Looking for a Mediterranean summer resort with history? How about 2000 years of history?

Ancient Roman Emperor Tiberius, who reigned from 14-37 AD, used to enjoy spending summers in this beautiful seaside retreat on the Tyrrhenian Sea and, millennia later, modern-day Romans still escape the city’s sweltering summers by relaxing on the beach of  beautiful Sperlonga, one of my favorite beaches near Rome.

Sperlonga lies south of Italy’s capital, half-way between Rome and Naples. It is about a 1 ½ hour drive from Rome or an easy train ride from Rome’s Termini station to Fondi, with a short, connecting bus to Sperlonga.

Sperlonga’s old town is perched up high, with beautiful views down to the wide town beach and turquoise waters below. Sperlonga, known as the “WhiteTown”, is a charming collection of whitewashed homes and narrow, winding, labarynth-like streets simply begging to be explored.

Stop on the charming piazza for a cappuccino or a gelato and watch the world go by. Then head down the ramp or the steps to the beautiful beach below to while away a relaxing afternoon swimming and lounging on the beach, while enjoying the dramatic views up to the town.

With its wide beach and gentle waves, Sperlonga is also the perfect destination for families with young children – mine are constantly begging me to return.

Head back up to the town in the evening and dine under the stars at one of the many restaurants in the old town: mussels in white wine sauce, calamari, spaghetti alle vongole (spaghetti with clams) or grilled fish accompanied by a chilled white wine will wrap up the perfect day.

Enjoy your beach holiday fit for an Emperor!

I am very excited to announce the launch of Time Changes Everything, a romance novel by Melinda Dozier.

I’ve been faithfully following Melinda’s path to publication. Melinda has been one of my amazing critique partners for over a year, and I was so pleased when she informed me that the book I’d so enjoyed critiquing, Time Changes Everything, had been picked up by Entranced Publishing and became available on May 13.

Melinda is a busy working mom – of three boys! – living with her husband and children in beautiful Guatemala. Carving out time for writing in her busy schedule, how she came up with the idea for her story, how she markets and promotes her work, and how she sold her manuscript to her publisher are just some of the questions I’m anxious for Melinda to share with us as she celebrates her book launch.

But first, here’s the story of Time Changes Everything:

Amanda Larson is dedicated to her job and doesn’t want to make time for anything else. Until she runs into Jake Edwards. He used to be the cute boy next door; now he’s a sexy, big shot lawyer.

Jake Edwards isn’t interested in commitment. He’s successful, sexy, and single–and that’s how he likes it. When he reconnects with Amanda, Jake realizes he might have to rethink his philosophy on the carefree, bachelor lifestyle.

But, is it too late for them? Or can he convince her that he’s ready to give her his heart?

Congratulations, Melinda! I know how hard you’ve been working with this book. Congratulations on being a published author? Hi Kimberly! Thanks for having me. It’s a pleasure to be here with my amazing critique partner!

Where did you get the idea for your story? My characters just screamed at me to write their story. I have no idea where it stemmed from. I know nothing about NYC, leading fashion shows or being a lawyer. Funny, isn’t it? I did know that I love friends to lovers stories and that’s where this took off from.

How do you manage to carve out writing time? This is the hardest part of being a writer! It’s a full-time second job for me. I teach by day, write by night, plus mother and wife in between. My family has become accustomed to me spending a large amount of time at my computer.

What’s the story behind selling this book to Entranced? Any advice to authors trying to sell their work? Well, I visit the Romance University website frequently and heard there was a pitch contest from Entranced Publishing. Luckily I entered Time Changes Everything and the rest is history! My advice to authors are to try the different non-traditional routes of pitching your book — be it a Twitter pitch party or a contest. There are other ways to sell your book!

How do you handle marketing and promotion? Luckily, Entranced Publishing has an amazing Marketing Department. I have a publicist who has scheduled a blog tour at all my favorite romance blogs. I also stay tuned into Twitter (obsessively so) and Facebook. Authors shouldn’t just sit back and hope their book sells. Authors need to get out there and expose themselves.

What are you working on now? I’m happy to say my third novel, Breaking the Rules, will be released on July 8 from Crimson Romance. I’m also working on a sports-related romance novella anthology with three other authors that will hopefully be out the beginning of 2014.

Thanks for joining me, Melinda. I can’t wait to have you back for future books. My pleasure, Kimberly! Thanks for having me!

About the book:

Purchase links: www.entrancedpublishing.com/imprints/entranced/time-changes-everything/
Book Trailer: www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzKh1B21Z5w&feature=g-high-f&list=FL5KvXdEur-muCY2C8YBXBYQ
Goodreads: www.goodreads.com/book/show/15990302-time-changes-everything

Author Bio
Reading romance has always been at the top of Melinda’s favorite past times. After hectic days of teaching English to middle school students, Melinda finds time to write and read in the evenings. She lives in Guatemala, Central America with her husband, three boys and German Shepherd. She enjoys being the queen of her household and dreams of being pampered fully by her boys once they are grown. Melinda loves reality TV, traveling, blogging and playing Words With Friends.

Website: www.melindadozier.com
Blog: melindadozier.blogspot.com
Twitter: www.twitter.com/melindadozier

Vienna is one of my favorite cities. I spent a happy year living here far too many years ago, and I’ve returned countless times as a tourist.

To truly enjoy the city, a visitor shouldn’t rush, but should instead slow down and enjoy age-old Viennese traditions. Few of these traditions are as enjoyable as taking time to relax, warm up, people watch, and read in the venerable institution of the Viennese café.

Outside these lovely cafés, the hectic and distracting pace of 21st century life may go on as usual, but inside, be sure to pack away your laptops and hide your iphones in order to fully enjoy the splendors of 20th century Vienna.

The cafés are all well stocked with international newspapers. The coffee is served Viennese-style, on a platter, accompanied by a glass of water with an overturned spoon. Desserts are, of course, sinfully rich. Be sure to incorporate one (or many) visits to some of these cafés into your next visit to Vienna.

Demel
The grande dame of Viennese café culture, Demel was established in 1786.

The “K.u.K” proudly displayed on its portal and on its confectionary boxes, indicate that it was the official imperial bakery (Kaiser und Kaiserin). Emperess Sissi was said to have been extremely fond of the sweets produced by Demel.

Firmly wedded to tradition, Demel refused to remove the “K.u.K” even after the collapse of the Empire rendered it irrelevant and unpopular. Almost one hundred years after the Empire’s collapse, it still remains proudly on the door – as you can see in this photo – and a visitor to this lovely café may indeed feel he’s been transported back to 19th century Vienna.

The beautiful window displays change frequently. Even if you don’t manage to go inside to sit down, be sure to see what’s on display in this most famous of Viennese cafés. Demel is located on Kohlmarkt, just a few steps away from the Hofburg.

Café Schwarzenberg
Café Schwarzenberg  is on the Ringstrasse, midway between the Opera house and the Stadtpark. It was established in 1861 when the Ringstrasse was first built by tearing down Vienna’s defensive walls. Café Schwarzenberg is famous for having been occupied by the Russian army after liberating the city in 1945.

Today, the café upholds Viennese traditions and is a pleasant place to stop on your walk around the Ringstrasse. On warm days, there is outdoor seating on the adjoining sidewalk.

Café Central
This is my favourite Vienna café. Opened in 1861, the Café Central is housed in the Palais Ferstel on Herrengasse. Over its long history, the Café Central has seen many famous – and infamous – patrons sipping coffee within its lovely vaulted spaces. Adolf Loos, Tito, Sigmund Freud, Vladimir Lenin, Adolf Hitler and Leon Trotsky have all spent time here.

At a time when many Viennese flats were unheated, many young intellectuals and revolutionaries spent hours nursing their coffees – and staying warm – at the Café Central.

This was the case with Leon Trotsky, who became such a fixture at the Viennese coffee house that when the Russian Revolution began, the Viennese laughed it off, assured that “Herr Trotsky of the Café Central” could never succeed in such an endeavour.

Join the ranks of history and culture with a visit to these beautiful Viennese cafés on your next visit to the Austrian capital.

For more tips on what to do during a  Vienna trip, see some of my earlier posts on Wienerschnitzl at Figlmüller, the Palmenhaus, plague art and the Lipizzaner horses.

I’m not always a fan of tecnology, and I often lament the fact that it takes us away from the daydreaming and writing that we writers should set aside more of our time in pursuing. But I’m also the first to admit that a writer’s job – particularly a writer just starting out – is infinitely easier thanks to technology.

I’ve learned so much about writing, the publishing industry, queries, and the short story market through web sites. There are tremendous resources out there for both beginning and experienced writers. And they’re all just a simple click away.

An entire list would be exhaustive, but I’d like to highlight some of my favorites… and I’d love to learn some of yours. So, here goes:

Critique Circle – Joining Critique Circle has been invaluable to improving my writing. I come here to post novel chapters or short stories and to receive helpful feedback from my helpful critiquers, many of whom have become good friends. It’s a supportive environment, and I believe I’ve learned as much from critiquing others’ work as I have from receiving advice to improve my own pages.

Query Shark – Agent Janet Reid runs this incredibly helpful site. If you’re an author about to send queries, make sure you take some time to review this site. Queries are submitted to this site and Ms Reid chomps away at them. Authors can follow her advice, revise, and resubmit, until the query arrives at point where she deems it a ‘yes’ for a literary agent.

Nathan Bransford – This literary-agent-turned-young- adult-author runs an incredibly useful site, discussing the publishing industry, trends, how the industry is changing, how to write query letters. The archives are full of great resources for those just starting out.

New pages- If you’re writing short stories, this call for submissions page is invaluable, helping you to see what is being sought by literary journals, with precise deadlines and links into guidelines.

Rachelle Gardner- This site by literary agent Rachelle Gardner is filled with advice and information for new writers. You name it, Rachelle Gardner writes about it: querying, the role of agents, publishing contracts, the changing publishing industry and what it means for writers.

Review Review – If you start submitting to literary journals, this site will become handy. This gives an overview of all the major literary journals with a brief background of the type of work they accept and their submission periods and response times. An extremely useful site for your research.

So, writers, these are some of my favorite sites. What about yours?

On a recent trip to Geneva, I had a few hours free on a Sunday afternoon, so I hopped on one of the frequent trains (love, love, love efficient Swiss public transport) to nearby Lausanne.

Lausanne is about fifty-three kilometers north-east of Geneva, along the banks of Lake Geneva. During the summer months, there are boats leaving Geneva for frequent voyages to destinations along the lake, including Lausanne.

Lausanne is an adorable, idyllic little town, all fairy tale spires, steep cobblestone streets (bring good walking shoes!), and gorgeous views down to the lake and the mountains surrounding the town.

When I arrived, I raced from the train station and up the steep slopes to the cathedral bell tower, which is supposed to provide gorgeous views over the lake and the mountains beyond.

Unfortunately, I arrived just as they were closing to visitors, so I missed my chance to enjoy the spectacular views. Next time.

Nevertheless, even if you arrive too late to climb the bell tower, the Notre-Dame Cathedral  is worth a visit. The cathedral was built between 1170 and 1235. The 13th century rose windows are impressive, and almost all original.

I did enjoy wandering the steep streets of this pretty city. Lausanne is also home to the International Olympic Committee, and houses an interesting  Olympic Museum, currently closed for renovations and is scheduled to open at the end of 2013.

Enjoy your time in charming Lausanne, which must be even more beautiful in the spring and summer. Lausanne would probably also be a good base for exploring other lakeside towns. Next time I’m going to make it in time for that view from the cathedral’s bell tower.

Writers, sharpen your pencils.

The submission period is open for the Writers Abroad annual anthology.

Each year, the writers group Writers Abroad publishes an anthology, organized around a particular theme. This year’s theme is Far Flung and Foreign. They seek submissions of short stories (up to 1700 words), flash fiction (up to 500 words), non-fiction (up to 1000 words) and poetry (up to 30 lines) around this selected theme. All works must be firmly grounded in a particular place, such as a country, area, town, village, or building.

The pieces chosen will become part of the Writers Abroad annual anthology, with a  foreword by author Amanda Hodgkinson, author of 22 Britannia Road.

Another nice aspect of this annual anthology is that all profits made on sale of the anthology are donated to a charity. This year, the charity selected is Book Aid International, which is committed to providing books to partner libraries in sub-Saharan Africa.

Last year, I entered this competition for the first time, and was pleased to have my story, Missed Connections, included in the annual anthology. I enjoyed receiving my copy and reading all the other entries from far flung locales around the globe. And with the title/theme selected this year, we’re certain to see another year of engaging international fiction, non-fiction and poetry.

So writers, what are you waiting for? Entries can be made here. All submissions must be in English and authors must be over 18 years old. Only one entry per author.

The Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado was a great find on a family trip we took out west. I already blogged about it in this post.

We (foolishly) thought to make a quick stop here while driving from Telluride, Colorado to Bryce Canyon, Utah but we wound up spending several hours and would have liked to have stayed even more.

This is a fascinating national park, with the remnants of the cave dwellings of the Pueblo Indians, who lived in this area from 600-1300 A.D. The site was not widely known and studied until the 19th century.

Explore these ruins, climb their steep ladders and squeeze through their tiny tunnels (as you can imagine, this was a real hit with the kids!) This is a great place to visit if you’re in the “Four Corners” region (where the states of Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and Colorado meet) of America.

Tiny tunnels, anyone?

At the park visitor center, you can sign up for guided tours for the popular Cliff Palace and Balcony House. We opted for the ladders of the Balcony house tours and our youngest son was thrilled at the chance to be the assistant ranger, helping to lead the tour group through tunnels and ladders to work their way through the elaborate cave dwellings. The park rangers provide informative tours, filled with information about the daily lives of these Pueblan cave dwellers.

Balcony House was built into the cliffs in a way that it could not be seen from above… precisely what makes it so much fun to visit today (if you don’t suffer from vertigo – there are some steep climbs up ladders). Be sure to brink good walking shoes!

The Cliff Palace was the largest of the Puebloan cliff dwellings, with 150 rooms. The Cliff Palace contains 23 kivas – religious rooms, though to be used by the separate clans living here (and leading archaeologists to believe that 23 clans may have lived here at varous times).

Even if your travel schedule only allows yo to see a few of the sites, the scenic drive offers lookout points with panoramic views over the ruins.

If you’re travelling through the American southwest, make it a point to visit this fascinating national park and the well-preserved ruins of the  cliff-dwelling Pueblo Indians.

As an undergraduate in a school that didn’t have minors, I unwittingly almost triple majored in art history. I’d accumulated so many classes in it that by senior year I was just shy a couple.

In the end, living in Italy, I (only half jokingly) claim it’s the most important subject I ever studied. After all, here in Italy we’re blessed with some of the most beautiful art in the world.

Even if I don’t set out to do so, I often find myself sneaking art I love into my writing. Two of my short stories feature Italian art in a prominent role.

One of my stories, Caves, uses a cave fresco of Santa Lucia in the story, and another set in Orvieto, Bitter Harvest,  includes Signorelli’s masterpiece, the Last Judgement.

But my current work-in-progress includes a painting by Tiepolo (1696-1770) with its own role in the book. I love mythology, so it’s not strange that I would choose this wonderful depiction of Apollo and Daphne.

This stunning  painting is not, as I claim in my book, in the Bath, England student living quarters of a Jane Austen seminar, but instead in the Louvre Museum of Paris, where I’ve seen it. (Although I would much prefer to be like my protagonist, Janet, and be fortunate enough to have this painting hanging in  my bedroom.)

The painting exerts a powerful influence on my protagonist, and begins to get her thinking about metamorphoses. After all, the painting depicts the moment in which the wood nymph Daphne begs deliverance from the Sun God, Apollo, who is pursuing her. Tiepolo has depicted the moment in which the leaves burst from her fingers as she transforms into a laurel tree.

Tiepolo’s painting was, in turn, inspired by lithographs he probably saw of the masterpiece of  Italian sculptor Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598-1680).

Bernini’s Apollo and Daphne is today in Rome’s spectacular Galleria Borghese. I’ve seen it countless times, but I’m always thrilled to go back and visit  it once more. The coils of Daphne’s hair and the delicate leaves sprouting from her fingertips make it impossible to believe this was once a lifeless block of marble.

So for me, it was a lot of fun to incorporate this milennia-old myth with some of my favorite artwork and to have given it a prominent role in my story.

And you, writers? Do you see certain interests working your way into your manuscripts, even when you don’t plan it that way? Favorite places, art, music, etc?

When you are next visiting Rome’s Colosseum, be sure to take the time to cross the street and peer into the area known as the Ludus Magnus. Two thousand years ago, this was the largest and most prestigious of Rome’s gladiatorial training schools.

The Ludus Magnus was built during the reign of Emperor Domitian (81-96 AD). Ancient records of its construction exist, but it had been built over and its exact location remained a mystery until it was unearthed in an excavation in 1937.

Renderings based on excavations and ancient records are believed to be quite accurate. As the image below illustrates, the Ludus Magnus once boasted a central practice arena where gladiators learned and trained, surrounded by limited seating for spectators.

Rooms around the training area contained barracks for the gladiators and storage for the equipment. Underground tunnels connected the Ludus Magnus with the Colosseum.

Today, just over half of the arena and the barracks remain. The brick-work of the present-day ruins would have been covered with marble at the time of Ancient Rome.

Peer down at the remains of the school that once trained Rome’s best gladiators. Better yet, enjoy stunning views of the Ludus Magnus and the Colosseum over a glass of wine from the rooftop terrace of the adjacent Hotel Gladiatori.

If you are visiting the Ludus Magnus, you are just three blocks away from the portico marking the spot where  Pope Joan’s  true identity was discovered. Why not enjoy a short stroll in the pretty neighborhood of Celio in order to visit this curious medieval site?

And here’s where most men will stop reading…

As Mr. Bennet himself put it so elegantly when his wife attempted to describe ball gowns to him in the BBC film version of  Pride and Prejudice:

“No lace. No lace, Mrs. Bennet, I beg you!”

Chapter three of  Pride and Prejudice expresses Mr. Bennet’s disdain for discussions of lace as well, but without the excellent line of dialogue.

I rarely have male critique partners, but when I do they generally balk at descriptions of clothes in historical segments, whereas female critique partners tend to beg for even more description.

I suspect that most female readers would also enjoy the historical research surrounding 19th century ball gowns as much as I do.

For the early 19th century was a romantic era in fashion. The poetry of Lord Byron was on the lips of well-bred men and women. Empire-waisted gowns necessitated gentle, flowing skirts, with lots of movement.  Arms and busts – generally not on display during the day – were de rigeur at balls.

I’ve been to numerous museums displaying these lovely gowns. I’ve also looked through hundreds and hundreds of drawings of gowns at the time, and I find most of them impossibly beautiful, although I might take issue of some of the popular colors at the time – like puce, which I have worked into the 19th century scenes of  my manuscript Dark Blue Waves.

I also remain rather skeptical about the military look that was in vogue for a period of time – gold buttons and gold military braiding – and the exaggerated feathers and turbans that one could often see during the Regency period.

But other than a few fashion mis-steps, I love the gowns of the period, and believe the women looked so beautiful and elegant. It was an absolute pleasure to sift through the lithographs of  stunning  gowns of 1813, when parts of my story take place. Now, if only I could travel back in time, like the protagonist in my story, and have the opportunity to dress in these beautiful clothes myself, in the hopes that some handsome man “with ten-thousand a year” might ask me to dance.

And you readers? Do you have historical research involved in your stories? Do you enjoy getting lost in these historical details?

If you missed it, I wrote an earlier piece on researching 19th century riding habits.