1--What is the title of your latest release?
BETTER LEFT UNSENT
2--What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book?
Millie Chandler wakes to find all her email drafts somehow sent. Including a love declaration to her ex who’s about to get married.
3--How did you decide where your book was going to take place?
It’s set in a little estuary town called Leigh on Sea and I chose it firstly, because I love it there so much! But secondly, because it sort of represents the story. Millie’s emails have a real mixed reaction and cause good and bad, but ultimately, beautiful because of it. Leigh is similar in a way. Gorgeous seaside views, but distant industrial chimneys. Cobbled streets and rusty, old anchors and old fishing nets. . . It’s the sort of place writers itch to write about.
4--Would you hang out with your protagonist in real life?
Absolutely but I think she would make me even more anxious than I am, haha.
5--What are three words that describe your protagonist?
Clumsy, emotional, diffident.
6--What’s something you learned while writing this book?
That we never know what someone is truly going through. We can be as honest and as authentic as our heart allows, but there is still a little façade up, behind which we keep our rawest thoughts and truths. And we’re all scared we’re alone with them. But we really are all the same.
7--Do you edit as you draft or wait until you are totally done?
I always have to get to the end of a scrappy first draft, and then I read it on my kindle, make a lot of notes (and I mean a lot!), and then I edit with ruthlessness! (Which is often painful!)
8--What’s your favorite foodie indulgence?
Omg I am such a food person, haha. I go through phases where I get fixated on a particular food and I eat it every day for weeks. Right now, that food is currently M&S maple and banana flavored smooth peanut butter. (On toast but I’ll take it out of the jar too.)
9--Describe your writing space/office!
I have three kids so sometimes I have to improvise and work on my phone’s notes app, or on my laptop at the breakfast bar next to pots of paint and glue! But when all is calm and they’re at school, I work at my desk, with wave sounds on YouTube, or silence, lots of tea, and lots of chatting aloud to myself!
10--Who is an author you admire?
Oh, so, so many! I could list a hundred! But I really admire Jodi Picoult, Lisa Jewell, Taylor Jenkins-Reid, and Christina Lauren. I think they all have amazing creative minds and I love everything they write.
11--Is there a book that changed your life?
Any book by Louise Rennison and Bridget Jones’ Diary. I read these books when I was a teenager, and I still remember the butterflies in my stomach, knowing I had free time and I could disappear back into them. I also don’t think I’d be a writer if it wasn’t for them.
12--Tell us about when you got “the call.” (when you found out your book was going to be published)/Or, for indie authors, when you decided to self-publish.
I was polishing my coffee table (really!) and I had an email from my agent pop up on my phone saying an editor loved my book. I will never ever forget it!
13--What’s your favorite genre to read?
Ahhh, I find it hard to answer this one as it really varies, depending on my mood! But it is mostly (but not always) romance, women’s fiction, and thrillers. I read a lot of self-help non-fiction too.
14--What’s your favorite movie?
Heathers with Winona Ryder and Christian Slater. I can literally recite every word! Followed very, very closely by Notting Hill, Dirty Dancing and Drop Dead Fred.
15--What is your favorite season?
Spring.
16--How do you like to celebrate your birthday?
Cosily, quietly, with lots of cake, and with my little family.
17--What’s a recent tv show/movie/book/podcast you highly recommend?
I’m listening to Casanova LLC on Audiobrary at the moment, which is Julia Whelan’s new app and omg I’m so obsessed. It’s so sexy and so beautifully produced. Like a movie for your ears. I keep stopping what I’m doing while listening, and blushing, haha. I am so invested.
18--What’s your favorite type of cuisine?
I’m half Greek so I have to say Greek food. It’s just so comforting to me. And also, keftedes meatballs? Yes! Give me 70000 and a bowl of lemon wedges.
19--What do you do when you have free time?
I’m terrible at not working! My brain never stops looking for the next thing to write! But when I’m not working, I love hanging out with my kids and my partner, gardening, taking long walks, visiting super old places, cooking, and reading of course. I really love cleaning and organizing too which I know, isn’t a romantic hobby, but give me some storage boxes, a wardrobe that needs decluttering, and some bags to donate to the charity shop, and I am a happy woman!
20--What can readers expect from you next?
I’m currently writing a book about two strangers who accidentally swap phones. . . I’m having so much fun writing it!
A Novel
So many ways to torpedo your career and your love life… So little time.
A woman accidentally reveals all her secrets in this witty and charming novel from the author of Eight Perfect Hours.
Two years ago, thirty-year-old receptionist Millie Chandler had her heart spectacularly broken in public. Ever since, she has been a closed book, vowing to keep everything to herself—her feelings, her truths, even her dreams—in an effort to protect herself from getting hurt again.
But Millie does write emails—sarcastic replies to her rude boss, hard truths to her friends, and of course, that one-thousand-word love declaration to her ex who is now engaged to someone else. The emails live safely in her drafts, but after a server outage at work, Millie wakes up to discover that all her emails have been sent. Every. Single. One.
As every truth, lie, and secret she’s worked so hard to keep only to herself are catapulted out into the open, Millie must fix the chaos her words have caused, and face everything she’s ever swept under the carpet.
With her signature “tender and heartwarming” (Anstey Harris, author of When I First Held You) prose, Lia Louis presents another unforgettable and moving novel that is perfect for fans of Rebecca Serle and Emily Henry.
Romance Comedy [Atria / Emily Bestler, On Sale: May 21, 2024, Mass Market Paperback / e-Book, ISBN: 9781668001295 / eISBN: 9781668001318]
Lia Louis lives in the United Kingdom with her partner and three young children. Before raising a family, she worked as a freelance copywriter and proofreader. She was the 2015 winner of Elle magazine's annual writing competition and has been a contributor for Bloomsbury's Writers and Artists blog for aspiring writers.
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