This week’s Friday Fiction Feature is Buried Treasure by Gilli Allan.
Thank you so much, Lorraine for inviting me to your Friday Fiction Feature. What a pleasure it is to be here.
I would obviously like to tell you about my newest release Buried Treasure. It has just celebrated its first birthday as an e-book but I have only recently published it into paperback with a fabulous new cover.
Despite the title, mine is NOT a book about a
treasure hunt. The central theme of the
story may be archaeology - which, as my hero says irritably “isn’t all about
the unearthing of precious artefacts!” - but its heart is about so much more.
I don’t like to attach the label ‘Romance’ to my writing, because I fear this gives the wrong impression. There may always be a love story, but my books are unpredictable and set in a recognisable world. More than that, I give my protagonists a hinterland to show how they have arrived at this point in their lives and why they are the people they are. “Romance for people who hate romance” as one reviewer says.
Hyper-sensitive about her
lack of education and damaged by a disastrous love-affair begun when she was a
teenager, Jane Smith is constantly driven to prove herself and to shore up her
fragile self-esteem. Most importantly – in her eyes - she has to get everything
she does “right”. In the early stages of carving out a career as an Events
Organizer, Jane arrives at Lancaster College (part of an ancient university) to
scope it out as a possible venue for a conference.
Theo Tyler is a ‘desk’ archaeologist working as a teacher at Lancaster College. His background makes him a curiosity to some. Had his mother not been a rebel, overthrowing family expectation and privilege, his own passage through life would have been gilded. The reality was chaotic, further marred in his youth by a destructive relationship. He hates people’s fascination with his parents’ notoriety rather than in his present achievements.
There is no necessity for Jane and Theo ever to connect. He is part of the faculty and she is there to meet and be shown around by the hospitality manager. The accidental encounter between the two is brief and unpromising.
They meet again by chance several months later when a glitch in Jane’s conference arrangements brings her back to the college. It transpires that her problem intersects with a concern of his. Theo suspects an improper relationship between the college and the local town council regarding planning permission on an archaeologically sensitive site. During the course of this episode Theo discovers Jane has a family connection to a significant historic archaeological discovery.
The story follows the gradual interweaving of their interests and the breaking-down of their preconceptions. The unlikely friendship that grows up between them leads to a place neither expected, proving that treasure is not always what it seems.
BLURB
“I found Buried Treasure a compelling read. It was so many things: a love story, a hunt for clues to lost secrets, and a fascinating look at how our past experiences shape us, and how we can heal even after damage. The characters were wonderfully well drawn. ” Clare Chase
Jane thinks he sees her as shallow and ill-educated. Theo thinks she sees him as a snob, stuffy and out of touch.
Within the ancient precincts of the university the first encounter between the conference planner and the academic is accidental and unpromising. Just as well there’s no reason for them ever to meet again. But behind the armour they’ve each constructed from old scars, they’ve more in common than divides them. Both have an archaeological puzzle they are driven to solve. As their stories intertwine, their quest to uncover the past unearths more than expected.
Biography
Gilli Allan began to write in childhood - a hobby pursued throughout her teenage. Writing was only abandoned when she left home, and real life supplanted the fiction.
After a few false starts she worked longest and most
happily as a commercial artist, and only began writing again when she became a
mother.
Living in Gloucestershire with her husband Geoff,
Gilli is still a keen artist. She draws and paints and has now moved into book
illustration.
Her previous books, TORN, LIFE CLASS and FLY or FALL
are published by Headline. BURIED TREASURE is independently published. All her books have won a ‘Chill with a Book’
award.
Following in the family tradition, her son,
historian Thomas Williams, is also a writer.
Buried Treasure mybook.to/BURIEDTREASURE
Find Gilli’s other books TORN, LIFE CLASS and FLY or FALL at author.to/GILLIALLAN
Contact Gilli at
http://gilliallan.blogspot.com/
https://www.facebook.com/gilli.allan.1
https://twitter.com/gilliallan
Critique Service for Writers
Writing Competitions
Join the D.I. Sterling Mailing List for News, Updates and Giveaways
No comments:
Post a Comment