Today I warmly welcome Elizabeth Coleman to Behind the Pen, here to share with us a few of her favourites. Over to you Elizabeth…

What is your favourite…and why…

Character from one of your books?

I have a particular soft spot for Dave Rendall, a suburban solicitor in Losing the Plot. Dave is a real sweetheart. I sometimes wish he wasn’t fictional so I could hang out with him!

Scene from one of your books?

I’m fond of a scene where Dave attends a meeting of an elderly ladies’ romance readers’ club in the hope of learning what women want from men, but ends up leaving more confused than ever.

Movie of all time?

It’s hard to name just one, but I’m a huge fan of ‘Lars and the Real Girl,’ starring Ryan Gosling, written by Nancy Oliver and directed by Australian Craig Gillespie. I think it has the perfect combination of poignancy and comedy, which is a very tricky line to tread. It’s funny, sad and humane to its core.

Book that you always keep a copy of and recommend to others?

I love Kate Atkinson’s four Jackson Brodie books, beginning with ‘Case Histories.’ She’s a genius with character and has a very subversive wit. I always have those books by my bedside and recommend them to others.

Fashion accessory that despite having plenty of, you still keep collecting?

Coats! I looked in my wardrobe the other day and realized I have a surplus of them.

Drink that you enjoy every day?

Coffee – and one too many thereof, I suspect.

Treat you indulge in?

I love a good massage.

Place to be?

This will sound cheesy, but wherever my partner is. I love hanging on the couch with him at home or exploring the wider world together.

Person you admire?

People like Tim Costello from World Vision, who are driven by compassion for others rather than the pursuit of riches for themselves.

Season of the year?

Autumn. I love how the air cools, the leaves change colour and the harsh summer light softens into gold.

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More About Elizabeth:

Elizabeth Coleman is the author of four published plays, including the smash hits Secret Bridesmaids’ Business and It’s My Party (And I’ll Die If I Want To). Her theatre writing has also appeared in several anthologies. As a screenwriter Elizabeth adapted Secret Bridesmaids’ Business into an award-winning ABC telemovie and has written for many of Australia’s most popular dramas, including Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries and Bed of Roses, which she co-created with Jutta Goetze. Losing the Plot is her first novel.

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Losing the Plot

Funny, charming and captivating, with a plot within a plot, and a girl who is looking for love in all the wrong places.

Vanessa Rooney is a thirty-something dental hygienist who finds herself a single mum with a hole in her heart where her husband had been.

Somehow she finds the courage to fulfil her childhood dream of writing a romance novel but soon discovers that her novel has been plagiarised by her idol, celebrity author Charlotte Lancaster.

Vanessa reluctantly sues Charlotte with the help of suburban solicitor Dave Rendall, who’s nursing some unfulfilled dreams of his own. When gun QC Marcus Stafford agrees to join their legal team, Vanessa feels like her perfect man has stepped right out of the pages of her book and into her life.

As all hell breaks loose publicly and privately, Vanessa confronts a painful past and realises what Dave already knew – that she’s an intelligent, funny, amazing woman and Marcus Stafford is, well, a tosspot.

Vanessa finally understands that what she wanted wasn’t what she needed, but has this realisation come too late?

Published by Allen and Unwin
Released April 2019