A Woman with (no) Strings Attached is a story of my private sexual revolution. In a way, paradoxically, it is a “coming of age story”, just a bit later — after 50, a journey of an older woman trying and succeeding to be who she really is, in line with her personality, rather than to be what society expects of her. It is also a story of love and sex, with or without love, of medical experiences and of living in a foreign country – England, after my growing up in communist Czechoslovakia.  

What kind of readers will it appeal to?
I think this is a book which might appeal to men and women, gay and straight who struggle with the conflict between society’s expectations and rules and their dreams and desires. People who do not like double standards.

Out of my readers, the men seemed to like the book as much as women. One of my friends, a gay black man said that the reason he liked the book was the fact that it is a journey similar to what gay people go through.

What is the journey that you – and the reader – take?
It describes a journey of somebody who is not afraid to break the taboos of “Older women do not like sex” Women only enjoy sex with love” “ Women like to be guided, protected, told what to do”,” Jealousy is a sign of love” All that.

It will appeal to men and women who like books about bold unconventional people. Men and women who like sex, and for whom sex is a way of giving and getting pleasure, not just one or another. Men and women who have their secret fantasies, taboos they are afraid to break. But it is also for people who experienced life in a totalitarian regime, or want to find out what it was like, and for people who like me live in a foreign country.

We know that this is your story, but tell us about your other main character, Tom.
When Lucie meets Tom, she is an outwardly confident experienced doctor, but she is also a depressed woman who constantly worries about “being too much for people”, with her main worry being “People would not like me if they knew what I am really like.” So she conforms to society and other people’s expectations.  

Tom is a smart, unconventional man who is seemingly unshockable and likes exactly the bold curious adventurous part of Lucie’s personality that she was always trying to suppress. Under his support and encouragement, she gets bolder; comfortable with who she really is, as he says “in line with her personality”. Like Tom, she starts doing what she wants to do, not what others expect. Tom is strong, patient and very supportive, but also leaves Lucie to decide for herself what she wants and feels. His gentle sarcastic questions are not telling her what to do, they are asking her to be honest with herself.

He is also rather tough, a man who in his own words “Does not do things he does not want to do and does not say things he does not want to say”

He is not sexually jealous, but he loves her, jealousy in his and Lucie’s eyes is more to do with control and ownership than love.  

She needs Tom, but he needs her, too. In his marriage to his ex-wife Maria who could be cutting and quick to criticise him, Tom became rather guarded, especially about his emotions. With Lucie, he becomes more open and relaxed. In fact Lucie does not realise that he needs her like she needs him. She also underestimates his vulnerability. To Lucie, Tom seems invincible. He is not.  

Although Tom only enters the book after ten chapters and most of the book deals with Lucie’s illicit sexual relationships with married men, writing Tom reports about it, the whole book is a story of love between Tom and Lucie and the way that love changes their lives.

Tell us about your life  – outside the bedroom.
I am a family doctor, working in Britain. I love my job- an ideal job for a curious woman, people tell me things. Every patient that comes through the door is a puzzle.

But I am approaching my retirement and maybe writing is my next career.

I have many friends, nice family, and although my life is complicated, I am in love. Life is good. I am curious, impatient, read a lot, and I am prone to multitasking. I like exercise and I am trying to give an example to my patients by staying in a good shape.

I always liked to read, and I was toying with the idea of writing a book for a long time. But whatever I tried to write in the past was not good enough, so I stopped. I did not write any more until my life changed. I divorced, fell in love again, and changed my life. 
When I started writing my story, it was easy, it just flew of my fingers, and writing was fun.

Do you have a website?
http://www.lucienovak.com.

What about social media?
@WritingLucie.

What’s next?
I might retire, write more books, travel. Life does not finish after 60 either.  

How true. Any last words?
Be bold.

What you feel and want is as important as what other people feel and want. Be nice, but do not do things you do not want to do.

Communicate; if you can talk about anything, it helps. It helps in sex, too. Guesswork is hard work.
Polite, open honest guidance and encouragement is useful not just at workplace, it is useful in the bedroom, too.
Even if it is just “sex for sex”

I also wanted to say that while sex without love can be liberating, nothing replaces making love to a partner you really love.