Guest Post by Roberta Aarons : Author of Slippers in the oven.

Non-fiction writing had always been part of my job, first when I started out as a journalist then later making documentary films and training videos. It was always to a brief, for a client and controlled by a budget, but I knew that when I retired, finally and late, I might want to write fiction.

The freedom of retirement however was too enticing so I delayed my plans as I travelled, took courses, made new friends and followed new interests.   It was all too much fun.

But old habits die hard and I needed to get back to writing. I now had the time and freedom to write fiction to entertain as I explored subjects that mattered to me.  I was excited that I had a new skill to develop and as a copious note taker, cupboards full of notes to use and adapt, but mainly I had a compelling story to tell.  It had been in the back of my mind for a long time.

So I spent five years researching and writing, ‘My Grandfather’s False Teeth’ and when I held the first printed copy, I was so thrilled that I started shaking and dropped it on my toes.  My first injury as a fiction writer!   Then when I saw it for sale in my local Waterstones, started to receive amazing feedback from people I respect and was invited to speak to reading groups, I was hooked and knew it would not be my only novel.

I had the idea for what eventually became ‘Slipper’s in the Oven’ during the gruelling editing process for the first book.  I seem to remember the title came first! It was another compelling idea and I couldn’t wait to get started.

I wanted to examine the contemporary topic of the mother in the home versus the career wife.  It was an issue for me and remains an issue for my daughter and her friends. I thought that if I could compare the lives of two sisters, each representing one of these situations, it could be a dramatic way to look at this.  Then if I could work out a way to have them married to the same man, it would be even more so.   Then I decided to place them in a location where they were unable to get away from each other and had to confront their history.    So I chose to put them together on a cruise, so that they could not escape each other and this would also provide a colourful background and a varied cast of characters.  With all those elements, I knew that I had a story that could carry a novel.

Writing it was fun.   The research for ‘My Grandfather’s False Teeth’ had been intense and fascinating but a great deal of it had taken place in musty libraries so it was a great joy to send myself to sea every day.  I hope I have taken the reader with me.

Note: No toes were broken during the creation of this article!

                                                                                    Roberta Aarons

Slippers in the oven is available on Amazon

Readers Muse note: Readers' Muse thanks the author for sharing the valuable experiences in this Guest Post! Keep watching this space for the review of 'Slippers in the oven'