Hi everyone!
This week’s #SJsTwitterBookClub featured Lisa Jewell (@lisajewelluk), chatting about her brilliant thriller Then She Was Gone.
We got off to a flying start, even though Lisa confessed that she’d have to forego the (virtual) snacks as she was “… on a fast day on the 5:2”, so was “nursing a glass of tap water”. She introduced the book to us. “It's about Laurel, ten years after her 15 year old daughter goes missing on the way to the library, still mired in grief, but meeting a nice man in a cake shop who gives her hope. Until she realises that his 10 yo daughter bears a striking resemblance to her missing daughter.”
We talked about character versus plot, and which was more important. “Character,” said Lisa. “You can get away with quite a lot plot wise, if you've got the characters right.” Lisa told us that she used to write ‘lighter’ books. “… so called 'chick lit'. I've always loved dark stuff and have just become incrementally darker and darker with each book. Even my chick lit books had some quite heavy stuff in them, just nobody seemed to notice.”
It was a wide-ranging discussion, and lots of fun! We talked twists, and crime-writers who do juice-fasts (*waves*), and more (click on the tweet below to catch up). Lisa was asked what part of the writing process she finds most challenging and gave this reassuring answer…
Join us next week (THURSDAY, 7.30pm UK time), when we’ll be talking about HONEYCOMB, with author Joanne Harris (@Joannechocolat). Not to be missed!
Happy reading!