Billy Joel's ex-wife Katie Lee has penned a new novel - about a young woman looking for love after divorcing a movie star.

The TV chef, who divorced Joel in 2009, admits Emma Guthrie, the literary leading lady in "Groundswell," is loosely based on herself - but book fans shouldn't read too much into the novel and think the ex in the book is her real-life former husband.

She tells USA Today, "Like any author, I take inspiration from my own life. Is it me? No. Is it fiction? Yes. Did I take elements from my own life? Of course. But it's totally fiction.

"I've been exposed to a level of glitz and glamour that I would have never even known existed. To be able to draw off of that and make it realistic, that was great... Most of the characters are elements of people I know, or know of. If people are really looking they might see something."

And she reveals her character's love of surfing is something she now shares: "I started surfing. I found it to be therapeutic, spiritual, invigorating. I just fell in love with it. I've always been terrified of the ocean and I needed to get out of my own head."