Armchair Traveling

Readers and Writers, Welcome to 2018.  Are you ready to do some armchair traveling?  Where would you like to go on vacation this year?

If you've always dreamed of going on a literary tour of England, you may want to check out this essay entitled "England in the Footsteps of Its Literary Giants."  This travelogue explores the literary landmarks of England by visiting the birthplaces and environs of some of the best writers of the English language. In it, you will find the worlds of Charles Dickens, Jane Austen, the Bronte Sisters, James Herriot, Thomas Hardy and William Shakespeare, to name but a few. One need not be an English Major to enjoy this book. All one needs is a yen to travel. It's worth a visit. Here's what one reader said in a FIVE STAR REVIEW: "Charming and delightful, both photographically and descriptively. What a wonderful story of living your dreams!"

Amazon Link to England in the Footsteps of Its Literary Giants

Planning a vacation? Why not New Orleans? It's one of my favorite cities in the world and I've returned to it many times over the years. I wrote this travelogue/romance novel entitled "Honeymoon in New Orleans" about my favorite places to visit, dine, and stay overnight in The Crescent City and Louisiana. My travelogue also includes helpful websites to consider before planning your next vacation.

Amazon Link to Honeymoon in New Orleans

Would you like to take a trip to one of the American South's most beautiful city?  How about this murder/mystery that takes place there?

"In Honeymoon in Savannah: A Detective Santy Mystery," a female detective hopes to spend a quiet honeymoon with her husband in one of America’s most beautiful cities. She and her husband are both big fans of “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil”, so they decide to make a pilgrimage to Savannah to see the sights mentioned in the book. Her time as a tourist is short-lived however when a famous chef is murdered. The chef just happens to be her cousin--so this is personal--and Clarissa can't rest until she finds out whodunit.

Amazon Link to Honeymoon in Savannah: A Detective Santy Mystery

Who loves Jane Austen?

I found out that not everybody does when I was in graduate school and announced to my Romantic Literature class that I had chosen Pride and Prejudice as my essay assignment. My fellow classmates dismissed Austen's book, saying that "it was just about some silly girls wanting to get married"; one of the ladies said, "Oh, I read that in grammar school." I couldn’t help but be reminded of a letter that Jane Austen wrote to her sister, saying, “I must confess that I think [Elizabeth Bennet, the main character in the novel] as delightful a character as ever appeared in print, and how I shall be able to tolerate those who do not like her …I do not know.”

Here's some good news for Jane Austen fans: "The Forgotten Sister: A Sequel to Pride and Prejudice" is now available at the lowered price of $1.99. It's about Mary Bennet, the plain middle daughter in Pride and Prejudice, as she compares herself to her beautiful sisters, tries to get her father to notice her, complains about her mother’s melodramatics, falls in love, considers a move to America, becomes a writer, and a ultimately becomes a champion of those less fortunate. What makes this book different from other books written about Pride and Prejudice is its depiction of the social history in Britain during the nineteenth century. Mary Bennet learns about the worlds of their servants in Pemberley, poor chimney sweeps, and factory workers. Transport yourself back to the Regency era and get better acquainted with one of period's famous fictional families.

The Forgotten Sister: A Sequel to Pride and Prejudice

is available at Amazon, iTunes, Barnes and Noble,

Kobo, Smashwords, and Google Play

for $1.99 

Literary Pilgrimage to England

This is an excerpt from my eBook entitled "England in the Footsteps of its Literary Giants".   I wrote this in 1987 after I'd received my Bachelors Degree in English Literature.  My husband & I took a 3 week trip to see the birthplaces and environs of some of my favorite British writers.  

Our next stop was the Yorkshire Dales, where James Herriot lived and wrote of his experiences as a veterinarian in “All Creatures Great and Small”.  We knew that the name “James Herriot” was his “nom de plume” and we wouldn’t be able to look up that name in the local phone book, but we wanted to make a pilgrimage to Thirsk, the town where we’d heard that he lived and practiced.  We went into a bookstore in the town’s square, and, being the intrepid travelers, asked the clerk if he knew where the famous writer lived or worked.  He told us that all we had to do was to walk across the street and look for the red door and the sign, “Veterinary Surgeon’s Premises”.  Outside was a white drop off box where Herriot often left medication for his clients to pick up after hours.  He was still practicing medicine at the time when we were there, but, unfortunately, we never got to meet him.  He has passed away since our visit and his home/office is now a museum in his honor.

Home/Office of James Herriot

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The Yorkshire Dales really were beautiful: rolling green hills with hedgerows discretely separating each farm.  Another reason why we had come to this area was to visit the home of the Brontes.  We saw the Parsonage where the family resided and were able to see the desks where the sisters had done their writing. We walked the moors and thought of Heathcliffe and Kathy from “Wuthering Heights”.  It was cold there and we stopped for some tea in a little shoppe.

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The Bronte Parsonage

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The Brontes weren’t the only 19^th century female writers whose house we visited--we also made a pilgrimage to two of Jane Austen’s houses.  The first was in Chawton, which is about 60 miles from London. Walking the neighborhood, I was struck by the vision of thatch-roofed cottages and I saw an old, creepy cemetery attached to an ancient-looking church. The town looked like it hadn’t changed much since Jane Austen’s time.

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Her last home was across the street from the Winchester Cathedral.  She died here just when she was starting to get famous.  She is buried beneath the floors of the cathedral. I again thought of music from the 1960’s and the popular song that said, “Winchester Cathedral—you’re bringing me down”.  I seemed to have had a 1960’s song track playing in my head on this vacation.  Not only did I think of music on this trip: almost every place we visited also spoke of England’s literary heritage.  We strolled through the town of Winchester, and we saw a parade of “19^th Century British soldiers” marching through the Victorian-looking town.  We found out that the mini-series, “Vanity Faire”, by William Makepeace Thackeray (another of my favorite Victorian writers), was being filmed.

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“Are you going to Scarborough Faire”? asks the song from Simon and Garfunkel—another of my favorites from the 1960’s.  The town of Scarborough, northeast of York, sits on a bluff overlooking the coast.  It is famous for the awe-inspiring remains of a castle and a church.  The ruins were partially destroyed in 1645 during the Civil War between Cromwell and Charles I.  When we were there, the wind from the coast was eerily whipping through the ruins.  It was a very beautiful location and definitely “worth a detour” as guide book say.

Scarborough Ruins

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When the time had come to return to our lives in California, we didn’t want to leave. England has so much more to see.  California is so young compared to “jolly olde England”, with all its history and culture.  The trip was a splurge—we were lucky that our bosses allowed us to take three weeks off for our vacation.  Before we had left California for our pilgrimage to literary England, I had been saving up money from my paychecks all year.  We wouldn’t have changed a thing.  It was the trip of a lifetime and a dream come true for this English Major.

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Would you like to read the rest of this eBook?

It's only 99 cents.

Available at Amazon, iTunes, Barnes and Noble, Google Play,

Kobo and Smashwords.

Jane Austen

The Forgotten Sister: A Sequel to Pride and Prejudice

by Louise Hathaway

Only $1.99

Here's some good news for Jane Austen fans: "The Forgotten Sister: A Sequel to Pride and Prejudice" is now available at the lowered price of $1.99. It's about Mary Bennet, the plain middle daughter in Pride and Prejudice, as she compares herself to her beautiful sisters, tries to get her father to notice her, complains about her mother’s melodramatics, falls in love, considers a move to America, becomes a writer, and a ultimately becomes a champion of those less fortunate. What makes this book different from other books written about Pride and Prejudice is its depiction of the social history in Britain during the nineteenth century. Mary Bennet learns about the worlds of their servants in Pemberley, poor chimney sweeps, and factory workers. Transport yourself back to the Regency era and get better aquainted with one of period's famous fictional families.

Available at Amazon, iTunes, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Google Play, Scribd, and Smashwords.  Here are the book's direct links at each store:

Purchase at Amazon
Purchase at iTunes
Purchase at Barnes & Noble
Purchase at Google Play
Purchase at Kobo
Purchase at Smashwords

England in the Footsteps of its Literary Giants

 I have a Master’s Degree in English Literature and after I graduated, I was lucky enough to go on a pilgrimage to England and walk in the footsteps of its famous writers.  One of the places I wanted to visit was the Lake District where my favorite English poet, William Wordsworth, lived.  I had heard that the Lake District is one of the favorite vacation spots of the British and I could see why: it is a magical, bucolic wonderland of peace and tranquility.  “Ramblers” are welcome to walk through the properties of many different farmlands, as long as they remember to shut the gates so the sheep won’t get out.
  

 We had a lovely view from our hotel room window of Lake Windermere.  The shores of the lake had sheep grazing on rolling green hills that were carpeted with daffodils, and a lone cottage on a hilltop had a welcoming fire coming out of its chimney.  I grabbed our video camera to capture its beauty and asked my husband to read Wordsworth’s poem, “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” that spoke of the “jocund company” of the “dancing daffodils”.  He’s a good sport and read it with a lot of enthusiasm.

 We have a history of bumping into famous people on our travels and were very pleased to meet Wordsworth’s great-great grandson in the gift shop of Wordsworth’s home.  He signed a book I’d just bought that was written by the famous poet’s sister, Dorothy.  Standing close to a relative of this mighty literary figure was very exciting, to say the least; not to mention, a dream come true for this English Major.

See photos and read more our authors' pilgrimage to England in our eBook.

Available at your favorite online bookstores for $0.99.

England in the Footsteps of its Literary Giants

Dear Readers:

My husband and I started collaborating on books five years ago.  It all started with the tragedy of my sister and brother's deaths that year.  I was deeply depressed and my husband tried to buck up my spirits by encouraging me to write.  What resulted was our first ebook called "England in the Footsteps of Literary Giants."  It is a travelogue about our pilgrimage to England to see the birthplaces and environments of England's famous authors such as Dickens, the Brontes, Jane Austen, James Herriot, Shakespeare, and D. H. Lawrence.  I wrote the essay, then my husband and I looked at our pictures from the trip and chose the ones to go with it.  It brought back so many great memories.  I have a Masters Degree in English Literature, so it was a dream come true for this English Major.  By writing about our travels, it brought me back to a happier place in my mind and helped me heal.  I'm eternally grateful to my husband for taking us on that trip to England, taking all of those wonderful pictures, and encouraging me to write again.

It's available at most of your favorite eBookstores and costs only 99 cents.





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