My Sunlounger Experience by Valerie-Anne Baglietto

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It started with a handbag. Well, OK, no. It didn't. But a handbag does feature in this blog post. 

It actually started with an email from the lovely, industrious Belinda Jones early in 2013. Fellow Novelista Trisha Ashley had recommended me (and Louise Marley and Margaret James) for an anthology Belinda was planning called SUNLOUNGER. The criteria was, it had to be set somewhere foreign and preferably sunny, transporting the reader to exotic shores, cities, temples, mountains... anywhere but here. Pure escapism, in effect.

And so I took up the challenge, selected Gibraltar as my setting, as I was born there and still have a lot of family on the Rock, and decided there ought to be an unconventional genie in the tale. Of course. Why not? A brass lamp and a fit genie and a young woman desperately in need of a miracle.

Now I hadn't really written a short story in years. I always scribble on until it turns into a novel. But I took up the challenge (yes, I know I've said that already, but it really WAS a challenge for me) and penned a story under five-thousand words. And something wonderful and unexpected happened - I loved the experience! I loved learning to be brief and to spin a plot that would span a single day rather than months or a year. I relished keeping characterisation spare and painting a picture of the heroine's back-story that would leave the reader with a sense of heartbreak and hope. And from reviews I received afterwards, it worked.

Then, guess what? I was asked if I was interested in doing it all over again for SUNLOUNGER 2. So I bit Belinda's arm off and plucked Gran Canaria from a list of potential sun-soaked destinations. Again, it was a pleasure to write *coughs* - when it was going well - and I ended up with an eight-thousand word story this time. But I allowed my narrator to tell the tale, and that was the length she wanted. As it fitted with Belinda's new maximum word count, I gave my narrator a break. She deserved it; she'd pulled the story straight out of her soul and I think it was painful for her. Sometimes I feel as if I am a medium, and some spirit is telling me their story, murmuring their heartbreak and dreams in my head, especially when I'm working in the first person POV. Anyway, it got written, and now it's there in black and white, or sepia, or whatever colour you prefer for your eBook reading, for the world to hopefully enjoy.

And so now we come to the handbag. Seriously, I'm a bag-aholic (it's in my surname, after all) so there had to be a handbag coming into it somewhere. Directly below, in fact. 

I treated myself to it with birthday dosh, and took it proudly down to London when I attended the Sunlounger Party at Trader Vic's at the end of May. As bags go, I felt it perfectly encapsulated the whole Sunlounger ethos, and I got a few comments about it. I also took a man with an Hawaiian shirt to the party, but it turns out he felt surplus to requirements and went for a wander along Park Lane instead, where he promptly managed to get himself lost for an hour. I know, don't ask.

Made by the lovely Tracy of Tracy's T-cakes

With debut author Stephanie Wahlstrom (left)

So here are a few photos from the party, mainly involving cocktails and cakes. Unfortunately fellow Novelista Louise Marley couldn't come along to London with me, so I had to enjoy the Mai Tais and the gorgeous cupcakes on her behalf as well as indulging for my own sake. It was a hardship, which you can probably tell from my face. No? Oh. Well, hopefully, if it's repeated in 2015, I'll be able to drag her along.

Belinda Jones (left) and a few of the SUNLOUNGER authors at Trader Vic's

To make up for it this year, though, Louise and I are throwing a mini SUNLOUNGER 2 launch with our Novelista friends early in July. I hope the sun shines, and even though there won't be cocktails, as anyone familiar with the Novelistas can testify, there will definitely, categorically be cake!

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My Slutty* Writing Day by Valerie-Anne Baglietto

*I use 'slutty' in the sense that I haven't completely emptied the dishwasher yet or put the washing machine on. But I have got dressed. This is my comfiest uniform (right), and yes they're jogging pants. One of the things I love about being a writer is the fact I haven't got to slap on make-up, comb my frizz or squeeze into a power suit. Sometimes (because I'm so naughty) I'm still slopping around in my PJs at midday, in which case, I won't answer the door unless it's the postman with an important delivery, or my neighbour. If it's the latter, I feign illness - such as a migraine, or I wheeze a little and blame it on my asthma. She's very understanding.

I am very, VERY lucky that Granddad whisks my younger two off to school in the morning, and my eldest is old enough to walk to high school. It means you can sometimes find me jumping on to the PC the minute they're all out of the door, coffee mug to hand (my favourite mug, left).

I try to take regular breaks, which might involve jumping on to the exercise bike for five minutes, feeding the guinea pigs, finally putting the washing machine on or making another cup of tea/coffee. Around two o'clock or later I usually remember that I haven't had lunch yet. Needing to eat can be very inconvenient for a writer.

There are two 'workstations' in my house. The messy one downstairs where I can keep an eye on the kids and their homework, or the more calming one upstairs in the room that used to be my study but is now my eldest son's hangout.

I use it when he's out or at school, and he can't protest because I bought all the chunky, cottagey furniture with my second PLR cheque about ten years ago. He has to share the space with my novels - the ones with my name on them! - because the only other shelves are in the conservatory, and book spines get bleached by the sun out there. The rows of books hovering above the laptop also remind me that I can write. Or at least I could, before motherhood, post-natal depression and writer's block did strange things to my brain.

I've been experimenting with different genres and styles for the last few years. At the moment I'm working on contemporary fairytales. Not retellings or reversionings or anything like that, but the idea that normal, modern day people might find themselves caught up in something that ought only to happen in the world of fiction. Magical realism maybe? No vampires, werewolves or shapeshifters, though. Or angels. So I'm not sure if paranormal is the right word for it, either. Anyway, it's proving hard work, but lots of fun. We shall see where it leads. At the moment, I'm being steered towards the kettle, so I'm going to sign off and take a caffeine break.

love Valerie-Anne x
UPDATE: Since writing this post back in November, my book ONCE UPON A WINTER (http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00AKGF48W) has been released, and has hit #2 in the Amazon Fairy Tale chart and #2 in Myths & Fairy Tales (so all that coffee paid off). I am now working on a novella, due out this summer.