Author, Spotlight

Katherine Reay: author spotlight

Beth Erin

Today’s featured author has a charming style all her own and she brought goodies, reader friends!!! Read on for a deal alert and a giveaway!

About the Author

Katherine Reay Five Favorites + #giveaway

Katherine Reay is a writer, wife, mom, continually rehabbing runner, compulsive vacuumist and a horrific navigator…

She graduated from Northwestern University and earned an MS in Marketing from Northwestern as well. She then worked in marketing and development before returning to graduate school for a Masters of Theological Studies. Moves to Texas, England, Ireland and Washington left that degree unfinished as Katherine spent her time unpacking, raising kids, volunteering, writing, and exploring new storylines and new cities.

The Reay family (with a great sense of permanency) now resides outside Chicago, and Katherine pursues writing with more focus. She writes character-driven stories and non-fiction that focuses upon examining the past and how it influences our present experiences.

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Five Favorites

1. Who is your favorite secondary character?

Katherine: Of ones I’ve written – Kyle from Dear Mr. Knightley.

Hands down my favorite. He started as a small character, a bit role, then stole my heart and much of the story. He became a driving force in Sam’s story and she would be lost without him.

Of the ones I’ve read – curmudgeons! I adore grumpy characters! Dickens had a few and Moriarty has a wonderful one in Truly Madly Guilty. I’m encountering another in A Man Called Ove, but he’s the main character so I shouldn’t even mention him. 😉

Beth: Oh, I adore Kyle!!! Readers can hop over to my review of Dear Mr. Knightley!
I also have some real life experience with a curmudgeon… he was all bark and no bite.

2. What are your favorite childhood books?

Katherine: Anything by Beatrix Potter – though I do have a special soft spot for Miss Tiddlywinks – and all C.S. Lewis’s Narnia books. I read them over and over – even as an adult. Lewis is my favorite author – one might think it’s Austen. But it’s Lewis.

Oh… I just realized most of the characters in those books are animals. I wonder if I should go back to question #1 and rework that answer…

Beth: Nah, we’ll stick with Kyle… he is a keeper after all! 😉
I’d love to have a copy of The Chronicles of Narnia for our shelves… we have borrowed it from the library in print and audio form multiple times!

3. What is your favorite time to write?

Katherine: I love to start my writing in the morning right after the kids go to school. I take a break mid-morning some days and go for a run and then try to wrap up my writing commitments by mid-afternoon in order to tackle any and all other projects. That’s an ideal day, though, and those rarely happen.

Beth: I was with you until you used the “R” word in that strange way, then you lost me… I run the washing machine, run the dishwasher, run the kids out of the house… 

4. What is your favorite genre?

Katherine: I love to answer this question because I don’t have one. Honestly, I read just about everything and usually have three books of different genres going at once.

Right now I am digging deep into narrative nonfiction. But I just cracked the spine on A Man Called Ove — so I’m not abandoning fiction.

Beth: A bookish enthusiast!!! THAT I understand!

5. What is your favorite activity?

Katherine: I love to run. I hurt my back a couple years ago, so I am rehabbing at present. Limited miles. Limited time. So when I can’t run, I get on my elliptical-machine-on-wheels and zip down the running trails. I look a little ridiculous, but it’s an amazing workout.

Beth: I don’t understand this running business but the elliptical-machine-on-wheels sounds intriguing!

Books

Katherine’s latest release:

Art restorer Emily Price has never encountered anything she can’t fix – until she meets Ben, an Italian chef, who seems just right. When Emily follows Ben home to Italy, she learns that his family, however, is another matter…

A Portrait of Emily Price by Katherine ReayEmily Price—fix-it girl extraordinaire and would-be artist—dreams of having a gallery show of her own. There is no time for distractions, especially not the ultimate distraction of falling in love.

But Chef Benito Vassallo’s relentless pursuit proves hard to resist. Visiting from Italy, Ben works to breathe new life into his aunt and uncle’s faded restaurant, Piccollo. Soon after their first meeting, he works to win Emily as well—inviting her into his world and into his heart.

Emily astonishes everyone when she accepts Ben’s proposal and follows him home. But instead of allowing the land, culture, and people of Monterello to transform her, Emily interferes with everyone and everything around her, alienating Ben’s tightly knit family. Only Ben’s father, Lucio, gives Emily the understanding she needs to lay down her guard. Soon, Emily’s life and art begin to blossom, and Italy’s beauty and rhythm take hold of her spirit.

Yet when she unearths long-buried family secrets, Emily wonders if she really fits into Ben’s world. Will the joys of Italy become just a memory, or will Emily share in the freedom and grace that her life with Ben has shown her are possible?

goodreads | amazon

Beth: Emily’s story is a delightful reading experience! Readers can hop over to my review!!

Tell us about your next release.

Katherine: In November 2017 – it’ll be The Austen Escape. 🙂

The Austen Escape

goodreads

Beth: Being tight-lipped about it, eh? I’m adding that to my calendar!!! Readers, make sure you mark that as “want to read” on goodreads!

Also Available

goodreads | amazon

#DealAlert: At the time of this posting, Dear Mr. Knightley Kindle edition is on sale for $1.99

Giveaway

Katherine Reay has generously offered to present one fortunate reader with a copy of A Portrait of Emily Price!

A Portrait of Emily Price giveaway

Paperback, US residents only

a Rafflecopter giveaway
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Readers: Share some of your favorites with us and perhaps your thoughts on this running business…

37 thoughts on “Katherine Reay: author spotlight”

  2. Ugh. I do not enjoy running. Walking is better but if given the choice, my favorite form of exercise would be holding up my arms while reading a good book. 🙂

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  4. Oh wow, Katherine is a new author for me…oh these look so good! I have to read Dear Mr. Knightley and read about Kyle! Oh these all sound so good! I cannot wait to read! I used to love to run…I loved the country open spaces….was so beautful and so relaxing…you just didnt want to stop and go home! My back does not like it anymore. 😦 I sure do miss it!

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  13. I’m 78 yrs. old and walk 4 to 5 miles five days a week and read my book while doing so. Exercise is the best! P.s. I walk at the gym not on the street.

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  14. Fabulous interview Beth and Katherine! Running is TOO HARD on the knees. I would join you on a walk to the library. *wink*

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    1. Oh, yes! I used to love to walk to the library when we lived in town! Alas, it’s too dangerous to walk down our road, folks drive way too fast for conditions. So I’ll have to come to your house for the library walk 😉

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  15. Running? I haven’t done that since I was a kid. I do like to get out and walk and just recently my husband and I have been talking about buying some bicycles. He has a bad knee and thought biking might be an easier form of exercise for him.

    Historical fiction is usually my genre of choice, but in the past three or four years there have been some great releases in the Christian contemporary fiction area. I haven’t read any of Katherine’s books, but look forward to them.

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  17. I really enjoyed “Dear Mr. Knightley.” I haven’t read “A portrait of Emily Price” yet, but it sounds great! I enjoy taking walks with my husband around a nearby lake. However, my more usual mode of exercise is through a fitness video game. It’s engaging enough to temporarily get my head out of a book, so that’s saying a lot!

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  18. So running is a thing? Something people willingly do and enjoy? Hmm…who knew. ???? I’m definitely not a runner.

    Thank you for a great interview. It’s always fun hearing from authors and seeing their answers to your questions. Thank you for the opportunity to win her book.

    Thank you,
    Stephanie C.

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