Thirteen places I want to see before I die

I am not as regular about my Thursday Thirteen lists as some of the other writers I see but every once in a while I join in on the fun. I don't think it's any secret I have a travel bug. I like to experience new cities and see the world.

This is my list of places I want to see before I die.

• I want to search for the Loch Ness monster and see Scotland. If my husband catches me looking under a kilt, that is my excuse. I was looking for Nessie...not to verify if men really wear anything under there. 
• Watching the Olympic games wouldn't be the same if I got to see London, England for myself. They have been our political allies and adversary for years but I could listen to a man speak for hours if he has an English accent.
• I would love to see the statue of Liberty and walk through Central Park in New York City.
• My great grandmother got to see the pyramids of Egypt and I would love to follow in her footsteps and look out over the Nile river. Yeah, I still miss my grandma. 
• I have one city on my list which is there for my kids as well as myself. Orlando, Florida is full of theme parks and amusement parks. We've been to Disney Land in California but never Disney World. So one day we hope to go with the kids. 
• I used to love watching the Crocodile Hunter and his family on Animal Planet. I was devastated when he died and would love to go see the zoo his family started in Australia along with the Great Barrier Reef.
• Anything that can be seen from space and is manmade just leaves me with a Wow factor. I want to see parts of China. The Great Wall is included in this. 
• I want to visit Thailiand with my aunt and meet her family she left behind to marry my uncle.
• Someday I want to go visit Timbuktu just to say I've been there.
• San Antonio, Texas is going to be the home of The Romance Conference 2013 so naturally I want to go. It's also a great excuse to see a man in a cowboy hat. I hope if I can attend I can leave more time to sightsee this time.
• I have a huge amount of German blood and history. Some of my cousins are still living in Germany. I never met them, but the wall is down now and I could meet them if I ever traveled to East Germany.
• I am extremely fortunate in that I lived near Edwards Air Force base in California and actually got to see the Space Shuttle land. History was made and I could see it as it happened. However, I've never seen a launch. Which would be spectacular in Cape Canaveral, Florida. 
• I actually got to check one city off my list this summer. I have always wanted to go see New Orleans. Forget Mardi Gras, this city is rich in culture and history. I fell in love with it during my short visit. The architecture in the French quarter is beautiful and painted with such eye catching colors you are absorbed into every detail. It didn't matter where we ate the food was always good and the people were amazing.

I am extremely lucky to be this well traveled and be able to use some of these places as a setting in my books. French Kiss was set in Paris, along with Paris Bites my current work in progress. My next book will be set in New Orleans. I collect travel guides like other people collect stamps.

It seems like every time I can check something off, another thing or place replaces it. I've seen a lot in my short life. I've been to the Alps in Switzerland, bought chocolate and lace in Belgium, and looked out over in awe at the Grand Canyon. I've seen Mount Rushmore and wondered what there was to see when we drove through endless cornfields in Iowa, but in the end it's not the places so much as the memories we build with the people we are with.

Other authors participating in the Thursday Thirteen links.

Lady Janice's Thirteen Random Photos Around Her House
Maddy Barone
Jennifer Leeland
Paige Tyler

If you want to participate in this Thursday Thirteen blogs, feel free to share your links to your blog in the comment section below.

MCRW contest is now open

**Permission to share and forward granted**

Guess what time of year it is? It is the annual MCRW contest which is a great way to get your manuscript in front of an industry leader or editor or agent who may be interested in publishing it.  You can be published even in the category you entered, but the story has to be new and never before published.

Only the first 25 pages are required to enter. :) You get very good feedback from several judges even if you don't win with encouragement and helpful advice to make your story the best it can be.


I am sharing this because we are low on entries this year, but don't let that scare you off. To you that means you may have a better chance of your story doing well when there isn't much competition.

Good luck and I hope you consider entering.


You can find out all the details and how to enter here:

http://www.mcrw.com/index.php/2012-melody-of-love-contest/

My field trip to the Cafe du Monde in New Orleans (pictures)

I spent the weekend in New Orleans and when I asked people what was really important to see what came up again and again was the food. As a coffee lover I had to go to the legendary Cafe Du Monde. This coffee shop is well known by the locals and the tourists alike and serves some of the arguably best coffee downtown.

Cafe Du Monde borders the Mississippi river and is on one of the main streets in the lower French District. It's hard to miss with a line of people in front nearly 24 hours a day. This place never stops. We got there early and the locals were just beginning to get up so luckily we didn't have a huge line or long wait.

Coffee here doesn't taste like anything I have ever had before. It's not some frothy mocha fancy whip topping. It's either black coffee or coffee au lait (coffee with milk). That's it. I guess the lack of choices also cuts down on the line. You can't stand there and say, "What should I get?"

However the cool thing about this coffee is they add chicory root. This tradition started during the Civil War when the Union had a blockade against the city to stop shipments from arriving. As a cheap substitute the shops had begun using chicory root and when they could finally change it back the locals protested it and the shops use it to this day. 

So this coffee has a very unique flavor that I never found outside the city. Good but strong. I got this cup of awesomeness to remember the experience by.

I was surprised by the level of service as well. We had a waitress that took our order and when I was done with my coffee she came by and cleaned my mug so I could take it home in a gift bag. It was an extra nice touch that I appreciated. 

Did you know the coffee isn't even what they are famous for? It's these things they call Beignets. The closest thing I can equate it to is a doughnut but it's not a doughnut at all. It's fried bread dough smothered in powdered sugar. They don't travel well and are best eaten while still hot but they are so good they are worth raving about. 

I ate these little treats at several restaurants but these were cooked perfectly and very soft and just melt in my mouth good. I can see why people travel from all over the world to eat here. 

This is me in my lion shirt. It's been raining like crazy the last few days and the humidity is doing a crazy thing to my curly hair but this is me enjoying my morning. 

That's about it. 

I hope you enjoyed my travel pictures. We had lots of fun and my family will be talking about this trip for years to come. I feel like I ate my way through New Orleans. I had so much good food it's hard to say what was the best thing I had and now that I am home I will have to think about returning to a normalcy and maybe even a diet. 

I am afraid to step on a scale to find out if extreme measures will be necessary. lol

First, I have to work on edits for The Unicorn and the Virgin (m/m) but will post more about my trip later for you all to see. If I finish today, I will treat myself to read one of the new books I picked up while at the booksigning at the Authors After Dark conference.

Incentives always help me to work harder. 

Lots of love to you all,

Missy Lyons

www.missylyons.com

There's a ball and I have nothing to wear...

I am looking forward to attending the Authors after Dark Conference and they have lots of conferences and special acitivites. One in particular is a costume contest and masquerade ball. I need to come up with a good ghost costume and figure out what to do.

Want to look at what I have to work with? Here it is:

Friday Night From 9pm-12am

ECHOES OF NEW ORLEANS masquerade with the masquerade court, lead by the amazing Joey W. Hill!

Ghosts of the old world, be they real or imaginary come out for a ball honoring them! Remnants, Voodoo queens, zombies, politicians, historical figures and of course, book characters will fill our most hallowed of ballrooms for a night of revelry, debauchery and mischief!

Huge prize for the best costume, as well as two runner ups! Let your freak flag fly in the Big Easy, and honor those that have helped to make the city infamous!

Nothing storebought is going to work completely. I need to try to come up with something original and fun. :)

New Orleans Zoo visit - AADNOLA

I am in New Orleans at the writers and readers conference Authors After Dark. The first day was a little crazy but I found the hotel and checked in. The moment we entered the city the sky darkened and lightning flashed. A summer storm had suddenly appeared from the out of nowhere and in a city of concrete walls and asphalt streets the rain water has nowhere to go. The downpour was intense and almost scary. I had to leave the car and wade through a foot of water. When we drove on the streets I had to be careful of pedestrians so I wouldn't splash them but that was near impossible.

I didn't stay long in the hotel Royal Sonata though and the family wanted to fit in some sightseeing so we found some fun places to take the kids while we were here.

The New Orleans Zoo was absolutely beautiful and there are plenty of extras besides the animals so you don't get bored. They had a train ride which we totally took advantage of and a Dinosaur exhibit with animatronics so you get the full experience of roaring moving dinosaurs. It was way cool.

This is me and the babygirl just having fun on our tour of the zoo. It was absolutely beautiful and some of the buildings in the zoo were created by the same man who built Central Park Zoo so it was very refined and had a classic beauty in some places like at the fountains.

I noticed three fountains but the most modern one at the entrance was my favorite.  How can anyone resist these elephants playing in the waters?

This is a picture of one of my favorite animals at the zoo. The big cat exhibits always make me happy. It's like watching a big kitty and makes me want to just go up and rub their chin. The male lion they had at this zoo was absolutely beautiful and sleeping after the rain storm.

Hope you enjoyed the pictures so far. I will see if I can't get more pictures posted soon. :) If you are in New Orleans at the conference I will try and say hello. 

Giveaway TODAY ONLY- print copy of Sex on the Beach

Once again, I teamed up with THE ROMANCE STUDIO to do a book giveaway. I will be giving away a PRINT copy of my latest release SEX ON THE BEACH to one lucky person. To enter the contest all you have to do is to submit an entry form on their website here.

http://theromancestudio.com/bad_form.php

However, if you are as impatient as I am and don't want to wait to try to win, you can buy your copy here:

http://whispershome.com/erotic/sex-on-the-beach/

See all of my books available from Bookstrand here:

http://www.bookstrand.com/missy-lyons