Michelle Jackson's Blog: Michelle Jackson Books, page 8

Welcome to my website

I’m delighted to publish my first post on my new website. This is a work in progress and I have many updates to make but over the coming weeks you will be able to access my books and travel features with greater ease.

Thanks for dropping by!

Michelle x

New covers for Ebooks

I hope that you are enjoying the summer and getting to do some reading. I’m busily writing away these days but felt like a little break from the laptop. So I decided to do something creative and scanned through the holidays snaps that I have taken over the years. I was suddenly inspired to make new covers for my books from my photo albums in , Las Vegas, Havana and Australia. The new cover for 5 Peppermint Grove is designed from a photo that I took of a pretty house in the select suburb with the same name as my book title, in the beautiful city of Perth.

new ecover for 5 Peppermint Grove

I then decided that the cover of One Kiss in Havana needed a facelift, and I rooted out a photograph that I took while sitting in the back seat of a Buick on my recent visit to Havana. That’s my forehead in the driver’s rear view mirror as we dashed past the Malecon!

new ecover One Kiss in Havana

I had a bit more trouble finding a photograph that was in keeping with the theme of 4am in Las Vegas. Then I found this beauty that I took from a taxi as I passed by the Paris Hotel on the famous strip. Each of these covers brings me right back to the places that inspired me to write these novels and I hope that they will bring you there too…

new ecover 4am in Las Vegas

Happy reading

Michelle x

7 Wishes in Rome?

My stay at Moore Ranch Kansas

Summer arrived in Ireland while I was riding the range last week in fabulous Kansas. I didn’t get to see Dorothy or the Wizard of Oz but I did have the most wonderful adventures at the Symphony in the Flint Hills annual music festival. The headline act was Lyle Lovett who is a grammy award wining artist but everybody seems to know him as ex-Mr Julia Roberts. I also had a wonderful stay at Moore Ranch in Bucklin. I’m not a great horse woman by any means but Nancy Moore instilled such confidence in me that I was out on the prairie dodging the Texas Long Horn cattle in a matter of minutes. The evenings were spent sitting on the porch sipping Jim Beam and watching the fireflies appear. Speaking of Dodge, I paid a visit to Dodge City and was entertained by Miss Kitty at the Long Branch Saloon which will mean something to anyone of a certain vintage that used to watch the TV show Gunsmoke several decades ago. I will be writing about my adventures in the fabulous Irish Country Magazine very soon.

Feeling truly rejuvenated after the trip, I came home and dusted down the first book that I wrote a little over ten years ago and posted it up on Amazon. I’m delighted to say that after only three days it has made #1 best seller in Italy travel section on Amazon.co.uk. If you feel in the mood for a Romcom to accompany your summer reading then you can click to buy 7 wishes in Rome here . It’s £2.99 for a limited time to kick off summer.

I’m dedicating much of the summer to finishing my young adult book which has been terribly neglected lately.

Have a great summer & Happy reading

Michelle x

Back to Havana

The balcony where Fidel Castro declared the Revolution in 1959, Santiago de Cuba

I want this car - spotted in Camaguay

It is always nice to return to a place where you had a wonderful time and for me it was even nicer to return to Cuba because this beautiful island in the Caribbean was the source of inspiration for one of my novels. One Kiss in Havana is five years old now and I’m pleased to say that on return to this wondrous and enigmatic city I was just as thrilled as I was the first time.

If you are looking for somewhere special to visit then my advice is to travel to Cuba before it changes. Although the embargo has been lifted there is still much of the authentic Cuba in tact and I hope that the government continue to pump money into the architecture, heritage, health and education which are the pillars that make this such a remarkable country.

Here are a couple of photos from my trip. I wrote about my journey from Havana down the spine of Cuba to Santiago de Cuba and it will be published in the Irish Mail on Sunday soon.

As Hemingway used to say 'My mojito in the Bodegita del Medio'

I hope that you have a nice summer planned and I have some news about a new book very soon

Happy reading

Michelle x

Loving my taxi ride along the Malecon in a Buick

Homage to Steinbeck

I have recently returned from California and a road trip along the Pacific Coast Highway with the family. We had a fantastic time and I got to tick some must-dos off my bucket list. Being a massive Steinbeck fan I was thrilled to learn that the house where he was born is carefully preserved and now functions as a terrific restaurant. I visited the Steinbeck Center in downtown Salinas which has lots of memorabilia and tells the story of Steinbeck’s journey through interactive displays, literature and movies.  In Monterey I visited Cannery Row and had my photo taken with a bust of the man himself. I’ve written about it on my travel blog if you would like to read it click here travel blog

Steinbeck statue Monterey

I am still working on my novel and it is taking some twists and turns but I hope to finish it this summer. With a couple of interesting trips lined up I hope to get plenty of inspiration. Next stop is Cuba and I am very excited about it as it is nine years since my last visit and out of that trip One Kiss in Havana was born. This time I will be travelling the length of the country and ending in Santiago de Cuba which I have heard is wonderful.

My trip to California will be in the Sunday World very soon and I will post details when it is published. I hope that you have some good books lined up for summer reading. I’m in the middle of reading ‘Travels with Charley’, I bought a copy at the Steinbeck house and I’m really enjoying it

Happy reading

Michelle x

Spring Equinox and Solar Eclipses!

There is definitely something stirring in the air. Even though the clouds covered most of yesterday’s eclipse in my beloved Howth I had a wonderful time walking the pier and taking in the moment. I wasn’t alone as Howth is a draw for visitors from all around the world. So if you are in Dublin do drop by and visit us. Much as I love my home town there’s nothing I love more than to travel and I will be heading to Steinbeck country very soon. I’m so excited and am re-reading Cannery Row at the moment in preparation for my visit. I will be paying homage to Steinbeck in Salinas and Monterey and finishing off my trip with a few days in San Francisco. I will be travelling with the entire family and we will be charting a road trip from LA. I’ll be writing about it exclusively in the Sunday World so watch out for the feature which should run in May.

Steinbeck has been tapping at my shoulder for a while and last summer I read the Grapes of Wrath as I travelled around Oklahoma. While I was there the seeds were planted for my new novel which I hope to finish very soon. It is still very much a work in  progress so it only has a working title but I will post more news soon.

I’ve given my travel blog a facelift too. The link is here School of Travel so please take a look and tell me what you think. I love to hear from readers and travel peeps

Happy reading

Michelle x

Happy Valentine’s Day

February is upon us, and as I spent most of January doing long overdue renovations to my house, I feel finally ready to get down to some writing! I plan to sink my teeth into finishing a novel that I started last year and I’m revving up for some more travels. In fact I’ve been bloggling my travels on two sites -School of Travel and I’ve a new blog where I will be posting luxury travel news Fabulous Travel Blog

I hope that you will be getting all loved up this Valentine’s weekend and I have a plan for a bit of a crazy escape with my hubby. I’ll be posting about our adventures on the travel blogs.

I’ve been writing about my own school experience in the Irish Independent and was delighted when they used a photo of me with one of my past students Edward Smith in the archive! My story might give support and hope to people who want to write but didn’t do well academically in school!

Irish Independent January 26th 2015

I hope that you have had a good start to the New Year, I feel like spring is definitely in the air. It’s back to cleaning the house for me…

Happy Reading

Michelle x

New Year Ramblings

As 2014 draws to a close it’s an excellent time to make plans for 2015. The Christmas Tree is wilting under the weight of baubles and lights and I am itching to usher in the New Year. I was asked to write a piece about my New Year’s Eve experiences and it featured in You Magazine with the Irish Mail this weekend. However, I didn’t mention my annual ritual of writing down my aims and hopes for the new year. Last year my list featured my hopes to travel to some different places and I did just that in 2014 and have some wonderful memories of special times with my family.

This Life Irish Mail Saturday 27th December 2014

If you would like to read my travel articles I have documented my travels on my travel blog www.schooloftravel.blogspot.com and hope to fill it with some other nice trips next year.

I have been working on two books this year but with all this travel it is taking a bit longer than usual to finish them. Watch this space as something fresh and exciting will be on the way in 2015.

I wish you all the very best for a peaceful and prosperous 2015 and thank you so much to everyone who has taken the time to read one of my books.

As always Happy Reading!

Michelle x

Travel and inspiration!

As 2014 draws to a close I realise that I have done more than my fair share of travelling this year. All in a good cause, as I have been inspired along the way. I am recently back from a cruise of the East Mediterranean with Royal Caribbean and one of our best family holidays to date. The children were spoilt rotten but managed to get an education along the way as we visited the wonderful site of Ephesus in Turkey and the gorgeous town of Dubrovnik. We stopped off in Santorini and Olympus before making our way back the beginning of our trip in Venice. There are few cities more inviting and we had the most glorious night at the Boscolo Venizia hotel which has original fresco decoration and details that blew us away. I will be writing about this in the Herald newspaper soon. My feature on all that is cowboy in Oklahoma landed in the Herald last month and can be read by clicking on my travel website School of Travel .

I was thrilled to be nominated for two travel journalism awards by the Caribbean Tourism organisation at their award ceremony during World Travel Market in London this November. Unfortunately I didn’t get the gong but it is a good excuse to visit the Caribbean next year!

For now I’m finishing off my novel which is set in Oklahoma and taking a little longer to write than usual but I hope that it will be worth the wait.

Happy reading

Michelle x

Last of the Summer Wine…

Summer is always a wonderful time to relax and take life easy. With my new venture into travel writing, this summer I was lucky to go on a trip to the beautiful Seychelles archipelago and I found plenty to write about. My article was published in the Irish Mail on Sunday last weekend but you can read it by clicking here on the Evoke website . But I love this time of year as the summer nights draw in and the prospect of blackberry picking appeals to the romantic in me. As the leaves change colour, there are more reasons to stay indoors and that means writing time.

I was so inspired by the beautiful Seychelles that I may have found somewhere else to write about in my new novel which is almost half written. It has a working title but may change dramatically so I will post more details as it reaches completion.

I wrote an article about self-publishing recently, that may be of interest to writer folk or people who haven’t yet published. It featured in last Sunday’s Independent and you can read it by clicking here Sunday Independent . I have packed away my suitcase for the moment so that I can finish my novel but I will be looking out for more inspiration soon. If you would like to read about my travels I’m now blogging on the fabulous ‘Kiss From the World’ website and you can see my profile by clicking here Kiss from the World .

So tuck up warm and enjoy the onset of the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness and as always

Happy reading

Michelle x