My New York Adventure...by Kristin Wallace

The summer’s big trip this year was spent in New York City. First, I attended the Romance Writers of America (RWA) national conference. I got to spend quality time with my closest writer friends, celebrated my birthday, learned tons of information, and celebrated the best in romance fiction. 

 Then my parents flew up and we got to spend a few extra days in the city. We did the tourist thing on one of those big double-decker buses and saw more of the city than I have before. I marveled at the architecture. (The buildings are one of my favorite things about New York. We have NOTHING like them in Miami.) We toured The Met Museum where I went ga-ga over the room of Impressionist paintings by Monet and Rembrandt, most of which I’d only ever seen in books. Plus, a super cool exhibit celebrating the history of rock & roll, with guitars that were owned by some of the best rock musicians of all times like Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix.

However, the highlight was a visit to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. I’ve been to New York four times, but this was the first time I actually made it. We did a guided tour so we had someone explaining more of the history of both places for our small group. I’ve always been fascinated by the history of Ellis Island especially. This processing center welcomed 12 million immigrants from 1892 – 1954. Our guide told us that about 40% of Americans today had ancestors who came through Ellis Island. The photos below show Ellis Island as it was when the processing center was being used vs. today.

The bravery of those men and women can’t be understated. And once they got to the mainland, things certainly did not get any easier. On our tours, we saw neighborhoods where many of the families settled, the former tenement buildings that housed multiple families, sometimes in a single apartment. 

 

What an inspiring trip and a chance to check off two items on my bucket list. 

(I’m curious. Can any of you trace relatives through Ellis Island???)

Kristin Wallace is the USA Today Best Selling Author of inspirational and sweet contemporary romance filled with “Love, Laughter and a Leap of Faith”. Her latest book, SECOND CHANCE HERO, is available now. 

AMAZON  /  APPLE BOOKS  /  B&N   /   KOBO 

Waxing Nostalgic about My Childhood Vacations

Today would have been my father's 95th birthday. I was thinking of him and about the mini vacation my husband and I went on this past weekend. That led to my waxing nostalgic about childhood vacations. Unfortunately, I don't have photos of our vacations. Dad recorded the trips on 8 mm movie film that wasn't kept. So I've used some generic pictures.

When my three brothers and I were young, the factory Dad worked at always closed for two weeks in August. So we always vacationed in August, and Boy Scout leader Dad was, we always camped. We also always had a station wagon. Dad and the boys slept in a four-person tent, and Mom and I slept in car with the backseat folded forward. When it rained, we had the better accommodations.

Also, no matter where we went, our vacations included an educational element. Dad wasn't highly educated, but he had a love of learning. (I followed his lead and did the same with our family vacations.) I don't remember all our vacations, but here are some I do.

North Pole, NY. Where we live now, the Adirondack Mountains are only an hour and a half away, up Interstate 87. When we went as children, it was a seven+ hour trip from Western NY, where we lived, on state, county, and local roads. The drive included our playing a continuous game of punch bug, whenever we spotted a Volkswagen bug. This trip, we got to go on a nature hike with a forest ranger at the state campground we stayed at, and hiked Ausable Chasm with our parents. And, of course, we visited Santa's Workshop. I remember seeing live reindeer.

Watkins Glen, NY. We hiked the glen which I remember for the waterfalls you could walk behind. The trip also included a tour of the Corning Glass Museum. We saw glass blowers at work, and I got a little glass ballerina necklace.

Cooperstown, NY. We visited the National Baseball Hall of Fame and, of course, the Farmers Museum and the Fenimore Museum.

Circleville, Ohio. We had cousins who lived here, and every few years visiting them was our vacation destination. One year, we visited burial mounds built by early native Americans near Circleville.

Manhattan, Kansas. We had other cousins who lived here. The summer I was 15, we drove out to visit them. (My husband and I also visited my aunt and uncle in Kansas on our "honeymoon" cross-country trip to go to college in Los Angeles. But that's a whole other blog.) My uncle took us on a tour of the Tuttle Creek dam works near their home. We also went to a spot purported to be the dead center of the US. And we had our first Mexican food at a small Mexican restaurant my aunt and uncle liked.

Detroit, Michigan. I took my last summer vacation with my parents and brothers the summer before I turned 20. Dad had seen the Detroit carworks as a child and wanted to see them again and show us. As part of this trip, we visited my father's elderly aunt who lived a ways outside Detroit--with no advance notice, even though he hadn't seen her in years. I remember my mother fretting about this. Dad knocked on is aunt's front door. She opened the door and shouted Herbie (his childhood knickname) and welcomed us all in as if she'd been expecting us.

Do you have any childhood vacation memories? Please share.

For My Future Releases

Follow me on BookBub
Sign up for my Readers Newsletter 
Visit my Website 
Facebook: JeanCGordon.author 
Twitter: @JeanCGordon

Summer is anything but lazy…by Kristin Wallace

Although we tend to think of summer a time to relax – lazy days of summer anyone – it’s often very busy. July was one of those months for me. There was the 4th of July with family on the west coast of Florida, followed by two author events.

Orlando Book Festival

The first event was the Orlando Book Festival, a reader event held at the Orange County Public Library downtown. I was invited to be on a panel with three other romance authors. It was especially exciting because I was invited to speak by the organizer, one of the first times this has happened. It was a really great day celebrating authors and readers of all genres.

Romance Panel, Orlando Book Festival

RWA Conference

The second event was the Romance Writers ofAmerica (RWA) national conference, which also happened to be in Orlando. The location of the conference is in a different city each year, and this time it was on the east coast. RWA sees over 2,000 romance authors descend for four days of networking, workshops, special speakers, the Golden Heart & Rita Award Ceremonies, parties, and more. I had a fan-girl moment in the elevator with Susan Elizabeth Phillips. So, here I am in this elevator with SEP and I decide to blurt out that she is my favorite author. She laughed and said I must say that to everyone. “No, no, I say…it’s true.” My roommates were there and they’re all nodding and backing me up. Then she gets off the elevator and says that made her night.

Since we were in Orlando, RWA organized trips to Disney World. I went with a group of nine, which included my roommates and authors from almost every corner of the world, including South Africa, Sweden, Canada and the good old USA. It was super fun, but HOT. Orlando is nothing but HOT in July.

Romance authors take Disney World

I had the honor of presenting a workshop on blurb writing. Basically, it’s the description that you read on the back cover of a book or the sales page on places like Amazon or iTunes. A lot of authors dread writing blurbs. It’s difficult to take a 300-pg book and whittle it down to a couple of paragraphs. However, for me, it’s second nature. It’s basically what I do everyday in my job as an advertising copywriter. I actually like doing them. I find it fun to create that blurb and make it sing.

With some of my workshop attendees

The conference ended with a huge literacy signing, which is open to the public. The signing features more than 70 authors and all the money raised goes to a literacy charity in the host city where the conference is held. This annual event has raised more than $1 million over the years. In fact, RWA was the 2017 recipient of the President’s Award from ProLiteracy Worldwide for its work. One of the most thrilling moments for me was getting to hold a Rita Award. The Rita is like the Academy Award for published romance authors. One of the winners had her trophy there and she graciously let me pose with it. It is actually heavy, no doubt to hold the weight of authors’ dreams.

This is me with a Rita Award

So, that’s been my busy July. What’s your summer been like? Done anything exciting or new? Taken a great vacation? Maybe one of those “bucket list” items? Chime in and let me know.

Kristin Wallace is the USA Today Best Selling Author of inspirational and sweet contemporary romance filled with “Love, Laughter and a Leap of Faith”. She is the author of two best selling series, Shellwater Key Tales (sweet contemporary romance) and Covington Falls Chronicles (inspirational romance). Her next book will wrap up the Shellwater Key Tales with a holiday novella, LOVING YOU AT CHRISTMAS, part of the Sweet Christmas Kisses 4 Box Set, which will be up for preorder starting Thursday, August 24^th. Join the authors for the SCK4 Pre-Order Party on Facebook and kick off the holiday season with fun games, giveaways & prizes.