Patricia Sands

Author

photo challenge

Travel Theme: Sweet

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July has been busy! As a true Leo, I’ve loved every minute of all the action, sharing the good news, releases, reviews of other authors and friends as well as my own France Book Tour.

My special writing group, Her Books, pulled our resources together and published a FREE Book Club Picks sampler that features excerpts from some of our newest novels. If your book club is looking for suggestions, you can sample some of the work here first.

Then there was the fabulous RWA National Conference in Atlanta (see the effervescent Tameri Etherton’s equally fabulous post about it – she has photos!), followed by my own birthday celebrations last week ~ time with my family was the best gift of all!

Now it’s time to slow down, catch my breath and get comfy in my cosy writing den as my next book begins to take shape.

One thing that always grounds me is the good karma that wraps around me as I relive memories flipping through my photo albums. Today I’m responding to Ailsa’s Where’s My Backpack Travel Theme “Sweet”.

The sweet window of my favourite patisserie in Antibes ~

Antibes-PSandsPhotos
Antibes-PSandsPhotos

A sweet local young cat adopted us for a week in a hilltop village in Italy ~

Gingolo/Sermonetta-PSandsPhotos
Gingolo/Sermonetta-PSandsPhotos

The sweetest thing of all … grandchildren …

The Adorables-PSandsPhotos
The Adorables-PSandsPhotos

To see more photos about “sweet”, pop on over to Ailsa’s blog. Just click here.

Here are a couple of my favourite sites with this theme: Ese’s Voice , Picture Perfect Memories For Life,

ShootnGo,  The Urge to Wander,  My Sardinian Life

What are some of the sweetest things in your life?

Travel Photo Theme: Multiples

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Who doesn’t love digital photography? I’ve been having a lot of fun with photo challenges lately, either by going out and taking new photos or scrolling through my ridiculously enormous fairly large photo library.

It’s also a relaxing break from my obsessive addiction writing.

This week several websites I visit regularly led me, from one to another, with the same topic as the theme … which, in itself was rather appropriate.

(A simple click on any photo will enlarge it for you.)

Multiples/Multiples/Multiples/Multiples/Multiples/Multiples/Multi

Candied Pears~Nice Market-PSandsPhotos
Candied Pears~Nice Market-PSandsPhotos
Venice~masks-PSandsPhotos
Venice~masks-PSandsPhotos
Herbes de Provence-PSandsPhotos
Herbes de Provence-PSandsPhotos
Alhambra windows~Granada,Spain-PSandsPhotos
Alhambra windows~Granada,Spain-PSandsPhotos
Spain-PSandsPhotos
Spain-PSandsPhotos
Walnuts~France-PSandsPhotos
Walnuts~France-PSandsPhotos
Granada,Spain-PSandsPhotos
Granada,Spain-PSandsPhotos
Chapeaux,France-PSandsPhotos
Chapeaux,France-PSandsPhotos
Lovers' notes,Verona,Italy-PSandsPhotos
Lovers’ notes,Verona,Italy-PSandsPhotos

This last photo captures just a small portion of the entire wall of the walkway into the garden in Verona, Italy, where people imagine Juliet called out to Romeo from her balcony. The fact that Shakespeare’s star-crossed lovers are fictional does not appear to matter.

I was kind of shocked when we first saw this display but after looking at the notes and considering the motive behind them, we reconsidered … but didn’t add our own.

It’s become a tradition for people to  express their love for each other, or to ask Juliet’s spirit to help in their quest for love, and they stick the notes on the walls. (I won’t tell you how most of these notes are attached to the wall but you can read this attached article to find out.) I guess, depending on your state of mind, this could be considered littering or perhaps la passione!

Which would you choose?

Movie tip – A couple of years ago, the film “Letters To Juliet” with Vanessa Redgrave and Amanda Seyfried was based on these very notes.

Take a few minutes to visit with:

Marianne in the south of Spain at her fabulous East of Malaga blog

Meg Travels, who is always off on another jaunt

Ailsa at Where’s My Backpack

to link to many more participating photo blogs like the ones below – 

http://stefanoscheda.wordpress.com/2013/01/05/travel-theme-multiples/

http://thephotoseye.wordpress.com/2013/01/05/travel-theme-multiples/

WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE: REFLECTIONS

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‘Tis the season to feel stressfully slightly overloaded! Humming joyful holiday songs only works for so long  … Dreidel, Dreidel, Dreidel or Jingle Bells … whatever helps.  Normally I love the busy bustle of the holiday season.

However,  *cue doleful organ music*, I am lagging far behind with everything at the moment, and in my little world that can only mean one thing … edits. I am hard into them again in the hopes of getting The Promise Of Provence out into the world by February.

That’s my excuse for being over a week late with this photo challenge (from November 30) which I dearly wanted to enter. The one photo I had in mind appears to have vanished from my iPhoto library. *pausing for a slight head bang* How does that happen?

I offer these for some reflection on your part.

Bruge - Classic Reflection ~ PSandsPhotos

Bruge – Classic Reflection ~ PSandsPhotos
Venice Masks - Aspects of Reflection ~ PSandsPhotos
Venice Masks – Aspects of Reflection ~ PSandsPhotos

I photographed  a bizillion a lot of shop windows in Venice and played around quite a bit before I figured out how to eliminate the reflection. There were a few shots where I liked the way reflection added to the effect and this is one. Fascinated by the history and artistry of the masks in this magnificent town, the idea of an unknown face reflected here added to my musings. What sort of mask do many of us wear from time to time?

At the moment, I am wearing my *mask of shame* and apologize to anyone who is wondering if I have fallen off the planet. Nope … just hunkered down in the editing trenches.

I did manage to surface long enough last week to do what was needed for a promotion I arranged months ago for The Bridge Club on BookBub.com. Let me simply say right now an ENORMOUS thank you to everyone who downloaded the book. An equally huge thank you goes to all of my writing and blogging friends who supported through social media. You all ROCK!

TBC hit #33 in the Amazon Kindle Store (that’s out of one million – woohoo!) and was #1, #1 and #5 in our Amazon categories for several days. It was exciting and oh so satisfying to know that so many new readers had decided to get to know the ladies of The Bridge Club!

How does “Reflection” look to you?  Click here to check out the other entries in the weekly photo challenge.  

Happy Hanukkah 187884615675981982_0KwiTpIJ_bto everyone celebrating this special holiday.

And now back to work …