From clay catastrophe to character creation

Lilac Mills
Jan 14
3 min read

Musings on writing Summer Escapes on the Scottish Isle

My first (very wobbly) pottery attempt… and how it led to a romance novel

When I was writing Summer Escapes on the Scottish Isle, I knew the craft at the heart of the story had to be something tactile, earthy, and just a teeny bit messy. Pottery felt perfect. There’s something wonderfully calming about the idea of clay slipping through your fingers… though in my case, it slipped a little too enthusiastically!

Yes, I have dabbled in pottery. Just the once. And no, it didn't go well.

Many (many!) moons ago, my art teacher, Mr Nicklin, introduced me to the potter’s wheel. In hindsight, I suspect he regretted it within moments. He didn’t show it, bless him, but he must have been this close to laughing when he saw what I’d created. I'd aimed for a vase. A simple vase. Something elegant and artistic.

This is what I was aiming for...

Clay pot on a pottery wheel in a bright studio, with soft focus background. The pot is smooth and earthy in color, exuding calm.

What I produced instead looked.. well, distinctly like a bottom, which my mother pointed out the second I proudly presented it to her. I was crushed… but also, once I’d had a proper look, decided she wasn’t wrong. There it was: a clay derrière, mooning at me from the kitchen table.

Curved, glossy green ceramic vase on a stone surface, surrounded by vibrant green and red foliage in a garden setting.

And the best part? She kept it. It's currently on display - rather appropriately - in her downstairs loo. I don’t know whether she genuinely likes abstract nude buttocks, whether she feels sorry for teenage me and my tragic clay endeavours, or whether it's a mispalced sense of parental pride that makes her hang onto it.

She says I can have it back any time I like. I keep politely declining.

Fast-forward to writing Summer Escapes on the Scottish Isle and I found myself thinking fondly of that legendary bottom-vase. And of Mr Nicklin, who never once cracked a smile at my creation (though surely it must have been difficult not to). I thanked him in the acknowledgements, because without that first disastrous attempt, I may never have thought to make Freya - my heroine - a talented ceramist.

She’s everything I'm not when it comes to clay: skilled, confident, and capable of producing pottery that looks nothing like human anatomy.

The other day, feeling brave, I took another look at that old vase.I can confirm that it still looks like a bottom. But it also makes me smile, and it ended up inspiring a whole story, soo perhaps it wasn’t such a disaster after all.

Book cover titled Summer Escapes on the Scottish Isle by Lilac Mills. Tablet, smartphone, and paperback show a scenic waterfront with a woman.

About Summer Escapes on the Scottish Isle

Will she give everything up for love?

Freya Sinclair has it all. An exciting life in London, a successful career as a ceramicist and a handsome boyfriend. But when she receives a call that her elderly father is in hospital, she drops everything to support his recovery in Skye.

Back on the island, Freya finds a new lease on life – Coorie Castle’s craft centre is firing her creativity and she’s glad to be back with her dad again. Being so close to her schoolgirl crush, Mackenzie Burns, is an added bonus. The two share an instant connection and Freya misses her old life less and less.

But Freya has a boyfriend at home and now a dazzling job offer in New York. She must figure out what she truly wants, before anyone gets hurt.

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