#NewEngland #Fall road-trip diaries, travelling with our toddler #Travel #MondayBlogs

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

Australia

New York

Mauritius

New Zealand

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.

Guest Authors Sean and Daniel Campbell

Today with have writing duo Sean and Daniel Campbell as our guests. They are the author’s of yesterday’s book Cleaver Square. Here is a link to the post if you missed it. http://wp.me/p2Eu3u-4p2

Let’s find out more about them.

Sean Campbell

1) Where is your home town?

We’re both from Portsmouth, which is a Naval city on the south coast of England. Sean’s been a Londoner on and off for all of his adult life, but Dan’s still in Portsmouth and is currently at the city’s Highbury Catering College (which includes culinary luminary Claire Smyth among it’s alumnus).

2) How long have you been writing as a duo?

We’ve been writing together since 2012, when we made a St Patrick’s Day bet that we could write a novel in 90 days or less. Dead on Demand, our first book, was the result.

3) Where did the title of the book “Cleaver Square” come from?

It’s a real place – with one of London’s finest pubs in it. There is no 36B, but we’ve otherwise been pretty faithful to reality. The square is a unique slice of London that is almost surreally quiet, with gorgeous townhouses and a huge green that is used for street parties and boules in the summer.

4) If this your first murder mystery?

We had several murders in Dead on Demand, but that was told from the point of view of the antagonist, who tries to plot the perfect murder (and comes pretty close to succeeding!). Cleaver Square is our first book that’s firmly in the ‘mystery’ bracket, but it also crosses into the suspense genre too.

5) What writing roles did you both take on?

Dan does some of the big picture stuff, but I get the research elements (so if you find an error in forensics or police procedure, that’s probably my fault).

6) How long did it take to research the material for the book?

It took a little while – we took nearly eighteen months over this on and off. I trained as a barrister so the legal side is dead easy, and I have a number of friends in the forces as well as some handy contacts in the world of forensics to annoy in the hopes of getting things right.

7) You’ve got some great characters in the book, mine were the Lovejoys purely because their name conjured up memories of a favourite TV series of mine. Which character was your favourite?

Probably Tina – she’s a bit of a tart, but she’s loveable with it. And who doesn’t like drinking/ board game mash-ups?

8) Which were the hardest parts of the story to write and why?

Charlie’s back-story – he’s had a rough time of it, and getting the timings/ age consistent with all the minor elements of the forensics, as well as making sure that little things like sunrise times stay consistent takes a lot of co-ordination. Thankfully, we had some excellent editors on board to catch our faux-pas.

9) Tell us about some of your other books

Dead on Demand is the most well-known – there are tens of thousands of copies out there in the readersphere, and we hope to reach a few more this year. We’ve also got a few non-fiction titles out, including one on the British Peerage system. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen the ‘Become a Lord or Lady’ Christmas gifts, where you buy a square foot of land, and allegedly become a Lord, but they’re, at best, misleading. Laird is simply Scottish for ‘landowner’ rather than denoting a title. There are ways to become a Lord, but a square foot of mud probably doesn’t cut it.

10) Do you have ideas for another murder for Detective Chief Inspector Morton to investigate?

Absolutely – we’ve got an idea that we’re outlining at the moment that combines a dash of political intrigue with what we hope our most original murder method yet.

Dan Campbell

1) Where is your home town?

Portsmouth.

2) How long have you been writing as a duo?

Duo? I do all the hard work.

3) Where did the title of the book “Cleaver Square” come from?

Well, we thought about Knife Octagon for a while, but that’s just too multi-sided.

4) If this your first murder mystery?

I never killed nobody guvnor. Honest, I didn’t.

5) What writing roles did you both take on?

I wrote. I looked pretty. Sean provided the requisite age to get taken seriously (I was 16 when ‘we’ wrote Dead on Demand)

6) How long did it take to research the material for the book?

Sean did that. Or so he says. I think he just makes it up. He’s got that convincing look about him.

7) You’ve got some great characters in the book, mine were the Lovejoys purely because their name conjured up memories of a favourite TV series of mine. Which character was your favourite?

Bertram Ayala – he’s almost as vain as I am.

8) Which were the hardest parts of the story to write and why?

The middle is the worst. You’ve not got that “just started” motivation, and the end isn’t in sight yet.

9) Tell us about some of your other books.

I’m doing a couple of solo projects this year – watch out for The Utopia Project, an ‘End of the world’ story that comes out in December.

10) Do you have ideas for another murder for Detective Chief Inspector Morton to investigate?

Yes – can’t say exactly what just yet, but if you think an ice bullet is clever, this will blow your mind.

Find a copy here from Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com

Passion United by Philip Miles

Passion United by Philip Miles

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Anyone who loves football (soccer) or even has a mild interest in the sport will find this book a delight. The author shows his passion and in-depth knowledge of British football past and present. The book is interspersed with facts, thoughts, stories and poems which make it an easy read. The author once a West Ham supporter is now a Pompey fan but his passion for football will ring true for any team supporter of British football. I particularly liked the final Christmas wish list of requests to help make football in Britain once again accessible to any fan and return the nation to its former glory amongst other nations of the world. This book deserves to be in the Christmas stocking of all football fans on Christmas morning.

Get a copy of this book here from Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com

Phil will be my guest author on the blog tomorrow (16th November) come back and read more about Phil and his writing.
View all my reviews on Goodreads.