Welcome to another Friday Reads blog post. My featured book today is the hilarious Life Begins at 50 by Celia Anderson. Celia is a bestselling author of romance, now writing Golden Years Womens Fiction for Boldwood. So grab yourself a cuppa and get comfy then we’ll get chatting to Celia about her new book and her writing life. 😊

Blurb

Kate dreamed of a happy marriage, a house full of children and a fulfilling
teaching career. But after twenty-five years of married life and about to hit the big 5-0, it’s clear that her dreams haven’t quite come true. Then her husband leaves her for his golf partner, forcing Kate to take stock of what has become of her life.
Luckily, new friendship comes her way in the form of three feisty older women
who take Kate under their wings, plus a new flame (could it be more . . .?)
sparks with local divorced dad, Milo. As her big birthday approaches, Kate’s zest
for life begins to return.
But opening herself up means making herself vulnerable to being hurt all over
again . . .
Can it be true that life begins at fifty? And will Kate be brave enough to find
happiness, and grab hold of it with both hands?

Praise for Celia Anderson:
‘Warm, romantic and different, in the very best way’ Katie Fforde
‘I absolutely adored it!’ Ruth Hogan

Buy Link: https://mybook.to/LifeBegins50Social

Hi Celia, welcome to my blog. Can you tell us a little bit about your writing life?

I’ve been scribbling stories for as long as I can remember, probably inspired by winning a fabulous pen for an awful poem about a rose when I was ten years old. The love of writing is in my blood. Both my parents (a teacher and a Sunday School leader) liked to communicate by sending out regular letters to their family and friends and luckily, they also passed on their passionate love of reading. An only child, my nose was often in a book and my biggest treat on wet holidays in Wales, apart from ice cream and a new Welsh hat each year, was to find the nearest bookshop and stock up for the week. Later on, at one point I had library tickets for three different establishments and used them all.

Marriage, my own children and a series of random jobs happily filled my twenties. When I eventually followed in my Dad’s footsteps and began to teach, I carried on with my stories, but my creative energy was mostly used up in helping my classes to write and produce their own plays. Early retirement, however, opened up a whole exciting world of time for me! Now I could really get stuck into getting published. I threw away my enormous stack of rejection slips and dived in, somehow managing to find my perfect agent – Laura McDougall from United Agents – who set me on the path to seeing my books in print.

Now living in Brighton after years of longing to be by the sea and near my family, my writing life is very different. I was first widowed at the age of 47 and this awful experience recently happened again when my second husband became ill and died soon after we relocated to the coast. In my defence, I think this becoming widowed business is a coincidence rather than something I said or the standard of my cooking… Anyway, grief can take people in a variety of ways, and my method of getting through the pain is to write. I have two wonderful grandchildren who keep me busy and entertained, so I tend to write in the early mornings before the day gets filled with playdoh and den-building.

My first book with Boldwood, released on July 18^th, is called Life Begins at Fifty. It’s about new beginnings and second chances and is set in the fictional village of Willowbrook but also features somewhere very similar to one of my favourite places, Ferry Meadows Country Park near Peterborough. A memorial bench there is very significant, as are three very sparky older ladies, the self-styled Saga Louts. I’m hoping to also feature Willowbrook in my next two books. It has a village green, a shop that sells beautiful knickknacks and best of all, a great pub. Heaven.

Your book sounds fab, Celia. Thanks for dropping by to talk to us today, I really enjoyed our chat. I hope your book flies. 😊

A brief Author bio.

Celia Anderson writes stories featuring characters spread over a wide age range, but particularly likes to feature those in what is now being described as their golden years. Previously a teacher and assistant head teacher, she is now trying hard to resist volunteering in the nearest school to her new south coast home. Equally inspired both by coastal settings and the countryside inland, Celia spends far too much time on Facebook and Instagram when she isn’t entertaining her grandchildren. She loves cooking, eating, walking, swimming (this last one with very little skill but great enthusiasm) and reading. Lots and lots of reading. It’s a wonder that there’s any time at all for writing. Luckily, there is, usually at 5am.

Contact Links

Celia can be found on Facebook at Celia Joy Anderson, @cejanderson on Instagram and CeliaAnderson1 on X. Hoping for a new website soon.