Welcome to this week’s Margarita Moment! If you enjoy this post and are a newcomer to my little island life inspired blog, sign up for your free, weekly escape (Look along the right sidebar.). It will sail to your inbox on Mondays, more or less, depending on life’s currents and my novel writing schedule. Thanks for visiting.
Hey, all! You’re in for a treat today. Rylie snuck away from writing her secondary applications for medical schools to share a photo montage about Venice, Italy. She studied abroad her last semester of undergrad this past spring. If you missed her earlier posts, you’re invited to check out Off to Brunnenburg, Eating Northern Italy Style, Hiking the Italian Alps, Meran, Italy, and Dorf Tirol, Italy. I promise her photos are worth the click.
Venice
Hi! Rylie here. Like Mom said, I’ve been swamped with essays for medical school, but I want to show you the most incredible pictures and memories from this beautiful city. *drum roll* And the highlights are:
- Traveling by waterbus down the Grand Canal
- Seeing someone buy a freshly killed shark at the Rialto market
- Getting gelato from every store near San Marco plaza
- Waving to gondoliers
- Finding as many paintings with Jesus in them as we could at the Gallerie dell’Accademia
- Having – and hating – my first cappuccino
- Getting lost on the way back from San Marco and unsuccessfully asking the police for directions
- Almost knocking over a statue at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection
- Going to over 40 stores to find the perfect Murano glass earrings
- Watching two kittens play-fight in the garden outside our restaurant during dinner
- Getting a beer glass for free at a pub after asking the bartender if I could buy one
- Sitting on the Arsenale pier at night to watch the waterbuses finish their route
- Getting lost in the back alleyways in San Marco
- Learning that a dead-end in Venice is an alleyway that ends in water
Fiction Fest
Five writer lessons I learned at Connecticut Romance Writers’ recent Fiction Fest:
1. Secondary character subplots must match the story’s main plot theme. (Kristan Higgins)
2. When ridding of that pile of papers on your writer desk, turn it over and start from the bottom. Quickly choose which items can be thrown and which need to be kept. Then file time-sensitive papers by the month, with files for the current month in files from 1-31. Check the following day’s file folder at the end of each workday to prioritize the next day’s to-do list. (Lisa Lelas)
3. Hybrid authors are fast becoming the trend in publishing. (Roxanne St. Claire)
4. Smashwords provides free books on its website for those authors going the indie route. (Jim Azevedo)
5. Attending writing conferences are worth the time, money, and effort invested. (Jolyse Barnett)
Farewell to Summer
Are you silently mourning the passing of summer, pretending to be Turning Fall Into Spring? Are you nostalgic for the sunny days, reliving Summer Highlights to keep warm on chilly nights?
If you answered yes to these two questions (and even if you didn’t), this photo is for you:
How have you welcomed the new season?
Love the Venice montage. Thanks ladies! I’m sad that I missed Fiction Fest. It’s always awesome!
Hi PJ! We missed you but I know you were otherwise engaged in Tennessee. I’m on my way to hop over to your blog about your poetic experience. 🙂
Thanks PJ! Glad you liked the pictures 🙂
Love the pics of Venice! Sounds like you had a great time with a few funny mishaps. That’s the way to make memories.
Jolyse, some cool tips from the conference! And, yes, I’m trying to acclimate to Fall. The leaf colors are close to peak in Syracuse! Seems early but it’s lovely. NOT looking forward to winter, however. I’ll be hibernating.
Your winters are snowier and colder than ours here on Long Island. I’ll try not to mope around too much, and I’ll focus on writing while the weather is cool and rainy. I do love Thanksgiving…my favorite holiday. That’s a nice event to anticipate after our return from KW. 🙂
Have a beautiful season filled with blessings, Marcia.
Thank you, Marcia! It does seem the best memories are usually the silly, imperfect ones 🙂
Thanks for sharing your beautiful photos, Rylie! I as though I’ve taken a quick trip to Venice. 🙂
I’m fighting the change of season. Since the temperatures are in the mid-80’s this week, I’m not packing away my sandals yet.
I’m sitting here in a tank top, shorts, and flip-flops on my patio. Tomorrow is supposed to be unseasonably warm again. We are sad that we scheduled our pool closing already, but soon enough the weather will turn chilly and we’ll have to surrender to sweaters, slacks, and closed toe shoes.
Thanks for stopping by and enjoying the photos, Jill. I know Rylie appreciates it too. 🙂
I’m so glad you liked them, Jill!
Beautiful pics, Riley. Thanks for sharing them.
Glad you had such a great time at Fiction Fest. Sorry I missed it. As for Fall coming, well, it’s one of my two favorite seasons (not that there’s much choice seeing there’s only 4 of them lol)
Hi Donna! Thanks for stopping by. Fall is nice, but I hate that it’s followed by winter. How’s the writing going?
Ah well, I don’t mind the winter so much as long as there’s not many days of snow.A couple of days of it to set the mood then then okay enough. LI has just about the right amount of winter to make me appreciate the rest of the seasons. lol
As for writing, it’s slow and I’m not sure if I’m making progress but I keep at it. : )
Thanks, Donna! I’m glad you enjoyed them 🙂