We're all about Cathy Lamb...plus a book giveaway

We're pleased to welcome Cathy Lamb back to CLC today and to celebrate the publication of her latest novel, All About Evie. Check out our interview, as she is really interesting and funny. Cathy has one copy of All About Evie to share with a lucky reader!

Cathy Lamb is the author of No Place I'd Rather Be, My Very Best Friend, The Language of Sisters, Such a Pretty Face, and many more compelling novels. She started her career by freelance writing about 200 articles on homes, home décor, people and fashion for a local newspaper.

Cathy suffers from, "I Would Rather Play Than Work Disease" which prevents her from getting much work done unless she has a threatening deadline. She likes to hang with family and friends, walk, eat chocolate, camp, travel, and is slightly obsessive about the types of books she reads. She also likes to be left alone a lot so she can hear all the odd characters in her head talk to each other and then transfer that oddness to paper. The characters usually don't start to talk until 10:00 at night, however, so she is often up 'til 2:00 in the morning with them. That is her excuse for being cranky.

She adores her children and husband, except when he refuses to take his dirty shoes off and walks on the carpet. She will ski because her children insist, but she secretly doesn't like it at all. Too cold and she falls all the time.

She is currently working on her next book and isn't sleeping much. (Bio adapted from Amazon.)

Visit Cathy online:
Website * Facebook * Twitter * Instagram * Pinterest

Synopsis:
As a child, Evie Lindsay was unnerved by her premonitions. As an adult, they have become a simple fact of life—sometimes disruptive but also inescapable, much like her quirky, lovable family. Evie’s mother, Poppy, and her aunts, Camellia and Iris, are well known on San Orcanita island for their free-spirited ways and elaborately decorated hats. Their floral shop and Evie’s bookstore draw streams of visitors all summer long. This season promises to be extra busy: Evie’s sister, Jules, is getting married on the island.

As Jules plans her unconventional wedding, she arranges to do a DNA test with her mother, sister, and aunts, to see how much accepted lore about their heritage holds true. The results blow apart everything Evie has grown up believing about herself and her family. Spurred on by the revelations, Evie uncovers the real story of her past. But beyond her feelings of shock and betrayal, there are unexpected opportunities—to come to terms with a gift that has sometimes felt like a curse, to understand the secrets that surrounded her childhood, and to embrace the surprising new life that is waiting for her... (Courtesy of Amazon.)

What is a favorite compliment you have received on your writing?
I have had a number of women tell me that they laughed so hard they cried while reading different scenes in my books. Or, they laughed at one scene, then the next scene made them tear up. It’s interesting how laughing and crying often go together in life, isn’t it?

What were the most rewarding and challenging aspects of writing All About Evie?
I set All About Evie in Orcas Island in the San Juan Islands. That was my family’s vacation spot for decades. My parents, my sisters and brother, and our two very bad dogs, would camp there every year in a rickety tent trailer. Very sadly my mother died in 2002 of cancer and my father, also of cancer, in 2007. I have not been back since my father died because I knew it would be too hard, I knew it would hurt like hell. But now, I would like to go. I would like to return with my sisters and my brother and go to the lake, the campsites we stayed in, the bookstore, Olga café, and the ferry dock. I would like to take the hikes we all took as a family. I think the memories would bring pain, but joy, too, as we had such a fun, funny time there as a family. We laughed and talked. Orcas feels like a second home to me, maybe the home of my heart. Writing about Orcas brought it all back – it was rewarding and challenging, both.

If All About Evie were made into a movie, who would you cast in the leading roles?
Well, my favorites, of course! Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock. The mother and the aunts? Shirley MacLaine, Maggie Smith, Betty White. The sister? Jennifer Aniston.

What TV series are you currently binge watching?
I am an HGTV addict, I’ll admit it. Bring on Property Brothers, Flip or Flop, Hidden Potential, Love it Or List It and, my favorite, even though there are only re-runs, Fixer Upper.

What is the funniest thing that has happened to you recently?
My husband and I were going through the drive-thru for coffee. He is well known at this particular coffee shop because he gets coffee there every day before work. Well, one of our cars broke down, so I’m driving him to work. The barista, cheerful and fun, said to us, “Now what are you two lovebirds doing today?” That cracked us up. Lovebirds. We are well into middle age. We have been together for 28 years. We were set up on a blind date by a mutual friend who was an undercover vice cop busting drug dealers, and that was it. We have three grown kids and two odd cats. To be called ‘lovebirds’ was so funny to us. So, my husband said to her, “Well, we’re working today but this weekend we’re going to do some ‘love birding.’” I smacked him on the chest while I laughed. Love birding!

Maybe this story is only funny to me…could be!

What is the strangest thing currently residing in your purse/handbag?
Oh geez. Let me look. Wallet. Kindle. Lipstick. Pen. Pictures of Adventurous Singing Daughter, Rebel Dancing Daughter, Darling Laughing Son and Innocent Husband…ah ha! Nails. I have nails in a baggie in my purse because we moved one of our kids to college a couple of weeks ago and we needed nails to hang up stuff on her walls. I suppose that’s not so strange. I wish I could say something exciting like, “AN AIRPLANE TICKET TO KENYA SO I CAN RESEARCH PRE-HISTORIC BEETLES!” Or, “A SMALL, ORNATE STATUE I FOUND IN THE WALLS OF MY OLD HOUSE THAT IS WORTH MILLIONS!” or, “A PURPLE LIZARD WEARING A HAT.” But no, I can’t.

Thanks to Cathy for visiting with us and sharing her book with our readers.

How to win: Use Rafflecopter to enter the giveaway. If you have any questions, feel free to contact us. If you have trouble using Rafflecopter on our blog, enter the giveaway here. 

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Giveaway ends November 4th at midnight EST.