The Inspiration of Travel

I'm writing today's blog entry in a lovely hotel in Macau, a part of China located near Hong Kong, clear on the other side of the world from my home in California. My husband and I are on vacation, enjoying the fact that my working 40-50 hours a week leaves us with enough funds to support our home, and lifestyle, with enough left over for the world travel we like to do.

We aren't extravagant people in most ways, but we do like to travel.

Part of that is a matter of wanting to experience life beyond the day-to-day experiences most people have, like watching TV, going to the movies, fast food lunches on weekends, and the like. Did you know that you can get a quarter-pounder in Hong Kong?  In fact the McDonalds menu isn't that different from what you can get in the US.

But in addition you can find a nice little place around the corner where they serve chopped goose or pork on a bed of rice for half the price of a hamburger, and it is really delicious.

I love this kind of experience. It inspires me to write books where the heroine heads to a far-off place in the universe, eats food that is unfamiliar, and meets people who are different from the people she's lived with all her life. If some of my experiences leads to similar experiences for my characters, then that's all right.

In fact, it is perfect.

After all, I want my characters to lead at least as interesting lives as I do.

Meanwhile I do have a new release of my Gaian novella, A Promise Made, with a lovely new cover, new editing job, and a lower price. I got my rights back from my publishing house and have released it myself on Amazon and Nook, with other places to follow once I'm back from my vacation.