Elaine Spires - Bio
Elaine Spires is a novelist, playwright, director and actress. She has written five novels, which include the Singles' Trilogy - Single's Holiday, Singles and Spice and Single All the Way - plus What's Eating Me and Sweet Lady; a book of short stories, Holiday Reads; two novellas, The Christmas Queen and Weak at the Knees and two TV series set in Antigua - Paradise View and the Amazing Adventures of Maisie and Em. Extensive travelling and a background in education and tourism perfected Elaine's keen eye for the quirky characteristics of people, captivating the humorous observations she now affectionately shares with her readers. Elaine recently appeared on stage at the Brentwood Theatre in the role of Eve in Melabeau Productions' stage adaptation of Singles' Holiday and also directed their Christmas panto, Cinderella. Elaine is in rehearsal at the moment for The Vagina Monologues, which she is directing at the Brentwood Theatre once again in May. Elaine spends her time between Hornchurch, Essex and Five Islands, Antigua. She can be contacted through her website: www.elainespires.co.uk or by e-mail: [email protected]
Elaine Spires
Ten Reasons Why I Include Travel In My Books
- Because of my background and experience. I worked in travel and tourism as a young woman in Majorca, Ibiza and Corfu and then came back into it in my middle years as a tour manager for a singles' tour operator visiting worldwide destinations. So, writing the Singles' Trilogy was a logical step; writers write about what they are familiar with.
- I like to take my readers to a place they might be unfamiliar with. I love getting feedback from readers who tell me they felt as if they were actually on holiday in Antigua (Singles' Holiday) or going round India's Golden Triangle (Singles and Spice).
- I want my readers to finish my books with a burning desire to visit the places they've just been reading about.
- By writing about places I have visited I can relive my own experiences again. It's like looking at old photos (which I often do to get my inspiration) and I find it nostalgic, therapeutic and inspiring!
- By writing about places I haven't visited (such as one or two in Holiday Reads) I have to research and that means my 'to visit' list is growing.
- I like to make the reader aware of certain aspects of the travel and tourism industry they may be unfamiliar with; in my case singles' holidays, the travel industry's most successful growth market in recent years.
- And I also like to bring to their attention other aspects of the tourism industry which are often swept under the carpet such as the older woman/younger man in the Caribbean (as in Sweet Lady). The flip side to that is, of course, the sex-tourism industry to countries like Thailand; old European men and young Thai brides. I haven't written about that. Yet.
- The setting gives the story another dimension. It becomes another 'character', as it were, in the tale.
- And by being in another country I can add cultural differences, food, language, dress into the descriptive mix and even use them within the plot development.
- I have always been fascinated by travel, since I went on a school trip to Majorca when I was 16. I work on the theory that if I find it fascinating so will others, i.e. my readers.