Today we warmly welcome author Lizzie Lamb to Marcia’s Book Talk. Lizzie, author of TALL, DARK AND KILTED, SCOTCH ON THE ROCKS and BOOT CAMP BRIDE, discusses the fascinating use of locations for her novels, and how, and why she chose these particular places. Without any further ado, let us hear from Lizzie about the employment of locations in her books, and why she chose to spotlight these beautiful places…

Lizzie Lamb, author photograph

*

Location. Location. Location by Lizzie Lamb

How does a writer choose the location for her novels? Maybe it’s somewhere she loves and has revisited many times. Maybe it’s somewhere new which sparks off her imagination and she finds herself wondering what if . . . then the characters start forming themselves into an orderly queue, demanding to be given voice through the pages of her book.

Notting Hill setting for TALL, DARK AND KILTED

Wester Ross, setting for SCOTCH ON…

…every now and then, along comes a Guest Blog Post that doesn’t just ask to be included on here, but batters down the barricades and climbs in regardless… with my dear scribbling pal, Lizzie Lamb’s immersion in full-on Scottish-dom, how else could it be ?… here’s her effervescent offering for yeez to enjoy :

THE EVER-WINDSWEPT AND INTERESTING, LIZZIE LAMB

I’ve always loved romantic heroes, be they highwaymen, pirates, Regency bucks or men in kilts.

I think the element of ‘costume’ removes the hero from the real world and transports both him and the reader into the realm of fantasy. The costumed hero is, generally, aristocratic – and while he does not have to work to earn his daily crust, he often has emotional scars which only the heroine can heal. And, in the case of men in kilts, there is the additional tease of whether or not they’ve…

Name Lizzie Lamb

Do you have any pets and have they influenced or been included in your writing?

Anyone who knows me from Facebook, will know that I am totally under the thumb – or, should that be claw, of my Hahn’s Macaw, Jasper. He’s so funny and interacts with us in a very human way – including mimicking our speech, how we laugh, cough and sneeze. He is very bossy and one of his favourite expressions is: Don’t be silly. He doesn’t so much ask for things as demands them. When I was writing Scotch on the Rocks, I really wanted to include a parrot which interacts with the hero and heroine in an amusing way. So I invented Pershing, a blue and yellow macaw belonging to the heroine’s left wing, Aunt Esme. In the novel, Pershing flew into Esme’s tent when she was a member of…

Clare Chase, Lizzie Lamb and Mandy Baggot.

Picture by John Jackson

Adrienne’s first historical novel, A Most Deadly Affair, set in the 1950’s, was longlisted for the coveted Elizabeth Goudge Trophy at the Romantic Novelists’ Association (RNA) conference held at the Queen Mary University in London, recently.

The annual competition, which is judged on the first chapter of a so far unpublished novel, received a record number of entries this year and Adrienne was bowled over when it was announced A MostDeadly Affair had made it into the top six.

Award-winning author and current RNA Chairman, Eileen Ramsay, commented that the standard this year was extremely high, and A Most Deadly Affair’s premise of a heroine with exactly the same birthday as the Queen was fascinating; especially as she inherits the family business – a funeral parlour – at the same time as the Queen ascends the throne.

Adrienne is adding this achievement to a…

Today is the official release of Scotch on the Rocks by Lizzie Lamb (ebook and paperback, New Romantics Press). Here’s the blurb

Ishabel Stuart is at the crossroads of her life.

Her wealthy industrialist father has died unexpectedly, leaving her a half-share in a ruined whisky distillery and the task of scattering his ashes on a Munroe. After discovering her fiancé playing away from home, she cancels their lavish Christmas wedding at St Giles Cathedral, Edinburgh and heads for the only place she feels safe – Eilean na Sgairbh, a windswept island on Scotland’s west coast -where the cormorants outnumber the inhabitants, ten to one.

When she arrives at her family home – now a bed and breakfast managed by her left-wing, firebrand Aunt Esme, she finds a guest in situ – BRODIE. Issy longs for peace and the chance to lick her wounds, but gorgeous, sexy American, Brodie, turns…