Today we have the pleasure of welcoming author Erica James to talk to us about the story behind her eighteenth novel Summer at the Lake, this is a novel full of love and romance set at the idyllic Lake Como in Lombardy, Italy. It’s the perfect summer read, we also have a summer themed giveaway so don’t miss out!
Over to Erica –
Summer at the Lake is my eighteenth novel and you’d think that after all these years of writing I would know exactly what to expect when I embark on a new novel. Well, the one thing I have learnt is that a mysterious force far greater than my feeble little brain can muster is quietly at work when I write and therefore I must expect the unexpected. Yet each finished novel is still a surprise to me; it’s never what I thought it might end up being. I put this down to the fact that I don’t write a plan or synopsis before I start, I simply wing it by making it up as I go along. Which leaves plenty of opportunity for the magic to happen, and by that I mean there’s plenty of opportunity for the characters to develop and get to know each other, and to start putting their own mark on the story, often in some very surprising ways.
When I started work on Summer at the Lake I initially viewed Esme Silcox as no more than an elderly friend to Floriana and Adam, who would dispense wisdom and advice at the appropriate moment and maybe indulge in a little matchmaking. How wrong could I have been! The more time I spent with her on the written page, the more she began to assert herself, and before long she was guiding the story in a very different direction to the one I had vaguely imagined. Without ever intending it, and at Esme’s very firm insistence, I was whisked back to Lake Como in 1950 and exploring a whole new cast of characters and scenarios. But more importantly, it created a new and very interesting storyline, thereby adding more depth to the book.
I have to say, I absolutely loved Esme’s contribution and am enormously grateful to her. And to that mysterious force quietly at work in my head . . .
Summer Giveaway!
As part of the tour the lovely folks over at Orion are hosting giveaways where some fabulous summer prizes are up for grabs!
For the chance to win this super summer picnic blanket comment below or tweet @leelee_loves with the hashtag #PicnicAtTheLake telling us what you love the most about summer!
Summer at the lake is published by Orion and will be available in paperback on the 5th June, you can preorder your copy here!
Lake Como – beautiful, enchanting, romantic…
For Floriana, it is the place where the love of her life is getting married to another woman. And she’s been invited to the wedding.
For Esme, it is where, over 60 years ago, she fell in love for the first time. So often she’s wondered what happened to the man who stole her heart – and changed the course of her life.
Adam is in danger of burying himself entirely in his work after his girlfriend left him. Could a trip to Lake Como be the distraction he needs?
Now it’s time for each of them to understand that the past is not only another country, it can also cast haunting shadows over everyone’s lives…
