A Holmfirth writer has signed a three book deal for a series of romantic comedies that features everything from long distance love to pigs and skinny dipping.
Melanie Taylor’s first book, Love Digitally, has received great reviews on Amazon since it was first released online as an eBook and audiobook in September.
Preston-based publisher Fox & Ink Books has signed Melanie up with this book and two more all set in the fictional Yorkshire village of Stubbin Bridge which is loosely based on Holmfirth.
The next one called Happiness By Numbers is due out next spring with the third, Just Good Housemates, to follow in November 2026.
The first two are eBooks and audio books while the third will also be a paperback.
Melanie, who has read the books herself for the audio versions, said: “All three of them champion the stunning Yorkshire countryside.”
Melanie has lived in Holmfirth all her life and after working for a couple of years in marketing she went on to organise fundraising events for the charity Epilepsy Action, often leading fundraising expeditions such as going up Ben Nevis.
She later ran a very successful hula hoop training business, leading classes both in schools and the community until Covid hit.
“Teaching hula hooping was the most fun job in the world,” said Melanie. “Randomly, there was a high demand for it until the pandemic.”
Since then she’s been concentrating on writing.
“I wrote my first novel which I submitted to publishers and, although got a lot of feedback, no-one wanted to publish it so it’s in a drawer,” she said.
“It was a decent first effort and I learned a lot from it with the feedback advising me that it needed a stronger hook and more conflict and obstacles.
“I’ve always been interested in long distance relationships and romance. Every time I went on holiday I came back with a new pen pal and I still have a box full of letters from my many pen pals.
“That gave me the idea for Love Digitally and the obstacle is the fact that the couple live 18,000 miles from one another.”
Love Digitally follows childhood sweethearts who reunite after 20 years apart but the problem is Erin Webster lives in Yorkshire while Josh Hardy lives on the other side of the world in New Zealand.
When it’s her evening it’s his morning and Erin is a carer to her mum and Josh has a daughter so neither can relocate to be together.
Then there’s the cruel tragedy that ripped them apart when they were teenagers that neither of them ever got over. Can their relationship really go the distance in every sense of the word?
All of Melanie’s three books are standalone with the link that each is set in Stubbin Bridge.
“All have a strong community vibe and people will recognise Holmfirth in them, especially the countryside, but other elements have been totally made up,” said Melanie.
“Each book has its own cast of characters and each can be read separately but some characters from the other books do make cameo roles.”
Melanie has volunteered at the Pigs in the Wood pig sanctuary at Scissett for more than four years.
“I’m a huge animal lover and I love pigs,” she said. “Happiness by Numbers features a quirky bucket list and a cast of rescue pigs.
“It also addresses the question what happens when you’ve spent so long fighting to stay alive that you’ve forgotten how to live and never dared to love?”
Melanie added: “I love the water and spend lots of my free time wild swimming and paddleboarding. The cold water is my favourite cure for writers’ block.
“My third book, Just Good Housemates, features wild swimming and skinny dipping. It’s a romantic comedy featuring a couple who decide to end their marriage but when neither can afford to move out they end up on a local TV station’s low budget reality show.
“It answers the question ‘how can you move on when you can’t afford to move out?’
“There’s a good dose of wild skinny dipping thrown in as the protagonist tries to ‘find herself.’”
Love Digitally is available for £4.99 on Amazon at https://www.amazon.co.uk/Love-Digitally-Melanie-Taylor-ebook/dp/B0FM48T6V5
Written by ANDY HIRST who runs his own Yorkshire freelance journalism agency AH! PR (https://ah-pr.com/) specialising in press releases, blogging, website content, copywriting and ghost-writing autobiographies.
Huddersfield author explores women’s crucial role in the history of education
