LOCAL author Mary Jayne Baker secured a book deal for her debut novel with world-leading publisher HarperCollins after turning her hand to a steamy romantic comedy.

The Honey Trap, published on Kindle in August, will come out in paperback in November.

Set within the morally dubious world of a redtop newsroom in London, the book tells the story of a young journalism intern called Angel Blackthorne.

Angel is sent by her sleazy editor to set up the handsome, and married, British film director Seb Wilchester for a kiss-and-tell.

After the scandal breaks Angel tries to put Seb behind her, but fate seems to have other ideas.

A near miss at a premiere after-party and a shared love of vintage film brings the honey closer to the trap. But what happens when pretence leads to passion, and a ‘kiss and tell’ becomes something real?

Bingley writer Mary Jayne was inspired to pen her first novel when she heard about NaNoWriMo– the National Novel Writing Month – which every November offers forums, pep talks and word counters online to encourage aspiring novelists to write a minimum 50,000 words in a month.

She said: “It had always been a dream that I could write a romantic novel, but after a couple of false starts over the years I completely lost confidence and gave up.

“It was only after discovering the NaNoWriMo website, and the lovely people there who gave me the support and encouragement I needed, that I was finally able to write this story.

“By the end of December I had a finished manuscript, which was accepted for publication by HarperCollins under their HarperImpulse imprint in March of this year. It’s been a bit of a whirlwind really!”

The Honey Trap was published as an ebook on Kindle and other platforms on 19th August, priced at 99p. The paperback edition will be in shops from November.

Mary Jayne now has another two completed manuscripts under her belt and representation London-based MBA Literary Agents.