Cleckheaton and Brooklyn: Yorkshire author's work Christmas Evie can be found on both sides of the Atlantic

Her mistaken identity rom-com Christmas Evie follows the title character, a “dating disaster” who learns she’s been dating Italian twins at the same time. It was picked up by the Champagne Book Group, based in the USA.

Karen, 54, says: “I’ve always read, even as a small child. I used to enjoy writing little stories when I was a child as well. But I started taking it seriously once I did my BA in creative writing and identity at the University of Bradford."

That was from 2004 to 2007, a point at which she also had to work through breast cancer, and went on to an MA in writing for performance at the University of Huddersfield.

"I had a couple of radio plays on local radio and I had a monologue at Lawrence Batley Theatre, things like that. It was quite small. And then I moved into trying to write for children. So I joined the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators then and I've been a member for years, I’m in the York chapter. And then I got into writing more for adults.”

She is working on a crime novel which she actually started back when doing her degree, and is now editing it to be set in Cleckheaton.

"I was editing that one in lockdown when, obviously, it was all a bit too depressing to be thinking about serial killers and child abductors, so I started writing a rom-com to cheer myself up – and that's the one that got me the publishing deal.”

Karen caught the attention of the Champagne Book Group when they had pitching event on what was Twitter, now called X.

“You pitch your book and if they like the sound of it, they hit the like button,” says Karen. “That means you can send three chapters and a synopsis to them and then they send you (a message) back saying whether they're interested or not. And they said they wanted to see the full manuscript, and once they ahd seen the full manuscript, they then wanted to offer me the deal.”

Christmas Evie was released on e-book in November 2023 and on paperback in May last year, but it’s a four-book series and second should be published soon, she says.

Previously, Karen – who lives with husband Marcus and has two grown up children, Georgiana (named after Mr Darcy’s sister) and Lucas – was the director Cleckheaton Literature Festival in in 2015 and 2016.

Now she has also started her own business, Creative Services Yorkshire, which supports writers and creatives with business-to-consumer aspects of their work.

And having a US publisher means her own work is available to readers over the Atlantic. She says: "I know you can borrow it from Brooklyn Library, and obviously you can borrow it from Cleckheaton Library!”