Excerpt from Last Waltz:

The activity towards which Amalia’s entire day built was her late afternoon ride.  She hurried into her riding habit after her chores were completed and hastened to the stables where her mare, Elisabeth, was saddled and awaiting her. As soon as they were out of view of the Schloss, she spurred her mare into an unrestrained gallop, as satisfying to Elisabeth as to herself, and she would allow her thoughts to tumble out.  She allowed herself to mourn for Andrzej and what they had lost.  She knew this was important.  She couldn’t just cut off her emotions and pretend they weren’t there, she had to go through the process of grieving and then letting go.

She often rode with tears streaming down her face.  It had been years since she had indulged herself this way.  She was nearly forty.  Shouldn’t she be putting all this type of behavior behind her?  She was deeply fond of Rudolf, and became more so the longer she spent at the Schloss.  But those old treacherously sweet memories remained and it seemed there was nothing she could do to censor them.  It had been so long since she had felt any passion in a life that had become so prosaic.  The intimacy she had shared in Vienna with Andrzej had never been part of her life with Rudolf.  They kept to their own rooms for the most part, and he had always kept his ardor restrained, as though vaguely embarrassed of it.  She knew he hid in the “cobwebby rooms” in his mind for days at a time, sometimes a whole week.  Though she had grown deeply fond of him, she had never dared to let him know it for fear she would frighten him off.  And now, just as he had always feared, Andrzej had returned for her.

And so she prayed as she rode.  She prayed that she would learn to live without passion, or at least passion for Andrzej.  She prayed that her feelings for Rudolf would deepen and that she would be able to fill this aching sorrow with kind and gentle love.  She prayed she could be more understanding of the problems facing him in the government and that he could still be a force for good.  As the days passed, she could feel herself grow in spiritual substance.  Wild emotions quieted, a peaceful feeling grew in her breast as she thought of her little family and all they meant to her.  But still, the grief remained.

February 11th, 2012 | Author: Mistress Anya

Where were you born and where do you call home?

I was born in California and have called many places home (Stanford, Boston, Washington, D.C., Chicago, Southern Cal., Southwest Missouri, Oakwood, Ohio) but I am happiest here on the bench of the Wasatch Mountains with a splendid view of Utah Valley, Utah Lake, and the Oquirrh Mountain Range—all of which I see from my office window!

What or who inspired you to write?  And how long have you been writing?

I write the way most people read.  To escape to the worlds in my imagination.  I have been writing (or at least drawing stories) since I could hold a crayon. So, virtually all my life. As a child I wrote endless tales of the adventures of Sandy O’Hara.  I studied writing at Stanford and was inspired to write my award winning epic The Last Waltz: A Novel of Love and War when I lived and studied in Austria.  I worked in finance to put my husband through law school, but when I quit to become a Mom, I took up my writing in earnest.  It was a long apprenticeship.

When did you first consider yourself a writer?

When I had half a dozen books out, probably, and was writing a magazine column.  I have never thought of myself as anything else, vocation wise.  I certainly wasn’t a very good International Banker!

What is the name of your most recent book and if you had to sum it up in 30 or less words, what would you say?

The Only Way to Paradise is the tale of four women who ditch their therapist and journey to Florence to try to heal themselves.  With the help of one another and the love of the Italian people, they finally find themselves swathed in agape (charity) and on the road to Paradise.

I love reading the warnings on the blurbs for many books. If you could write a warning label for yourself as a person or an author, what would it say? 

That’s easy!  Do not read this book if you don’t want to find yourself jetting to Florence the first chance you get!

If you gave some of your characters an opportunity to speak for themselves, what would they say?

Great question! MacKenzie would say:  I was a control freak and it nearly cost me my family.  Staring at the David sculpture, it was as though I heard him say, “I used the be a block of marble.  The chisel was slow and painful, but I became this beautiful statue.  Give up your chisel, MacKenzie.  Then you may find God.”  Roxie would show you the red Vespa scooter she rented and say, “If you don’t want to fall in love, don’t buy a lycra cycle suit and ride your scooter up to the Piazzale Michelangelo at sunset.”  Sara would say, “If you have any secrets to hide, don’t go to Florence!”  And lastly, Georgia did say, “In Italy there are always men. Fascinating men.”

What does your protagonist think about you? Would he or she want to hang out with you, the author?

Since there is a good deal of me in all my characters, I am sure we would be fast friends.  They were with me constantly the two months I lived there, researching and visiting all the places they would find enchanting.

Which character speaks the loudest, to you? Do any of them clamour to be heard over the others?

I think Roxie speaks the loudest.  She appears to be an extrovert, but every time she feels anxiety, she does something outrageous—like singing and soft-shoeing in the rain, or doing cartwheels down the hallowed Vasari Corridor.  In reality, Roxie has a huge and dangerous secret that even she doesn’t know.

Do your characters try to make like bunnies and create ever more convoluted plots for you? Or do you have to coax them out of your characters?

I am a discovery writer and write completely from character.  It takes me a long time to winkle out all their secrets.  I start with who I think they are (these four came to me in the night), but they always, in every book, become extremely complex.  I lost count of how many drafts of this book I wrote, because my characters weren’t finished telling their stories.

Have you based any of your characters on someone you know, or real events in your own life?

There are real people in my book—the owner of the B & B where they stay in Florence, her son and daughter-in-law have become my Italian family.  The characters are all based on parts of my character, except Sara.  She is a Vietnamese immigrant whose story is based on that of my son’s best friend.  It took me three trips to Florence to discover the  “agape piece” which turned out to be the theme of the book, the ultimate healing balm.  All the crazy experiences that the “crazy ladies” have, really happened to me.

Do you have a specific writing style?

My style is probably different for every book.  I genre hop.  I have written 12 books, two of which are non-fiction.  My 5 mysteries are witty and sometimes slapstick, but also have a serious side and are interlarded with a long romantic tangle.  This book is written in a literary style, but still has humor.  My most literary book is Pieces of Paris.  There every word, every syllable was chosen with care.  My historical epic is written in the “voice”of the period (only in English).

How did you come up with the title?

Actually, the original title was “The Crazy Ladies of Oakwood,” but in the middle of the night, when I was sleeping, I woke up, grabbed at that agape piece, and realized the title was meant to be The Only Way to Paradise, because ultimately love is our ticket.

Is there a message in your novel that you want readers to grasp?

Several.  All these women are masquerading as people they have sort of “dropped into being.”  None of them realize the richness, the love, and the talents they have hidden.  Italy is wonderful that way—it changes you into who you really are, if you let it.  But you have to live in the moment and listen, see, and most of all feel what it’s telling you.  Each woman learns the lesson most important for her happiness.  And then, there is agape—that love which comes so naturally to the Italians that I feel would change the world if we could all emulate it.  I go to Florence yearly in order to get recharged.

Do you have plans for a new book?   Is this book part of a series? 

If this book really takes off, I would like to write three more.  This is primarily about MacKenzie.  I would like to write one focusing more specifically on each character.  I am now writing another historical romance—this one set in Regency England.  I am at the exciting stage where the characters are revealing themselves to me and I am doing massive rewrites.

How did you come up with the title and cover design?

I think I answered the one about the title above.  The cover design was done by my exceedingly talented photographer husband.  The picture was actually taken in Amalfi, not Florence.  The door is from a photo taken in Mykonos, Greece.  He used photoshop to give it the feel of a painting.  To go with the title, I wanted a “passage.”

Where do you see yourself in five (5) years?

Hopefully, still traveling and writing.  Fans have been screaming for a sequel to: The Last Waltz (which will necessitate trips to Provence and Poland), my last genealogy novel (which I have already outlined and researched—it will be set in Florence).  I also want to write some more historical romances.  I am a passionate lady.

If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?

If they had a decent healthcare system, I think I would love to live in Lucca—a little town in Tuscany, not far from Florence.  It is the birthplace of Puccini, and they have a Puccini concert every night.  It is a walled town with no cars allowed inside.

Is there an Author that you would really like to meet?

I would love to meet Marisa de los Santos, who wrote my favorite contemporary novel: Love Walked In.  Like my novel, hers is a  treatment of all different sorts of love.

What books have most influenced your writing most and why?

Writing Down the Bones, by Natalie Goldberg, opened my creative floodgates.  I recommend it highly!  Morally, I am most influenced by the great nineteenth century writers: Tolstoy, Gaskill, Charlotte Bronte, and Austen.  I also treasure critic John Gardner’s book: On Moral Fiction—especially the parts where he quotes Tolstoy as saying that art should be a moral act, and as such should affirm life and not trivialize it, tear it down, or cause it to appear random or meaningless.

Do you prefer ebooks, paperbacks or hardcover?

I like trade paperbacks or e-books.  I’m becoming more and more a fan of e-books for fiction, but for research I need the trade paperbacks.  Also, for my most beloved Classical authors,I like sturdy hardbacks.

Are you a self published (Indie) Author or big trad published?

I am both.  My first eleven books were traditionally published by three different publishers.  I wanted to self-publish this one, hopefully to gain a wider readership.  All my publishers were niche publishers.  I want to be more generally known.  I am pleased that I am finding readers all over the world now.  My trad. Pubishers priced my e-books too high.  Now, my e-books are outselling my paperbacks.  Since I see that as the future of publishing, I wanted to get on the bandwagon early and get my books known.  Amazon has been terrific to me, for some reason.  They are currently doing two special offers with this book, have published my bio on my book page (not just my author page), as well as a special “Note to the Readers” that appears at the front of my book. 

How do you market/promote your books?

That’s a good question.  I do absolutely everything I can from blog tours to giveaways.  This book will be free on Amazon for three days starting Jan 27.  This really boosted sales of my whole mystery series when I offered the first volume free.  I have done radio interviews.  I write columns for an on-line magazine which brings a lot of traffic to my blog and website.  I have fan pages on Amazon, Goodreads, and several different ones on Facebook.  I send out a monthly e-mail newsletter.  I try to keep a weekly blog.  I offer writing samples on my website, as well a photos of Florence.  I watch the bookblogs site for bloggers (like you, bless you)

What do you think makes a book a really good/bestseller ?

A really good bestseller is a book that makes people think and maybe changes them for the better, or informs them about something important.  Unfortunately, these days sex and sensationalism usually make a bestseller, although I am cheered by the success of such books as The Help, and the two latest bestsellers by Emily Giffin, and other writers of women’s fiction.

What was your favourite chapter (or part) to write and why?

I think I loved most MacKenzie’s chapters of self-discovery, because she grew up in an oppressive household like my family of orgin’s, and she’d lost her way in her own marriage, turning into someone she really wasn’t.   Feeling her coming alive in Florence was a parallel experience for me.  I loved to see the Renaissance and the rest of Tuscany through her new eyes.

What has been the toughest criticism you’ve been given as an author?  What has been the best component?

The worst criticism was from my freshman English t.a.  From his store of great wisdom he informed me that I had great promise as a writer, but I needed to give up my religion. That kept me from writing anything for years, and made me tremendously insecure when I did write.  I don’t write overtly religious books, but I do write books about truth.  I never preach. 

The best component is when I win awards!  I don’t know why.  Probably because I secretly fear I’m not good.  But Max Perkins (editor to Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Thomas Wolfe, and Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings)says all of them had the same problem, as does any writer “worth his salt,” so I guess I’m in good company.

What do you do to unwind and relax?

Since we got our home theater two years ago, I collapse into my zero grav chair and watch TV.  My tastes vary from Burn Notice to Blue Bloods, to TV versions of the classics.  My all time favorite movie is the four hour dramatization of Elizabeth Gaskill’s North and South.  It illustrates the upheaval in England with the rise of industrialization and the middle class.  Margaret Hale is my favorite heroine,andRichard Armitage is to die for.

Have you ever read a book more than once?

Definitely.  Over and over.  I’ve lost count of the times I’ve read the classics, particularly Jane Eyre.  I keep hoping that I will absorb the author’s wisdom and creativity by osmosis.

Is there a particular movie that you preferred over the book version?

North and South.

What book are you currently reading and in what format (ebook/paperback/hardcover)?

I have been ill, and am writing a romance set in Regency England, and I dearly need a laugh.  So I’m rereading all of Georgette Heyer and laughing outloud.

Are there any new Authors that have seized your interest and why?

An author who is new to me is Caroline (?) Leavitt, author of Pictures of You.  I love her style of writing, her characters, and the way she successfully portrays emotion.  Also love   Emily Giffin—The Heart of the Matter, and Love the One You’re With.

Do you have any advice for other writers?

Do writing practice every day until you find your voice (Natalie Goldberg has great tips on this).  Once you find your voice be true to it.  Be true to yourself and what your believe.  Read On Moral Fiction.  The better stuff you read, the better stuff you will write.

What is the best advice that you have ever been given when it comes to writing?

To write from deep down inside where all my conflicts and wisdom lie

Cats or dogs?

Dachshunds

Favourite food?

Gelato

Vanilla or chocolate ice cream?

Chocolate

What are 4 things you never leave home without?

Lip gloss
Sunglasses
Wallet
A picture of my grandchildren

Laptop or desktop for writing?

Both.  Laptop while lying in my zero grav chair for composition. Desktop for editing and blogging and e-mail

Where and when do you prefer to do your writing?

My favorite place of all time is the Café Robiglio at the end of my street in Florence.  It had the most fantastic bitter-sweet hot chocolate and delectable pastries and I love to hear the emotional Italian all around me at any time of day.  I set up my laptop by the window and Italy is my backdrop.

One of your favourite quotes

Work without Vision is Drudgery.  Vision without Work is Dreaming.  Work and Vision—That is Destiny.-

List 3 of your all time favourite books?

Jane Eyre
Anna Karenina
Love Walked In

List 3 of your all time favourite movies?

North and South
What about Bob?
Room With a View

An actor you have a crush on -

Richard Armitage

What is a movie or TV show that you watched recently and really enjoyed?

Burn Notice, Blue Bloods, Gifted Man, Person of Interest, NCIS, White Collar

Where can your readers stalk you?

Site | Blog | G.G. Vandagriff-Author Facebook
Fans of G.G. Vandagriff Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads
Google + | Amazon | PTSD

Works By G.G. Vandagriff

Mysteries:

• Cankered Roots
• Of Deadly Descent
• Tangled Roots
• Poisoned Pedigree
• Hidden Branch

Suspense:

• Foggy With a Chance of Murder
• The Arthurian Omen

Historical:

• The Last Waltz: A Novel of Love and War

Women’s Fiction:

• Pieces of Paris
• The Only Way to Paradise

Non-Fiction

• Deliverance from Depression’
• Voices In Your Blood

CHAPTER THIRTY

LEARNING TO SEE

MacKenzie was not prepared for the rugged beauty of Italy’s coastline, so close to the smooth Tuscan hills. Here was another world entirely, formed by separate geological forces. It reminded her more of a movie she had seen about the Greek islands, and increased her feeling that today was a day out of her world. As they stood at the top of the cliffs overlooking Monterosso, the first of the five towns that formed Cinque Terre, Roberto unpacked his camera. His long, tapered fingers examined the lenses as he considered each one. Making his selection, he locked it into place and removed the lens cap.

Roberto’s gentle hands distracted MacKenzie and she rushed into speech, “I can’t believe they grow grapes here,” she said. “How long ago did they carve out these terraces?” She forced her eyes toward the grapevines that grew along the narrow “steps” that had been carved into pure rock all the way down to the town.

“Longer ago than anyone living can remember. Italians don’t know much about farming anything other than grapes and olives. No place for an olive tree, so that left grapes.”

“Thank you for bringing me here.” She looked at the cerulean sky and then down at the water—so clear that even from here she could see the white sand beneath it. “Why have I never heard of this place?”

“It was cut off from the world, except by yacht, until a railway was built about ten years ago. It has a single connection that goes through all five villages. No cars. That’s why we have to hike in this way.”

He handed her the camera. “Photography is easy with a modern camera. It can handle all the technical details if you like. But in a way, it’s more of a challenge. It demands that the photographer be a true artist if he is going to master anything beyond the ordinary. You have to learn to see, Mac. To see beyond the surface of things.” As she looked at the world through the lens, she was again distracted, this time by his hand on the back of her neck as it gently guided her head around. It had been so long since she had felt the gentle touch of a man’s hand.

“It’s my belief that everything in this world has a spirit of its own,” he said.

“You speak a language I can understand,” MacKenzie said, excited that he was explaining something she had always known set her apart from other people. Except Kurt. She remembered now that they had often spoken of this belief in the early days of their courtship, when she was a docent at the Met. “An artist does experience the world on a deeper level. That’s why they are sometimes bipolar. Or I may have the cause and effect backwards.”

She thought of her experience with the David and warmth flooded her. “In my life, those experiences can actually be a form of revelation. About myself. Or the world.”

“You are exactly right. In this case, anyone can press a button. The artistry must come from inside the photographer. You have that depth of vision. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have reacted as you did to Michelangelo or the view from my studio.”

While she looked at different photographic possibilities through her lens, she thought how wonderful it was to be understood. Particularly, when she had been so hurtfully misunderstood by her daughter.  She was wise enough to know that much of her attraction to Roberto just now was his validation of her as a person, not just a fixer of dinners and a doer of laundry.

Roberto continued. “In Cinque Terre, the spirit of people and things is very near the surface, almost naïve, because for so many years nothing has changed. Industrialization hasn’t made it to this spot. The land, the sea, the people and their houses—they are everything. A complete microcosm. A circle.”

When MacKenzie turned her lens on the town below, she saw a riot of shapes and sizes, colors and contrasts, representing people and their lives. Their individual histories were in those houses. Not just how they arranged things—what had pride of place and what was designated to go under the bed—but the spirit one always felt when one entered a place. Residenza Betta, for instance, had a loving spirit. And her home? She didn’t know anymore.

But Roberto had been right to bring her here for her first lesson. Any view she saw through her lens was charming. But charm wasn’t enough.

She wished that Roxie were here with her quirky imagination. MacKenzie wanted to tell a story with her photographs. Where should she start?

Any Italian would know that—with the grapes, of course. Without grapes, this village would not consist of three-story family houses wedged between the cliffs and the Mediterranean. It would have only a few shacks for fishermen.

“Speak to me about the grapes—what kind they are, what sort of wine they make, who harvests them, that sort of thing.”

Roberto began to discourse in smooth, musical Italian, telling her details that gave the landscape a persona, taking her back hundreds of years. “These people are pure Italian from several hundred years ago,” he concluded. “As I told you, until recently they have been influenced very little by the outside world. Even today you don’t see TV antennas or satellite dishes as you do over the rest of rural Italy. But I fear for the next generation. Your photo essay will one day reflect a world that has disappeared, I think.”

Concentrating on the difficult rocky works of terracing, she tried to convey the skill and backbreaking work it took to carve them out of the lava of the extinct volcano, but most of all the early vintner’s vision that it was even possible. It was nearing the end of the grape harvest, and she was lucky enough to use the zoom lens to capture a expressions of tenderness as they plucked the source of their worldly wealth by hand. These were no hirelings. These men loved their vines with a passion most hired harvesters would never feel.

Walking away from Roberto, she stepped with respect and care among the vines. Careful to protect his camera, she experimented with the zoom lens, finally concentrating on the individual grapes, still holding drops of the morning’s heavy dew.

“They must be irrigated by the moisture in the air.” she said to her teacher, for Roberto had joined her.

“Yes, you are right. So near to the ocean, the constant humidity makes their quality consistent and distinct. It’s unfortunate, but I’m afraid the wine from Cinque Terre is not to my taste.”

“It says a lot about your personality that you scorn simple sweetness,” she said with a grin.

They continued, MacKenzie photographing her story as Roberto fed her all the telling details. They went down to the village finally, where she photographed classical Italian faces, laundry flapping its colors in the sea breeze, and the improbable clarity of the water in its protected bay.

She was learning quickly, listening to a voice inside that had always been there, but had never had expression. A tight place in her rested. Her inner turmoil dissolved. In this place inside, she felt satisfied and relaxed, as though she were at a new home and all was well there. Little by little, the tension went from her body, and she could feel her shoulders “come down from her ears,” as her yoga instructor was always telling her. Soon she was all eye, unaware even of Roberto.

While they lunched late in the village of Corniglia, perched high above the sea, on Roberto’s wine, honey toast and creamy local goat cheese, she expressed this to him.

“You have made a new person of me.”

“No, Mac. Only brought out the person who has been waiting inside you all your life.”

Quiet, she looked at the view with her new eyes, putting off thoughts of how this day would affect decisions she had to make at its end.  It was on to Manarola and finally the largest village—Riomaggiore. As the day went on, subtitles began running through MacKenzie’s conscience at unwelcome moments.

There, that woman crocheting on her balcony with the grape terrace behind her. What would Kurt think if he could see me now with this handsome Italian teaching me to photograph? She looks like a Medici with her hooked nose, dressed in her red dress against the green. Queen of all she surveys. What was Kurt’s journey? Was it literal or figurative?  How and why did he come back so changed, ready to give our marriage another try?  Jess’s unreasonable anger hurt so much, she almost lost touch with this all important question.  And why was he keeping her waiting?  Why couldn’t he fly over here tomorrow with Josh?

Her curiosity became more and more unbearable as it simmered under her photography lesson, which on another level, she was enjoying.  It reminded her of her childhood, this thinking on two different levels.  There was the surface level where she heard her parents screaming at each other, threatening divorce, and then there was that calm place inside her where she planned what would be her own perfect life.  When she was little, she wrote stories about it.  When she was older, she buried herself in books.  Big, thick Russian novels so complex that they made her parents into cartoon figures by comparison.  She realized how foolish they were, and that quarrels had nothing to do with her.  Now, it was just the opposite.  The serene life was real here with Roberto, but she wasn’t really living it.  As the day went by, her thoughts were more and more of Kurt. She didn’t want a divorce, but she no longer wanted the life they had been living, either.  Roberto and Italy had reawakened her.  She was seeing glorious colors now.  Before, she had been living a shadow life in black and white.

Buy

The Only Way to Paradise on

Amazon

To Download

The Only Way to Paradise

On Amazon!

“Unforgettable!”

“What is that hard to define quality that makes a book memorable? Is it complex and interesting characters? Is it a captivating plot with unexpected twists and turns? Maybe it’s the setting and the “feel” of the book. Or, perhaps, it’s the ability to connect with the story, tap into that magical “relatability” factor that lingers long after the last page has been read.

Any one of these elements is vital to a story, but rarely do we find books that have all of these qualities. However, The Only Way to Paradise is such a book.”–Michele Bell, Best-Selling Romance Author.  One of many five star reviews.  There have been nearly three thousand downloads so far!  And Paradise has gone as high as #7 on the Amazon Contemporary Fiction Bestseller List!  Help it go higher!  Tell your friends!

What causes picture-perfect suburban Oakwood residents, MacKenzie, Roxie, Sara, and Georgia to desert their therapist and fly off to Florence? Answer: A romantic Italian movie that prompts Roxie to ask: “If Italy is so healing and therapeutic what are we doing in Ohio?”

Even Sara, the most duty-bound of the group, finally joins the pact they dub “The Crazy Ladies of Oakwood,” and only a week later, they find themselves in Florence. Embraced by the entire province of Tuscany, each woman becomes entangled in experiences she could never have foretold. Not only do they find the fascinating Italian men that Georgia promised, but new sides to themselves and each other.

Against the glittering background of Florence, their dramas play out:

MacKenzie returns to her student days as an art historian, discarding her identity as the controlling Oakwood charity patron and society hostess. Renewing her acquaintance with the David, she vows to let herself be sculpted rather than trying to sculpt others. MacKenzie finds not only a new talent, but a new man who appreciates it, just as her husband decides to re-enter her life.

Roxie, who has always approached life as a circus, is drawn unwillingly into a passionate romance with a gorgeous Italian professor, Stefano. Her physical response to Stefano taps into lost memories, causing her to literally run from him. Roxie, a quirky and colorful Cubana, senses danger in visions and smells that resurface of a rotting summerhouse behind her Florida home. With his nurturing and passionate love, Stefano helps her to face the “broken piece” inside her.

Sara unveils part of her that no one but her instructors know. She is an extraordinarily talented concert violinist. Normally trapped in the demanding life of an ob-gyn (scripted for her by her Vietnamese immigrant parents), she is temporarily freed. She performs for others for the first time, and experiences unprecedented joy. However, the coping mechanism she used to handle the pressure of her job threatens to destroy her new life.

Georgia, a grieving widow, processes her life without Ben and without her violin career that ended early because of arthritis. Looking for a new passion in life, she finds that satisfaction comes to her in “giving back” to those around her the lessons and knowledge she has learned through her successes and mistakes in La Dolce Vita. Just as her perspective is changing, she reunites with her first love, Arturo, and must make a decision about the direction of her future life.

Though ages have passed since the rebirth called the Renaissance, Florence still inspires change by breathing out its creative mix of energy, beauty, and courage. Where Michelangelo “set free” the David by sculpting a block of marble, each “crazy lady” finds her exterior “Oakwood” self burnished away by new experiences, revealing a new self. This burnishing is not a gentle process, but exuberant Italians help them through it with their all-embracing agape, or unconditional love. Though they do not know it, each of them hungers for agape’s healing power. They discover in it a balm that binds them together and puts them on the road to recovery, the road that is “The Only Way to Paradise.”

E-BOOK OF

THE ONLY WAY TO PARADISE

ON AMAZON.COM

http://www.amazon.com/Only-Way-Paradise-ebook/dp/B0054ZELHO/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1327783408&sr=8-2

OFFER ENDS MONDAY 1/30 AT MIDNIGHT

I am grateful for each of you, especially those who write to me!  It has been a difficult year in many ways, and a glorious year in others.  I have, at least for the present, left the comfort of the Deseret Book nest in search of new readers far and wide, and published my books with our own imprint: The Orson Whitney Press.  As of this writing, all of the Alex and Briggie Genealogical Mysteries should be up on Amazon, as well as a new edition of The Last Waltz and The Arthurian Omen.  The coming year should see the re-publication of Pieces of Paris.  We are pleased to offer these books at much lower prices.  This task has absorbed almost all my time.

I was able to publish two new books this year, Foggy with a Chance of Murder (DB) and The Only Way to Paradise (OWP).  Foggy sold very well, even though I wrote it very fast to meet an almost impossible deadline.  Paradise was a labor of love and has enjoyed many incarnations.  I am very grateful to Pam Satran (a NYT bestseller of Women’s Fiction) for her critique to bring it to “the next level.”  Those of you who bought the book when it first came out have an earlier earlier edition.  The current edition is much improved, thanks to Pam.

I was also able to visit my beloved Florence.  I am hoping for at least one more Florentine embrace, but my health, at present, will not permit it.  I am praying that it will improve in time for an October trip to celebrate David’s and my 40^th wedding anniversary.  I need to feel the love in the air of that splendid place, and to visit my dear Elisabetta, Cosimo, and Adriana, whom many of you met when reading Paradise.

Who ever heard of someone inheriting a gold mine?  Well, if you had known my colorful father, you would realize that  he was precisely the sort of character who would buy 1% of such an investment.  While the stocks he left us lost all their value in “the crash,” the gold mine “burps” every now and then (just when we need it to) and we receive a check.  This has been an inestimable blessing in our lives.

By far the greatest blessing, however, has nothing to do with my writing career or my amusing inheritance.  My oldest son (34), Morgan, has met the girl of his dreams and will be married in a few days.  I will gain a wonderful new daughter, and my daughter, Buffy, (who engineered the first date) will finally have a sister.  Best of all, I anticipate new grandchildren!

Grandchildren.  I cannot tell you what a blessing Jack and Micah are in my life.  I anticipate their arrival shortly for the wedding, along with my daughter.  Family is my very greatest blessing—from my dear husband David, who is friend, lover, publisher, and partner in shenanigans (legal, of course), my children Morgan, Buffy, and Greg, and my aforementioned grandchildren.  Holiday time is magical as we spend wonderful time together celebrating the birth of our Savior, give each other thoughtful gifts, and just “hanging out.”  Their love is what keeps me going.

Thanks to all of you for visiting the site.  Enjoy the added features—an Alex and Briggie store, and excerpts from various books, as well as the photos, my blog, bio, and questions for Book Clubs.

Have a New Year full of good health, serenity in the face of chaos, as well as the incomparable comfort of the Spirit!

GG

Do you or your genealogist friends have our first two books yet?

Special Promo for Kindle and Nook  $3.99

Paperback $9.99

Alexandra Campbell, a spunky young widow, partnered with Brighamina Poulson, an even spunkier, rifle-toting grandmother thinks that as they have begun a genealogy business (RootSearch, Inc.), it is high time she finds out her family secret. Something went wrong in her family during her adolescence, changing her mother from a Chicago North Shore matron into an alcoholic and a doting father into a workaholic. The moment she graduated from High School, she was sent to the Sorbonne in Paris with a generous bank account and instructions not to return.

It is now fifteen years since she has seen her parents, and she intends to lay the ghost that has separated her family for good. However, as usual in Alex’s unpredictable life, things do not go as planned. After an acrimonious fight with her once beloved father, she leaves with only a wallet-sized photograph of a woman she knows nothing about.

That night, Alex’s father is killed. Bewildered and grieved that her family can never be whole again, she soon finds out that she is the chief suspect in the murder. With the unflappable Briggie at her side, she uses all her new genealogical skills, and (with the help of Briggie’s deer rifle) discovers a secret so bizarre that she finally understands why her parents wanted her far away and safe.

Join Alex and Briggie in the first of their hair-raising adventures!

Where do You Start Looking for a Missing Ancestor

Without a Name

With Descendants With Whom You Share an Inheritance?

At their last known address—The Argonne Forest, France, 1919.

In their previous adventure, Alexandra Campbell and her business partner, Brighamina Poulson, discovered a branch of Alex’s family that was previously unknown.  Because of wicked deeds in days gone by, a soldier in World War I who should have been part of Alex’s family was lost.  In fact, he was so lost, he didn’t even know his own name!

Through a series of coincidences (and we all know there are no coincidences in genealogy!) they track their man from France to Oxford, and even give him a name.  However, upon their arrival in Oxford, before they even contact the man’s descendants, a member of the family is pushed under a bus right before their eyes!  It soon becomes evident that the death was connected to the coming legacy.  Who knew they were coming to Oxford with news of a fortune?  What role does the mysterious Frenchman Etienne play in the dastardly doings?  And what about Charles Lamb, a very eligible bachelor, also an heir to the estate?

Briggie is lost without her deer rifle and can’t keep up on the box scores of her Kansas City Royals baseball team.  She doesn’t think much of Oxford, either, and is worried about the effect of this center of secular wisdom on Alex.  She is even more worried about Charles Lamb.

 For Special Genealogical Gifts 

Related to this Series Go To “Store” on the Toolbar!

GG:  Roxie, what do the words “embracing abundance” bring to your mind?

Roxie:  Oh. . . what a beautiful word combination!  I love the idea of an embrace—embrazzo—of all the things I love in life.  Right at this very moment, I think my abundance level is overflowing!  I have so many new friends who love me just the way I am:  MacKenzie (who is not at all who everyone thinks she is), Georgia (who paid for us all to come to Florence and have this great adventure), Little Sara (who is literally fighting for her life), Jess (MacKenzie’s daughter, a brilliant poet and spunky as all-get-out), Elisabetta (our B & B hostess who loves each of us as though we were her daughters), Cosimo (her handsome son who has the authentic Italian charm), and, of course, my Stefano.

GG: So abundance means “relationships” in your world.

Roxie: Yes. Although, I have spent most of my life without any.  Perhaps that is why they are so precioso  to me now.  I have always loved fast cars, bright colors, salsa dancing, and writing.

GG: You’re a journalism professor, right?  You don’t seem like one, if you don’t mind my saying so.

Roxie: I know.  I am very good at it, but it does not make my heart sing.  I want to be a novelist, like you are.  But, you have to write “from your bones,” don’t you ?

GG. Absolutely.  You’ve got to get down to the good stuff.  The stuff that makes you human.

Roxie: Does it hurt?  I’m afraid of what I will find out down there.  They say that 88% of you r brain is your subconscious.

GG: The really good stuff does hurt.  Like writing about World War One in The Last Waltz, or about Annalisse’s loss in Piece of Paris.  But that is where you make your individual connection with the reader.

Roxie: So you’re going to make me hurt in this book?

GG: What do you think?

Roxie: You’re the author.  You make the decision, not me.

GG: You’ve already made the decision by deciding you want to find that “broken piece” inside.  The thing that’s wonderful about writing is that it is a whole experience.  You, Roxie, have an arc.  You are in the middle of your story.  I promise you that at the end you will have gained wisdom and purpose and you will know where you are going.

Roxie: Paradise?

GG: Of course.  If you choose that road.  You say it’s up to me, but I would never write anything that was counter to the character of Roxie Castro.  You are a person.  Don’t forget it.

Click on the book image on the sidebar to order your book from Amazon.

e-books at special promotional price during November

$3.99

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2011

Saturday Stories (and a book review), G.G, Vandagriff

Today’s guest for Saturday Stories is published author G.G. Vandagriff. G.G. is the author of TWELVE books, the latest entitled The Only Way to Paradise.

Following this super fun interview please stay tuned for more on G.G. and my review of The Only Way to Paradise.

Q—Would you please tell us a little about yourself?

My standard line is that I am one of those lucky people who can experience love, hate, misery, euphoria, passion, or elation at will. I can live anywhere at any time in history.  Even the future. I am a writer. Since this is a blog for writers, I hope you all appreciate what a gift this is. I discovered it as a youngster in a very dysfunctional home. I literally wrote myself into another existence in a happy family. I discovered the joy of “writing” before I even learned to read. My “writing” was Crayola picture stories in dime store scrapbooks.

I have lived a life with more than my share of drama, which has had its drawbacks, but is wonderful material for character building. Being bi-polar, I have experienced depths and heights that most people never know. This exaggerated type of life is what many people look for in fiction. I took refuge in writing light fiction when my mind sought escape. But as soon as I was healed (miraculously, of course), I began to express all that I had learned deep in my soul. I have written four books that I consider “real” emotionally: Deliverance From Depression: Finding Hope and Healing through the Power of the Atonement (non-fiction); The Last Waltz: A Novel of Love and War (Whitney Winner for Best Historical Fiction), Pieces of Paris, and now my new book: The Only Way to Paradise.

As far as hard facts go: I was raised in Southern California, did my undergraduate work at Stanford (where my English teacher informed me that I had “considerable talent” but that I would have to give up my religion if I wanted to succeed as a writer), worked in finance for two years in Boston, and then got my Master’s Degree at George Washington University. I got engaged right in the middle of writing my thesis, which was, of course, a giant distraction! David and I have lived in Chicago, Southern California, Southwest Missouri, Oakwood (Dayton), Ohio, and now Provo. We have three children and 2 grandchildren who are the true light of my life. I am restraining myself from including a photo. I have published 11 books with conventional publishers and am now branching out on my own. The Only Way to Paradise is my first self-published book. All my others, except the two most recent ones, are in process of being published under my husband’s and my own imprint.

Q—Please tell us about your book The Only Way to Paradise.

Paradise started out about 3 ½ years ago to be a fun chick lit about some endearingly eccentric women who were in therapy together and decided to dump their therapist and go to Florence to find healing. However, as soon as I got to know my characters, I began a journey of rewrites that led me to a “real” book about agape (Christlike love) and its relationship to healing. The last version was completed only a month ago. It has been the book that just keeps going deeper and deeper.

Q—What inspired you to write The Only Way to Paradise?

I wanted to write about women who had experienced life on one level, but had failed to find out who they really were and what they were really capable of. Group therapy, such as theirs, was not successful in my case. I wanted to write about real (there’s that word again) healing in a way that non-members could relate to. Since all people have the Light of Christ, I knew that the people who were prepared to learn truth would learn an important piece of it from this story.

Q—Tell us about each of the four main female characters in the book.

MacKenzie: A forty-year old woman with two teenagers and a mysteriously missing husband, who left her in the middle of the night six months prior with no explanation.  He is a doctor and she has been masquerading for twenty years as a society matron in the upper class suburb of Oakwood, Ohio. In reality, she is an artist without a discovered medium, holds degrees from Stanford and Columbia in Art History, and “way back when” she taught her husband, Kurt, to surf, and he taught her to rock climb. Their marriage has become one of parallel lives. She is in therapy to discover what is wrong with her and why her husband left.

Sara: A thirty year old woman masquerading as an ob-gyn, who has a secret life as an uber-talented violinist whom no one has ever heard play, except her teachers. The daughter of self-sacrificing Vietnamese immigrants who saved all their money so she could be a doctor, she is caught in a profession that makes her constantly anxious that she might lose a mother or a baby. She has become a Xanax addict, and as the book opens, has been thrust into therapy by her peers who have given her “mandated leave.” None of her fellow “crazy ladies” know anything of this, and at first she flatly refuses to join in the trip to Florence.

Roxie: Another thirty-year old woman, a descendant of wealthy Cuban refugees, is even more beautiful than J-Lo. However, she hates her beauty and tries to disguise it by wearing sweats and a baseball cap with her pony tail hanging out the back. She has a Cubana’s passion for life, which she treats as a circus. When she gets to Florence, however, she exhibits bizaare behavior, running away from a professor as handsome as Michelangelo’s David. The other crazy ladies realize that her problems are deeper and more mysterious than their own. Roxie doesn’t even know what they are.

Georgia:  A sixty-year-old widow who has led “La Dolce Vita” all over the world as a successful concert violinist, but has lost her career due to early onset arthritis and her beloved husband due to a heart attack just three months prior. Georgia is seeking for a reason to go on living, when she suddenly is inspired to finance a revitalizing trip to Florence for all four of them. She is very wealthy, and this idea is the only thing that has lit even a small spark in her since her husband’s death.

Q—You are able to create such a rich tapestry of characters, each with their own depth, how did you do this? Where did you draw their lives from?

As I said in answer #1, I have a lot of experience with mental illness, abuse, and consequently PTSD.

However, I didn’t want to write about illness, I wanted to write about healing. The problem is, you can’t heal someone who isn’t ill. The writing, in previous incarnations of the book, shied away from delving as deeply as it needed to in order to make the healing as dramatic and real(again) as I wanted it to be. I sought paid advice from a NYT best-selling author of women’s fiction. She guessed what my problem was. There was a part of me in each of these women, but I was understandably reluctant to peel back the layers.

She taught me a wonderful technique. I have always been a “discovery” writer, not an outliner. My characters just become. I have so much “fertile soil” of experience, that I never have to look too far for interesting characters, I just dig down inside of me, finding people I have known, and milking my familiarity with quirkiness, tragedy, healing, and at the heart of it all—the Savior. Pam taught me how to harness all of this and really mine the gold that lay beneath my words. The process was this:  I bought large index cards in four colors-one for each character. With these cards, I took one character at a time and created her “arc.” This consisted of beginning with her first scene, and then developing her, scene by scene, each card describing in detail the conflict and drama in it. I was working consciously, but not predictably or facilely toward the person that character would become when her arc was complete. When I had done all four arcs, then the artistry of sorting the cards into chapters, where the arcs were all overlapping, took place. Iloved this! Never having had any formal training in plotting or characterization, this filled a big hole in my abilities. I had to go “line upon line, precept upon precept” as deeply as needed to make “truth” happen for each of these ladies, and have that truth overlap and precipitate progress of the plot and finally the resolution.

Q—It is obvious by the intricate and palpable description that you have been to Italy and seen all the amazing towns and sites you show in the book. How did your experiences in Italy define these women and their experiences there?

I know it’s probably a cliché, but it’s true that Italy is a place of miracles, particularly Florence, the seat of the Renaissance. As MacKenzie tries to tell Sara, the energy that propelled the artists and scientists out of the Dark Ages is still there! She insists, and I of course agree, that Florence is a place that makes you believe that “all your dreams can come true.” My royalties made it possible for me to take three trips there during the course of writing this book. The last time I was there almost a month. And I was alone. That’s when the Lord struck me down on the sidewalk, and agape in the form of a handsome young Italian (they’re all handsome!) picked me up carefully, walked me to the famous pastacceria (a combination of a lively cafe and bakery), ordered me a Coke, and sat and chatted with me about the miracle of the Renaissance for forty-five minutes, before surprising me with the gift of four bus tickets! Agape!! It took that experience to teach me why I loved Italy so much—the art is breathtaking, the landscape Celestial, but it is the Florentines with their overflowing love for others that is what makes is truly remarkable and healing. When I learned this, I finally had the reason I was inspired to write this book. Agape opens your heart and prepares you for healing, as you learn a different way of life and step onto “the only way to paradise.”

Q—The Only Way to Paradise is your amazing 12th book! How has your writing evolved along the way? What lessons have you learned or what advice would you like to share with all the writers out there?

Don’t be afraid of “rules.” Don’t compare yourself to others. Take the time and energy necessary to find your own voice. If you want to write anything of significance (and here I must admit that I couldn’t exist without “potato chip books” to soothe my harrowed soul) you need to have something to say, and you need to say it as only you can. How do you find this voice? There is no other way that I know of than to do writing practice. Each day, as soon as possible after arising (this is the time for the most unique thought) take a “trigger” (the first line of a novel, a poem, or even a newspaper story—the Internet has whole sites of writing triggers), set your timer for twenty minutes, and write without stoping. Do not lift your pen from the paper. Do not edit. Write whatever comes into your head.

It is ideal to have a partner to do this with, because you learn so much about your voice when you see how different it is under the same circumstances, with the same trigger, from your partner’s. If you do this, like a musician does scales, pretty soon your writing will pass beneath the superficial into terra incognita—your subconscious. The best writers “tame” their subconscious (88% of their brain) with their conscious voice less and less. I’m not saying that I’m a fan of Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying or Joyce’s Ulysses. My mind doesn’t go in those directions. Another very important thing is to read good writers. There is such a thing as osmosis in this case. Good writers are liberating.

Q—All the ladies in your story learn some hard but extremely valuable life lessons in Italy. If you can, will you share one life lesson you’ve learned that has affected the way you not only see yourself but your talents as a writer?

I’ve learned to be open to my own spirit and what it is telling me about the universe. Why did it take me 3 visits to discover why I loved Italy so much I couldn’t stay away? Because I wasn’t “listening.” There is a voice inside of all of us that knows when something is eternally true and right. If we are living the gospel, attending the temple,  being diligent in our prayers and scripture study, that voice is attuned to the infinite. You can become who you were born to become. If you “listen” to that voice its power will become greater and greater until you understand the power of what you are writing. And then . . . you start all over with another book. (This one has been so taxing, my next will be another “potato chip” book!)

Q—Of the four characters who do you see yourself in the most?

It was very surprising to me when I realized that, although there was a great bit of me in each of them, that I was most like Roxie! Since my first trip to Florence, I have become a very flashy dresser, we are both writers, and both terrified of handsome men. (I kept my eyes on David’s tie knot the first time I met him. Our courtship was largely by mail, which allowed me to fall in love with him while not having to look at him.) I am quirky and outrageous, and our traumas are similar, except that I have more of them!

Q—Of the four characters who is least like you?

Probably Georgia. Although I love her dearly as she develops, I possess no musical talent, and could not for long have tolerated the rootless, cosmopolitan, promiscuous life that she led and thinks she still longs for. Georgia thinks through most of the book that a man is the answer to every problem. At the end of the journey she takes, we are much more in accord.

Q—If you had the opportunity to have Georgia’s money and the time to take three friends with you to Italy who would they be and why?

Great question! I think time in Italy is so essential for a woman, that my only problem is narrowing it down to three. Actually, one of the people I would most want to take is a man—my 26 year old son who is very in tune with me emotionally, who is brilliant beyond my ability to comprehend, and whose gretest challenge is the perrenial gifted person’s challenge: “I can do anything passably well. But what am I passionate about? I think Italy and Tuscany for a month would help him put things in perspective. As a matter of fact, perspective was Florence’s gift to the world, and what changed art forever.

The second person I would take would be Sandra. She is a year older than me and still timid about her considerable talent as a water colorist. I would love to take her to San Gimignano to paint the medieval buildings and doorways and archways to her hearts content. She paints “little gems” and I think Tuscany would work its magic on her and give her the sense of well-being and accomplishment she needs to realize her own talent.

The third person I would take would be my BFF, Alana. She is so brilliant, but has had such a hard life, that I don’t understand how she can be as resiliant as she is. She’s also an artist, a photographer, and a writer, but is almost entirely self-taught. Florence would catch my scrappy friend on fire! I want to witness that. I want to see her in the process of having all her dreams come true.

Q—Before reading this book (well, when I was just a few pages into it) I decided I had better go watch “Enchanted April” because your story begins with these ladies watching it. How did this movie inspire / influence your book?

I think it inspired the four women in Italy idea. And it certainly is full of agape. (Which I should have caught on to) However, my choice of Florence made all the difference, and turned it into a completely different book. “Enchanted April” is like an Impressionist painting. I don’t know what my book is like, but it isn’t the least blurred. It tackles much harder questions, and I hope it points people in the right direction. I would love for it to be as inspiring as Enchanted April is!

Q—You’ve got a blog tour going on right now. Could you tell us a little bit about it?

To be honest, it has been a bit of a disappointment. The quality of the blogs lead me to suspect that I am not talking to an audience that would appreciate this book. Three others are traveling with it: Cankered Roots, Arthurian Omen, and The Last Waltz: A Novel of Love and War. While the last book is an epic, and really has something for everyone and can be read on any of several levels, the first is my first mystery—entertaining and fun, and the second is a psychological suspense. So those three books have been popular. I don’t know how many readers from that segment of the population will appreciate the subtlties of Paradise, but perhaps there is enough romance and atmosphere to please them. I know that romance and atmosphere are key ingredients in the books I like to read! The most disappointing part has been that bloggers have failed to produce. They just don’t post on the days they’re supposed to. Others are very committed and have given me great interview questions, but none as good a yours. I’m afraid that I have completely worn you and everyone else out!

Seriously, G.G., you did not wear me out! This book was a breath of fresh air and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I guess that’s as good a lead as any into my review…

Book Review: The Only Way to Paradise

The Only Way to Paradise is a wonderful, character driven story. Set in the heart of Italy, G.G. Vandagriff takes four unique women, each struggling with their own set of demons, and places them in a world where they not only discover what it is eating away at their souls but leads them on the path to true self-discovery.

Each of the characters face difficult choices and the frightening task of learning who they really are, often times this means digging painfully into their past to discover what made them the women they are today and accepting what they need to do to change.

I found myself completely enchanted by this book. I could see bits and pieces of myself in each and every one of G.G.’s four main characters though I must admit to feeling the strongest kinship with MacKenzie. Through MacKenzie’s journey of self-discovery I learned a lot about myself and came to understand the importance of letting go and allowing the Lord to mold one’s life. One of my favorite quotes from the book has to do with this. It takes place when MacKenzie, freshly arrived in Italy, finds herself staring at Michelangelo’s statue of David.

“Be gentle with yourself,” David said to her. “You are not meant to know everything. That is what life is for. Learning day by day. I started as a block of marble. The chisel was slow and painstaking, but it ultimately did its work. Let the chisel work in your life. You will find MacKenzie again. And maybe you will find God.”

The book is filled with wonderful life lessons like this one that don’t make the reader feel as if they’re being preached to, rather they are on their own little journey to self-discovery along with these four women.

G.G. has the uncanny ability to make the reader feel like they are in Italy with these women, painting vivid pictures of the cities and villages and creating life-like Italian men and women whose dialogue is so spot-on with the trade-mark Italian charm.

I found myself laughing, smiling, and completely enchanted by this book and I would highly recommend it to anyone interested in a story that is more than just an enjoyable read, but a personally enlightening read as well.

Anyone who knows Anne, knows how mightily she deserves these kudos.  I have never seen anybody work so hard at marketing her works.  And the fact that she is her own publisher makes it necessary to market more than most.  I know.  I am trying to do the same thing, but I’m not even close to her class.

The stories in this volume about the wonderful miracles that people have experienced while doing their Family History, are just as gripping as those in her last volume.  And people keep sending her more!  I think these volumes will continue and will occupy substantial space in the Celestial Library.

Writing these books is such a labor of love.  You can feel that love by reading only one story of one miracle.  Imagine how you will feel after reading the whole book!

It will make a wonderful Christmas gift for anyone on your family tree.  If they’re not already doing their genealogy, they will probably be moved to begin because of Anne’s faithful role as a “teller of stories.”

The book is available at BYU Bookstore, both in the store and online.