Zoe Allison

Laura: [00:00:00] Hi, Zoe. Welcome to watch your next podcast.

Zoe Allison: Thank you very much. Thank you so much for having me.

Laura: So happy to have you here. Tell us a little bit about yourself.

Zoe Allison: So, my name is Zoe Allison, and I'm an English person living in Scotland and I write rom coms.

Laura: Yeah, I love this. I did read your last year's rom com, which was a holiday take on and Scott Scotland. And I was like, I want to go to Scotland.

Zoe Allison: You should come, but you will need a warm coat.

Laura: Yes. Yes, I definitely need it. I actually lived up north in the U. S. For some, for about 20 years, and I moved about three years ago to Florida, which is like down south, and I let go of all my winter clothes, so I have to get a winter outfit. It's a good excuse. I need a winter stuff but I do have a coat.

No, I actually got rid of the coat, so I really need to get a new

Zoe Allison: Well, so if you come to visit Scotland, the bonus will be you'll need a whole [00:01:00] new wardrobe and a lovely coat.

Laura: Yes. A new code, new everything. Yes. Oh, very exciting stuff. So let's chat about your journey to writing. What led you to write? Because writing is just a site, is a creative project that you're doing. So it's not did you have another job, another thing?

Zoe Allison: Yeah, so my day job is in medicine. I'm a doctor, a general practitioner, and I think in the States that's equivalent to kind of family practice, I think it would be. Yeah, so, yeah, I didn't really think of myself as a creative person after, kind of being a science bot and doing medicine.

And it was really I did used to enjoy reading romance and then it kind of fell by the wayside when life got really busy with work and then having small children and all I was reading was children's books for the kids at bedtime. I didn't have time to read anything else. And then I actually I can't remember how I came to win this but I got a free, a choice of a free [00:02:00] ebook for my Kindle.

And one of the choices was Sarah Morgan, the first in her Snow Crystal trilogy. And I read it and I loved it. And I loved her voice. And she's so kind of effervescent and optimistic and the romance and the spice. And I thought, Oh, I remember the days when I used to read these books and they were so good.

So that got me back into reading. I was reading more of her stuff and I think it was just along the way. Cause I read how she used to be a nurse and then there were characters in the books that were doctors and nurses, kind of medical, and I suppose I kind of felt that affinity from the day job.

And then I just took an inkling one day, I thought, Oh, I'd like to write my own and put my own spin on it. And then, so I just started writing and completely. Making it up on the spot and it went on from there, but I was lucky enough in the UK, the Romantic Novelist Association, they have a new writer's scheme, and if you manage to get a place on this new writer's scheme once [00:03:00] a year, you get the opportunity for your manuscript to be critiqued.

by a fellow author, a published author. So I managed to get on that scheme and that really helped me on my way. And that was kind of the next step on the ladder in writing. So I was a creative person after all, but it was only then I remembered, actually, I used to really love creative writing at school.

And actually I always used to get called a bookworm and we went on holiday and have a big suitcase full of Books Sweet Valley High was one of my favorites. So I kind of found that part of myself again and it was really nice to find that and I think it kind of creates a good balance with medicine and it's very soothing and kind of calming for the soul, I think, to be creative and right.

So I was really glad I kind of stumbled into it. Thanks to Sarah Morgan.

Laura: Yes, I love the story. I love the fact that you stumble upon Sarah Morgan's books, which are just a great gateway to rom coms and just romance itself. They're not too out there. They're just [00:04:00] kind of like a pretty good middle of the road, very good entry level. And then going back to your childhood and your teenage years, Sweet Valley High was for

Zoe Allison: Yeah,

Laura: Just formative.

I read them now and they're problematic, but at the time they were just the great gossip, telenovela, soap opera, like very play, like just kind of loved the lives that's character driven of these stories.

Zoe Allison: and they, yeah, they were so kind of moorish, weren't they? Because you could just eat them up and, I was always desperate for the next one and I'd go to the bookshop and, oh, is there another one? What haven't I read?

Laura: Yes. And there's so many, it was, it's a world.

Zoe Allison: Yeah, it is. Yeah, it is a whole world.

Laura: So let's talk about the, let's chat about the wedding engagement. What is the elevator pitch? Yes,

Zoe Allison: So the wedding engagement it's a follow up to the Xmas holidays, which was out last year, but it can be read as a standalone. So, the tagline is planning a wedding is [00:05:00] so romantic, except when it's not yours and you're planning it with the guy you've been secretly crushing on for years. So it's a friends to lovers, brothers, best friend story about Liv Holland, who's a Scottish school teacher in the Scottish Highlands.

She's had a push on her brother's best friend for many years, and he's always been attached. But the previous year, he was kind of, jilted nearly at the altar just a few weeks before his wedding and he's a single dad and tried to get his new art business off the ground and he's been helping him with child care and supporting him and they've grown really close as friends in their own right and then things kind of get Mixed up a bit and when her brother announces his engagement to who is Liv's best friend, Maya.

So Maya and Sam are getting married, and Liv and Aaron the male main character, are enlisted to help plan the wedding. So [00:06:00] they've got to do that. So she's thinking, well, just when I thought it couldn't get any harder to cover up these feelings, I've got to plan a wedding with this guy.

Laura: yes. And I love the fact that there's like a refined finding, there's like finding, like, it's just the subtle thing. Like, I don't think he likes me, but if he likes me,

Zoe Allison: Yes. And there's been a lot of, well, for many years, there's been a lot of that on her part, but I suppose what she doesn't know and what The readers will know is what's going on in his head. So that's, it's a dual point of view. So that's always quite nice.

Laura: that's always. So chat about your reading life, what kind of books do you tend to read? You mentioned a little bit of romance, but do you read something like other genres? So you just stick to romance and rom coms, as

Zoe Allison: so I suppose mainly nowadays, I do mainly stick to romance and rom coms. I think that's just because there's just so many shiny lovely books that I want and I just keep seeing more and I load them on my [00:07:00] Kindle and nobody knows how many I've got. So, there's just, and there's so many different sub genres as well now, I think with contemporary books, Romance but also rom coms, there's kind of straight contemporary ones and then there's ones that are a bit more speculative I suppose like ashley poston and more fantastical things can happen and there's vampire rom coms There's just there's action rom coms.

There's so much. So I think that's why but in the past. I did kind of read It used to kind of like fantasy and, a bit of sci fi as well as romance but nowadays, and I suppose there was maybe at one point a little bit of crime, but yeah, I definitely get the most buzz and the most serotonin release from reading romance.

Yes.

Laura: I am the same way. I think I, I was a, I did not know I was a romance reader until 2016 when I really discovered the genre and then discovered the [00:08:00] variety and the depth and the amount of options are out there. And I was like, what is going on? But I always read Romans, I always knew there was a love story needed to happen in order for me to be engaged.

Like there was something you

Zoe Allison: Yes, I'm the same. Yeah, I think I would, the books that I like the best would have a subplot of romance at least. Yes, I'm the same. Yeah.

Laura: yeah. So I love this. So let's have some book recommendations. Do you have any books to recommend our listeners to pick up?

Zoe Allison: So I think probably one of the main ones I've read recently that was just Chess Kiss was The Love of My Afterlife by Kirsty Greenwood and I'd heard quite a bit about it before it came out because it's kind of the good place meets Emily Henry. Doesn't disappoint, it's just got all of the best tropes in it, and good vibes, so the the main character.

It's kind of lived quite a lonely life, really. And then she [00:09:00] ends up choking at quite a young age on a burger. finds herself in the afterlife. And then happens to meet the man of her dreams, her soulmate in the waiting room of the afterlife. But he's there by mistake. He gets sent back to earth.

And her kind of counselor in the afterlife is a romance fan. So she's like, right, I'm. 10 days, I think it is. So you can go back to Earth, you've got to find this guy. She only knows his first name and the city that he lives in London. And yeah, if you can get him to kiss you fall in love with you within the 10 days, then you can stay on Earth.

Laura: Yes.

Zoe Allison: That was really good read. And I think the other one that, I suppose actually this wasn't a romance which is I suppose unusual for me was what we read for our book club called Over My Dead Body by Mads Evans and it's about a doctor who's not very likable to begin with and it's very poignant.

And also funny. So she has died and it's about her ghost having to [00:10:00] solve her own murder. It's such a good premise and it's really funny and also poignant as well. They're probably the, I've read so many recently, but they're probably the two standout ones from recent reads for me. I know,

Laura: Those are, and both of them, the characters die, if you notice.

Zoe Allison: common.

Laura: So, they're kind of like ghosts that are coming back. They're just like, we gotta resolve this. In some ways, it's actually these books are perfect for me because as someone who hates when an author kills a character in the last chapter, and I don't have enough time to read, and I don't have enough time to deal with, this is like a, This is like a whole book to resolve death.

The old trauma.

Zoe Allison: Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. And it's interesting that they're a bit more speculative as well, these fantastical things happen. Yeah. So yeah, good fun.

Laura: yeah. And obviously for speculative, like Ashley Poston has like some great books too. They're like magical realism [00:11:00] and they're also death.

Zoe Allison: Yes. Yes. And I've got, I still need to read my first Ashley Poston because that's one of the many sets of books sitting on my TBR. But yes, I need to get around

Laura: I would say the,

Zoe Allison: tell that I'm going to love them.

Laura: I would say the Dead Romantics is the one that you should read the season. 'cause it's like it's a fall. Like it's a fall Halloween ish

Zoe Allison: Oh, perfect. Yes, absolutely. Yeah, I'll need to get that one read. And oh no, there's another kind of full one, and the name has slipped out of my head. The follow up is called The Cinnamon Bun Bookstore.

Laura: the Pumpkin Spice Cafe.

Zoe Allison: Spice Café. Yeah, that, I need to read Pumpkin Spice Café as well.

Laura: yes, yeah.

Zoe Allison: then Cinnamon Bun Bookstore after.

Laura: that one actually had the audio and everyone complains, they're like, I thought this was a cozy mystery, but it's romance. It's, it has elements of a small town, cutesy, very full [00:12:00] vibes of like, just go into it and there's romance and there's open door, which is what else can you ask for?

Zoe Allison: Oh, well, that sounds perfect. Cozy, autumn, open door. Yes, that's for

Laura: yes. So we got some reading lists after reading the wedding engagement. So Zoe, tell us where you can find you online,

Zoe Allison: Yeah. So, my website is zoeallison. co. uk and I've got kind of links to everything on there, kind of books and the socials and newsletter sign up as well. Yes.

Laura: Awesome. Thank you Zoe for being in the show.

Zoe Allison: Thank you. Absolutely lovely to be here. Thank you for having me.