A Long Road Home

Singapore

Last night I drank a well-traveled bottle of water sourced, supposedly, from a spring in the French alps, imported into Hong Kong and carried back to Philadelphia with me. Like Beloved and I, it traveled a long way. In the past three weeks we have traveled through three countries (five if you count home and being on the ground briefly in Hong Kong) via:

• 7 taxis and at least as many metro trains
• 6 airplanes
• 5 buses
• 3 private cars
• 2 limos
• 1 boat and a monorail

Jude Knight

We traveled well over 30,000 miles, we are a bit weary, and our body clocks are twelve hours off, but we wouldn’t change it for the world.

Along the way we visited my good friend Jude Knight and her Personal Romantic Hero who shared the New Zealand bush, hot springs, volcanic lakes, some Hobbits, their lovely home, and much much more with us. Jude and I also had an afternoon with our fellow Bluestocking Belle, Lizzi Tremayne.

Milford Sound

We went off to the South Island on our own and were awed by its wonders including the staggering Milford Sound. We visited our friends the Wongs in Singapore and explore that city from one neighborhood to another, and even motored up to Malacca, Malaysia, for a few days. That part of the trip, especially the UNESCO World Heritage sites, included a heavy dose of history.

Did you know Britain handed Malacca back to the Dutch in 1819? There is a Regency story in there. They got it back in the early Victorian. Hmm. You can count on all three countries turning up in my stories in coming years. How could they not? For now, though, I’m way behind. I owe Scarsdale Press and the Bluestocking Belles each a story for one thing. Writing on long plane trips turned out to be less possible than I hoped.

I also need to tweak my marketing plan for The Unexpected Wife. Soul Mate Publishing has moved the release date to July due to conflicts on my editor’s schedule. Since Tammie is THE BEST I’m happy to wait for her. Email is stacked high and I suspect I am almost afraid to look at my to do list. I had better get to it.

But first, coffee.