I moved from The Netherlands to Italy in 2008, originally for what was supposed to become a 6 month study period at the University of Pavia for me and a sabbatical for Nico, my husband. But we had another, more or less secret, plan: to find a beautiful house and start a bed & breakfast! What happened was that within two months we came across a perfect house, meeting all, I mean ALL, our requirements, located in a beautiful region on a panoramic position. At that point we had to decide: do we take this chance or not? If not, we might just as well forget about the whole idea of emigrating as we certainly would not find a better house than this one. Better sorry than safe, we said and jumped blindfoldedly into the dark. From the start we kept a blog about all our adventures (finding the house, buying it, reconstructing it, dealing with the real estate man, the builder, the notary et cetera). After having settled for a few years I decided to convert these stories into a book.

I am a perfectionist and usually I am not satisfied with what others produce. I looked at some other books in my genre (emigration stories) and found them unsatisfying in lay-out and content. I can do better, I thought, so I researched a bit and found that nowadays you can manage almost the entire publishing process yourself. And with the result I am very satisfied. It took some effort but at least the book is precisely what I wanted it to be and it sells even better than 'profesionally' edited and printed books.

The creative process. Starting out with a few elements that should make up the story and finding out what happens while you're on it. Finding the best way to convert an atmosphere, mood, situation. The satisfaction when you succeed and the result surprises even you.

I am working on a translation into English of my first book. I am hoping to start a KickStarter-project soon to find the funds (contact me if you are interested in contributing, even if for 5$ only). Then I am writing a follow-up, to be released spring next year. And I have finished the manuscript of a novel about coming-of-age and coming-out of a young gay man, based on my own experiences.

I like Coetzee, McEwan, Alice Munro to name a few famous English-language authors. There are some other lesser-known writers which I specifically admire like the South-African writer Damon Galgut and Keith Lee Morris. Then John Williams' Stoner blew me off my feet, as well as Cloud Atlas of David Mitchell.
I have a Goodreads-account where you may find what I read and you may read my reviews: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7538348.Stef_Smulders

Hosting guests of our B&B, reading, gardening, swimming, whatching TV-series like Homeland, Breaking Bad, Dexter, The Sopranos. Walking the dog, travelling. Marketing our B&B and my books!

Goodreads for a large part and reading reviews and articles in papers, like the Guardian.

Not the first story I read but one that did have a major impact on me in that it showed me what a good story could do and what it should be like (and probably it stimulated me to start writing myself): a story by Nabokov (can't remember the title right now) about the visit of a boy to a family estate in Russia, where he hides in the house while his nieces and nephews are playing in the garden. A marvelous evocation of atmosphere and psychologgy.

I grew up in a few small towns in the eastern part of The Netherlands. My father used to change jobs every year which implied our having to move to another place, another school, other friends. Then when I was 12 my parents separated and we stayed with our mother, without the need for further moving. I was (very) lonely as a child, finding it difficult to comunicate with other children (or so I thought) and making friends. Finding out that I was was gay (about at the age of 13) made things only more difficult. When I came 'out' at 18 I had to find a way to meet other guys, which was not that easy in the late '70s in a relatively small town as where I lived. Then at 24 I moved to Amsterdam where things where much more open and I met my current husband. I have finished a manuscript of a novel that is based on my experiences as a child and young adult.