So what’s destination based fiction? It’s different for every writer I guess, but for me it’s where the setting leads the story, where it’s so bound up in the place, it couldn’t happen anywhere else.
I’m lucky because my publisher has let me write a variety of books under that banner. My first, The Olive Grove, is a tale of new beginnings in Croatia where the shadows of the Homeland War in the nineties are still long.
This war drew me into writing about Croatia in the first place. In 2019 I went on my first holiday there and our guide, Darko Barisic, told his own heartbreaking but ultimately uplifting tale of growing up in the bomb shelters of Mostar, and I knew I had to write it – or a version of it, at very least. Collaborating with Darko on The Olive Grove led to a partnership where he helps me with all my Croatian books. Because so many of my characters are Croatian I need a detailed understanding of the culture.
In all but one book, my first Second World War dual timeline An Island of Secrets, the Homeland War has followed me, shaping my characters’ lives. But I like to think my books are uplifting reads, where resilience can move mountains and happy endings are possible – although not always in a romantic sense.
Most recently I’ve been writing a series of standalone novels set in Croatia and in Greece, which my publisher has called Bookish Escapes. The Dubrovnik Book Club, The Santorini Writing Retreat, The Croatian Island Library, The Kefalonia Book Swap (coming 2027). You get the picture. The stories are very much about friendship, about vastly different people finding each other through the world of books.
Although I have achieved so much with Harper Collins – books in supermarkets, airports, in translation to other languages – after The Kefalonia Book Swap I’ll be heading for pastures new. Not just in moving to Teignmouth, but in being signed by an agent to help me to find a new publisher. My heart lies in twentieth century historical fiction, so let’s see where that takes me.
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