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The first time I visited Chateau de Chaumont was in the winter of 2003 - a brief visit that lingered in my imagination for years after.  Since the castle was closed to tourists, I wandered the grounds alone in hopes I might encounter the spirits of inhabitants past.   This might seem an unusual pastime unless you pause to consider the castle's rather unusual history.  Chaumont was once the home of Catherine de Medici, queen to Henri II of France.  Catherine practiced what some called "the darker arts" at Chaumont, inviting astronomers, numerologists, and a host of shady characters.   The astrologer  Nostradamus was one of the member's of Catherine's shady squad.  He  visited her at Chaumont on several occasions.  Legend has it Catherine attended ritualistic animal sacrifices in the castle's front hall (this told to me by a groundskeeper I encountered) .   On that first visit, when the wind eerily whispered thro...

Sixteen years ago I visited Mellerstain House , an 18th Century English manor home located in the borders between England and Scotland. I was so taken with the magnificent estate that I flung my arms out and boldly declared, "It's all mine!"   Cindy , my super fun travel pal, snapped a photo of me sitting on the hood of our rented Jaguar with my arms outstretched and the rambling manor home as my backdrop.   Mellerstain House, England Little did I know striking the It's All Mine pose would become one of my travel traditions. Since then, I have posed outside mansions, manor homes, castles, and palaces around the world.   The photos document nearly twenty years of travel to three continents and eighteen countries (and my surprisingly unwavering taste for black garments).  Flipping through the collection today, I realized, though not for the first time, how truly blessed I am to have traveled to so many exotic places (I also  realiz...

My fabulous publisher, Kensington Publishing, is hosting a giveaway to celebrate the launch of my latest It Girls novel, Owning It. Step into the stylish world of the It Girls by entering the summer giveaway and you could win a super cute Kate Spade Ice Cream Umbrella & PRINT copies of the complete It Girls series. Enter by clicking here: http://bit.ly/2qkfbbz And remember: SHARING is CARING so post, share, retweet!

One of my all-time favorite nonfiction books is Ernest Hemingway's A Moveable Feast.  (More on why this book makes my all-time top ten list in an upcoming post)  If you haven't read A Moveable Feast, I highly recommend you indulge.  The audio book version is a delicious treat for your ears.  Speaking of Hemingway, I thought this was a great little story about him. (Question for YOU after the story) "In 1956, Ernest and I were having lunch at the Ritz in Paris with Charles Ritz, the hotel’s chairman, when Charley asked if Ernest was aware that a trunk of his was in the basement storage room, left there in 1930.  Ernest did not remember storing the trunk but he did recall that in the 1920s Louis Vuitton had made a special trunk for him. Ernest had wondered what had become of it. Charley had the trunk brought up to his office, and after lunch Ernest opened it. It was filled with a ragtag collection of clothes, menus, receipts, memos, hunting and f...

When I lived in Anchorage, I frequently made donations to a homeless shelter, Beans Cafe , and a youth shelter, Covenant House . It was difficult to forget about the homeless in that city because Beans Cafe was located close to where I lived.  I passed the homeless lined up outside the charity every time I ran errands.  This year, they asked some of the city’s homeless to write their holiday wishes on a piece of paper.  Then, they photographed them holding their wishes and posted those photos of social media. Steven's request for a "backpack full of goodies" really touches my heart. We don't have a lot of visible homeless people where I now live, but just before Thanksgiving I saw a clean, well-groomed homeless man riding a bike with a little hitch on the back.  He had posted signs all over the hitch saying he was homeless and hungry but capable of doing odd jobs for food.  I don't have a place for him to do odd jobs, so I grabbed two warm drinks and ...

Since I was twelve, I have had a difficult relationship with my mother. Several years ago, I was preparing to embark on a trip to France with my friend, Cindy. I asked my mother what I could get for her in France -- chocolates, perfume -- she gave me a short list and then added, "And a heart shaped stone." "What?" "When you're at Mont St. Michel, see if you can't find me a heart shaped stone." And I did. We were walking along the causeway, just before the tide came in (this is before they added the slick, raised, paved causeway). I looked down and saw a heart-shaped stone. I have made it one of my travel traditions to look for a heart-shaped stone for my Momma...even if we aren't speaking. I have a nice little collection now.   A dark greenish heart stone I found near castle ruins in Scotland.   A heart shaped stone that appears to be a piece of masonry I found near a chateau in France.   A smooth light gray ...

Looscaunagh Lough is a little lake on the edge of Killarney National Park in Ireland.  I drove by it at least a dozen times during my stay in County Kerry.  For me, it was heaven on earth.  There were several abandoned cottages and I thought how simple and grand life would be if I could love in a little cottage besides Looscaunagh.  I imagine it's just a boring plot of land beside a wee lake to most Irishmen, but I thought it was as close to perfect as one could hope to find. It was just one of two places that I have been in this world where I felt I belonged.