All posts tagged travel

Wednesday Weekly Roundup


So last week was the second and last non-writing week of the year, although I did write a prologue for the current project – longhand, so it will be counted with this week’s wordcount. I visited Vienna and Budapest, and I’m still recovering, so you’ll forgive me if I keep this short.

Monday was spent catching up on everything, and only yesterday could I get back to re-writing and throw away most of what I had before I left, LOL! Seems like I’m taking a lot of wrong turns this year, but it doesn’t matter, as long as the story come out in the end.

Again I have loads of notes and pictures to check and order, so I might be slower this week… but I will catch up! Now I better go back to writing… last note: there’s a Kobo promo for people in Canada, United States of America, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand! Check this out to see the promotion: https://kobo.com/p/june-vip!

My collection “Lands of Wonder” is included… Have a great week!

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by Barb on 07/06/2023  •  Permalink
Posted in indie publishing, reading
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Posted by Barb on 07/06/2023

https://creativebarbwire.wordpress.com/2023/06/07/wednesday-weekly-roundup-191/

Wednesday Weekly Roundup


Last week I wrote over 12K, a short story for an anthology and then I started on the novel I’m doing the traveling for. Since this week I won’t be writing at all to research some more, I thought I’d write down the part set in Romania before I move on to some other place.

Yes, I have plenty of notes, but I might start to confuse them, so I decided to have a headstart! Next week I should be able to continue and finish by the end of the month. Wordcount rises when I write longer works, so I can catch up on the two lost weeks! 😉

Well, they weren’t completely lost. They were research trips. And I’m practically done for now. I may do another one in October, but I haven’t decided where or how yet. Although I’m thinking train, like, a Europass ticket, although I may also improvise. We’ll see.

The newsletter goes out tomorrow and has some reading recommendations! You can still subscribe on the publisher’s page!

As soon as I put on the publisher’s hat again, I will do a cover reveal. Yes, I’m having some Silvery Earth covers redone once again, since the awesome artist who made the Quests covers is available again. So when I’ll update the prices on the paperbacks, I hope to upload also the new covers for these 10 books.

And that’s all for today! Have a great week!

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by Barb on 31/05/2023  •  Permalink
Posted in indie publishing, real world inspiration, writing projects
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Posted by Barb on 31/05/2023

https://creativebarbwire.wordpress.com/2023/05/31/wednesday-weekly-roundup-190/

Wednesday Weekly Roundup


Last week I wrote zero words of fiction, but it was expected, since I was traveling. I took loads of notes, though, and got ideas for at least two short stories besides the novel that was the reason for this research trip. I did a tour of Romania, through Transylvania, Bucovina and Moldova, three very different regions – and took a thousand pics with both my phone and my camera (although at some point it took weird pictures, I don’t know what I touched, but a monastery has a few weird pics… pity, because it looked like a castle, and I could have used it on some cover, LOL!).

As I came back on Monday, I needed a couple of days to sort those notes and edit a novella I plan to submit, so I’ll hopefully resume writing today, one of those stories, probably. And some notes for the novel that I won’t start until the summer, but it’s slowly taking shape in my head.

Traveling again felt nice, it was a small group of 15, and the guide was really nice. We visited towns, painted (outside) monasteries, and went across the Carpathians, like, four times – including Borgo Pass of Bram Stoker’s book. Which is fiction, of course. There’s no “count” in Romania, only “vovoid”, and there’s no castle beyond Borgo Pass (besides, Bucovina starts shortly after, so it’s no longer Transylvania!).

I did like Castle Bran, a.k.a. Dracula’s castle, because it’s medieval, originally built by the Teutonic Knights, and I don’t care much about all the fuss they did about it after the above novel came out. Well, at least they repaired it! And it still belongs to the last descendant of the Romanian royal family – such an interesting history I was totally oblivious to because it’s too recent… oh, well, now I know more about it! 🙂

This week I’m still off day job, so I should be able to catch up on some writing. Meanwhile wishing you a wonderful week!

by Barb on 03/05/2023  •  Permalink
Posted in indie publishing, real world inspiration, writing projects
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Posted by Barb on 03/05/2023

https://creativebarbwire.wordpress.com/2023/05/03/wednesday-weekly-roundup-186/

Wednesday Weekly Roundup


Last week I wrote an almost-7K story for an anthology and started programming the next ones. I found a couple of interesting calls that work fine as writing prompts, so I’m going to use those as well as my photomanipulation “covers” for the next stories. Hopefully this week I’ll manage two stories and start accumulating wordcount! 🙂

I also need to get back to my TBR pile, especially on the new Kindle (the no-name Kindle, sniff. I wish I could still use K.K. for new books!). I keep backing Kickstarters and more eBooks are piling up to be uploaded… panic attack! Just kidding. I have other kinds of panic attacks during the day job.

I hope this week to start programming the travels for the year. I wanted to do some in-person workshop, but maybe I should just be a tourist while I still have a steady salary and keep those as reward when I’ll manage to quit. There are still a few places I want to explore, although I’ll probably stick to Europe for now. We’ll see.

Not much else is going on, so I shall go back to writing! Have a great week!

by Barb on 01/02/2023  •  Permalink
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Posted by Barb on 01/02/2023

https://creativebarbwire.wordpress.com/2023/02/01/wednesday-weekly-roundup-173/

Random Friday


So, last week I was off Day Job and after a few days at home to work on Nightly Bites Volume 2 (by the way, it’s up for pre-order, yay!) I hopped on a train to Milan with my friend and cover artist Cristina Fabris. We arrived around 3pm and spent the afternoon chilling out in our hotel room – she had work to finish and I had a novel to check, LOL!

Friday we met with her friend and fan Michel at the central train station and headed for Cartoomics, where I was supposed to meet two more of my cover artists, Lawrence Wendigo and Rossana Beretta, to give them proofs of the book with their covers…

I also had a list of comics I wanted to buy since I hadn’t gone to a comicon in a few years, so I ended up with a very heavy bag. And since I flew back from Linate (I had to use my Alitalia miles, LOL!), I decided to send some of that stuff back by mail.

Saturday morning I went to the post office and sent to my parents 4,1kg of comics. Then we went to the bookstores around Duomo, where I lost my hat (in the Mondadori flagship store – and they got rid of the Espresso Book Machine, IMHO…), then we met with Franco Giambalvo of an Italian SFF site.

We had lunch with him then spent an hour at Tempo di Libri, meeting Francesco Verso, then, being wrecked, we went back to the hotel. Sunday morning, we got home separated, since I flew and she took the train again…

And yesterday I retrieved the box of comics from my parents… destroyed, but the interior was fine, yay! Now battling a spring cold, but wishing you a wonderful weekend! 🙂

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by Barb on 16/03/2018  •  Permalink
Posted in reading, the Human being
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Posted by Barb on 16/03/2018

https://creativebarbwire.wordpress.com/2018/03/16/random-friday-298/

Random Friday


This randomness shall start with thanking Kat Murty for explaining the difference between Cultural Appropriation and Cultural Exchange.

(oh, cool, I managed to embed a Facebook post on the blog!) Ahem! Where was I? Yes, cultural appropriation vs exchange. Now it’s really crystal clear, but this doesn’t mean I’ll wear that sari I bought in Jaipur or the one my mother brought me from Delhi (I think) a couple of years before.

In fact I don’t think I’ll ever wear a sari unless 1) it’s a bridal sari (although I doubt I’ll have a Hindu wedding in this life, maybe the next, LOL!) or 2) I’m invited at a Hindu wedding and they tell me I can wear a sari and whatnot. Both are very unlikely, so there you have it! 😀

Same goes with the bindi below. I got them in the 1990s at some booth in a Roman Summer fair and haven’t touched them since, but I like them, so I just keep them as they are! The one bindi they put on me when I tried the sari, stayed until night, then ended up on the India travel diary…

And since we’re talking of culture exchange, let me share this video of Cossak women doing the saber dance. Don’t you think they kick ass? Do you they’re giving me ideas for stories? Hell yeah! 😀 Maybe I’ll have a Cossack vampiress or maybe I’ll just use the technique for an alien humanoid fighter… 😉

Have a great weekend! 🙂

by Barb on 15/12/2017  •  Permalink
Posted in real world inspiration, the Human being
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Posted by Barb on 15/12/2017

https://creativebarbwire.wordpress.com/2017/12/15/random-friday-285/

Random Friday


soooo late, huh? Yep, just got off the plane. But it’s total randomness, so why not. I’m not scheduling this, so it might have a few typos here and there.

Please Akishmet stop marking Nafees as spammer – he’s not! 😦 And he’s discovering my muse’s movies, so stop treating him like that! 😦 Ahem, sorry Nafees, sometimes these thingies don’t work properly.

So, spent 3 days in London – well, 2 mostly. Met up with Alice (of Wednesday’s post “fame”) in spite of misunderstanding,s and got to talk to Laxmi after reading her book – The Destiny of Shaitan. I’m a little too tired to review it today, but you can check my review during the weekend. You might remember she was a guest on this blog last JULY! Yikes! Took me that long to actually read her book! *shame*

Anyway, it’s always fun to meet in person other bloggers and we had a great time at Dishoom near Covent Garden! 🙂 Couldn’t find many DVDs, so I guess I’m free to spend the holidays re-watching what I already have (which is a lot anyway, LOL).

Okay, should have programmed this, as I’ve already run out of things to say… and there’s no jet-lag to justify it, so I’ll blame it on my age that makes traveling so difficult, LOL! 🙂
Have a great weekend!

by Barb on 23/11/2012  •  Permalink
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Posted by Barb on 23/11/2012

https://creativebarbwire.wordpress.com/2012/11/23/random-friday-42/

Sunday Summary


So, I’m back! Glad you enjoyed last Sunday’s guest post, I admit Verchiel is my second favorite vampire – but I’m glad he was in time out and allowed his author to reply to comments! :-)

What have I been doing? Last weekend in Certaldo, but this time I didn’t pay the Medieval Dinner fare. I went alone and by train, so I didn’t bring the dress either. I spent 2 nights at the hotel Il Castello – cooler than outside where this year it was very hot. The first night the hotel was full, the second night I feared I’d be the only guest, but luckily a couple of foreigners showed up to spend the night. So I wrote and read and Monday morning I took the train to Massa, my father’s hometown.

Now, when I arrived in Certaldo and decided to send a message to a friend, I found out I had no cell phone. Panic. How was I supposed to let Mom know I was safe? I went back to the hotel and sent a message to my brother through Facebook (she panicked once because my cell phone was off and I wasn’t home). Then I managed to find a public phone and it even worked with coins, yay!

Luckily I have most numbers written down on my PAPER organizer, but the newest acquisitions aren’t there. So I didn’t have the number of a friend I hoped to meet while in Massa. Monday night I found her e-mail through my cousin’s PC and told her I was phone-less. My phone seemed switched off, so I guessed I just left it at home. More days writing and reading (see my GR shelves for reviews), then Friday I came back. Bus strike finishing when I got to Rome, so it took me one hour and a half to get home.

No cell phone. It vanished. I don’t think it was stolen because it’s not smart enough for cell-phone addicts (it’s only a phone, no apps, no internet, no MMS), so I’m guessing I misplaced it or lost it or the town faeries took it.  I finally got a replacement SIM card, because tomorrow I’m going on the other side of town with my 16-year-old car, so for my own comfort I’d rather be able to call for help.

This cost me 1euro of phone calls from public phones + 40cents of parking + 10euro replacement SIM card. Sigh. And I have to manually put back in all the numbers – family is already there, but friends… OK, I’ll rebuild the list one at the time.

Anyway, yesterday I went with my brother to various places (he needs stuff but so do I, and the tech-stuff I’d rather buy with him – and then I went looking for that replacement SIM card) and spent the afternoon going through CVE3. Finishing today, hoping to send it out to betas tomorrow.

I’ll try to get back on track, reading blogs soon. Next week I’m still off DayJob, but I’ve got a lot of work to do! 🙂 If the heat doesn’t kill me first… I hate the summer. Have a great Sunday!

by Barb on 24/06/2012  •  Permalink
Posted in real world inspiration, the Human being
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Posted by Barb on 24/06/2012

https://creativebarbwire.wordpress.com/2012/06/24/sunday-summary/

Happiness is…


by Barb on 28/11/2011  •  Permalink
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Posted by Barb on 28/11/2011

https://creativebarbwire.wordpress.com/2011/11/28/happiness-is-106/

Daily prompt, weekly photo challenge


And this week topic is… WATER! (Yeah, that’s also the third Book of the Immortals, but I’m not going there yet, haha!). Now, I have plenty of pictures of lakes, rivers, even seaside (including rain-covered train window from Wales…), so it was hard to choose! So I decided to pick three mostly European things hoping to show you something you don’t already know! 😉

First an Andalusian lake (sorry, can’t remember the name…), so we’re in Spain:

Andalusia (Spain) 2009

Now we move to the other side of the Atlantic for another, much bigger lake you probably heard of: Lake Michigan (picture taken in Chicago).

Chicago 2008

Why? So you can compare it with our local sea, the Mediterranean. Here you have the Mar Tirreno on the northern coast of Tuscany.

Marina di Massa (Tuscany, Italy) 2010

The difference? It’s in the smell. The picture in the middle looks like the third one but smells like the first one… And it was freezing cold (we had snow later that day) while the other two places are both hot! 😉

Now, I could also a river… or a waterfall… so I guess I’ll post 5 pictures (did I ever mention 5 is my favorite number? ;-)). So, here goes the river: not sure of the name, but it runs through Garfagnana – Tuscany again. And the bridge is called “Devil’s bridge”.

Ponte del Diavolo (Tuscany - Italy)

I haven’t taken many pictures of European waterfalls or whatnot, so the last picture is of a hot spring in the heart of Yellowstone National Park… It’s hot water, but still water, right?

Dragon's mouth - Yellowstone National Park

OK, I can’t leave without a waterfall, so here’s Running Eagle waterfall…

Running Eagle Falls - Glacier National Park

And let’s end with a northern lake, at Glacier Park!

Glacier National Park

That’s all my water for now, folks! (And if you’re wondering, yes, I’ve been traveling more often to the US than Europe lately…)

by Barb on 01/06/2011  •  Permalink
Posted in the Human being
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Posted by Barb on 01/06/2011

https://creativebarbwire.wordpress.com/2011/06/01/daily-prompt-weekly-photo-challenge-2/

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