CATHERINE LAROSE TALKS ABOUT TRAVEL

Catherine "Cat" Larose is the oldest of seven children raised in a large Irish/Italian family – Catholic. Her parents were considered a “mixed marriage” back in the 50s, with family roots originating in Co. Mayo on her dad’s side and Naples on her mom’s side. She calls herself one part hot blooded Latin and one part wild eyed Celt.

She grew up in a close knit Italian neighborhood — think "Moonstruck" but in Cleveland, Ohio. When she was a little girl, her Italian grandmother said to her, “All you need is a place to hang your hat.” Cat has been a gypsy ever since — studying, living, working all over the place. Currently, she lives in Montreal, Canada.

She sells color for a living. What does that mean? The best way to describe it is when you go to a home improvement store and you choose a paint color – those little color chips, Cat's company produces those. It's a color sample, but with a very high degree of color accuracy. Her company produces them for the automotive industry, cosmetics and architectural coatings. It’s a very specialized business. She has the Bermuda Triangle of sales territories with customers in Scandinavia, Western and Southern Europe, and South Africa. Cat says, "It’s the perfect job for a gypsy like me." Her blog is http://www.cafegirlchronicles.wordpress.com/
Now, here's Cat's post:

              FIVE THINGS TO SEE OR
                  DO IN A NEW PLACE
By Catherine Larose
I often find myself in new places for business and because I’m in and out of a city quite quickly, I don’t always have much time to spare. However, when I do get some downtime, whether I’m traveling for work or pleasure, I always do a bit of research before I set out to explore. I like to arrive in a place that I know a little something about, and I’m not talking about its tourist attractions. I’m talking about its soul, its character(s) and its culture.

There’s nothing more thrilling than the flash of recognition you get when you see or visit a place that has some significance for you because you’ve read about it in a novel or seen it in a movie. There is a familiarity that arises from knowing a place’s “back story”. If you have that, you’re no longer visiting a stranger; you’re visiting a friend.



Let me give you a few examples of books and movies that can help you learn the back-story of specific places as well things you can do when you get there to enhance your experience.


Books

Barcelona – THE SHADOW OF THE WIND, by Carlo Ruiz Zafón. The novel includes hand drawn maps that trace the characters’ steps through plot twists and turns so you can follow in their footsteps.

India – A SUITABLE BOY, by Vikram Seth. This sweeping epic does a great job of breaking down the early formative politics of the country. Reading it will give you a better appreciation and understanding of today’s India.

Montreal – Forensic anthropologist Kathy Reichs sets many of her thrillers in Montreal. I sometimes half expect to bump into her character, Temperance Brennan in one of the many settings she describes.

Movies

Rome – "Roman Holiday." Follow Audrey Hepburn as she hops on the back of a Vespa with Gregory Peck to see the sights in Rome. Fall in love with both the city and the guy.

Paris / France – "French Kiss." Follow Megan Ryan and Kevin Kline from Paris and Province to the Cote d’Azur in this delightful little comedy.

New York – "When Harry Met Sally." For me this is the best way to live vicariously in New York.


Having read a book or seen a movie about a place gives significance to the sights in the places you visit. It makes the experience that much richer. But you can also enhance your experience once you are there. Here are five fun things you can do.


1) Take a class in a “native” subject. Take tango lessons in Buenos Aires, cooking classes in Bologna and an Ikebana class in Tokyo.


2) Attend a cultural event. Attend the local symphony, a dance performance or a concert given by local talent in a club or a restaurant.


3) Take a tour. It’s a quick way to get an overview of a place, after which you can pick and choose your favorite spots to go back to and savor on your own.


4) Treat yourself. Travel can be stressful process at the best of times: standing in long check-in lines, losing your luggage or just getting oriented. Book a massage, facial, or a wash and blow dry at a local hair salon. It lends an air of “normalcy” to a place, and it makes you feel better no matter what situation you’re facing.


5) Sample the local cuisine. Always make it a point to try one local dish, whether it’s pizza in Naples, poutine in Montreal or antelope in Africa.

Finally as a way to relive the experience once you return home, bring back a music CD of an artist or group that you heard while visiting a place. If the music isn’t live, but piped in through a sound system in restaurant or played on the radio in a taxi, go ahead and ask the waiter or taxi driver about the singer or group. They are happy to tell you about the music to promote their country’s talent.

Once home, you can become an armchair traveler and let the music transport you back in time and place to experience those magical moments again and again.

Links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Suitable_Boy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shadow_of_the_Wind
http://kathyreichs.com/about-kathy/
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0046250/
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113117/
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098635/

And now, my review of Cat's book,
ANY COLOR BUT BEIGE: LIVING LIFE IN COLOR

One evening in Paris, Cat
sees her life in beige

Cat has written a memoir in short, effervescent chapters. She begins married to the perfect man with a perfect life...almost. He's too perfect, and expects everything and everyone to be...in his control. One day in Paris, Cat sees her life in the sepia (or beige) tones it has become and decides to add splashes of color to her existence. She does, and she shows others how to do the same. No, she's not recommending we divorce our spouses, but merely that we add vibrancy and color to our lives. Whether we're painting our bedroom, traveling to the other side of the world, or just rethinking and improving our situation, Cat shows us how to create joy, live with gusto, and make the most of life's every minute. ANY COLOR BUT BEIGE is a mostly joyful (sometimes sad) book that will bring pleasure to readers. The buy link at Amazon is:
http://www.amazon.com/Any-Color-but-Beige-Living/dp/1770674896/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1322013044&sr=1-1
And if go to her blog "Cafe Girl Chronicles" with your proof of purchase, she will mail you six color palette bookmarks. (Her blog url is given above.)

To view Cat's video trailer for ANY COLOR BUT BEIGE, go here
http://youtu.be/y9vh0IkE3YU

Thanks for reading! Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Welcome Author Sherry Gloag Chatting About Writing and THE BRAT!



Sherry Gloag
















Readers, please help me welcome author and reviewer, Sherry Gloag. Sherry lives in the United Kingdom (see her waving from across the pond?) but is here today through the wonders of cyberspace.

Caroline: Sherry, how did you get into writing as a career?
 Sherry: It is more a case of the other way round. Writing got into me. It’s been there in the background for a long time. The odd excursion during my school years. Sadly my teacher did not see anything to applaud in my writing and whenever she caught me, she confiscated everything I wrote! Life got in the way for a while. Then in the ‘90’s I tried my hand at some more novels. I received kind rejections but didn’t have the nerve to follow them up. (Shades of schooldays, perhaps? I don’t know.)


Caroline: Hard to believe we didn't have the same English teacher. Are you sure you didn't have Mrs. Willhite? No, of course you wouldn't have, lucky you. What do you hope your writing brings to readers?


Sherry: When I pick up a book I want to be transported to the author’s world of romance. I need to empathize with the characters, and most of all I feel cheated if I’m not given a HEA. So when I write, I hope my readers experience the same intensity I look for in a story, and the same satisfaction and ‘feel-good-factor’.


Caroline: Worthy goals. In what genres do you write? 


Sherry: I claim to write in the contemporary genre, but reviewers have described my debut novel, THE BRAT, as ‘suspenseful’ and a ‘mystery’.  Two of my current WsIP are experiments, one in a genre I love reading, which is Regency. And the other is a mystery/detective romance.


Caroline: I write in more than one genre, too. We can't help ourselves, can we? Who are your favorite authors?


Sherry: That’s a hard question to answer because I have so many. But Nora Roberts, Georgette Heyer, Sherryl Woods for her humor, Brenda Jackson, PD James, Ruth Rendell and Agatha Christie, to name a few.


Caroline: Several of those are faves of mine. Describe yourself in three words.


Sherry: Loyal, dependable, and (hopefully) loveable.


Caroline: Tell us about your writing process. Are you a plotter or a panzer?


Sherry: I’m a panzer. Having said that, I do find that by the end of the chapter I’m writing, I know approximately where I’m going in the next. I just have no idea how I’m going to get there! LOL


Caroline: Do you have a writing schedule?


Sherry:  Like the road to Hades, my writing schedule is full of good intentions. But I tend to write more at night [wrapped in the cuddles of darkness – less distractions going on outside :-)]


Caroline: So I'm not alone there! LOL Are you attending any conferences this year or scheduled as a speaker? Blog tours or other promotions?


Sherry:  So far I’ve not attended any book fairs or conferences here in the UK. But perhaps next year?


Caroline:  Any guilty pleasures or vices you’d care to share?

Sherry: I am a ‘need-to-know’ person, which irritates me almost as much as everyone else around me.


Caroline: When you’re not writing, what do you do to relax?


Sherry:  Read! I read to relax. I also enjoy the garden. I redesigned it last year, so this year has been full of surprises as the bulbs and plants bloomed through the seasons this year.


Caroline: What advice would you give to pre-published authors?


Sherry: Believe in yourself, because if you don’t why should anyone else? Use this belief to carry you forward, to meet your targets, to reach your goals. Get your name ‘out there’. But most importantly, get the butt on the chair and the fingers on the keyboard and write. :-)


Caroline: Definitely sound advice! Is there anything else you’d like to tell us about yourself?


Sherry: I learned to write short stories hitting a dry spell in THE BRAT. One day I opened a blank page and just started writing. My first short story "Precious Treasures" emerged and was accepted by LASR
http://longandshortarchives.blogspot.com/2009/08/precious-treasures-by-sherry-gloag.html They have published four more since then.
I’m lousy at time-management! LOL.
I love chocolate, but this summer it has taken a skunner to me. Boohoo!
I love working with crystals.


Caroline: All very interesting info. Tell us about your latest release.


Sherry: to terms with the consequences of their parents’ actions when they mTHE BRAT is my debut novel, and is published by The Wild Rose Press. I didn’t sit down and decide to write this story. The characters arrived and hassled me until I put aside what I was working on and started their story. From that point on they virtually took over the telling. It all started when Gina, my heroine, asked me how I would write a story about a woman who’d been abused as a child? When I pointed out that it was hardly a unique tale, she then added that the children of two mothers had to come to terms with the consequenses of their parents' actions when they met for the first time twenty-five years later. Now, that caught my attention, and so THE BRAT was born.


Caroline: Wow, Sherry, that is too intriguing. Give us a blurb, please!

Sherry: Here's the blurb:


Gina Williams is a 35-year-old famous children’s author, who also writes detective mysteries under the name of George Williamson. She was robbed of her childhood when aged ten by the late mother of the hero, Ben Kouvaris.


When he was ten-years-old his mother sent him to her ex Theo Kouvaris, multi-millionaire, who lives in Greece. When he returns to her funeral he is haunted by the beautiful woman who organised the funeral. When his father orders him to marry he thinks of Gina Williams.


They have to overcome the horrors of the past and forgive their parents for their betrayals. Will their past destroy their future?


Caroline: Your blurb raised so many questions. Can you share an excerpt?

Sherry: Here's one:
A voice from the grave filled her mind to the exclusion of everything else. “No one cares about a guttersnipe like you. You’re nothing but a snivelling little brat. You have no past and no future. You are no one and never will be. Your place is here, for you have nothing else to aspire to, and nowhere else to go.”



More than two decades later the words still fuelled her ambitions to achieve. They still goaded her into proving to herself and others that she could succeed. Her aspirations and dreams propelled her need to prove herself.


“Watch it, luv!” A hand yanked her back from the curb. “You got a death wish or som’it?” The blast of a car horn jerked her back against her rescuer.


“Oh!” Gina gasped. “I wasn’t paying attention…”


Her voice trailed off. Her memories stole her concentration. “Thank you.” She eased her arm from within his grasp and held out her hand. “Your quick actions saved my life.”


“Think nothing of it.” The man touched his cap, stepped back, and soon disappeared in the crowds. Shaken more than she cared to admit, she looked around and entered a nearby coffee shop.


She fought the ghosts from her past and wrestled them back into that black box in her mind she’d kept locked for almost two decades. With the exception of her agent and best friend, Liz, she’d never shared her secrets, and Liz didn’t know the half of them, just enough for Liz to realize her children’s adventure stories evolved from her childhood fantasies.


Caroline: Thank you, Sherry. You've tantalized us even more with the excerpt. Where can readers find your books?


Sherry: Readers can buy THE BRAT from The Wild Rose Press http://www.thewildrosepress.com/sherry-gloag-m-862.html

And Amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=the+brat+sherry+gloag ]


Also Amazon.co.uk
http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=the+brat+sherry+gloag


Caroline: How can readers learn more about you?


Sherry: They can find me - here and here and here…


Buy THE BRAT here = http://bit.ly/d5nVDC


And at Amazon = http://amzn.to/bclDhY


My Website = www. sherrygloag.com/


My blog = http://bit.ly/bnuELA


Book Trailer = http://bit.ly/9O6j6C


Facebook = http://bit.ly/daeGN7


Goodreads = http://bit.ly/bTOzHC


Twitter = http://twitter.com/SherryGloag


Caroline: Sherry, thank you so much for sharing your debut novel and yourself with us.

Sherry: Thanks for having me, Caroline. I've enjoyed myself.

Check with Goddess Fish Promotions to see where Sherry will appear next.

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