Yes, the time has finally come! The long-awaited second volume of Sunlounger short stories is nearly upon us! This Saturday, June 21st, to be precise.
Last year's anthology was pure holiday bliss, but this promises to be even bigger and better, with over 80 romantic comedy writers featured, including Victoria Fox, Katie Agnew, Lucy Robinson, Carrie Duffy, Ilana Fox, Louise Marley, Anna-Lou Weatherley, Nigel May, Molly Hopkins, Chrissie Manby, Milly Johnson, Sophie Hart and Lisa Dickenson. You can see the full line up here. Impressive, isn't it?
Sunlounger is the brainchild of amazing, inspiring Belinda Jones, author of 12 'escapist vacation for the price of a paperback' reads. Her latest, the utterly delicious-sounding The Travelling Tea Shop, is out now, and is - along with Sunlounger 2, of course - top of my list of holiday reads (I really cannot wait until I can stop writing to deadline and start reading other people's books again!).
The stories take you from Tuscany to Tasmania, Cuba to Corfu, Sydney to Santorini (see the full - not necessarily alliterative - list here).
As ever, there had to be a party to celebrate, and this year's, like last year's, was held at Trader Vic's, the glam tiki-bar in the basement of the London Park Lane Hilton (you may recognise some of the faces on their masthead!). In addition to the contributors to the anthology, it was fantastic to mingle with a whole host of brilliant book bloggers, including Laura (She Loves To Read), Jess (A Novel Thought), Victoria (Victoria Loves Books), Kirsty (The Love of a Good Book), Trish (Tishylou’s World), Sharon (Shaz’s Book Blog), Sam Smith (The Book Corner) and Kim Nash (Kim the Bookworm).
Last year's anthology was pure holiday bliss, but this promises to be even bigger and better, with over 80 romantic comedy writers featured, including Victoria Fox, Katie Agnew, Lucy Robinson, Carrie Duffy, Ilana Fox, Louise Marley, Anna-Lou Weatherley, Nigel May, Molly Hopkins, Chrissie Manby, Milly Johnson, Sophie Hart and Lisa Dickenson. You can see the full line up here. Impressive, isn't it?
Sunlounger is the brainchild of amazing, inspiring Belinda Jones, author of 12 'escapist vacation for the price of a paperback' reads. Her latest, the utterly delicious-sounding The Travelling Tea Shop, is out now, and is - along with Sunlounger 2, of course - top of my list of holiday reads (I really cannot wait until I can stop writing to deadline and start reading other people's books again!).
The stories take you from Tuscany to Tasmania, Cuba to Corfu, Sydney to Santorini (see the full - not necessarily alliterative - list here).
As ever, there had to be a party to celebrate, and this year's, like last year's, was held at Trader Vic's, the glam tiki-bar in the basement of the London Park Lane Hilton (you may recognise some of the faces on their masthead!). In addition to the contributors to the anthology, it was fantastic to mingle with a whole host of brilliant book bloggers, including Laura (She Loves To Read), Jess (A Novel Thought), Victoria (Victoria Loves Books), Kirsty (The Love of a Good Book), Trish (Tishylou’s World), Sharon (Shaz’s Book Blog), Sam Smith (The Book Corner) and Kim Nash (Kim the Bookworm).
Me with the absolutely lovely Kirsty (The Love of A Good Book). We've been email friends for a couple of years now, so it was wonderful, finally, to meet her in person.
We spent a happy afternoon catching up with old friends, and making some new ones, over delicious Mai Tais and book-themed cupcakes (created by the extraordinarily talented Tracy Giddins, second from the right below):
We spent a happy afternoon catching up with old friends, and making some new ones, over delicious Mai Tais and book-themed cupcakes (created by the extraordinarily talented Tracy Giddins, second from the right below):
From left to right, Anna-Lou Weatherley, Laurey Buckland, Carrie Duffy, Me, Tracy Giddings, Lucy Robinson.
And then there was the afterparty. Everybody was welcome to stay on and continue drinking into the night, but - ahem - only a few of us did. And I'm pretty sure I'm the only one whose husband came to join in the fun.... (luckily no pictures available from later on).
Thanks again to Belinda for being the brains behind such a fantastic event - not to mention the book itself! I really can't wait to read everybody else's stories. Buy it, buy it, buy it!
And then there was the afterparty. Everybody was welcome to stay on and continue drinking into the night, but - ahem - only a few of us did. And I'm pretty sure I'm the only one whose husband came to join in the fun.... (luckily no pictures available from later on).
Thanks again to Belinda for being the brains behind such a fantastic event - not to mention the book itself! I really can't wait to read everybody else's stories. Buy it, buy it, buy it!
And now to Tuscany, where (surprisingly enough) Trading Up in Tuscany, my Sunlounger 2 short story is set. This is the very restaurant that inspired Georgie's first meal with Lucas (above and below).
This is the terrace at the fattoria where they eat dinner under the stars:
And this is proof positive that Christian, the tedious personal trainer boyfriend, was not inspired, one tiny iota, by my husband: