I was a relatively late convert to tea. I used to prefer coffee and I think my mum, as a dedicated tea-drinker, felt she’d failed in my upbringing. But I redeemed myself when I saw the light and switched from beans to leaves. Tea features in my novel Cherry Blossom Footsteps. Set in Japan and Hong Kong, tea is a recurring element throughout Lauren’s journey.…
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You can become a better traveller by paying attention to words that don’t exist in English, says travel writer Brian Johnston. He went on to talk about a Dutch word voopret, which literally translates as ‘pre-fun’, and might be used to describe the feeling of excitement we get when planning a trip. While foreign travel is off limits at present, maybe we can have some…
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Sometimes, if you’re lucky, you get a little something extra. Like when you order a half dozen doughnuts or potato cakes and they throw in one more as a bonus. In New Orleans they have a local word for that – Lagniappe. We picked up one excellent word, a word worth travelling to New Orleans to get; a nice, limber, expressive, handy word — ‘lagniappe’. They pronounce it lanny- yap. It is Spanish — so they said. MarkTwain, ‘Life on the Mississippi’. On my first visit to New Orleans in 2015, I was staying at a wonderful bed and breakfast, La…
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In many ways 2007 was a game-changer. It was my job to help keep children safe, but toys became so hazardous we nearly had to cancel Christmas. It was also the year I began writing my novel. World attention That year I represented Australia at the first ever consumer product safety conference in China – a momentous occasion. It was a major event in international relations…
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I didn’t set out to write a novel. Cherry Blossom Footsteps was the first piece of creative writing I had done, and it began after an overseas trip when I had to finish writing my trip diary at home. I’d enjoyed writing the diary, so I thought why not try my hand at some creative writing. I opted for the genre I was most practised…
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The book
Cherry Blossom Footsteps
Adventures in Japan and Hong Kong
About the author
I turned my attention to fiction after nurturing a love of writing journals to record my many travels. Some elements of Cherry Blossom Footsteps are based on my own experiences. (I'm not revealing which, though).