Admire Albi’s impressive Toulouse-Lautrec Museum

A few weeks ago, on a trip to southwestern France, my family and I spent a day in the beautiful, medieval town of Albi. Among the town’s many points of interest – its thousand-year-old bridge spanning the Tarn River, the largest medieval brick church in the world – Albi is known to art lovers as…

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Are you a Lone Ranger writer?

Rachelle Gardner’s excellent blog poses the question – Are you a Lone Ranger writer? – in this post. Writing is known as a lonely profession, but as Rachelle points out, the ‘Lone Ranger’ writer who writes in a truly solitary manner is a real rarity today. It’s hard to get published, and writers today are…

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Reason #5369 to love Rome: The modern Jubilee Church

When one thinks of Rome, it is not generally modern architecture that comes to mind. And yet, many of today’s ‘starchitects’  have undertaken major projects here in the Eternal City. Renzo Piano built Rome’s Auditorium, Zaha Hadid the MAXXI Museum (Both in Rome’s Flaminio neighborhood). Massimiliano Fuksas’ ‘Cloud’  Roman Congress Center is currently being built…

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200 posts… and counting

As the end of the year rolls around and we start thinking about those dreaded  encouraging New Years’ resolutions to really start 2014 off right, it’s also helpful to reflect on achievements throughout the year. I’m going to give myself a little pat on the back for my two hundredth blog post today. I started…

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Holidays in Vienna

I always love Vienna, a city I lived in for a short time many years ago. But I especially love Vienna during the holiday season. It’s cold outside, and often white from a  dusting of snow. The city is lit up beautifully with thousands of lights, shining off the cobblestones and the storefront windows all…

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The stressful life of a simultaneous interpreter

I loved this London Review of Books article by former UN simultaneous interpreter, LynnVisson. I spend a lot of time working with simultaneous interpreters, and I have tremendous respect for the difficult, high-pressure work they perform. As writers, we can only marvel at the ability to create the perfect words under pressure. I loved this…

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The Christmas Market in Toulouse, France

I’m a big fan of northern European Christmas markets, with the sparkling white snow, the fairytale forms of the wooden market stalls, the tempting smell of gingerbread, and steaming hot Gluehwein to keep me warm. But lately, I’ve been discovering the Christmas markets in more southern climes. I already wrote about the Christmas market in…

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Oh, groan. Sound effects for books?

Call me a Luddite, but I side with the technology-shy on this one, which is probably rather obvious by the fact that I don’t even own an e-reader. The fantastic Nathan Bransford recently had a blog post on this topic, saying it’s only a matter of time until e-books come with sound effects, and asking…

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A bird’s eye view over Barcelona from the Columbus Memorial

Las Ramblas is certainly one of the liveliest areas of Barcelona, Spain. I’ve already written about Palau Güell, the first major commission of modernist architect Antoni Gaudí, which is just off the Ramblas. Once you’ve visited Gaudí’s impressive project, continue down the Ramblas towards the sea, and leave time to take the elevator up to…

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