Celebrating Paris!

The full moon over the Seine

Hello, all! I am back from my trip to Paris and I had an amazing trip, to put it mildly. I can now understand why Paris has a reputation as such a special place. To say it is a beautiful city is an understatement!

I am still working on getting back to reality and my brain doesn't seem capable of stringing words together for a proper post at the moment, so I thought I would just share some of my favorite pictures from the trip. I took so many I'm surprised my phone didn't explode. But, in addition to the one above, here are a few that bring back some of my most cherished memories of my week in the City of Light.

The stately and spectacular Arc de Triomphe:

The courtyard of the Louvre, which my niece and I stumbled upon through a back entrance. The museum was closed and, with a lone violinist playing in the background, the place felt like the setting of a fairy tale.

The cafe in St. Germain where I had a yummy lunch and enjoyed champagne cocktails as we sat outside and people-watched.

Inside the Musee D'Orsay:

The stunningly beautiful Sacre Coeur church lit up in the night sky. The church was only a five minute walk from the loft where we stayed in Montmartre.

Of course, I can't celebrate a trip to Paris without a picture of the Eiffel Tower. :)

This post is my entry for this week's Celebrate the Small Things Hop. The hop is hosted by my buddy Lexa Cain and co-hosted by L.G Keltner at Writing Off the Edge and Tonja Drecker at Kidbits. Visit Lexa's blog here to find out how join in the hop yourself and to see the list of participants.




I'm looking forward to catching up in blogland today and jumping back in in a big way next week when I will be co-hosting the IWSG. Happy weekend, all!

Celebrating Paris & Heart Stopper by Tamara Narayan

Source: Wikimedia Commons

I'm heading to the City of Light next week and I can't wait. This will be my first time in France and my first time on the continent of Europe. The only other time I've been overseas was when I took a trip to England more than ten years ago. I could not be more excited and this trip is what I'm celebrating this week. Honestly it's hard to concentrate on much else. :)

The Celebrate the Small Things hop is hosted by my buddy Lexa Cain and co-hosted by L.G Keltner at Writing Off the Edge and Tonja Drecker at Kidbits. Visit Lexa's blog here to find out how join in the hop yourself and to see the list of participants.

I also want to help spread the word about Heart Stopper, a new collection of stories from Tamara Narayan. I've just recently met Tamara thanks to this hop so it's great to be able to help out a new friend.

Heart Stopper and Other Stories

By Tamara Narayan

One collection, four stories, 171 pages of suspense...

Heart Stopper: The disappearance of random household items baffles Dallas Radner and his eleven-year-old daughter, Tessa. Ten plastic bags, nine ballpoint pens . . . what's next? This odd countdown should end on November 1, The Day of the Dead. That's also Tessa's birthday and the one-year anniversary of her surgery, the day her heart stopped on the operating table.

Dallas almost lost Tessa once. On November 1, one thing will vanish forever. Will it be his daughter?

Detour: Fed up with her abusive boyfriend, coed Chloe Langley takes off in a borrowed car for the safety of home. She'll never make it.

One Step Away: Acrophobia has ruined Darryl James's marriage and stolen his son. To get Andrew back, Darryl undergoes desensitization therapy. Just as success is within his grasp, a relapse occurs with shocking consequences.

Monitor: Perched on a mountain with a view to die for, Laura and Paul Alderson have it all: new house, new baby, and new challenges. But urgent whispers from the baby monitor about her infant son and the garage threaten to turn Laura's American dream into a nightmare.

Available on Amazon ($2.99)

Author Blog: www.tamaranarayan.com

Congratulations and best of luck to Tamara!

I don't think I will be around in blogland again until I am back from my trip so I hope everyone has a great few weeks ahead. :)

IWSG & The Best Thing Anyone Has Ever Said About My Writing

Happy IWSG day, friends!

The IWSG administrators have come up with a new feature for our monthly meetings that starts today. Each month, they will announce a new question that members can choose to answer in their IWSG posts. The question to kick things off is "What's the best thing someone has ever said about your writing?"

I admit, this question made me smile from ear to ear when I first read it, because it immediately brought back a wonderful memory. It's an easy one for me to answer!

I have taken part in a few classes taught by a friend of mine at the university where I work. The class focuses on local authors and the students have read one of my books each time I have participated. One year the students read The Ghosts of Aquinnah and I met to discuss it with them after they had finished the book.

The students all told me they loved the book and they were eager to discuss it, so I was thrilled right from the start. As the discussion went on, one of the students commented on the fact that the story is a tragedy. Another raised her hand and said "I thought it was Shakespearean." 

Once I picked my mouth off the floor I wanted to ask her to say that again so that I could record it for posterity. ;)

I didn't record it but it is a memory I access any time I need a pick-me-up or a dose of inspiration. That woman and that entire class will always have a special place in my heart.

So that's the nicest thing anyone has ever said about my writing. I'm looking forward to hopping around and seeing what wonderful things people have said to all of you.

I'd also like to say thanks to the admins for coming up with this new feature! I've really struggled with thinking of topics to write about lately, not because I'm no longer insecure but just because I can't think of anything I haven't said already. So thank you, wonderful admins!

The Insecure Writer's Support Group was founded by Alex J. Cavanaugh and meets the first Wednesday of every month. Visit Alex's site to join in, see the monthly co-hosts, and view a list of members.