Every day in the week leading up to the release of my brand-new book The Lost English Girl on March 7, I’m revealing a story, fun fact, or other tidbit about the book. Follow along each day to learn more about the book!
The Lost English Girl is full of Easter eggs.
I’ve written before about how every author puts a little bit of themselves into their books. Sometimes that is accidental, but for me there are absolutely things that I thread through my books as sort of “Easter eggs” for close friends and family or—in a few cases—readers.
Here are a few examples of Easter eggs that made their way into The Lost English Girl:
I wrote about locations that have a tie to my own personal history family. My mother’s side of the family is from Liverpool, so it’s no surprise that a book set in her hometown is rife with references to the city and (some of) my family’s personal history including Walton, Lime Street Station, and Formby Beach. I also mentioned Fallowfield in Manchester, where I lived as a study abroad student, and Pwllheli in North Wales and Totnes in Devon, both of which are places I’ve been on holiday.
Several of my favorite Jazz standards appear in the book. A few days ago I wrote about my love for Jazz music and how music became an integral part of my character Joshua’s story. A few of the songs that I grew up listening to are namechecked in the book like “Body and Soul,” “Wacky Dust,” “Strange Fruit,” and one of my personal favorites “St. Louis Blues.”
The Manhattan scenes are all influenced by my time in New York. I spent about nine years living and working in New York City, and it is one of my favorite places. No big surprise that little bits of my love of Manhattan made it into the book. Although Swing Street (52nd Street) is no longer a mainstay of Jazz clubs, I drew on some of my favorite nights out at Terra Blues, Smalls, and the Village Vanguard while writing about Joshua’s nights in the clubs. He teaches students at Columbia University, where I did my masters. There are even references to the awful stickiness of summer subway rides and the incredible relief of a summer rainstorm in Manhattan.
Some character names are drawn directly from two of my favorite classic movies. Choosing a favorite movie is like choosing a favorite book: impossible. However, if pressed, I’d have to say that Otto Preminger’s 1944 movie Laura is one of my favorites. That’s why, if you’re a fan of the film, you might recognize some familiar names—McPherson, Hunt, and Shelby—when reading about Joshus’s time in the RAF.
I wrote quite a bit of The Lost English Girl sitting at my now-fiancé’s dining room table before we lived together. On the wall was a huge movie poster of It’s a Wonderful Life, which now hangs in our living room. Don’t be surprised then that some of the character names in The Lost English Girl bear a striking resemblance to some of that movie’s supporting cast…
Want to learn more about The Lost English Girl? Check back tomorrow or follow me on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, and don’t forget that there is still time to preorder your copy of The Lost English Girl in print, ebook, or audiobook!
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