Reason #5372 to love Rome: Soccer/Football card trading
Okay, this falls firmly under the ‘things we do as parents for our kids’ category. My half-Italian sons are – like 99.9% of their peers- crazy about calcio (soccer for Americans, football for Brits). Here, all the kids collect football cards, buying packets, putting them in their albums, trading them with their friends. But the…
Read More#ReadWomen2014
I read about this great initiative, the #ReadWomen2014 Twitter campaign earlier this year. In recent years, a lot of attention has been focused on the gender bias in the publishing industry. Despite the fact that the overwhelming majority of readers are women, male authors still enjoy the lion’s share of media attention, awards, covers of…
Read MoreNot just mustard in Dijon, France
Okay, perhaps Dijon’s biggest name recognition comes form those jars of tasty, spicy mustard, but there are lots more reasons to go to this charming city, southeast of Paris, in France’s Bourgogne region. A few summers ago, we stopped off at Dijon as we were driving to our holiday in Brittany. Needless to say, we…
Read MoreI’ve been nominated for the Liebster Blog Her Award
An extra big thank you/grazie to my blog buddy and real-life buddy each year in Matera, the talented author Catherine McNamara, for nominating me for the Liebster Blog Her Award. If you don’t yet know Catherine’s work, take a look at my earlier author interviews with her for her novel and short stories. As part of…
Read MoreBraving the rain and mud in Paliano, Italy
If it’s early Sunday morning and you run into me in some little town in Lazio wearing running sneakers caked in several layers of thick mud, chances are I’m accompanying my eight-year-old to one of his state running competitions. My Sunday morning under the pounding rain in pretty Paliano, was no exception. My son had…
Read MoreBrainstorming at the Spa 2014
I’ve heard so many great things about the Brainstorming at the Spa event held each year in Matera, Italy. This year it takes place 4-7 April 2014. This is an event organized by the Women’s Fiction Festival I write so much about, held each year in September in Matera, southern Italy. For the past three…
Read MoreColonial past at Penang, Malaysia’s fabulous E&O Hotel
I absolutely loved this hotel, where I stayed only briefly before going on to a project for work near Penang. The Eastern and Oriental Hotel – widely known as the E&O – is one of those great, storied hotels dripping with character and ghosts of the past. The E&O Hotel is located on the island of…
Read MoreAuthor interview: A romance author with a soft spot for technology and controversy – Ashlinn Craven
I am very excited to have Swiss-based Irish author Ashlinn Craven on my blog today, following the release of her debut novel Maybe Baby. I’ve been lucky enough to have had Ashlinn as a critique partner, and was fortunate to read an early version of this book, which I absolutely loved. Because I’ve been hoping to…
Read MoreFrom malaria-infested swampland to Fascist utopia: Latina, Italy
In the midst of a recent, stressful home move, I had to take a break from boxes to drive my eight-year-old down to a state competition (provinciale) for sprinting south of Rome, in the small city of Latina, in southern Lazio. My little one placed first in the 400-meter competition, making me awfully proud, and…
Read MoreMore writing inspiration on the slopes
As this post goes out, I’ll be wrapping up a great week with my family out on the ski slopes of Italy’s Abruzzo region. I always look forward to a week-long skiing break (heck, if I could, I’d make it a month-long skiing break), and my kids are avid skiers. I’ve written before on skiing…
Read More