Colonial influences in Melaka, Malaysia
I recently wrote a post about how much I enjoyed my time in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur. While I was there, I decided to take a day trip to explore the city of Melaka (also known as Malacca), a two hour drive south of the Malaysian capital and a UNESCO Heritage site. Melaka…
Read MoreBest of luck to all you NaNoWriMo participants out there!
Most of you probably know or have heard of NaNoWriMo, but for those of you who don’t, it stands for National Novel Writing Month. The NaNoWriMo challenge takes place 1-30 November each year and writers sign up to write a 50,000 word novel from scratch in one month. This year, 300,000 writers from around the…
Read MoreReason #5359 to love Rome: Sports Day
Okay, Sports Day (Giornata dello sport, in Italian) is held every year in Rome and it’s just so much fun. If you’re passing through Italy’s capital in October – and especially if you have kids in tow – you must stop by to enjoy this event. It’s usually held the third Sunday of October in…
Read MoreAuthor interview: Catherine McNamara
If you read my blog posts, you know how much I’ve enjoyed attending the Matera Women’s Fiction Festival, held each September in southern Italy. But it’s not just for the great information and advice you receive about the publishing industry today, or even the one-on-one meetings with agents. The real plus to this conference is…
Read MoreForeign Encounters: A New Anthology from Writers Abroad
The Online writing group Writers Abroad are proud to announce the publication on Wednesday 24th October of their new anthology, entitled Foreign Encounters. An encounter can be a chance meeting, a planned get-together or even a confrontation. This collection of stories, non-fiction articles and poems features a variety of foreign encounters: with family, friends, lovers,…
Read MoreA car-free stroll on New York’s High Line
Garden strolls and a chance to feel at one with nature are always in demand in big cities like New York. New York’s High Line is an unlikely place to find a car-free environment where you can stroll, observe the city and river views, admire the landscape architecture and relax on lounging chairs ideal for…
Read MoreWhat I learned at the Matera Women’s Fiction Festival – Part 2
I’ve already mentioned much of what I learned at this year’s Matera Women’s Fiction Festival in Part 1. In that post, I covered issues related to electronic publishing, the newly-coined term ‘dicoverability’, and the role of agents today in a quickly-shifting marketplace. But just to prove all my time wasn’t spent wandering the steep…
Read MoreShopping at Nice’s outdoor market at Cours Saleya
Part of the pleasure – and there are many – of travelling in France is a visit to the local outdoor markets. This colourful market square sits at the edge of Nice’s vieille ville (old town) and definitely merits a visit during your visit to this lovely city on the French Riviera. The market at the…
Read MoreWhat I learned at the Matera Women’s Fiction Festival
In September, I went for the second time to the annual Matera Women’s Fiction Festival, in the beautiful southern Italian town of Matera. The festival brings together many women –and a few men – writers of women’s fiction, including mainstream, romance, mystery, fantasy, thrillers, historical and young adult. There are so many changes going on…
Read MoreLake Skadar – the Balkans’ largest lake
The Montenegrin Skadarsko jezero goes by many names: Skadar (from the Montenegrin), Shkodër (from the Albanian) and Scutari (from the time when it was an Italian protectorate). It’s the largest lake in the Balkans – part of the lake is in Montenegro and part in neighboring Albania. The lake itself is well known for its…
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