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Lake Union Authors (“books take us into another place, another world”)

30th June 2018

We have often chatted on Social Media with individual writers who are part of Lake Union Authors, a group of bestselling and award-winning authors, and here at TripFiction we have been intrigued by the camaraderie and variety of books that appear. We wanted to bring a selection of their work to you, our readers, as many of the authors are so great at bringing the locations of their books to life! Over to Lake Union author Camille di Maio, who, along with 4 of her fellow authors, share details of their novels which they feel are perfect for followers of TripFiction!

Lake Union Authors

Books do many things – educate, inspire, connect. But whatever the genre, they take us into another place, another world.

Sometimes, quite literally.

For certain books, the story must take place in a particular locale. And that locale almost becomes a character in and of itself.

Here are five books published by Lake Union (an Amazon imprint) that are set in diverse locations for TripFiction readers to learn about! Let’s hear from the authors in their own words:

The Memory of Us  A novel set in London and Liverpool in the first half of the 20thcentury. My inspiration for the story was the song Eleanor Rigby by the Beatles. I’d always wondered – who was the lonely woman and the lonely priest in the song? So I set out to imagine those answers.

I wrote about a wealthy British Protestant girl who falls in love with an Irish Catholic seminarian. Their relationship is strained by class, religion, nationality, family, and politics. They come together only for war to tear them apart, but meet them again in the setting we hear about in the song.

It had to be set primarily in Liverpool, as my personal homage to the Beatles. Albert Docks, Newsham Park, Bootle, and more brought life and meaning into the world of my characters, and their later move to London allowed me to explore and write about one of my very favorite cities. (Camille Di Maio)

The Welcome Home Diner –  If you’re the last person to leave Detroit, don’t forget to turn off the lights. This is the first sentence of The Welcome Home Diner and contemporary Detroit was the primary inspiration behind writing this book.

Detroit’s roadmap to economic desolation is old news: the riots in the sixties followed by the frantic white exodus to the suburbs; crack decimating forgotten neighborhoods, turning them into crime-infested ghettos; city schools and infrastructure nose-diving into third-world chaos, culminating in Detroit having the dubious distinction of being the largest municipal bankruptcy in US history.

But these days the tide is shifting, mirroring the plot of my story. Detroit, like a phoenix, is rising from the ashes. I’m prone to cheerlead the underdogs in my fiction. People are generally my target, but Detroit—a city in the mist of reinvention—is worth championing. A vintage diner situated in a depressed neighborhood once owned by my former daughter-in-law sets the stage. Hanging out at her diner, I got to know the neighborhood and put faces on the folks whose issues are written about in the news.

I liken the city to a grizzled, weathered boxer who was once a legend in his heyday. In the midst of new wealth and fame, however, he’d wallowed in substance abuse and weakened. One match, an opponent beat him down until he was close to death. Hence, he’d entered rehab, but his recovery was excruciatingly slow. When he was fit to return to the ring, he was not what he’d been in his prime, but the past had taught him lessons and he was wise. The final round he goes the distance, knocking out his opponent and winning the match—or so my characters hope as they play their parts in the unfolding of a new Detroit. (Peggy Lampman)

No Time to Blink is fiction, but inspired by a very true story. The book takes place in Beirut, Lebanon and Greenwich, Connecticut in the early 1970s, and then flashes forward to Chicago in 2008. It chronicles the life of Catherine Clarke, a young debutante who weds a handsome Lebanese man, despite her mother’s disapproval, and moves with him to Beirut when she’s newly pregnant. Soon after the child, Ann Marie, is born, Catherine takes her back to Connecticut and her husband finds her there, abducts the baby, and ultimately hides her in the mountains of Lebanon. It takes three years for Catherine to reunite with her daughter.

The reader learns what happened to Ann Marie over the years, just as she herself learns as a grown woman. In the end, Catherine’s health is failing, and she shares her story with her daughter in hopes of giving her a way to heal. Again, all based on real events with prominent east-coast connections.

Believe it or not, Beirut is currently having a resurgence in popularity. The book talks about the seaside area near the American University called Ras Beirut. It’s very “french riviera” and there are some incredible 5-star hotels on the water there. The book takes place in that particular area in the early 1970s just before the start of the Lebanese War that ended up destroying the city for many years. (Dina Silver)

The Saturday Evening Girls Club – I first learned about the real Saturday Evening Girls Club when I wrote an article about their namesake pottery several years ago. In the early 1900s, the Saturday Evening Girls Club was a group of young Italian and Jewish immigrant women living in Boston’s North End. The club provided an intellectual and social outlet when few were available. The club members formed lifelong friendships and a kind of informal higher education. For many, it changed the trajectory of their lives forever. I was charmed by the story of these smart, sassy, enterprising young women, and when I first learned about them I thought, why hasn’t anyone written a novel about them?

I also think of this story as a love letter to the city of Boston. Many people who have read it told me they love learning about this lesser known piece of Boston’s history. A few book clubs that have read the novel have even taken field trips to Boston’s North End to visit some of the places in the book! (Jane Healey)

The Copenhagen Affair – I joke that The Copenhagen Affair is a comedy about depression set in the capital of the happiest country in the world. I was living in Copenhagen when I wrote the book—and it’s a city I love. I wanted it to be a character in my story—the silent friend who helps my protagonist, Sanya go from depression to vitality—from dark to light. Almost everyone who has read the book has commented that now they want to visit Copenhagen. (I really think that the Copenhagen tourism board should say thank you!)

My friend and author Loretta Nyhan described the book best: “Compulsively readable. From gossipy coffee shops to gritty blues clubs to the dining rooms of the Danish elite, Sanya’s impulsive, exciting, [and] often humorous journey through the colorful streets of Copenhagen is full of surprises. I could not put the book down!” (Amulya Malladi)

Thank you to all 5 authors for sharing such a variety of top reads. Do connect with Lake Union Authors on Facebook where they share new releases and deals, exclusive content about their writing life, their personal insights into their books, and the books they’ll soon publish, as well as book club discussions and recommendations…. giveaways too!

And do come and join team TripFiction on Social Media:

Twitter (@TripFiction), Facebook (@TripFiction.Literarywanderlust), YouTube (TripFiction #Literarywanderlust), Instagram (@TripFiction) and Pinterest (@TripFiction)

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