The fine art of writing a travel postcard: where did it go? by Jina Bacarr #BoldDestinations
July 11, 2023 by Jina Bacarr in category Jina’s Book Chat, Writing tagged as Berlin, BoldDestinations, Paris, postcard, Travel
Summer travel means waiting in airports or to catch a ferry across the channel… or waiting in a busy train station. Plenty of time to write a quick postcard and send it home.
No, wait. Send a selfie back home on your phone with a quick text. Fast, fun, but will it end up in a box of memories?
Or deleted?
The memory lost…
Yes, times have changed. We still waiti n airports or train stations, but the fine art of writing a travel postcard someone will cherish are gone. That personal touch of scrawled handwriting… a quick moment in time captured forever, a tangible memory of a card sent from Paris with the distnictive handwriting we know so well…
Remember when you got a travel postcard from a faraway place? It was like magic
Imagine receiving a handwritten postcard from Paris in 1940. Intrigue, romance, and spies…
Paris is my #BoldDestinations for this summer’s celebration of places where we set our books like The Orphans of Berlin and the Kindertransport from Berlin to Paris.
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Exciting news on SISTERS AT WAR!
A story of two sisters caught up in the side of war few talk about…
A very special story that looks at sexual abuse during wartime… and how it affects two sisters in Paris.
SIGNED PAPERBACK COMPETITION
Win a signed paperback copy of my upcoming book #SistersAtWar!
To enter, follow @BoldwoodBooks on Twitter and sign up for my newsletter: https://bit.ly/JinaBacarrNews
Competition ends 25th September! T&Cs: http://bit.ly/boldwoodtcs
Original Tweet: https://twitter.com/BoldwoodBooks/status/1677724331772637185
0 0 Read morePhoto Journal of The New York City Library
April 12, 2023 by Denise M. Colby in category The Writing Journey by Denise Colby tagged as Library, Photo Journal, TravelOn my recent trip to New York City, I made a purposeful stop at the main New York City Library. I’ve heard great things about this library and it did not disappoint. As I walked around all three floors, I found myself trying to soak up all the rich history within the walls as quickly as possible. From the high ceilings and stone steps, to the large paintings in the walls, there was a lot to marvel over.
Beautiful Infrastructure
Public Rooms
The NYC Library hosts the famous Reading Room. The Reading room was only open to those working at the time (and thus we couldn’t see in person). But the room across the hall was open and you could sit at the large tables or walk around the perimeter and look at all the paintings.
I now see that the Bill Glass Public Catalog Room is in front of the Rose Main Reading Room. Below is a picture of the Reading Room for reference (which I will have to make another trip back to see). Also included below are photos of the entrance to the Public Catalog Room, which was as far as we were allowed to go near.
Other highlights you will see as you walk around the 3rd floor include the Gutenberg Bible, large floor-to-ceiling paintings, and private room exhibits.
Outside the New York City Library
Built in 1906, this building is massive. From the Lion statues and the courtyard, to the park in the backside of the building, it’s quite a sight. If you want to learn more about how this building came to be, check out the history of the New York Public Library.
I thoroughly enjoyed our quick visit to this library. And I look forward to making a return trip some day. Thirty minutes is not enough time for anyone who is a bookworm to visit any library, let alone one as famous as the New York City Library.
4 0 Read moreHello, Slice of Orange!
July 15, 2022 by Renae Wrich in category Writing tagged as Children's stories, Puppy Love, TravelHello, Slice of Orange! I’m new here. My name is Renae Wrich and I am a children’s book author and an aspiring writer of romance. I hail from the “Land of 10,000 Lakes”, more commonly known as Minnesota.
Minnesota had an especially brutal spring season this year. To put it in perspective, in April there were only five days of sunshine (FIVE!) and the average daytime temperature for the month was a whopping 44 degrees. This miserable weather was only compounded by the fact that my family welcomed an adorable eight-week old whoodle puppy into our home in March.
Shivering outside at all hours of the day willing our whoodle to do her business, was enough to put my husband and I on a plane headed to the desert in May. So we dropped off our puppy and kids with the Grandparents and hightailed it to Sedona, Arizona.
Sedona had been on our bucket list for a while and this year felt like the perfect time to go. In addition to escaping the “sprinter” (spring + winter) weather, we also had the perfect excuse of celebrating our tenth wedding anniversary.
Let me tell you, Sedona did not disappoint. There’s so much to do and seriously not enough vacation days to do it all – Mystical vortexes, pink jeeps, prickly pear margaritas, art galleries, plus all the adventure and hiking your glutes can handle. Don’t worry, we also treated ourselves to plenty of R&R time at the pool.
It was on our last full day in Sedona, as I was wading through the pool, that I noticed a woman with a hat that had the word “Writer” printed across the front.
I don’t know if it was the buzz of vortex energy, the poolside margarita, or sheer excitement, but I immediately swam up to her and introduced myself.
My mysterious pool writer turned out to be none other than Rebecca Forster!! As you can imagine, Rebecca was incredibly kind and easy to talk to. We found ourselves lost in conversation about the world of writing and publishing. I probably could have stayed in that pool and talked with her all night, but for the sake of our pruned fingers and deserted spouses, we finally exited the pool and exchanged information.
It was a no-brainer when Rebecca asked me to fill in for her on Slice of Orange while she’s away. I am grateful to her and for opportunity to be a part of this incredible community.
If you have any littles in your life who are obsessed with macaroni and cheese, or any Grandmas who always save the day, please check out my book, Mac and Cheese, Please, Please, Please. It is available on Amazon.
A ‘Wrich” Experience
June 15, 2022 by Rebecca Forster in category The Write Life by Rebecca Forster tagged as Rebecca Forster, Travel, writerslife, writing
STATION WAGONS & STORYTELLING:
The first time my parents piled all of my siblings and me into an old station wagon without air conditioning and drove us to the desert for and August ‘vacation’, I was hooked on travel. It didn’t matter that it was 120 degrees in the shade, that the hotel was cheap, and that only one coffee shop remained open in the days before universal air conditioning. At nine years old, that humble vacation embedded itself in my brain and made me a traveler and a storyteller. I remember the heat from my burned skin (before sunscreen). I remember having ‘peeling’ contests with my brothers. My yellow swimsuit had white flowers on it. The sun went through the white leaving my torso stamped with brown patches. I was sure I was dying. It took my mother an hour to convince me I was simply tanned.
On the way home, we saw three giant, realistic dinosaur structures looming in the middle of the desert, each many stories high. Intrigued, we convinced my father to stop. There was a small door in the leg of the Tyrannosaurs Rex that opened onto a dark, narrow stairway leading to the belly of the beast. An old man lived inside the dinosaur. He waited patiently for people to stop. When they did he sold them shark’s teeth and turquoise. I loved the idea of a man living in a dinosaur.
I came home from that trip with the sights and sounds, the tastes and smells, the memories of the people I met embedded in my bones. Every travel experience is like that for me, and all these things eventually show up in a book.
MEETING OF THE MINDS
That brings me to the here and now. A month ago, I went to Sedona, Arizona, a place of stunning views, breathtaking nature hikes, and magical Vortices. It is also where a frustrated psychic healer once told me that he couldn’t tell my future because I had a bad aura. He gave me my money back. I was bummed.
However, my future turned out okay. I returned home with some lovely memories and a new friend. Her name is Renae Wrich. I was walking around the pool —heaven forbid I actually swim and exercise—wearing my favorite baseball cap. I forget that it is emblazoned with the word ‘WRITER’. Renae waded through the water to ask if I wrote. Once we determined we were both writers, the conversation marathon began. We talked about writing and publishing, managing a family and juggling work while we pursue our passion.
PASSING THE BATON
When I knew that I would be stepping down from my monthly Slice of Orange post (yes, I’ll be on an extended trip), I asked if I could replace myself. Renae was my first choice. She had just published Mac and Cheese Please, Please,Please, a children’s book and is setting her sights on romance. I envy her the journey in this brave new world of words and technology. I can’t wait to read her thoughts on writing as she builds her career works and raises her children.
So, I have had the honor of enjoying my Renae Wrich experience standing in a pool in Sedona, Arizona. I know you’ll love getting to know her too. Welcome Renae! Thank you for accepting the baton. Until our paths cross again, I’ll be following along with all your new Slice of Orange fans.
1 2 Read moreYou Have My Permission
December 15, 2017 by Rebecca Forster in category Writing tagged as cruise, inspiration, journey, permission, Travel, writing
Anyone who knows me knows that I love an adventure. Being asked to speak aboard a ship was definitely on my bucket list, so I jumped at the chance when I was asked to be an onboard lecturer. I prepared five talks that I thought were rather compelling: Peek Behind the Covers, a Look at Publishing, The Caribbean Influence on Popular Literature and Movies, The Five People You Should Meet in the Caribbean, How to Travel like an Author and Everyone has a Story: What’s Yours?.
Since I had sailed on this ship as a passenger, I knew the people coming to listen to me were well traveled, curious, intelligent and fun. On my speaking days, they gathered to hear me in the big theatre to watch my PowerPoint presentations and see me slide hither and yon on the dance floor when the sea got rough. At the end of each of my presentations, I asked if there were questions. There weren’t – at least not questions for public consumption. Instead, many in the audience came to speak to me privately. They wanted to talk about their own writing ambitions. There was a surgeon who wanted to write a children’s book, a woman in her nineties whose own children were asking that she write a memoir. There was a man who had written a business book a decade ago but he had always wanted to write a novel. And there was a composer who, as he listened to me, thought to combine lyrics and a story to create a unique novel.
After listening to every person who spoke to me after my lecture, or caught me on deck, or sat with me in the dining room it finally dawned on me what they were after. They wanted my permission to follow their dreams.
[tweetshare tweet=”@Rebecca_Forster: You have my permission . . .follow your dreams.” username=”A_SliceofOrange”]
Strangely, when it comes to fiction or memoir, many of us believe that our words are not as valuable as the next persons. We convince ourselves that writing with honesty and passion will somehow diminish us in the eyes of the world – or at least those we care about. We offer our writing up with caveats like ‘it is silly’, ‘you probably won’t like it’, and ‘promise not to laugh’.
I heard these things in the voices of the people on that ship, but when we were done talking I heard something else. I heard confidence. I heard the excitement. I heard their brains turning as they planned their books. By taking that first step – admitting they harbored dreams of authorship to someone who was already there – they had given themselves permission to write. When we all parted, I knew exactly where they were going. They were going home to put pen to paper or fingers to keyboards. They had taken more than a cruise, they had taken a journey and I have no doubt that by the end of that journey they will have written their book.
Give yourself permission to do whatever it is you dream of doing. If your dream is to write a book, do it with honesty and passion – and don’t forget to share it with the rest of us.
Rebecca
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