True love story, my year with Lewis

True love story, my year with Lewis

True love story about a Dutch girl who miraculously gets into a relationship with a Scottish male stripper.

The story is set in the turbulent 1990s, partly in convivial Zaanstad, partly in rock-hard Glasgow. The story is narrated by Lola who reveals to the reader from beginning to end what she experienced during the most turbulent year of her life with Lewis.

Lola is 26 when she meets Lewis, a handsome but quirky Scottish dancer. Despite his somewhat gruff nature, he has a divine body as well as a great sense of humour that Lola immediately falls for.

Lewis pretty soon lets her know he likes her too but it is still difficult to build a relationship with him. Time after time, he attracts her only to reject her again.

Although those around her advise her not to go through with the move to Scotland, she ignores all the advice and decides to embark on the adventure with her lover with all the consequences. Life in the Scottish capital is anything but rosy. Booze and drugs play a major role and there appears to be little in the way of romance.

To ensure the privacy of all involved, all names and places of residence are fictitious and the dance group involved is not mentioned.

All similarities between existing people and characters in this book are purely coincidental.

The author

Pleased to meet you. My name is Nathalie Kriek, or 'Lola'.

Why Lola?

Well...

It has been 21 years since I met Scottish male stripper Lewis through a friend. His real name is different but to avoid recognition I have changed the names of all the main characters in this book due to privacy laws.

I have also adjusted the external features, places of residence and situations regarding hotels, clubs, bars, T.V. programmes and other things that could possibly lead to recognition or reveal the identities of the real people involved for this reason.

And while I was at it, I also changed my own name to Lola, a random name coined by my daughter because it happened to go well with the name Lewis. This for the simple reason that it didn't feel right for me personally to stubbornly keep using my own name in a story full of fictitious and anonymised characters.

And what I feel is very important to me, as you will gradually discover for yourself as you read.

Whenever possible, I follow my intuition, so too in view of my decision to make this story public.

In daily life, I work as a freelance author and copywriter for various media. Some of my regular clients include: VROUW, Telegraaf, &C, Cosmopolitan, VOL Magazine.

I also run my own VIP Tarot Salon in Krommenie.

Interview Noordhollands Dagblad