Portland | Rosie Amber

If you’ve been following these recent Monday blog posts you’ll know we like road-trips

Fall Colours

Catch up with some of them here;

LA and back on a packet of crisps

Building US west coastal road so we could drive on

Today’s road-trip is about when we went back to the US for a 10 day Fall trip to New England with our two year old.

Our trip began with an evening arrival in Boston, Massachusetts, this time I was armed with my stroller for use in the airports, which can be taken right up to the aeroplane doors and is essential for toddler travel. Our first stop was the coastal town of Portsmouth in New Hampshire. Coming from England and seeing familiar place names out of the environment we knew them in was a little strange. We also found that New England had more toll roads than we’d experienced before in the US.

Getting our fill of the number of states in this area of the US, we went over into Maine and visited Portland, enjoying the coastal road views and taking in some shopping.

The fall colours were amazing and we took our time enjoying scenic river banks. I fell in love with the covered bridges which are a tradition of New England. Built with roofs to keep the bridges open during the winter months. Stopping off at one of the many maple syrup farm shops we were invited around their little museum and given a talk about the maple extraction process. An added bonus was the local stories of the covered bridges being “sweet-heart” bridges, a place to meet your sweet-heart out of site of prying eyes.

We headed into the White mountains and slowly drove to the top of Mount Washington on some very tight and steep roads. (Approximately a 30 drive up and a 30-45 mins drive down) There’s a cog railway train you can take up but the 3 hour round-trip time was going to be too long to entertain our toddler on. For rally enthusiasts there is a “Climb To The Clouds” racing event each July on the Mount Washington auto- road where rally drives race to the top. The record stands at 6 mins and 9 secs set in 2014.

In Conway we stopped off at the steam railway centre

Our travels took us to Vermont and Burlington, we dined in one of those old fashioned train diner cars turned into a family diner and then indulged our daughter at the Vermont Teddy Bear factory, where we took the tour and she made a bear.

We did consider heading across to Niagara Falls, but we didn’t have the time this trip. Instead we headed back towards Boston, taking in the Boston Tea Ship which amazingly our little girl remembers today.

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Next Trip – Denver, Colorado and a rocky mountain white out experience.

My guest author today is Sarah Cradit, Sarah talks about recently re-reading one of the Harry Potter books. This household loves Harry Potter, we’ve all read the series, I think I’ve read the series 4 times now! We have all of the films and I think the kids know the words off by heart! On New Years Eve we visited the Studio tour here in London see my post http://wp.me/p2Eu3u-6C We can’t persuade any of our friends to help us finish eating our packet of Bertie Bott’s Every Flavour Beans!

Here are Sarah’s replies;

1) Tell me your name: Sarah M. Cradit

2) Where do you live?: Portland, OR

3)When did you start writing?: I started writing when I was 7; I wrote a bunch of short stories that were actually somewhat inappropriate for school and my parents got called down to the office. This was the start of the marriage between my imagination and a pen.

4)What type of books do you like writing the most?: I generally write mainstream fiction, with a special focus on the human condition. Why do we do what we do? It’s not black and white, and its important to me to have character-driven stories that reflect that.

5)Pass on 3 tips about writing or publishing.
1. When I am having trouble finding inspiration, I will force myself to rigid word count goals. It sounds counter-intuitive to the creative process, but it actually, for me, does just the opposite; forcing me to write helps me get back into that process.
2. Free-writing is another way I’ve gotten over the writer’s block hump. Setting a timer and writing, without stopping at all, until the timer stops often brings out subconscious thoughts that help me advance my story. This is how I found the end to my first novel.
3. Most of us have trouble turning off our inner editor when writing; to appease mine, I often highlight the pieces I am having troubles with, or make minor notes (like: “this needs to die a slow death”), so that when I come back for edits I know which spots needed my attention most.

6)What was the last book that you read? How would you rate it?
I most recently re-read Harry Petter and the Half Blood Prince. I would give i an 8/10. There are not many Children’s authors that can write simply enough for children, but engaging enough for adults. Rowling is a master storyteller…her writing is just “so so”but I can’t decide if that’s because of the audience or skill. I’d like to read her adult stories for comparison.

The story itself is filled with suspense…it’s the final transition for Harry into adulthood and there’s no longer any doubt that evil has a real chance of winning the battle. I like that Rowling does not shy away from dark topics, like death and loss, because these experiences are what shape Harry and allow him to do what he needs to do in the next book. I’m always surprised at some of the criticism her stories get.

7)Now choose just one of your books and add a link to it.
St. Charles at Dusk: http://www.amazon.com/Charles-House-Crimson-Clover-ebook/dp/B005RT0ZKE

Thanks!
Sarah