Living and Writing in Two Countries

All writers ruthlessly exploit their own knowledge and experiences, adapting, reimagining. In my first novel Ignoring Gravity this meant using my years working as a journalist and living in Wimbledon.

The choice of Málaga as one of the settings in Connectedness, my second book, was a pragmatic choice based on two things; proximity to our home in the Andalucían countryside near Ronda and the fact that Málaga is the birthplace of Pablo Picasso. He doesn’t appear personally in the novel but he is an influence on protagonist Justine who studies art in the city.

Connectedness begins in 1982 as student Justine arrives in Málaga. She doesn’t expect to fall in love and it was important to me to show the joy of her love affair, the sense of freedom and strangeness of living abroad and the possibilities that open up when you are in an unknown place. Things I experienced myself. Justine’s student story is juxtaposed with that of today, twenty-seven years later as she shuts up her childhood home in Yorkshire after the death of her mother. My childhood was spent on the East Yorkshire coast so both locations have strong emotional connections for me and I hope this gives the novel real presence.

Today Málaga is a city of art but when Justine arrives in 1982, the Museo Picasso did not exist and Picasso’s birthplace was a ruin. Spain was adjusting to democratic government after the rule of General Franco. Tourism to the Costa del Sol was new. So in my mind I stripped back today’s vibrant city and re-imagined it as Justine would see it. I also talked to my neighbours in our tiny village about their memories of the Eighties.

To me, it sounded more like the Fifties; in some ways, Andalucía is still catching up with the rest of Spain. A recent experience with a help desk in Madrid ended with the assistant saying with a sigh, ‘Andalucía is a different world.’ I discovered that photographs were no replacement for going to the location, sitting, watching and absorbing. I walked miles and drank what felt like hundreds of cups of coffee whilst researching the Spanish connection; research that would have been unfeasible, unaffordable, if we didn’t live near Málaga.

Flamborough Head, where Justine grew up, is a real place, an eight-mile long promontory where the Yorkshire Wolds run into the North Sea. I grew up inland on a small farm, but this coastline between Filey and Bridlington defines my early life. As a family we were tied to the farm, holidays away were impossible, so we walked and picnicked around the Wolds and the North Yorkshire Moors. So this is the background in which I set Justine’s childhood. Some of the distances have been merged and Seaview Cottage does not exist, but otherwise it is a fond rendition of my homeland.

I’ve selected two locations to explain how local knowledge helped me writing scenes.

El Biznagero, Paseo del Parque, Málaga, Spain

Justine meets and falls in love with Federico, an architecture student. He becomes her guide to the city, Spanish life and food. Their regular meeting point is a statue in the Paseo del Parque, a green boulevard that runs between the Old Town and the port. El Jazminero, the statue of a jasmine-seller, has since been re-located and re-named El Biznagero. My panic at finding him missing is also experienced by Justine when she finally returns to the city. I prefer the statue’s original name, which I retained for Connectedness. I like his lovelorn posture, flowers clasped in his hand.

Bempton Cliffs, East Yorkshire

Bempton is a real place and its cliffs are the location for the imaginary Seaview Cottage. Bempton itself is not named in Connectedness; in truth I merged a number of cliff top villages into my imaginary village of Flamborough. There is a village called Flamborough, but it is not Justine’s. Her first collage is made outside on the cliffs using what was to handy in her schoolbag combined with flowers and found objects foraged from the footpath and grass around her; it is free, exuberant and full of pain. It gains her admittance to art college, a step which takes her closer to Málaga and her childhood hero, Pablo Picasso. And so the two locations become connected.

A quick note about the practical implications of writing in two countries. Thanks to technology, the disruption is minimal. Not, it must be said, that I am a technology whizz. I work in the UK on a Mac desktop – work includes writing novels, social media and marketing for my own books, developing a collection of non-fiction writing guides as well as maintaining two blogs (my author blog, and ‘Notes on a Spanish Valley’ about our life in Spain) and freelance.

In my hand baggage when we travel to Spain are my [very old] laptop Acer laptop and three 64gb memory sticks – two storing photographs, the other with writing files. I only take what is necessary for the duration of my time in Spain. I always travel with a defined list of tasks, so I don’t need to take everything. Incidentally, our broadband in Spain is quicker than in the UK despite living in the depth of the countryside, so email contact and uploading to my blog and social media continues as normal.

Before I leave, my Mac is backed up onto an external hard drive that is kept in a safe while we are away; guarding against my irrational fear that the house in England will burn down while we are away. When we return, the contents of the writing memory stick are copied back onto my Mac. I know the cloud exists but I am old-fashioned and cannot bear to be without the physical presence of my work, even if that physical presence is a memory stick and not stacks of paper.

About ‘Connectedness’

TO THE OUTSIDE WORLD, ARTIST JUSTINE TREE HAS IT ALL… BUT SHE ALSO HAS A SECRET THAT THREATENS TO DESTROY EVERYTHING

Justine’s art sells around the world, but does anyone truly know her? When her mother dies, she returns to her childhood home in Yorkshire where she decides to confront her past. She asks journalist Rose Haldane to find the baby she gave away when she was an art student, but only when Rose starts to ask difficult questions does Justine truly understand what she must face.

Is Justine strong enough to admit the secrets and lies of her past? To speak aloud the deeds she has hidden for 27 years, the real inspiration for her work that sells for millions of pounds. Could the truth trash her artistic reputation? Does Justine care more about her daughter, or her art? And what will she do if her daughter hates her?

This tale of art, adoption, romance and loss moves between now and the Eighties, from London’s art world to the bleak isolated cliffs of East Yorkshire and the hot orange blossom streets of Málaga, Spain.

A family mystery for fans of Maggie O’Farrell, Lucinda Riley, Tracy Rees and Rachel Hore.

About the ‘Identity Detective’ series

Rose Haldane reunites the people lost through adoption. The stories you don’t see on television shows. The difficult cases. The people who cannot be found, who are thought lost forever. Each book in the ‘Identity Detective’ series considers the viewpoint of one person trapped in this horrible dilemma. In the first book of the series, Ignoring Gravity, it is Rose’s experience we follow as an adult discovering she was adopted as a baby. Connectedness is the story of a birth mother and her longing to see her baby again. Sweet Joy, the third novel, will tell the story of a baby abandoned during The Blitz.

Author Bio

Sandra Danby is a proud Yorkshire woman, tennis nut and tea drinker. She lives in England and Spain and, wherever she is, believes a walk on the beach will cure most ills. Unlike Rose Haldane, the identity detective in her two novels, Ignoring Gravity and Connectedness, Sandra is not adopted.

Author Links

Amazon UK: https://amzn.to/2vEvGS8

Amazon USA: https://amzn.to/2KPriEC

Author website: http://www.sandradanby.com/

Author Twitter: https://twitter.com/sandradanby

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/sandradanbyauthor

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6563021.Sandra_Danby

‘Notes on a Spanish Valley’ blog: https://notesonaspanishvalley.com

Spanish Twitter: https://twitter.com/spanish_valley

Tags: featured, women writers

Category: On Writing