My Favourite Writing Place

I’ve always loved the beach. There’s nothing like the feel of the sand between my toes and my hair blowing in the sea breeze. I have fond memories of my childhood summer holidays when we packed Dads tiny Peugeot 205 full of camping gear and headed to the seaside. The drive always seemed to take forever to get there and the tent felt too small with my whole family crammed in, but it was all worth it to spend long days building sandcastles and swimming in the sea.

My love of the beach hasn’t dismissed through the years, though my standard of accommodation has certainly changed. These days I prefer somewhere with indoor plumbing, a comfortable bed and a solid roof (instead of tents that leak or blow away in the middle of the night during a storm…)

Having just returned from the Barceló Fuerteventura Thalasso Spa Hotel I can safely say whilst I am never going back to camping again, I would love to return to the lovely Barceló. It was a truly wonderful holiday. The hotel was exceptionally clean, the poolside was lovely, spacious and with plenty of sun loungers for everyone.

I would like to say thank you to the wonderful, helpful, friendly staff who helped to make my holiday so enjoyable, particularly Binta, Carlos and Daniel. 

The Barceló was a perfect haven for me to edit my latest novel; a character led thriller. However, sitting on my sun lounger beside the pool basking in the sunshine, okay shade (I burn easily), seems a strange place to write something so dark. Then again, based on the looks I got as I sat scribbling in my notebook each day, I think the general consensus is it was a strange place to write anything at all. A few people asked if I was doing course work, but mostly they just stared. Who knew I was so interesting?

I guess whilst reading a novel by the pool is the norm, writing one isn’t. That said however, it might not be as unheard of as I first thought… Over the last couple of years I’ve met a lot of authors at conferences, events, and through social media, I had however never met one at a pool side before. It was lovely to meet K S Stanley and his wife, who ironically were sitting beside me. Author of The Holmbury County Seat War and The Siege of Morton's Cross, K S Stanley was also busy working on the edits for his latest novel.

Obviously there is something appealing about that particular corner of the pool area for writers. Or more specifically western writers with a keen interest for writing music and lyrics. It’s just goes to show the old adage about it being a small world is true. Or as K S Stanley put it; at all the pool sides in all the hotels in all the world…