Story behind Slippers in the Oven, Guest Post by Roberta Aarons

The story behind the writing of ‘Slippers in the Oven’ by Roberta Aarons

Having discovered the joy of writing about issues that matter to me and wrapping them in a fiction format, I wanted to visit the topic of the mother in the home versus the career wife. It is a subject talked about as much today by young women as it was when I had a young family.

I decided that if I could compare the lives of two sisters on opposite sides of this situation,   it would be dramatic and create an interesting conflict. So then I realised that if I married them to the same man, although at different times, it would be even more intriguing.

But I had to invent a situation where this was possible and, even more important, credible.

So Emma, the career woman and her sister Ann, a mother in the home, were born. Jealous of each other and competitive throughout their childhood, their conflicts grew with them into adulthood. The flashpoint was the arrival of Henry, Emma’s boyfriend, but attracted Ann whom he later marries.

After three children and a supposedly stable marriage to a perfect homemaker for many years, a bored Henry, dumps her and returns to Emma. Emma welcomes him. Stealing from each other had always happened, a husband seemed to be no different than the toys, then makeup and clothes they had stolen from each other.

Another marriage, another disaster and two alienated sisters.

So this story now had a beginning, a middle and an end and two strong and diametrically opposed protagonists but it needed an interesting background. Also I wanted to put them in a claustrophobic situation where they couldn’t escape from each other.

I had been a great traveller and a passionate sailor but unable to continue to do either, I had discovered cruising which combined them both. I realised that if I placed the sisters on a cruise ship, an environment I was familiar with, it would provide a colourful setting with a wide cast of background characters.

Obviously I didn’t want to write about any particular voyage I had taken, but I needed the ship to visit places I had been to so that I could write about them authentically. So I created an original itinerary from a combination of my notes and cruise brochures, spreading maps, measuring devices and destination leaflets all over my living room while I invented a voyage. I came a bit unstuck at one point as I hadn’t allowed for nautical miles but finally got that corrected.

I then needed a ship. Again the living room was transformed, this time with deck plans. I am hardly a nautical architect but I drew various possibilities, allowing for the on board locations needed for the story and being as realistic as possible without using any ship that I had ever sailed on.    My final diagram of the Brilliantina is still on my wall.   If anyone builds her I would love to sail on her!

None of the passengers are actual people I have met but I do make notes everywhere and all the time, so I had plenty of references as well as many, many memories to build on.   So far, no one has sued.

Enjoy the voyage!

 

 

 

Title: Slippers in the Oven

Author: Roberta Aarons

Blurb: A heart-warming tale of two sisters’ journey towards reconciliation and forgiveness.

After Emma, a successful career woman, steals the husband of her younger sister Ann, a comfortable stay-at-home mother, they are estranged for many years. Reunited again at his funeral and carried away by the emotion of the moment, they impulsively decide to go on holiday together.

Unable to agree on a destination, they eventually compromise on a cruise. But intermixed with thrilling new experiences, unfamiliar destinations and the amusing antics of some of their fellow passengers, Ann and Emma find it difficult to heal their wounds.

On board the disconnected, and at times, surreal world of a cruise ship, there are accusations and revelations amid the tears and laughter as they take tentative steps towards a greater understanding of each other and their painful past.

About the Author

Robert Aarons lives in West London. Her interests are theatre, film, athletics (watching!) art, classical music and traveling. Roberta was born in London into a creative family; her mother was an artist and her father a theatre historian. She originally trained as a newspaper journalist on a London local paper where she had her own weekly column. Roberta then moved to New York to work in television news, documentaries and entertainment. She returned to London after ten years and her subsequent career included writing and producing commercials, short feature films and corporate video. Roberta also lectured and taught video production, proposal writing and presentation skills. During these years her comedy television series ‘Glad Rags’ was optioned by the then Carlton TV, but not produced. Having started writing fiction in her seventies, Roberta now concentrates on writing fiction full time and plans to celebrate her 80th birthday with the publication of her third book.

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