florence dome as background image
beate boeker

marketing consultant,

avid reader & lindy hop dancer -

these are the things I do when I don't write!

My other life

Facts you’ll find in my CV (sort of)

A university diploma in International Business gave me the opportunity to work and live in Hong Kong, the United States, Indonesia, France, and Scotland, so that now, I speak German, English, French, and Italian. I love languages! I live in Germany together with my family and a million dust bunnies (yep, I hate housework). In 2018, I've also founded my own company: I'm a marketing consultant and help businesses to become more visible. This is my business website: https://www.boeker-marketing.de/en

It was inevitable that I should work with books sooner or later; I even have it in my name: Boeker is the word for books a northern German dialect and my first name Beate is straight from Latin and can be translated as ‘Happy’. With a name that reads ‘Happy Books’, what else could I do but write books that make you chuckle?

Facts you’ll find nowhere near my CV

I’m a cautious cosmopolitan.

When you first get to know me, you’ll think that I’m energetic, enthusiastic, will shoot my mouth off and jump up and down at the slightest provocation (be it with joy or with anger). When you get to know me a little bit better, you’ll realize that I can worry about things that might happen in twenty years for days, and that I want to go out and explore the world without my creature comforts.

Both are parts of me. But in fact, I think I can sum up my main characteristic in one short sentence: I’m curious. Anything can set me on fire.

  • If you work in a peanut butter factory, I want to know how they get rid of the shells, preferably with a full tour of the site.
  • If you have a fight with your mother, I want to know why and if possible, I would love to hear her side of the story too.
  • If you have lived in a foreign country, I want to know what you liked, what you hated, and why you’re back.

I have a great hunger to learn more, to understand more, to see how things work, and how people tick. Learning is the spice of life. As long as we’re honest, we can truly meet.

Interests?

This question always puts me in a spot because there are so many things I used to do, but not anymore . . . Writing does take a lot of time!

- I used to quilt. I like to feel the thick material in my hand and to see a shape emerge in all that fluffiness. It also soothes me that something can take so long in our hurried world and be so satisfying. But it has been years that I have last quilted.

- I used to golf. My husband and I picked it up at the same time. I didn’t really go for the little matter of addressing and hitting the ball. What I liked was the fresh air and the time we spent together. I also enjoyed the breathtaking landscapes at some of the golf clubs. There’s a drawback to golf, though. If you go and play, the day is gone. And with a family, that’s just not an option.

- I used to re-work antique furniture. It’s a bit like quilting, only dirtier. You spend hours sanding off the surface, one layer at a time. But in the end, you’ve got something beautiful.

- Of course I read! As long as the book is fun and entices me far, far away in time or place or circumstance. I love to ‘hop into a book’ as other people ‘hop into a plane’ and just fly away into the sun. Georgette Heyer, Mary Stewart, L.M. Montgomery, Elizabeth Peters, Sarah Caudwell, Agatha Christie, and Dorothy Sayers are a few of my favorite authors.

- Oh, yes, I have thought about something up-to-date I can say hobby-wise:

I've started to dance Lindy Hop. That's a mix between Rock n' Roll and Charleston, and it's so much fun. The best is the worldwide community and the fact that you don't have to bring a dance partner (my husband refuses to set a foot onto the dance floor).