🥳To celebrate 18 months of Tweetables, I'm revisiting some of the authors who have featured on the blog so far, to find out what they've been up to!
I completed my first ever Tweetables interview with Liz back in March 2022 (a key moment!) and I was keen to find out what had happened since our chat:
'Hello Jane, it’s great to talk to you again! I’m so delighted your blog is going so well. I enjoy reading it, so thank you!'
Aww, isn't she lovely!
'Since our chat about my speculative novel, The Unravelling, I’ve changed genre again and have reverted back to my favourite type of writing – the romcom! I’ve just published Vegan Recipes for New Age Men, a romantic comedy set in the Highlands of Scotland. It’s a feel-good humorous tale set on the shores of Loch Fleet where I live. There is also a sprinkling of vegan recipes!
I have had a lot of fun creating characters for this one. There’s Lauren, a precise proofreader; Nash, a bearded bohemian; and Patrick, Lauren’s devious boyfriend. And then there’s Granny – funny, feisty and perhaps the real heroine of the book!
I can sense you need more, so she very kindly expanded:
'Lauren lives in London but she has a cottage in the Highlands. She reluctantly lets it to Nash, a hairy hippy, who she is glad will only be staying a week.
Nash is delighted with his holiday on the shores of Loch Fleet and posts about it constantly on social media. Lauren feels jealous that Nash is enjoying Scotland while she is stuck in London.
Once she knows that Nash will have left, Lauren decides to come up to her cottage for a holiday. But when she arrives, she finds more than she bargained for…'
It's a fun setup with characters who are brilliantly drawn, starting with the exacting Lauren who 'proofreads every word that enters her life. Newspapers, magazines, junk mail, a note from the neighbour; Lauren’s grammatical eye is always at work.'
Then there's the holidaymaker who rents her cottage for a week, his problems starting on the train north, where the limited food choices don't go down well: 'Nash bends his head over the bottle and says a little prayer. He prays that the plastic will not end up on a ship to China but will be effectively recycled into a bag or a T-shirt. And while he’s at it, he prays for the chickens, too. The ones that so generously sacrificed their eggs, life sustaining life in a beautiful circle, if not exactly a vegan one.'
We also meet Patrick, Lauren's perfect boyfriend (or is he?): 'Dark, curly hair, large bright eyes, a lovely smile and immaculate taste in clothes. He’s also got the three Rs: reliable, reputable, respectable.'
Add into the mix the woman who means the world to her: 'Granny was born before the Second World War and, like all babies born at that time, she was programmed in the womb to think solely about bargains, the good old days and the price of butter.'
Now we're set to go!
Liz paints the scenery so beautifully, you can understand why Lauren longs to leave London to return to Loch Fleet. She heads up when her property is vacated except, of course, nothing goes to plan and the fun then begins!
The repartee between the central characters is wonderful - personality clashes make for such fun! - and we change POVs to learn what our characters are really feeling, ramping up reader-tension even further.
I don't want to reveal any more, you need to read it yourself, but I will say that the ending is ace and I adored the epilogue - congratulations Liz, you're brilliant!
To finish up, I asked Liz what's next?
Oooh, a tantalising teaser for you there! You can read our original interview here or you can pop onto the links below to learn more about Liz and where you can buy her work:
Website: https://www.liztreacher.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/liztreacher
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LizTreacherAuthor
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/liztreacher/
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