I used to live an hour from London and hardly ever found the time to go, but when I moved to Tenerife, a day trip to London was an essential part of an visit home. I'm not sure why I ended up in Bloomsbury; I was probably looking for the British Museum. I spent a wonderful day watching dancers in the Brunswick centre, sitting in Russell Square and just walking. Although slightly chilly, the sun was bright enough to rose tint my glasses and I was touched by the place, so much so my next book is set there.
Fortunately, I also love Cardiff, which is where we returned to when when I finally persuaded my husband Tenerife is a daft place to live! But has Bloomsbury charmed anyone else? Or is there somewhere else you would like to offer as spellbinding and inspiring? I now live next to the mountain believed to be the inpiration for The Englishman Who Went Up A Hill But Came Down A Mountain. Reading the book and climbing the mountain are on my to do list; a bit like London when I lived so close. But I've realised location is a big part of my creative process, even though it usually turns out to be quite incidental to the plot of my book. How about you? Location, location, location?
I was born in Gwbert (Ceridigion-West Wales) but I moved to Cardiff when I was really young. There are pretty much no publishers in wales that I know of, and the ones that I do (Seren- They published The Last Hundred Days, which is an absolutely fantastic book by the way) are really difficult and require an army of editors to pries into. So it leaves most Welsh writers to go to England to get published, which I find strangely disappointing.
Wales never takes any credit for anything, apart from sheep, coal and funny accents. There is always the option to go to a Welsh language publisher but I don't really think the market for Welsh novels is that big (understatement).
I would love to move to London and promote welsh. Its a really expressive language, full of funny little words. (The informal welsh word for Microwave is Popty Ping- Just because of the sound it makes)
I would love to go to Bloomsbury but I would probably end up staying in stingy little travel-lodge next to a tube station or a pub. When I can afford to stay in the Hilton i'll go, but, unfortunately, that doesn't look like a possible prospect.
Bloomsbury is a lovely area and as Anthony mentioned, the squares are very curious! There is a particularly good Oxfam bookshop, near the British Museum, which often gets donations of slightly damaged books from all the local publishers!
If you would like an opportunity to visit the Bloomsbury area, and see inside the offices of Bloomsbury Publishing, there are a number of author events held here by the Bloomsbury Institute:
http://pages.bloomsbury.com/bloomsburyinstitute
Writers' & Artists' have an upcoming crime writing event- details will be announced tomorrow- and our Beat the Rejection sessions and Manuscript Submission Classes are all held here in our offices.
No... I did not REALIZE MY DREAM YET!
(Sorry by the sudden exaltation)