On the Road Again - Despite Bad Weather!

"On the road again. . . just can't wait to get on the road again. . ."  Back at it once more, living out of a suitcase.  Alas, the weather is not cooperating to accomplish all I aimed to do.

What to do when weather interferes?  Have a back up plan - and a too-long To Do List.  Time to tackle chores: cleaned out a backlog of nearly 1,000 emails (oops!), used the hotel's granite desktop to shoot some studio-style staged photos (instead of photographing a gloomy, gusty beach), and more backlisted To-Do's.

Read another novel by Kelsey A. Campbell.  She must be a fellow Road Warrior-ess!  Topsy-Turvy: Kalimantan Tales is set in Indonesia - the "jungles of Borneo" actually - where Kelsey used to live.  It's the story of the only working expat woman based in a hardship post in Indonesia.  The name of the city (if you can call a place with 300,000 people and one traffic signal a "city") is Balikpapan, and in Bahasa Indonesia, that means "topsy-turvy."  We Road Warrior-esses think we have it tough today.  Dr. Diane Cameron, heroine of this story, thinks she's joining her fiance in romantic, photogenic Bali and winds up where water has to be boiled a full fifteen minutes before you can drink it, or make a cup of instant coffee.  Fascinating tales of life in the back of beyond, where members of the resentful Bored Wives Club are spitting king cobras and coworkers sometimes prove to be kraits-in-the-bamboo.

Like the first novel of Kelsey's that I read, Make Me Beautiful (with some scenes set in one of my favorite hotels in the world, The Library Hotel in NYC), it's a fascinating tale of a powerful woman who roams the world.

So despite uncooperative weather, I'm getting a lot of things done.  As one of the characters in Topsy-Turvy says, "I never let nothing stand in my way."

May your road rise up to meet you!

Best, Ann

New Novel’s Scenes Set at NYC’s Library Hotel

One of my favorite hotels in the world, The Library Hotel at 41^st Street and Madison Avenue in Manhattan, is featured as a setting for several scenes in a recently published novel.  Jennifer Jeppison, the novel’s main character, sometimes with members of her extraordinary extended family, sojourns at The Library Hotel for several NYC trips in Make Me Beautiful by Kelsey A. Campbell.

Jen, an artist, particularly loves the Painting Room, of course!  And the hotel’s wealth of books everywhere from the lobby to the 14^th floor Writers’ Den Jen finds particularly useful while recuperating after surgery in a New York hospital.

The real hotel is a gem located just one block from Grand Central Terminal and one block from the famed New York Public Library.  It’s part of the HK Hotels chain, which also includes the Casablanca Hotel near Times Square.  Great place, lovely facilities for anyone who loves a good book, and fine service are hallmarks of this elegant little boutique hotel.  I can hole up there in vast comfort for days, just as the fictional Jennifer Jeppison does!

The book is available as an Amazon Kindle Edition, published by AngeLines Publishing.  Look for Make Me Beautiful by Kelsey A. Campbell, and load up your Kindle.  Great bedtime reading for a Road Warrior, and you can dream of traveling to places like New York, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Cambodia along with Jen.  It’s the “Ultimate Makeover” story, tremendously uplifting and inspiring, and a joy to read.

May your road rise up to meet you!

Ann