lot of edits, but I’m so thrilled. There have been a lot of the inevitable ups and downs along the way, but seeing the cover and, this week, holding my book for the first time have been a total dream come true. I feel very grateful for all the support I’ve received from so many passionate, dedicated people.

I’m currently writing my second novel and this time it feels very different. It’s another psychological thriller with a damaged woman at its heart, but this one is not set in the airline world, so I’m involved in a lot more research. I’m looking forward to finishing the first draft as one of my favourite parts of writing is editing; it’s the time when I become totally immersed in the book and try to shut out ‘real life’ as much as possible.

368 Pages.

Thank you Becky Hunter at Headline for the advanced review copy of The Perfect Girlriend

The Prefect Girlfriend by Karen Hamilton is published by Wildfire Books and is published on 22^nd March 2018 and is available to pre-order through Waterstones, Amazon and all good bookshops.