The Canterbury Sisters - 12 Things About Kim & A Giveaway

Blurb:

Che Milan’s life is falling apart. Not only has her longtime lover abruptly dumped her, but her eccentric, demanding mother has recently died. When an urn of ashes arrives, along with a note reminding Che of a half-forgotten promise to take her mother to Canterbury, Che finds herself reluctantly undertaking a pilgrimage.

Within days she joins a group of women who are walking the sixty miles from London to the shrine of Becket in Canterbury Cathedral, reputed to be the site of miracles. In the best Chaucer tradition, the women swap stories as they walk, each vying to see who can best describe true love. Che, who is a perfectionist and workaholic, loses her cell phone at the first stop and is forced to slow down and really notice the world around her, perhaps for the first time in years.

Through her adventures along the trail, Che finds herself opening up to new possibilities in life and discovers that the miracles of Canterbury can take surprising forms.

Purchase the book at:

Amazon * Barnes&Noble * BAM * Indie Bound

12 Things About Kim Wright

1.  My dad was an antique dealer and, thanks to him, I got the travel bug early.  I used to go into bookstores in foreign cities and look at the translations of American writers, dreaming that someday my books would be among them.  The most exciting part of publication for me has always been the international rights sales, and the thought that somebody in Prague or Seoul or Sydney might be reading the books I've written!

2.  The love of my life is my nutty little dog, Thad.  He's a rescue, so I don't know anything about his background or even how old he is, but he is a bundle of energy.  He went on the southern leg of my book tour with me last year and, since they're pet friendly, we stayed in an endless series of La Quintas. All the hotels look sort of alike, and we were switching to a new one every night, so by the end of the week I was wandering the halls, trying to remember where my room was!

3.  I have a phobia about large statues.  I can't stand to look at the Statue of Liberty.

4.  I'm kind of a reality tv junkie, especially when it comes to cooking competitions.  I love Chopped and my latest obsession is The Great British Baking Show.  It inspired me to buy my first springboard pan...but so far I haven't used it.  Cake baking is almost as scary as the Statue of Liberty.

5.  Mornings are my best times for focus.  I try to write 1000 words really early every day, when I'm fresh.  And then I finish my coffee, meditate, stretch, and walk Thad.  After that, even if the rest of the day falls apart - as it sometimes does - at least I know I have my thousand words.

6.  I am a competitive ballroom dancer.  I took it up as a hobby seven years ago and my dance studio was the inspiration for my second novel, The Unexpected Waltz.  Tango is my favorite dance.

7.  I'm an only child and my own two kids will tell you that I have NO tolerance for sibling fights.  When they would argue as kids, it would drive me nuts.  I don't get it.  Why would two people come to blows over half a candy bar?

8.  If I could be fluent in any language, I'd choose Italian.  I love the way it sounds.

9.  My son is a wine importer and my daughter is a writer who specializes in historical fiction.  And my granddaugher Martha, who is almost two, is the most brilliant, beautiful baby ever!

10.  One of the benefits of being a writer is that you can slop around the house all day in yoga pants - or no pants at all.  I can't tell you how many times I've gone to the park or the grocery and looked down to find my shirt buttoned wrong or even inside out.  I think the neighbors suspect I'm crazy. 

11.  My main advice to writers is:  Meet other writers.  Go to conferences and workshops, connect through social media, join a critique group, whatever it takes.  In my experience the writing community is extremely supportive and you need other writers to bounce ideas off and for networking once you get within the publishing community.  It's a strange and insular little world and no one should try to navigate it alone.

12.  To research The Canterbury Sisters, I actually walked the Canterbury Trail, from London to Canterbury Cathedral.  It's a broken trail, that goes across highways and private land, so I hired a guide, a wonderful woman named Jane Martin from Tours of the Realm travel.  She found me sustained pieces of the route and inns to stay in along the way.  This "research" (aka "this incredibly fun trip") gave me lots of detail for the novel.

About the Author:

Kim Wright is the author of Love in Mid Air and The Unexpected Waltz and has been writing about travel, food, and wine for more than twenty years for many magazines, including Wine Spectator, Self, Travel & Leisure, and Vogue. She has twice won the Lowell Thomas Award for travel writing. The Canterbury Sisters is her third novel, and she also ballroom dances competitively. Kim lives in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Connect with the author at:

Twitter * Goodreads * Facebook

Gallery Books is giving 1 lucky winner a print copy of

The Canterbury Sisters by Kim Wright

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