#Feature: Dark Highland Skies by Lizzie Lamb @lizzie_lamb #guestpost #newrelease #ScottishHighlands #romance #RespectRomFic #DarkHighlandSkies

I’m really delighted today to welcome author and friend Lizzie Lamb as my guest – to mark the recent release of her latest Scottish romance, Dark Highland Skies. Independently published on 3rd February, it’s now available for kindle (free via Kindle Unlimited) and in paperback. A gorgeous cover, and a strapline of “their love is written in the stars” – and yes, of course I pre-ordered my kindle copy, and really wanted to read and review it as soon as it landed, but that will have to wait until later this month (it’s frustrating at times, having a reading schedule!).

I’m just so thrilled to see a new book from Lizzie – her books really have just get better and better. I came late to discovering her writing, but really loved Girl in the Castle (you’ll find my review here) – and Take Me, I’m Yours was even better (I still fantasise about Logan MacFarlane, astride his vintage Triumph motorcycle…) and you’ll find my review here. And then came Harper’s Highland Fling, one of my 2020 Books of the Year, and it delivered absolutely everything I wanted – so superbly written, vividly drawn settings, driven forward by that wonderful dialogue, and with a perfect emotional touch (you’ll find my review here).

Let me hand over to Lizzie to tell us more about the inspiration for her writing…

I am often asked why I write contemporary Scottish romance, let me explain. I was born in the (not so romantic) Central Belt of Scotland, home to the Ravenscraig steel works. All I knew of the highlands was what I’d seen on Saturday cinema, television or read in tattered copies of Robert Louis Stevenson, John Buchan et al: Kidnapped, the Thirty-Nine Steps, The Flight of the Heron, The Ghost Goes West and, latterly, Local Hero. I won’t mention Train Spotting! To me, the highlands was a distant place redolent with history, mystery and romance but out of reach because I lived in Leicester.

 

Then, in 2014, we bought our first caravan off eBay for £300 and our adventures began. Caravanning suits us down to the ground: we are both retired, can go where and when we like and, thanks to my MacBook, I can write every day. When we bought our first van, we had a parrot called Jasper and he came, too; sadly, he passed away five years ago but we have happy memories of travelling north together.

Whenever we cross the border and travel up the M74 something magical happens. I have a real sense of homecoming and my heart beats faster. On that first trip we explored the Trossachs and it served to whet out appetite for this way of holidaying/research/writing. In subsequent years we bought bigger and more self-contained caravans, undertook the North Coast 500 route and found more to fall in love with: Plockton, Wester Ross, Gairloch and locations which feature in Outlander.

No signs of Jamie Frazer, sadly. Although, when visiting one of the locations we tacked onto an ‘Outlander Tour’ and explored the crypt of the Wardlaw Mausoleum where Lord Lovat – the Old Fox – is alleged to be buried. We were then given a guided tour of Caste Leod by none other than the Earl of Cromarty himself.

 

Inspired, we returned in subsequent years and in 2017 undertook a tour of Castle Stalker on Loch Linnhe, the inspiration behind Girl in the Castle. I renamed the castle in the novel as Tearmannaire and used details in it to add colour to my novel.

In subsequent years we discovered a small site overlooking Stalker on Loch Linnhe. To wake up every morning to such a romantic view has made it one of our favourite places to stay.

Another place I find inspirational is Plockton, which inspired Harper’s Highland Fling. Whilst there I found the ideal house for my hero on Harbour Street.

There, the front gardens are separated from each property by the road through the village are beautiful and have the palm trees (Cordyline Australis) which flourish there, thanks to the Gulf Stream. When we give up caravanning, I would like to rent a cottage there for the summer and spend time writing and enjoying everything that part of Scotland has to offer.

Finally, last year we stayed in Arisaig (from where Bonnie Prince Charlie took his boat over the sea to Skye), explored Mallaig and the Silver Sands of Morar. I used this location in Dark Highland Skies which was published in February 2023.

 

We’ve already planned this summer’s highland fling with our van when we’ll celebrate fifty years of marriage. Now you understand why I love Scotland so much and write romance.

Many thanks Lizzie – and just a little more detail about Dark Highland Skies…

Astrophysicist Halley Dunbar has spent her career peering into the space hoping to find the one-in-a-billion exoplanet outside our solar system capable of sustaining life. Such a find would be the climax of her scientific career and establish her as a force majeure in a male-dominated world. When her great-uncle dies, she travels to Lochaber in Scotland to arrange his funeral, reluctant to leave her research and her million-pound telescope behind in Hawaii. In Scotland, she encounters an assortment of characters who make her realise there’s more to life than searching for something that might not exist. The years are ticking by and Halley (35), starts to question the life she’s chosen.

 

When the laird’s son, Tor Strachan, rocks up, he turns her world upside down and Halley discovers, not the new exoplanet she’s spent her academic life searching for, but the one-in-a-billion man who can make her happy. Forced to question her life choices, Halley wonders if she’ll be able to return to stargazing and leave behind a place and a man she’s come to love. However, Afghan veteran Tor has demons of his own to confront before he can be the man Halley deserves. And, as for Halley, she has secrets of her own; ones she can’t share with anyone, including Tor.

About the author

Hi, I’m Lizzie and I like writing about the ‘moment’ when the hero and the heroine fall in love. That, and trying to track down the all-elusive hero-in-a-kilt, is what gets me in front of the computer each morning. Since 2012 I’ve published six novels: Tall, Dark and Kilted, Boot Camp Bride, Scotch on the Rocks, Girl in the Castle, Take Me, I’m Yours and Harper’s Highland Fling. My latest novel, Dark Highland Skies was published in February 2023 and I’ve loved writing it. I organise the Leicester Chapter of the Romantic Novelists’ Association and present workshops on indie publishing to new writers. My feel good/uplit novels would be very happy to sit alongside Jilly Cooper, Jenny Colgan, Jill Mansell and Carole Matthews on your bookshelf.

I love writing because it’s given me the chance to celebrate everything I love about my homeland – Scotland, and to share those feelings with my readers. When I’m not writing, I spend summer with my husband touring Scotland in our caravan researching my next novel and avoiding the midges.

Slainte Mhath.

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