I’m really delighted to welcome back to my blog, one of my favourite authors, Lilac Mills, who’s here today to talk about her new book Seaside Dreams on the Scottish Isle, the third book in her Coorie Castle Series.
Lilac Mills lives on a Welsh mountain with her very patient husband and incredibly sweet dog, where she grows veggies (if the slugs don’t get them), bakes (badly) and loves making things out of glitter and glue (a mess, usually). She’s been an avid reader ever since she got her hands on a copy of Noddy Goes to Toytown when she was five, and she once tried to read everything in her local library starting with A and working her way through the alphabet.
She loves long, hot summer days in the garden, and cold winter ones snuggled in front of the fire, but whatever the weather she’s usually writing or thinking about writing, with heartwarming romance and happy-ever-after always on her mind.
Lilac has published twenty-two books to date, twenty-one of them with Canelo.
Lilac, it doesn’t seem possible that it was only a year ago, when we were talking about the first book in the series and at that time you’d only just started book Seaside Dreams on the Scottish Isle. But here it is now:
The man she’s never forgotten is about to change her life forever
Giselle Ellis loves nothing better than to make gorgeous art from the sea glass she finds on the shores of the wild and beautiful Duncoorie loch. Living in a cute little cottage with a studio in Coorie Castle’s craft centre and a close-knit community of crafting friends, she has everything she’s ever needed.
Then tragedy strikes and the castle has a new owner – someone she once had a brief but passionate fling with many years ago…
Rocco Moore isn’t the man Gisele remembers. When he threatens the craft centre’s very existence, she knows she has a fight on her hand. But as they reconnect and she begins to fall in love with him, Giselle realises she risks more than losing her livelihood. She might also lose her heart.
Once again, I loved this book. And I was super excited to be back at Coorie Castle. I feel like I’m back with old friends. Another five stars from me. But before we start talking, at home we’ve just discovered Tom Kerridge’s amazing Dopamine Diet book, his Strawberry Cheesecake is to die for. Low carb, I promise. Would you like to try a slice?
Absolutely! I love cake – I just wish I could eat more of it! I’ll definitely check out Tom Kerridge’s book, so thank you for suggesting it. And thank you so much for having me on your blog – it’s always an honour and you ask such interesting questions.
Lilac, you’re so prolific, that I think you must somewhere have a recipe for a successful book. What would you say were three essential ingredients in any book you write?
I wish I did have a recipe for a successful book!
Because I write romance, the MAIN ingredient is for the romance to be front and foremost. I tend to be guilty of letting the plot get in the way of the romance and forgetting that the chemistry between the protagonists are why people read the genre!
Second is the character arc. The main character has to start at one place – in my books that could be a fear of commitment or being hurt, or another kind of pull which holds a character back – and end in another, so my character always goes on some kind of emotional journey to get to their happy-ever-after.
Thirdly, I love an atmospheric setting, usually a small community and often in a picturesque location. When I write about places, I feel as though I’m actually there, and whether I’ve only visited a place once or know it well, through my writing I can immerse myself in it again and again.
I always love spending time with my characters, is there a secondary character whose story you particularly enjoyed writing, in this book?
I really enjoyed writing Rocco’s mother’s character. Without giving too much away, she’s a driving force behind many of the decisions he makes, and I enjoyed exploring some of the issues around filial duty and love.
The crafting units at the castle sound idyllic. The first book was Dolls’ Houses, the second ceramics and this time Giselle is creating pictures from sea-glass. I have to say I’ve always loved collecting sea glass, along with stones too. We had many family holidays on beaches and always came back with at least a pocket full of treasures. I’ve got stones that I’ve had since a small child, some that we still use as doorstops. What is the most unusual stone or piece of sea-glass in terms of colour, shape that you’ve ever collected?
I found a small heart-shaped stone once in an uninspiring shade of beige. In fact, I think I’ve still got it. But I don’t collect sea glass because I don’t have the eye for it that Giselle has! I used to bring back loads of bits and bobs from the seaside too, when I was little, but now I just bring back photos.
You’ve written about dolls houses, ceramics and now sea glass in the craft centre, what are you thinking of for the other units?
The craft centre is loosely based on one I used to visit when I lived in the West Midlands, and I remember being fascinated by an old gent who made and restored violins. His workshop smelt of wood and had dust motes floating in the air, and soft music in the background. I could have spent all day there . . .
Giselle and Rocco first meet in Venice. If you had to choose another romantic place to meet the love of yours or your heroine’s life, where would it be?
Paris! I’ve been there twice and have hardly plumbed the depths of this enigmatic city. I really must set a book there, so I have an excuse to go there again.
Last year, at the RNA summer fling we were highly entertained by the Virginia Heath and her talk about “saggy middles”. How do you cope with the saggy middle in a book?
I’m slap bang in the middle of a saggy middle now, in my latest manuscript, and I don’t cope at all well with them. The only thing that gets me through it is a deadline. I’m currently 40k words into an 80k manuscript with 29 days to write the remainder. A deadline forces me to stop messing about on the internet or using any old excuse not to write (cleaning the oven being a typical example!), put my behind in a chair and pick up a pen.
When you wrote this book, did you end up cutting any scenes that you were particularly attached to, and are they likely to see the light of day in subsequent books?
No scenes in this book were cut, but that doesn’t mean to say I don’t cut scenes because I do. And sometimes I realise I’ve started a book in totally the wrong place and have to begin all over again. Seaside Dreams on the Scottish Isle was fairly straightforward to write thankfully – I just wish all my manuscripts were as well behaved.
So what’s next for Lilac Mills? Are there going to be any more Coorie Castle books? And are we going to be staying in Skye for the next book, or are you whipping us off to a new location?
I doubt there will be any more Coorie Castle books, but we will be heading back to Scotland for the book I’m in the middle of writing, which is set in the Highlands. It’s not due out until 2027 though, so in the meantime I’ve got a book set in Devon which will be published in the autumn. I can’t say much more about it at this point, but I hope to have an announcement soon.
And a question another writer asked me last year, was what was on my vision board for 2026? So I thought it would be fun to ask all my guests this year to share one item on your board for 2026 – I might come back to you to later in the year and ask whether you achieved it!
This item on my vision board has nothing to do with writing or books. It’s to do with how I spend my time. I’m a workaholic, which is such a bad thing in that I find it hard to switch off from writing or thinking about writing. I intend to step away from anything “authory” for at least one whole day a week, and do other fun stuff instead. Notice I say ‘other’ because I class writing as fun. My family, on the other hand, would probably like to see a bit more of me . . .
Thank you for talking to me today and good luck with this book. Anni x.
Thank you so much for having me – it’s been such fun!
Book links:
Seaside Dreams on the Scottish Isle: https://bit.ly/4cZtD0o
Lilac’s social links:
Website: https://www.lilacmills.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LilacMills/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lilacmillsauthor/
Pinterest:https://uk.pinterest.com/LilacMillsAuthor/
Anni Rose’s six uplifting and heartfelt romantic comedies are now available from Amazon in one box set:
