Coffee Hour in London - Fragment Friday, Stealth Owls and Shameless Sharing

Coffee Hour in London today, so grab your favorite cup of java and let's get to it.  Here's a picture from our trip last year. The first is a shot of the Westminster Palace / Houses of Parliament with St. Stephen's Tower (commonly known as Big Ben) taken from the London Eye: (as you can tell it was a sunny day)

 

and here's one of Nelson's lions in Trafalgar Square (and some cute girl in red.  ;D)

In other news, Kristy over at The Story Siren had in intriguing fragment of a book she read as part of a meme started by James over on Book Chic.  Well, I'm not going to bother with a video (because I'm lazy!) but I am reading a GREAT book right now that debuts in January.  It's XVI, by Julia Karr and trust me - you're going to love it!

Here's the fragment:  "Four guys approached us, lurching and swaying through the moving express.  They sat across the aisle, immediately crowding together in a knot.  A low buzz of unintelligible words, accompanied by the occasional rowdy snort, rose from their cluster.

"They're eighteen," Sandy whispered. "I bet it's that one in the middle's birthday. He's cute!"  She wriggled in her seat.

By the way he kept admiring the tattoo on his wrist and fingering the Band-Aid behind his ear, where his GPS had been, I knew she was right.  I involuntarily touched my own tracker. The tiny grain-sized pellet embedded beneath the skin barely registered on my fingertips.  What would it be like to be able to go someplace where you were untraceable?"

Awesome, huh?  It's out on shelves January 6, 2011 and at the beginning of November Julia will be stopping by to chat about her book on her 16 weeks to XVI blog tour.

On other topics, I subscribe to io9, which is this wild sci fi  website, and they had this great article on why owls are the perfect stealth machine, which I thought seemed like good fodder for a future book in one way or another. Check it out here.

Finally, I have a bit Shameless Sharing for you. After waiting so long to get my book out there, it is so exciting to be getting some feedback from early readers.  I received a wonderful blurb about THE FAERIE RING from Katie B., founder of Mundie Moms, that I wanted to share:

"The Faerie Ring is an intriguing, beautifully written, blend of historical fiction, mixed with the perfect dose of romance, mystery, and faerie lore, all set within the time period of Victorian London.  I was completely enraptured with the story that I couldn't devour this debut novel fast enough."

She posted a blurb on her site with a few comments, which you can read here. There is so much good stuff going on over there all the time, you should definitely check it out!

And that's it for my Friday Coffee Hour - what's new with you?

~Kiki

To London, With Love

Dear London,

Thank you for a fabulous trip. We've loved your castles and kings and queens along with the underground and double decker buses.
Your pubs and cafes have been fabulous and we've loved your fashion. (If London fashion is any precursor to what we're going to be seeing in the States soon I can sum it up in four words: black tights and boots).

Your architecture and history are the stuff from which legends are made

and your parks have been spectacular.

Thank you for not raining on us for ten days. We've loved every minute of our visit here and can't wait until we meet again. =)

Paris Under a Temperamental Sky

We went to Paris yesterday. (It may sound like I'm saying that casually, but that statement is followed by many exclamation points!) We rode the Eurostar train from London, going under the English channel, which went by so fast, I'm not even sure when it happened. (I was sort of dozing after getting up at 4 am).

The weather was a little rainy when we got there, but our good weather karma followed us and it stopped shortly after our arrival. After lunch on the Eiffel Tower (about halfway up) we went on a riverboat cruise down the Seine, which runs through the middle of Paris. On a sunny day it would have been spectacular, floating past the Louvre and Notre Dame, etc. but our glass roof was covered with rain, so it made it a little difficult to see, but still a lovely ride. Later we went to the Louvre (though we didn't actually go through the museum, as we only had about an hour, so decided to save that for another trip to Paris. Our tour guide told us that if you stared at every piece of art in the Louvre for 3 SECONDS, it would take you four MONTHS to go through the place.):

Dan Brown fans might recognize this spot:

Anyway, it was an interesting day, but a bit long, as we had gone to WICKED the night before which was fabulous! (And interesting! At intermission the crowd went to the lobby for ice cream and beer, ate in the theater and left the remains on the floor!) But as many of you know - what a fantastic show!

Friday, we had a lovely lunch with a fellow writer, Sarwat Chadda, who also writes young adult novels and just had his first book come out last month. Sarwat is a fellow member of our group blog, The Enchanted Inkpot, and lives in London, so it was fun to get to meet him in person.

Also on Friday we rode the London Eye, which is down on the Thames across the river from Big Ben. It looks like a ferris wheel, but those are actually observation cars that carry about 15 people. The ride takes about half an hour and you have spectacular 360 degree views of all of London. As you can see, it was a warm, sunny day too! =)

Today is Sunday here in London and we're being lazy (SOME of us are still sleeping and it's noon!) as we didn't arrive back at the hotel from Paris last night until midnight. We had an old Scottish bus driver on the way home though, who knew London like the back of his hand, and he was brilliant, giving us lots of interesting nighttime sightseeing. I had the chance to ask him all sorts of questions about travel times to get from here to there so I would know if they make sense in my books, since as you may recall, I'm here doing research. =) Today I have to find out if the royals have apple trees in the 46 acres of gardens in Buckingham Palace....what a life!

On Kings, Druids and Harry Potter

Guess where we went today?



Yes, that picture of Stonehenge was taken by yours truly. Today. We stood on a hillside in the English countryside and walked around these stones, believed to date back to between 2500 and 3000 BC, although, scientists have found nearby postholes that date back to 8000 BC. While the site's purpose remains a mystery, it is confirmed that it has been a burial place for the dead as well as a place of pilgramage for druids. Also, as most know, the stones are astronomically aligned with the summer solsitice as well as other dates. Anyway, it was amazing and surreal to be standing there, in a place that is so iconic and filled with history.

Speaking of history....we also went to Windsor Castle too.

I can tell you this, if you ever come to London - you should come to both of these places. Unbelieveable. This picture is only one small fraction of the castle. It is the perfect English castle, complete with moat, that has been turned into gardens now. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside but the rooms are almost beyond description. So fantastically ornate! Such breath-taking history! The castle was built by William the Conqueror in 1066 and has been inhabited continuously by British royalty for almost 1,000 years. The Queen lives here on weekends and will be entertaining a state visit from India in these very rooms next week. We walked over the grave of Henry the VIII (he's buried in the floor of St. George's Chapel, along with numerous other Kings and Queens)with his favorite 3rd wife - Jane Seymour. He reigned from 1509 to 1547. There was a throne from one of the kings that dated to 1350. Anyway - not enough superlatives to do this place justice. Here's a shot of me and Carly making friends with the natives:


And a partial shot of St. George's Chapel: (You can't even imagine what the interior of this chapel looks like....if you haven't been here, you must come visit!)

Then finally, here's a shot of the Museum of Natural History that I mentioned in my last post. This building is so amazing! When you stand inside this grand room it feels like you've been dropped into a Harry Potter book. What you don't see is the exquisite, breath-taking detail. EVERYWHERE you look there is an animal or a plant carved from stone: birds and monkeys and beasts....

The English influences for Harry Potter are all over when you're here, from the English school girls in their skirts and knee high socks and V-neck sweaters with ties underneath, just like Hermione, to the platforms on the underground and does this not look like Gringott's Bank? (albeit a little staighter and we didn't see any goblins...)

We also went to Bath, which is a natural hot springs where the Romans built a public bath in 57 AD. Think about that date for a minute. Wow. But I'm going to save that one for another day. Did I mention I love London? =)

Her Majesty is in Residence

Stopped by Buckingham Palace to visit the Queen yesterday and it turns out - she was there (!) as evidenced by the Union Jack flying ... er..sort of....on the top of the palace.

We walked through Hyde Park a bit, so beautiful, then went over to the Palace and found the side door where my character, Tiki, from THE FAERIE RING, sneaks in and steals the Queen's ring. It's so amazing to be standing here looking at all these places that I wrote about.

Anyway, I really wanted to start this post with Oh. My. God. Because London is SO SO SO amazing! The buildings, the architecture, the history, the people - all of it is so fabulous! We went down to see Big Ben yesterday, as well as the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey. We didn't get into the Abbey, as they had closed for the day, but we are going to go back tomorrow. Unbelieveable.



We've been riding the hop-on, hop-off buses, taking the tube and walking - everything is so close and easily accessible. I can see that it will take MANY trips to London to even begin to scratch the surface. SO fabulous! We went to the Museum of Natural History today - the building itself is awe-inspiring, (it was like being dropped into a Harry Potter movie) let alone the collection of natural history. Pictures from that little adventure tomorrow. =)

We're Here

We made it! Our flights were so smooth and on-time, it really was quite pleasant getting here, even though it took about 20 hours from the time we got up (at 2 am) to arriving in London at 6:30 am the next day. The one little glitch was that our hotel room wasn't going to be ready until 2:00 pm....that was when the lack of sleep kicked in! Luckily, they got us into our room early (sleeping in the hotel lobby had nothing to do with it, I'm sure...heh heh) and after a short 5 hour nap we were as good as new and off for adventure!

We went on walk-about and we're just down the street from the The Museum of Natural History (what a building! The gargoyles....) and the V&A and Harrod's. We had dinner in a lovely little cafe on Cromwell Rd and it turns out hookah-smoking is all the rage here - which, of course, immediately makes me think of Alice in Wonderland, (so sophisticated, I know).


This city feels very familiar already - what a fabulous melting pot of people and fashion and history! Can't wait for tomorrow!

London Calling

You recognize this iconic symbol of London? Well, now picture yours truly in the same picture. Yep - we're going to London.

Saturday.

Surreal, huh? I am so excited! I've never been to Europe *gasp* and I've been waiting for my daughter to get old enough to go with us. She is now 13-1/2 and so we are off on a London adventure.

Yep, we have ALL the touristy things planned - the Harry Potter tour =), Stonehenge, Windsor Castle, Harrod's, the V&A, The Strand, Buckingham, Paris, Charing Cross, Hyde Park, St. James Park, Grosvenor Square....oh, those last few stops sound vaguely familiar, don't they? That's right - it's the setting for my debut novel, THE FAERIE RING. So though it won't be 1871, I'll get to actually see all the places where my characters have had their adventures. Yay!

THE FAERIE RING, its sequel, DARK SHADOWS and my current WIP, ENIGMA are all set in London, as well as book 3 in The Faerie Ring series , currently entitled THE UnNAMED, which is going to be written during NaNoWriMo, writing gods willing.....

Also, I'm planning to have lunch with Sarwat Chadda, fellow memeber of The Enchanted Inkpot and author of the recently released awesome YA novel DEVIL'S KISS. How fun is that?

And yes, I did slip Paris in too. Just for a day, but long enough to have lunch at the top of the Eiffel Tower, take a boat down the Seine and go to the Louvre. Oh, and drive UNDER the English Channel. Did I mention surreal?

Anyway - that's what I'm off to do. I'm expecting my revision letter on The Faerie Ring any day and I'm hoping that I see it before I leave so I can be absorbing those suggestions along with the vibrance and history and ambiance of London.

Have you been there? And if so - what was your favorite part?