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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Terrorist Attack

I was stranded in London on 9/11 wanting to get back home and now my niece is stranded in Paris after yesterday's horrible terrorist attack. It's such a helpless feeling when all you want to do is come back to the U.S. and be with your family and you can't. I write about my experiences in London on and after September 11th in the last part of this book. 

Here's what Destination Europe: The Summer the World Changed is about.

Based upon real experiences of the author, this travelogue is about two friends who travel to Europe to recover, sight see, meet long lost relatives, and find love in unexpected places. Come along with them as they follow in the footsteps of the Caesars, marvel at the beauty of the Sistine Chapel, see Monet’s garden at Giverny, and go on a literary pilgrimage in Great Britain. On their way back home, aboard a plane at Heathrow, they first hear about the terrorist attacks on 9/11. Their pilot tells them to get off the plane and gather their luggage in the baggage claim area. Where will they go? When will they be able to come back home?

This eBook is only 99 cents and is available at Amazon, iTunes, Barnes and Noble, Google Play, Kobo, and Smashwords.

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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:

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Vacation in Europe

Based upon my real experiences in Europe, this travelogue is about the adventures of two girlfriends who go to Europe together. For Nicole, it’s her exciting first trip there. For Isabella, it’s a chance to recover from her husband’s recent death. Come along with them as they follow the footsteps of the Caesars, marvel at the beauty of the Sistine Chapel, see Monet’s garden at Giverny, and go on a literary pilgrimage in Great Britain. Feel their frustration and grief aboard a plane on September 11, 2001 where they first hear about the terrorist attack. Where will they go and when will they be able to come back home?

Destination Europe:

The Summer the World Changed

by Louise Hathaway

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Is there a ghost in Oak Alley Plantation?

Just in time for Halloween, here's a murder/mystery about a docent who was found dead at Oak Alley Plantation in Louisiana.  Was she killed by a ghost?  There have been lots of sighting at the plantation throughout the years since its antebellum days.

The Ghost in the Plantation:

A Nancy Keene Mystery

by Louise Hathaway

In this story, my teenage sleuth, Nancy Keene, tries to figure out what happened to the hoop-skirted docent.  Nancy had been standing outside the plantation, along with her father and friends, waiting for a tour to begin when they learn of the docent's mysterious death.  I based Nancy on my childhood heroine, Nancy Drew, and wrote this humorous and PG-rated tale that is especially targeted to women baby boomers who grew up reading and loving The Nancy Drew Mysteries.  

For readers who don't know who Nancy Drew is, here's a brief description.  The original Nancy Drew stories first appeared in 1930.  They starred a pretty blonde teenager who led a charmed life: she was popular, knew all sorts of obscure facts, had a very kind and permissive father, a snazzy blue roadster, and plenty of unsupervised time to go off searching for clues in each of her latest "cases". Many famous women such as Hillary Clinton, Former First Lady Laura Bush, and Supreme Court Justices Sandra Day O'Connor and Sonia Sotomayor cite her as formative influences.

In my book, The Ghost in the Plantation, Nancy Keene goes on vacation with her father and friends to New Orleans. What starts out as a sight-seeing trip changes into a murder/mystery when the docent at Oak Alley Plantation is found dead. Part travelogue, part ghost story, this book mixes voodoo, ghosts, and bayous into a spicy gumbo of a whodunit. 

This eBook is available at: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Google Play, iTunes, Kobo, and Smashwords.

It is also available in paperback at Amazon.

Do you like to read murder mysteries?

Do you love reading mysteries and trying to figure out whodunit?  If the answer is "Yes", please take a look at these four murder mysteries that my husband and I wrote.  They are part of "The Detective Santy Mystery" series and are about the life and career of Clarrisa Santy, a female homicide detective from Orange County, California. The series begins with the murder of her father. When she turns 18, she looks into the court records of the murder trial, and realizes that the wrong man was arrested. Ivan, the man accused of the crime, is based on a real person I used to know, who was infamously known as "the hammer-murderer". When Clarissa contacts him, she finds out more about her family and learns, the hard way, that there are some questions best left unanswered.  The series has received five star and several four star reviews and each book can be enjoyed on its own without having to read the entire series.  The bestseller among the four books is "Honeymoon in Savannah" and it is our favorite, too.

The books in the Detective Santy Mystery Series are:

The Tustin Chronicles

Murder at the Abbey

Honeymoon in Savannah

The Body on Ortega Highway

All are available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iTunes, Google Play, Kobo, Smashwords, Oyster, and Scribd.  

Free Time Travel eBook About the 1968 Newport Pop Festival

Have you ever wished you'd been at Woodstock?  Do you like classic rock from the 60s?  If so, I hope you'll like this humorous time travel fantasy about two sisters who are magically transported back to the 1968 Newport Pop Festival in Costa Mesa, California--an outdoor concert later described as “Orange County’s Woodstock.”  It's received Five Star and several Four Star Reviews.

I'm offering it FREE on Smashwords if you use coupon code MK64C upon checkout.  Offer expires November 4, 2015.  Reviews are greatly appreciated!

The Summer of Love: A Trip Back to 1968

by Louise Hathaway

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If you don't want purchase it at Smashwords, it is also available at its regular price of $1.99 at Amazon, iTunes, Barnes and Noble, Google Play, Kobo, Scribd, and Oyster.  Also available in paperback at Amazon and Createspace.