Goodreads asked Lu Etchells:

Where did you get the idea for your most recent book?

Lu Etchells My most recently published book was "Straighten Up and Swipe Right" and was published in Feb 2020.

The idea came off the back of a short story I'd written in November 2017 (Beware the Penguins). It was inspired by a conversation with someone about how you disabled characters didn't get enough page-time in books. Before I knew it, I'd written Martyn, a typical 30-something year old guy who just happened to have Tourette's, and his misadventure with speed dating.

Those few thousand words made me fall in love with this guy, and I wanted to find out what happened next. I spent some time mulling over ideas, and realised that the book wouldn't be about him, per se, but his best friend (also in Penguins).

I like having a link between all my stories, and seeing characters feed in to other stories. So, in some ways, it just happened organically from what I'd already written, or was playing with. After that I simply spent a lot of time drinking wine with my hubby and coming up with a few outlandish ideas of how things could go wrong ;)

So far, it's been my favourite book to write. The characters are just gorgeous!

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