Paris Author Luncheon

On Saturday, I met up with a group of authors to have lunch in Paris.

We went to the Café Delmas in the 5th arrondissement (2 place de Contrescarpe).

The 5th arrondissement (near the Sorbonne) is so charming and quiet, and the café, cozy and inviting.

I was pleasantly surprised to find out that gluten-free pasta was offered on the menu – rare in France – so of course that was what I had. There were ten of us who made it, and I thought it would be a good idea to introduce some of them to you, whose books are already available (others have works in progress that I will talk about when the time comes). This is us:

Lizzie Harwood, who edited my book, has her collection of short stories on pre-order from Amazon: Triumph: Collected Stories of Gone Girls and Complicated Women. I am in the process of reading it, and will talk more about it on the release date. (It’s good).

Meg Bortin, who was a senior editor at the International Herald Tribune before her retirement, wrote Desperate to Be a Housewife. I can’t tell you how much I loved this book, reading her perspective as a writer in the thick of all the world events from my childhood – the Cold War, the sinking of the Greenpeace ship, the space shuttle Challenger disaster, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and many more. I highly recommend this book. (She is camera-shy and was behind the lens instead of in front of it).

Here are some of the books I haven’t yet read, but have either ordered already, or plan to:

Marie Houzelle – She is French, but writes in English. Her novel Tita is about a young heroine in the South of France in the 1950s.

Vicki Lesage – Amazon Best-selling author for Confessions of a Paris Party Girl (and its sequel, Confessions of a Paris Potty Trainer). I think the words “best-seller” and “confessions” promise hours of enjoyable reading.

Adria J. Cimino – Paris, Rue des Martyrs – about four intertwining fictional tales. She has another book coming out in March, called Close to Destiny. Since I’m reviewing it, I’ll be sure to let you know more about that one.

This is Janina Rossiter

who had to leave before the group photo was taken, and who wrote the adorable Tovi the Penguin series, which you can purchase here. They are suitable for ages 2-6, but my older kids still thought they were cute, and I use them for my English classes as well.

Here are some of the other women, who – until their works in progress are ready, I will direct you to their Facebook pages or blogs:

Angie Brooksby, whose paintings you can see here, and whose writing you can read here.

and Elizabeth Brahy, who writes at Clash of the Cultures with the tagline “Adventures of a pop-culture nerd in a high-culture world”.

And Now … more about me

(cough, cough)

Kristin Louise Duncombe, was unable to make our lunch, but she is interviewing me on her blog here. I hope you’ll read it. Her memoir Trailing was one of the first memoirs I read, and having lived in Kenya, I identified with her life as a trailing spouse there.

Vicki and Adria, mentioned above, run the Velvet Morning Press, and there is talk of a writer’s retreat in the Champagne region this year (complete with haute cuisine since Adria’s husband is a French chef). Are you interested in more details? Let me know!

Anyway, I have a part in their anthology that’s coming out very soon, called That’s Paris: An Anthology of Life, Love and Sarcasm in Paris. It’s available for pre-order now, and I’ll be talking more about that too!

Finally, posts with tons of links are not necessarily the most fun, but I hope you’ll discover some new authors you will grow to love. And … I have a favour to ask of you. If you’re a reader/fan of my blog, would you nominate me for the Bloggies in the European category? I didn’t realise this, but your blog doesn’t even go before the judges unless you have many people nominating you. And since this is my fifth-plus year of writing regularly, I would love to be recognised (if I’m being perfectly honest).

Basically, you click here and nominate three of your favourite blogs in any category. They won’t accept less than three nominations, so for family members who read only me – thanks anyway. 🙂 When you submit, you’ll get an e-mail with a link you have to click on to verify your nomination, and then you’re all set. If you do nominate me, thank you.

Lunch in Paris was fun. It was amazing to meet all of these other authors and get to put a face to a name. We plan to do it again, and hopefully include some of the others who were not able to make it this time around.

On the train ride home, I saw the army, police, and national guard in full force. (Can you see the men with machine guns at the end of the platform)?

Before I used to think it was weird, but now I’m grateful, as are a lot of other Parisians. The dialogue continues about what free speech means, about the anti-French sentiment springing up in the Muslim communities and nations worldwide, and the marginalization the Jewish people feel here in France.

To such complex problems, there are no easy answers.

* * *

Comments

I love to hear from you, friends. You can comment using the box below or your Facebook profile. But FB doesn't notify me of new comments, so if the post is more than a week old and you want to make sure I see your comment, it's better to use the comment box. Merci!