Guest Post: TA Williams

Hi Everyone!

I am excited to be here today to bring you another guest post from T.A. Williams. His new book is out and I am excited to be able to help get the word out about it! :) If you didnt see Monday's post about it, please be sure to check it out!

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   I’ve been very lucky really. I had a day job (until a few years ago) that sent me all over the world on business and offered me the chance to visit stunningly impressive places like the Great Wall of China, the Pyramids of the Sun and the Moon at Teotihuacan in Mexico, the Kremlin, the Vatican, the Florida Keys and so many others. I’ve walked around incomparable cities like Hong Kong, Venice, Tokyo and Athens. I’ve swum in the Caribbean, the Pacific, the Atlantic, the Mediterranean and in a really, really cold lake in the mountains above Zurich. I’ve skied in Austria, cycled over the Pyrenees, windsurfed in Antigua, snorkelled in Thailand and frozen half to death in northern China in December.

   So which are my favourite places?

   In fact, the answer has to be a whole lot closer to home. Anybody familiar with my books will find I write about places I like.

   My last book, Chasing Shadows is set in rural Spain, an area I love for its empty grandeur, its stunning scenery and its wonderful food and drink. You really can’t beat sitting with a glass of Rioja and a plate of Jamón Ibérico on the terrace of a hotel converted from a fourteenth century castle, looking out over the endless plains of Castille.

   The book before that, What Happens at the Beach, is set down in the Languedoc area of southern France, not far from the border with Spain. It’s a land of ruined castles, undeveloped medieval villages and long, sweeping sandy beaches. It’s cold in winter, but dry and clear – although the wind can knock you off your feet – and in the summer you batten down the hatches and seal yourself off behind hefty shutters as the outside temperature soars, and only the lizards stay out for long. And, of course, what better way of cooling down than a glass of the local rosé, chilled from the fridge, condensation running down the outside of the glass.

   Closer still to home are books like When Alice Met Danny, What Happens in Cornwall and What Happens at Christmas. These are all set down here where I live in the far south west of England. Here we’ve got a chaotic mix of steep hills covered by a patchwork of fields forever changing colour along with the seasons. The coast is rugged, the weather mercurial, but it’s lovely, specially if you decide to have a pint in a five hundred year old pub against whose beams Sir Francis drake himself probably bashed his head.

   But the star of my firmament of favourite places has to be Italy. I lived there for eight years and got to know the people as well as the country. In To Rome With Love I take you on a trip from the unique beauty of Venice through the spectacular hills of Le Marche and Umbria to the soft sandy beaches of the Mediterranean above Rome, where the scent of resin fills the air, fireflies illuminate the night sky and anybody with any sense sits down to a plate of fritto misto accompanied by a cold, dry white.

   If my writing manages to convince you to visit some of these magnificent places, I’ll know I’ve done my job.

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Such a fun post! Makes me want to take a trip! Thanks for being here.

Happy Reading!