Susan Boyle - You Go Girl!

Once in awhile a really talented person gets their fifteen minutes of fame. And with the planet now so instantly connected, it often leads to bigger and better things. It’s especially gratifying when someone deserving, who has long been overlooked, attains worldwide renown.

I’m speaking, of course, of the strange case of Susan Boyle who, only this month, managed to become a global icon in a very short time. Thanks in a great part to the phenomenon known as U-tube. Already she has well over 600,000 fans on Facebook. (Including me) Of course she’s not yet a senior, but still how Miss Boyle, now 47, escaped being discovered all these years is a puzzlement. She has one of the richest voices I’ve ever heard and her rendition of “Cry Me a River” has to be just about one of the best ever. It was even more delightful to watch her performance in front of Simon Cowell who usually is the very essence of cynicism. To see his facial expression change from mockery to amazement did my heart a world of good.

Susan Boyle, you go girl. I hope you win top prize, sing for the Queen and go on to have a marvellous career. You’re definitely a wonderful example to the rest of us older folks to never give up in going after our goals.

And now back to Betty’s travelblog.
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Our second day of wine tasting took us north to the Aconcagua Valley. This is an area of cool, rainy winters; hot, dry summers and moist Pacific breezes. We were told irrigation is necessary for the wonderful growth we could see around us. Snowmelt from the soaring Andes flows into the river system and is diverted to canals that surround the valley. The result? Everywhere orchards and vineyards climb the slopes of the sere foothills.

We again visited three wineries in the valley and had lunch in another delightful hacienda style resort—a lovely spot where wealthy citizens from Santiago come for a weekend get-away.
Our final winery was the renowned Vina Errazuriz founded in 1870 by Don Maximiano Errazuriz, a son of one of Chile’s most prestigious 18th century families. Today, his descendant, Eduardo Chadwick is the sixth generation to be involved in the business. We spent two hours at this premium winery, climbing first to the top of their hillside vineyard overlooking the breathtaking panoramic view of much of the valley. After touring the beautiful gardens, we ventured into the coolness of the century old cellar. Here their finest wines are aged. We tasted three of their award winning appellations and declared their 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon one of our favorite red wines ever. Feeling very happy with our two days on the Chilean wine trail, we returned to Santiago for an evening of fine dining and folkloric dancing at one of the cities’ fine restaurants.

Our five nights in Santiago were spent at the charming Plaza San Francisco, a boutique hotel in the centre of town. The king sized room was furnished in beautiful Spanish modern furniture and the elegant, marble bathroom was spotlessly clean. Given four stars by both Fodders and Travelocity, I can highly recommend it.

And I definitely recommend a visit to this amazing country at the bottom of the world.
(Coming soon: Buenos Aires, Argentina.)

A Day of Wine and Roses

First the roses: Congratulations to the Amazon top one hundred semi-finalists in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Awards.

I've got a lot of reading to do. Only three of the excerpts I reviewed made the cut, even though I felt my choices all deserved either 4 or 5 stars and I would definitely want to read the full manuscript. However, this all leads me to believe that subjectivity plays a very important part in what gets picked for publication. In other words, there are probably thousands of very good manuscripts out there that are never in print and thus never read by the masses.

Now back to my ongoing travelblog of our South American tour.

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Whether it’s the thirst quenching embrace of a chilled Riesling on a hot summer’s day, or the mellowed, fruity taste of a fine cabernet with dinner: as the Psalmist once stated, “wine makes the heart rejoice.” Even John Milton, that puritan poet of the 17th century affirms,” Wine; one sip of this will bathe the drooping spirits in delight beyond the bliss of dreams. Be wise and taste.”

Since both my husband and I are lovers of the grape, when I realized we would be spending several days in Chile’s central valley, I knew we simply had to schedule some tasting tours at a few of the countries great wineries.

Our tour company sent around the perfect guide for us—a transplanted wine affection ado from the province of Alberta, Canada. He arrived as a tourist in Santiago about ten years ago; fell in love with a Spanish beauty with whom he has a daughter; and has studied viniculture ever since. The two days we spent with him learning about the art of wine were fantastic.

On the first day we headed south to the Maipo Valley, a lovely spot reminiscent of California’s Napa Valley. Fruit orchards, vegetable patches and, of course, miles of vineyards line the winding two lane roads that etch the valley. Our first winery, the Perez Cruz family’s beautiful estate, was situated in the Alto (high) Maipo region. Here we sampled their Gold winning Limited Edition Syrah Reserve 2004. Red wine doesn’t come much better than this. Their new ultra modern storage area was outstanding and an eye opener as to how far wine making has come in this country.

We then headed to a small, private museum of wine where the owner showed us some of the original primitive methods used by the early Spaniards. Fascinating to be able to see the difference one hundred years has made to this art. The history lesson over, our tour guide took us for lunch to the perfect spot in keeping with the mood of the early settlers—an 18th century hacienda built in rambling ranchero style. Here, while we waited for our meal of mouth-watering wild salmon from cold South Pacific waters, we sat on a cool veranda and drank delicious pisco sours made with Chilean Pisco Brandy, egg whites, lemon juice and sugar. By now, we were beginning to wonder if our livers could keep up to all this, but didn’t feel like hurting our hosts’ feelings by refusing.

One final winery visit in the afternoon and then we were whisked back to Santiago and our comfortable city center hotel for the evening. Needless to say we slept very well that night.

(Next time – our final days in Santiago)

Following HIstory

The final part of our trip around the bottom of South American began as we disembarked the “Golden Princess” in the seaport city of Valpraiso. It’s an interesting old place established around 1536 by Spanish explorers. From the harbour, Valpraiso (see picture) stretches up the side of a hill but fortunately there is an ancient funicular to convey you to the top. We took the slow ride up for an excellent bird’s eye view of the old town, the bustling harbour and the blue Pacific stretching to the west.

After a tasty, typical Chilean meal in an intimate restaurant tucked away in a dubious side street, we headed to the beach resort town of Vina Del Mar. I found it in some ways reminiscent of the hotel strips along Waikiki Beach. I would have definitely liked to have stayed a little longer in the area just to see the Easter Island museum (see picture) and the town’s famous floral clock. But time was limited, so we were soon on our way inland to the capitol city of Santiago.

Even though we knew a little about the city from family and friends who have lived there, its cosmopolitan flavour came as a complete surprise. Of course, as in most Latin American cities, there are areas of great poverty; still as a welcoming tourist destination it ranks high. The downtown area boasts both beautiful modern skyscrapers and 17th century Spanish architecture. For a start, I recommend a visit to Cerro San Cristobel Park where, once again, you ascend a steep hill in an old fashioned funicular railway. (pictured) At the top you can get a wonderful vista of the entire city with its backdrop of the Andes Mountain chain. The park also contains a zoo and a Japanese style garden.

One of the ways to see the buildings and get a sense of the history of Chile is to take one of the many walking tours that are offered. The tour we took was tailor made for us as one of our very good friends here in Canada is the great grandson of Benjamin Vicuna Mackenna, an important early Chilean politician and journalist. We wanted to visit both the Vicuna Mackenna museum and the small park which contains a mausoleum where his mummified remains are kept. Being friends, of Jean Claude Vicuna, we were treated like royalty by both our tour guide and the museum’s curator. Of course, there are other fine museums in the city with many artefacts of early Chilean history.

In our next instalment we are driven into some of the wonderful productive valleys of Central Chile and visit their local wineries. I love wine and I think it is one of the great gifts given to us by our Creator. Even the Bible promotes the judicious use of red wine which is now known for its many health benefits.

This week, wine becomes even more important as Christians around the world observe the last supper and the death of Jesus. Wine is significant to this occasion as red wine symbolizes the poured out blood of Christ and the great sacrifice he made when he laid down his life in our behalf. I don’t often get religious in this blog, but this is definitely an important week to my family as well as to many seniors I know. So please make allowances.

Imperfect Pitch

The Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award contest is now in full swing. There was a problem about non U.S.A. residents not being able to read excerpts but that has now been resolved.

I entered my novel about my French Huguenot ancestors again this year. Last year I was in the semi finals but did not make top 100. I’ve done a lot of editing on my book since then and actually work-shopped it with a university professor instructor on Writer’s On Line. However, last week, we finally got the results and sadly, I didn’t make it through what they call the Pitch portion of the contest. I was disappointed to not make it for such a silly reason. But it does mean “back to the drawing board” because a pitch or query has to be just right before you send it out to a book agent. I have learned a lot in this year reading the posts on the ABNA forum and that is probably even more important than being selected.

A pitch is what you either send in a query letter or deliver in person (usually at a conference) to an agent whom you would like to represent you It really is important to get the pitch right as this is the first thing an agent is going to see in order to form an opinion about both you and your work. If he hates it, you won’t get a foot in his door. Well, even if he thinks it’s not bad, he isn’t likely to take you on. But that’s another story.

In the meantime there are lots of interesting excerpts to read from the quarter finalists and I am happy to do so. I’ve certainly seen several books that look worthy of publication. I like the reviewing process as I find it helps me to learn more about my own writing and the mistakes I make, just as much as I help the person I critique. It seems so much easier to see the “straw” in someone else’s work than the “rafter” in your own. But then, isn’t that true about everything in life.

Nevertheless, I do really wish my story had made it this year. I’d like to be getting some critiques as well as giving them. I also wish I had come sooner to this writing game. It’s a little late in life for this senior citizen but it certainly does keep the “little gray cells” chugging along.

(Next time – back to the world of travel)

Chilling Out in Chile

As I shop for groceries during the winter months, I am often reminded of my visit to Chile. Many of the products on display now actually come from that green and fertile land. Our cruise around the tip of South America took us to several ports of call in Chile and I gained a whole different perspective of the country as a whole.

Of course, not all of this long and narrow nation is suitable for agriculture. Between the semi-desert area to the north and the cold, mountainous terrain of Tierra del Fuego to the south lies the beautiful and fruitful central valley. There, in the somewhat Mediterranean climate, grow the grapes to make the fine wines for which Chile is fast becoming famous. We toured some of the wine estates but that is for a later blog.

After travelling north from Ushuaia, Argentina along glacier fed channels, we arrived at our first Chilean port of call; Punta Arenas located on the wind-swept Straits of Magellan. The Portuguese explorer, Ferdinand Magellan, in the service of the Spanish Crown, sailed into these waters in 1520 discovering an alternate and ostensibly easier-to-navigate route to the Pacific Ocean. To commemorate his discovery, a statue of Ferdinand looking towards the Pacific stands in the main square or xocola of the town. It’s an excellent place to sit and people-watch or just wander around the stalls of souvenirs set up for the tourists.

Pacific generally means calm and untroubled but, at this point so far south of the equator, that is not always the case. The winds that blow north from Antarctica can make this area cold and unfriendly. We were warned to bundle up for our bus trip to see the Magellan penguins in their summer habitant located on the Otway Sound. It was sound advice. After an hour long bus ride, over tundra-like terrain, we still had to walk a mile or so along a board walk to view the penguins. Often we were facing into those chilly 45 mile per hour winds I spoke of.

The penguins are delightful to see. By the time we arrived they were mostly gathered at the beach, gorging themselves on whatever fish they could catch. We could only watch them from an overlook about fifty feet away. This is why I made the statement awhile back that I wish we had gone on the Falkland Island tour where you could actually mingle with them. However, along the walkways, we could get quite close to them and see a few that were in the process of nesting. There’s nothing quite like penguins in the wild. It’s an experience of a lifetime and I highly recommend it. In fact, I think all the sights on the cruise around South America are unforgettable.



(Later this month – Puerto Montt and Valparaiso)

Hot and Heavy on the ABNA Forum

Things got a little hot and heavy on the ABNA forum this week and I'm afraid I rather added my "two cents" worth. I probably shouldn't have; after all the years I've lived, I should know better. However, I have found the comradery of that young group of writers so helpful to me over the past year, that I couldn't help myself when I found them being castigated in an unfair manner by some of the newer ones.

All of us who have entered our novels in Amazon's writing contest are a bit nervy at the moment, I believe. In the first part of the contest, we were all to be judged on our pitches. Now what author among us likes writing pitches in the first place? But now our whole entry into the contest depended on a pitch that met their specs. And, even though they spelled it out for us pretty good, it required at lot that had to be said in 300 words. Almost impossible.

The first 2,000 were to be picked on the basis of that pitch, but we wouldn't be told if we were among them or not. The next level will pare the contestants down to 500. That is being done as we speak, or write, as the case is. Amazon top reviewers were given assignments of up to 40 excerpts to read and assess. Those 500 won't be known until March 16th. Is it any wonder we are all on pins and needles and jumping at each other's throats? Even this supposedly sensible senior citizen got caught up in it.

To try and calm people's nerves they have now set up a "joke" thread. I have joke but I won't put it up there because I don't think those young people would think it funny at all. It's more of a senior's type of joke. It will have to do for my blog for this week. Until the 16th of March, I'm not going to be in the mood to write anything of import.

Sort of complementing my last week's blog, it's about India.

Two childhood friends, Billy and Sam, were backpacking through India. One day, they stumbled upon a watering hole, and since neither smelled particularly wonderful, they decided to take a dip.They tossed a ball and splashed around and were having a wonderful time, until Sam heard a terrible rumbling growl. He rubbed his eyes and struggled to focus, and when he could see clearly, his breath caught in his throat. Standing on a near bank was a tiger, pacing back and forth, licking its lips and staring hungrily at the two boys.

"Oh my gosh," Sam said. "Billy, there's a bengal tiger over there."

Billy didn't hesitate at all. He bolted for the shore, scrambled across the ground and starting wrestling into his running shoes."What the heck?" Sam said, his voice cracking. "You... You can't outrun a tiger, ya darn fool!"

Billy smiled back at him. "I don't have to run faster than the dang tiger, Sam. I just have to run faster than you."

Sorry about that. I laughed though. So perhaps that tells you something about me.

Ending February With A Fascinating Book

Since I’ve been reviewing books on Amazon, I very often read other’s reviews. Today I took a look at some of what Amazon calls its Top Reviewers. I can’t believe the number of books and other items they are able to review in one year. Particularly, since they are not being paid to do this. It is a labour of love—but not an easy one—and I am in awe of them.

I feel I’m an avid reader but certainly not a speedy one. My husband can devour a book in one day and he can read two or three to my one. But I know that he sometimes skims. Usually, unless it’s a real page turner and I stay up half the night, it takes me about three days to read a book. I like to savour the descriptions and sometimes read over the dialogue two or three times. And when I read something that's been foreshadowed, I go back and try and find it. I think that’s because I’m trying to become a writer and reading another author's work is one of the best ways to learn the craft.

The book I’ve read for today’s review is called “In a Far Country”. It’s about India so it’s one that took me a few days to read. I love books on India. In the ‘40s, when I was a little girl, my uncle was a missionary in India. One of the very first illustrated books I ever received was from him, about a little brown boy who became a Christian. I can’t remember his name but I’ve been an India affection ado ever since. Of course, I saw the movie “Slumdog Millionaire” and am delighted it has won so many Oscars at the Academy Awards. Two of my all-time favourites are M.M. Kaye’s “The Far Pavilions” and “In the Shadow of the Moon.” Now I’ve discovered this Canadian writer, Linda Holeman and I’ll be looking for more of her work.

Here is my review of “In a Far Country” by Linda Holeman:

As the daughter of poor medical missionaries in India, Pri Fincastle’s life was far from glamorous or easy. There was much to do and she spent her time tending the gardens, learning the languages of the area and helping her parents look after the needs of the villagers who come to the mission for medical relief. There is little occasion for fun or frivolity in her austere upbringing.

As well, the atmosphere at the mission is not a happy one and there is much about her family’s strange situation she can’t understand. While she recognises her mother’s slow descent into madness, it is not until the tragic death of both her parents that she learns a part of the dark secret that the mission station holds. That knowledge leads her into even more distressing circumstances and towards the compelling and gripping conclusion.

I can’t say this is always an enjoyable read—it is often disheartening and depressing—and yet it held me spellbound. Ms. Holeman is an extremely competent writer whose wonderful descriptions bring the hot and sundrenched countryside of India to life. Nevertheless she often has a tendency to be far too wordy. A good edit could do wonders for the story as, sometimes in a particularly exciting moment, you just wish she would get to the point. And I’m not crazy about the title. It seems rather insipid for such a powerful story.

February has seemed like a long month since I’ve had a cold for most of it. I’m glad it’s coming to and end.