Geri Halliwell-Horner on Why She At all times Visits a Bookstore Whereas Touring

Geri Halliwell-Horner might greatest be referred to as the Spice Ladies’ Ginger Spice, however her true woman energy trait is her fearless curiosity with which she explores the world—and it is a high quality that is useful throughout her world travels. 

“I am Miss Curious,” the singer, writer, actress, and mom of two stated to Journey + Leisure on a name final month. “I do not care what it’s. I believe every thing’s attention-grabbing.”

She really leaned into her intrepid spirit with Rainbow Girl, a present that launched on YouTube in 2020. Within the collection, she went on a “woman energy journey of discovery” and experimented with every thing from beekeeping to tenting. Some issues she, admittedly, favored greater than others.

“I truly assume tenting is kind of suffocating once you’ve acquired that canvassing over your head,” she stated. “I discovered it a bit claustrophobic.”

As a substitute, she prefers a easy various: making camp within the open, like she as soon as did within the Arabian Desert exterior of Dubai. “I sat on the prime of this hill of sand and appeared up on the evening sky, and it was flooded with diamonds,” she stated. “The celebrities appeared so near me. It was probably the most enchanting factor.”

Halliwell-Horner by no means shies away from an journey, and he or she’s completely at residence with a low-key getaway, like sipping tea by the ocean, in addition to extra intense undertakings, resembling mountaineering. A few of her favourite journey reminiscences embody a hike on Cape City’s Desk Mountain, in addition to an ascent up an Austrian peak the place she bumped into an surprising snowstorm.

“It was a shiny sunny day, so I went up in my shorts, however by the point I acquired to the highest, there was a snowstorm!” she stated. “There was a bit hut, and the person there gave us some good sizzling meals, however we acquired caught within the blizzard.” 

However, as Halliwell-Horner put it, all the difficulty was value it ultimately. “I wrote music afterward,” she stated.

The British icon is greatest identified for her time as a pop star, however she’s a profitable writer as properly. Her younger grownup fantasy novel, “Rosie Frost & the Falcon Queen,” landed on the New York Occasions Finest Sellers record in 2023. She says she usually makes use of her journeys as a supply of inspiration.

“I’ve been writing for thus lengthy, so an thought will be for a music, which is nearly like a espresso espresso shot,” Halliwell-Horner stated. “For a ebook, it is a feast to make you are feeling the facility of phrases.”

For instance, she has a fascination with Tresco, an island positioned 28 miles off the Cornish coast in southwest England. The island has a novel subtropical microclimate, which helped spark the concept of Bloodstone Island, a Jurassic Park-like place full of endangered species. In the meantime, a go to to Mount Fuji fueled the plot of the second ebook of her collection, “Rosie Frost: Ice on Hearth,” out there on the market as of April 8.

Throughout the writing course of, concepts popped up throughout all factors of her travels, even mid-flight. “For this ebook, I wrote down concepts on the evacuation directions at the back of the seat pocket and a sick bag as a result of I simply didn’t need to overlook it,” she stated. “I’m at all times taking notes and writing issues down. I don’t even notice I’m doing it.”

Nonetheless, this is not Halliwell-Horner’s first go-round with being a profitable writer. Whereas selling her first ebook collection, Ugenia Lavender, she toured all throughout the U.S. and at all times made certain to make a cease at her favourite type of retailer in each metropolis: a bookshop.

“It is virtually like I would like an grownup to seize me by the scruff of the neck to drag me away since I begin all the opposite books pondering, ‘Oh, that appears attention-grabbing,’” she stated. Halliwell-Horner provides that she virtually at all times has a ebook on her, and he or she’s often in the course of 4 totally different books of assorted genres at any time.

She loves visiting bookstores when she’s residence within the U.Okay., too. One in every of her favorites is Daunt Books in Marylebone, which she stated is a must-visit for all ebook lovers. She particularly loves second-hand bookshops as properly. “Dusty previous books have a humorous scent about them that I discover fairly comforting,” she stated.

To Halliwell-Horner, journey and studying are inherently linked—they’re each transformational in nature. “In the event you’ve traveled the world, you’ve got at all times acquired a ebook on you,” she stated. “Generally, our minds change into like a muddy pond of stagnant, muddied water, however when you truly clear it out, you recognize precisely what’s best for you.”

That type of change fuels the plot of “Ice on Hearth,” which is ready throughout a volcanic eruption—a metaphor for private development and the facility of issues past our management.

“Generally we’re that exploding volcano that is going to erupt, after which generally it is the peaceable, stunning ocean,” she stated. “What I like about journey is that it’s a battle between science and nature, man versus Mom Nature. Who’s in cost? After I journey, I get my reply proper in entrance of me. The roar of the ocean, the tumbling huge rocks thundering down the aspect of a mountain—that is who’s in cost!”