About five years ago I
went on a press trip to the champagne region of France. I was working
at the Coventry Telegraph as a feature writer at the time and one of
the perks of the job was getting to go on press trips. This one was
particularly fantastic as it was organised by the Champagne Bureau so
it was wining and dining in top class restaurants, drinking the best
champagne and of course doing lots and lots of research!!
It was probably one of
the best press trips I've been on, although it really was hard work,
as we were taken to one champagne house after another and there was
so much to take in... no I don't mean the booze! I mean info.
We met the wealthy
owners of vineyards, had a wonderful home cooked meal in one of their
sumptuous homes on one occasion, ate out with important
champagney-type people, wandered through vineyards, went down into
softly-lit cellars and spoke broken French/English with the champagne
growers.
Back home I wrote my
articles and features on the trip then filed the notes, photographs
and memories safely away under one word, Champagne.
Then, only about a year
ago, after getting a romance novella published by My Weekly,
called A Tropical Affair, and flushed with success decided to
write another one, I started to think what my next romance could be
about, and where could I set it.
It didn't take long for
me to realise I had the perfect setting filed away, the perfect
opportunity for romance to blossom, I even had a whole hoard of
dialogue that I could dip in to.
Out came the notes, the
photos and the memories. Add a story line where, not so surprisingly
the protagonist was a journalist, and off we go!
Champagne Harvest
was the result, which in the end was accepted by People's
Friend as a 50,000 word pocket novel. It came out on 6th
September, and enjoyed life on the newsagents shelves for a week
before it was overtaken by the next pocket novel on the publisher's
list.
That's fine however, as
then I can try and get it accepted as a hardback or large print book
by another publisher, which happily is what has happened with A
Tropical Affair. And of course get it out there as an ebook.
Naturally I'll be
changing the cover for the e-version, so now I'm wondering if I can
utilise one of those photographs which we took over in France, but
maybe, in the meantime I'll just pop the cork of one of the bottles I
brought back and drink to those fond memories which have happily
provided me with both the non-fiction and fictional stories I needed.
www.annevansbooks.co.uk
