Laura Bradbury's Blog, page 3

Life As A Daring Adventure

As a write this, our sixteen year old, Camille, is flying to Sri Lanka! What? My middle sausage all the way on the other side of the world?

She and her two besties jetted off this morning (we all woke up at 4:00am to take her to the airport. a wee bit too early). They are going to Sri Lanka on a Round Square service trip to help build and repair an elephant sanctuary in the middle of the country. It is going to be hard, hot work in an extremely isolated location.

I completely encouraged her to go, even though as parents I think a part of us only feels at ease when all our chicks are home in their nest.

I’m realizing though that for my girls, the world is their home. Just this year alone Camille has traveled to Bermuda (month long exchange), France, Greece, Italy, Sweden, Iceland, Hong Kong, and now Sri Lanka. Also within Canada she visited Montréal, Toronto, and Kingston. She traveled to India two years ago. She is Lucky with a capital ‘L’.

Then there’s our big sausage who will be leaving at the beginning of January for a six month backpacking trip in Asia. Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Indonesia...her trip involves two volunteering stints - one with elephants up in Chang Mai, and one not far from Phuket teaching children English and working at a nearby refugee camp.

I’m not much of a worrier about my girls but I have to admit with these two epic trips I will be happy to see them home safe and sound. At the same time I am thrilled for them. In my experience travel is the best education ever. I root for them them to grasp every travel opportunity they can. That’s the push and pull of parenthood. 

As Helen Keller said “life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.”

The thing is, life will pull you into daring adventures whether you like it or not. Getting married? Daring Adventure. Moving? Daring Adventure. Pregnant? Daring (and at times terrifying) adventure. Breaking up? Daring Adventure. Getting a liver transplant? Daring Adventure.

You can either embrace the crazy ride, or feel resist and feel like you are going to vomit the entire time.

I want the daring adventure for my daughters. I want them to learn early on to embrace the huge. looping, out-of-control roller coaster of life. I want them to love the feeling of the wind whipping through their hair.

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Why We Sold One of Our French Vacation Rentals

Big news on the Grape Rentals front. My newsletter tribe found out about this two weeks ago - Franck had to stay so long in France this past month because we were actually selling one of our houses - La Maison Des Deux Clochers.

I’ve had a few former guests burst into tears when I tell them this. Such is the magic of this property - the first one we ever renovated and which symbolizes my pivot from anxiety-riddled Oxford law student to well...everything that came after. The creation of our vacation rentals, our five years in Burgundy, Clémentine, my writing and books.

This place started it all. I know it must sound crazy to sell it but it just felt completely RIGHT.

This stone house, built in 1789, never had a central heating system which meant that it was just WAY too chilly for us to rent it out during the winter months. Freezing guests are not happy guests.

Also, our beloved caretaker Bernard died suddenly this summer. I didn’t want to announce that publicly at the time out of respect for his family. We were in Burgundy at the time and were able to attend his moving funeral in the Ladiox-Serrigny church with Camille and Clémentine. I’m so thankful for that. It was a simple, beautiful service with Bernard Lavillier’s “Les Mains D’Or” playing as his coffin was walked in. It’s a French song adopted as an anthem by French workers. I don’t think there was a dry eye in the place.

Bernard was our eyes, ears, and hands over in Burgundy. He and Franck worked symbiotically together - we trusted him absolutely. He is, quite simply, irreplaceable to everyone who knew him.

One less house to clean and manage would make the whole thing much more do-able and we have indeed figured out a new system. Also, we are still looking for a house to buy here in Victoria ($$$) and the extra money will be put towards that.

No fears - we have NO intention of selling any of our other french properties. On the contrary, by selling one of them we have made the remaining three much more manageable and sustainable for the long run.

We actually didn’t have to put The house on sale at all. A good friend of ours who is on the Magny council approached us because the village wanted to purchase La Maison Des Deux Clochers. They plan to use it to rent out to young families and generate money for the village coffers. This all just felt RIGHT. We agreed on everything right away - a win-win for everyone involved.

Our life is BUSY and we want to travel, spend time with our girls, and I want to write.

When I was lying in that table in the O.R. for my transplant, just before they out me to sleep, I realized that none of us ever truly owns anything. We just use it for a while, then pass it on when we ourselves pass on. I believe all we are allowed to take with us is love and our experiences. All we leave behind are things we have created and the memories people have of us.

I am so satisfied that by creating La Maison des Deux Clochers and sharing it so many others now have special memories of this spot. Memories of love and romance, sex and conception (more than one baby was conceived there), delicious food and succulent wine, laughter and discovery, even fights and jetlagged sleeps. So much LIFE has happened there, and if Franck and I facilitated that, even a tiny bit, I am thrilled to my core.

I also feel like because I have written My Grape Escape, the story of our first little house in France has been captured for evermore. The circle is complete.

CBC Interview with MOI!

Above is me in the car outside the CBC studios on September 29, 2018 when I was interviewed for the North by Northwest radio program. Exceptionally that day the show was going out LIVE. Ack. This meant I couldn’t let any sweary words fall out of my mouth.

I am not crazy about my speaking voice and like most writers I’m far more comfortable communicating via the written word, but, hey, I was honoured to be invited and if I could get through a liver transplant I could certainly get through a radio interview.

The interview went wonderfully and many people heard it across the country. Afterwards, though, the CBC producer told me none of the recordings that day were usable because the live recording situation presented some tech difficulties they realized after the fact.

So, this is a verbatim transcription of the interview. Verbatim transcriptions are always a wee bit awkward to read. This one sure makes me realize I need to start talking in full sentences instead of my usual thought fragments! In any case, for those who have been asking, voilà!

Interview with Laura Bradbury

North by Northwest, CBC Radio

September 29, 2018

 

Sheryl:           Right now it's 16 minutes before 9, before 10 mountain time and you know, when you can't hop on a plane, do a head off and vacation yourself, one of the easiest ways to escape to another country is with a book, especially a travel memoir. Laura Bradbury is an author based in Victoria who has published 5 memoirs about her love affair with all things French, especially her Burgundian husband, Frank and their daughters. Now, there are 5 books in the series so far and they're called “My Grape Year”, “My Grape Paris”, “My Grape Wedding”, “My Grape Escape” and “My Grape Village”.

 

And the stories all start when Laura was 18 and she went to Burgundy on a student exchange and went to high school there. And because she has a husband from Burgundy, you can guess, I'm not giving too much away that she fell in love, met the love of her life during her French adventures and now she and her family split their time between Canada and France and they have properties they've restored that they run as vacation rentals. Now, these books are full of Laura's love for the food, the wine and the people of the region, as well as the trials and tribulations of learning to live in a country very different from the country where you're from. And Laura Bradbury, as you can here, is with me in the studio this morning.

 

Laura:            It's a pleasure to be here.

 

Sheryl:            Laura, it's great to see you. And thank you for these wonderful visits to France and these memoirs that you have written.

 

Laura:            Well, I really aim to provide escapism, a little bit of daydreaming for my readers...

 

Sheryl:           Nice.

 

Laura:            ...when readers do get back to me and say that it kind of whisked them out of their everyday life, particularly if they're undergoing a challenging time; that really makes me very happy as a writer.

 

Sheryl:           So tell us the story about how you went to France at first as an exchange student. What did you think was going to happen during that year that you were away?

 

Laura:            Well, I really had no idea. I'd never been outside of North-America before. And so when I arrived in France, I just couldn't believe how different everything and how beautiful everything was. I'd never been to Europe so that whole thing was just a complete revelation to me. I didn't speak any French at all when I arrived there.

 

Sheryl:           No French?

 

Laura:            No French. I had...

 

Sheryl:            I couldn't believe that.

 

Laura:            I actually was so bad in French in high school that I actually had to drop it in grade 11 because it was a little bit dragging out my whole GPA for university applications. So I had no intention of speaking French later on in life. But actually I stayed with 4 host families during the year and I found that for me as much as I couldn't learn French in a class room environment, just having to sort of sink or swim, that was perfect for my learning style. And with that in mind, I could kind of understand about 80% of conversations and within about 6 months I was completely fluent.

 

Sheryl:            It was a bold move to go to France without the language.

 

Laura:            It was. I really had no idea what to expect.

 

Sheryl:           And to go to high school, too.

 

Laura:            Yes, I went to high school as well. And what was interesting going to France was I was brought up in Victoria and I found that being in France revealed to me and speaking the language once I was able to master the language, it revealed a whole different side of my personality that I hadn't realized had been there before, I felt much freer to be more emotional, more stubborn, more who I really was. I think in a different language, to a certain extent, we discover new aspects of ourselves.

 

Sheryl:         That's so interesting.

 

Laura:            I think so.

 

Sheryl:           So do you flip back and forth between that, now, depending on whether you're speaking English or speaking French, whether you're here or in France?

 

Laura:            We do. And we speak kind of a combination of both at home. When we moved back to France we lived there between 2004 and 2009 and my two older daughters went to school there for 5 years, so they're completely fluent. My third daughter was born in France and she is in French immersion now so she's fluent as well. So at home we really flip back and forth and I find that when we're speaking French, we're all a lot more emotional and much more forthright and it's very interesting.

 

Sheryl:            That is so interesting. Besides the language there were some food things to get used to, too when you went and I'm just thinking of some of the traditional fare like I don't know, escargot, I'm thinking of blood pudding or blood sauces.

 

Laura:            Yes, actually the second host family I was with, they actually – I had to participate in the ceremony of actually slaughtering the pig and that was really horrific and I have to say blood pudding is not something that I've ever been able to come around to. But escargot on the other hand I tasted and I loved. And what was so interesting for me was the way I was brought up in North-America; food mainly had to be healthy or a real indulgence and something you should feel guilty about, whereas in France it was all about pleasure. If food didn't provide pleasure, then there was no point in eating it and everything had to be good, had to be delicious. That for me was just life-changing.

 

Sheryl:            About food, about your relationship with food.

 

Laura:            Yes, about my relationship with food and how much pleasure you should be getting from food.

 

Sheryl:           Now the first book in the series details your first year there, your exchange year and a lot of different boyfriends, boys that you were meeting in spite of the fact that...

 

Laura:            I was 18.

 

Sheryl:           ...weren't supposed to be meeting boys.

 

Laura:            No, that was against the rules.

 

Sheryl:           And then you met Frank, close to the end of the year. Did you know right away that he was the one?

 

Laura:            It was what the French would call coup de foudre So it was really a lightning bolt, we both fell in love very hard, very fast and I was actually the age that my oldest daughter is right now. So that is a little bit mind-bending for me as a parent. But yeah, we really fell in love and then at the end of the year we didn't know – it didn't seem very realistic for us, it didn't seem probable that we would be able to stay together. But Franck fought to get a work permit to be able to come to Canada and so we did in the end, stay together, we just kind of fought and fought. I think it is actually a bit of a privilege to be able to fight to be together because then you really appreciate it.

 

Sheryl:            Right. It's like a testing in a way.

 

Laura:            It is.

 

Sheryl:            And so you came back and then you went to Oxford in England.

 

Laura:            I did. I did a law degree at Oxford which was, again, that was something that I felt like I did an English literature degree at McGill which I adored, I loved it. But being brought up in a pragmatic society and a pragmatic household, I thought well, what do you do to earn money with an arts degree? So I thought…well, law! But arly on in the law degree I realized that it wasn't something that reverberated with my soul. It was not something that I really loved doing. But because I'm a finisher I did struggle through and finish it and I got a good class of degree and everything. But yeah, I realized by the end that I really didn't want to practice law.

 

Sheryl:            And then the two of you changed direction, I don't know, so dramatically and decided to buy and restore a house in France and you've been doing that a lot.

 

Laura:            Yes, we have. We have 4 vacation rentals over in Burgundy now in the vineyards and actually a 13th century vine cellar under the streets of Beaune that is beautiful and that was not something that was planned at all. I got a very small inheritance from my grandfather and Franck and I thought well, we'll always want a place to come back to in Burgundy to visit because all his family is there. My Grape Escape is the book that describes that transition in our life and...

 

Sheryl:            Some of the trials and...

 

Laura:            Yes, and the trials and tribulations. We lost out on with the first house, we were sort of cheated out of it and then we found this house that was built in 1789, so the year of the revolution, and we renovated the entire thing ourselves on a very small budget. And then once we'd done it, we were so happy with what we had done we thought it would be such a shame that this magical place stays empty for part of the year, so why don't we share it with people, friends and family and whoever is interested who really wants an authentic time in France? That's how the vacation rental business started.

 

Sheryl:            And it's grown like crazy.

 

Laura:            It has. Yeah.

 

Sheryl:           One renovation wasn't enough.

 

Laura:            No.

 

Sheryl:           Some people say that never again.

 

Laura:            Well, especially renovating old houses because it's a completely – we had horse hair in the plaster and stone walls that were about a meter thick. So it was a very, very different experience than renovating houses here, but we definitely caught the bug.

 

Sheryl             And you've caught the bug. And you have been writing up a storm, Laura. Is writing something that you always dreamed of doing?

 

Laura:            I knew from a very young age that what I truly wanted to be was a writer. That was always my dream. Around between ages 30 and 38-39 I started probably about 7 or 8 manuscripts. I finished them always till about 75-80%, but I never actually brought anything to the point where they were finished and they were ready to be published or sent off to agents. Then just before my 40th birthday my husband and I were doing life insurance blood testing because we were so healthy, we were running 10K-s, we were juicing kale from our back garden and we thought “Well, this is a perfect time to renew our health insurance.” My blood test came back with liver enzymes that were sky high and none of us had any idea why that was. So 2 months later a whole battery of tests and I was diagnosed with a rare autoimmune liver disease called primary sclerosing cholangitis and it can be terminal in a lot of cases. There's no treatment, there's no cure except a liver transplant

 

Coach:            What a shock.

 

Laura:            It was a complete shock. Never in a million years would I have thought that I would need an organ transplant to survive. Never. I was just like anybody else. I was completely healthy up until that point, it was just this thing that I had been percolating away in my DNA and this genetic mutation. All of a sudden my life completely changed. I was officially diagnosed in May 2012 and the day after I was diagnosed I woke up, I just felt like my life had completely turned on its axis. I went downstairs, I sat in front of my laptop, I wrote on a post-it “Eff you! I'm not dead yet!” with an exclamation mark, stuck it to my laptop and I started writing “My Grape Escape”. I didn't stop until I finished it. And I actually self-published it because I wasn't sure I was going to be around – the cycle of traditional publishing takes a lot more time and I wasn't sure I'd be around for – my health situation was very dicey and I wasn't sure I'd be around to see it published. So yeah, that fear, the diagnosis completely changed me– I'd been so scared of other people's judgments and of failure with the thing that I cared about the most. All of a sudden the fear of dying with all my words inside me made all the other fears evaporate.

 

Sheryl:            That was just like everything got set aside.

 

Laura:            Exactly.

 

Sheryl:            And then you wrote and wrote and wrote.

 

Laura:            I did, I wrote like I was being chased by a bear. Which I was in a sense. The disease was chasing me so I just wrote and I became a finisher. And I wrote, finished and then I shared and I started again and I just kept doing that.

 

Sheryl:            And you got a liver transplant.

 

Laura:            I did. I had an incredible friend of mine who donated 73% of her liver to me in a living donor transplant in March 2017, so about a 1.5 year ago. I'm doing really well and she is doing really well and it's just a really miraculous thing. I encourage everyone to sign up to be organ donors because there's a huge organ shortage in Canada.

 

Sheryl:            What did it feel like to I guess wake up after that surgery and know that your life was changed again?

 

Laura:            It was incredible. It was such a scary experience, but such a human experience and I saw such a side of human generosity and courage and goodness in my friend who donated and all the friends and family that supported me and my lovely readers who supported me through it. I'm very open and honest about the health journey because for one I want to promote organ donation and I want to promote awareness for PSC which is an orphan disease. I just have this new gratitude for everyday things. I'm a soccer mom and before I got sick and the transplant – after this I'm going to my daughters' soccer game.

 

Sheryl:            Right after this?

 

Laura:            Yeah, right after this. And before I would have been like “Oh, Saturday morning I have to go watch a soccer game. Ugh.” And then while I was sick I thought what a gift to just be a normal mom able to stand up and be able to watch a whole soccer game without feeling tired or feeling sick. So now there's just this sort of level of gratitude, this plane of gratitude that I experience in even the small, everyday things in life.

 

Sheryl:            Nice.

 

Laura:            Yes.

 

Suzanne:        Are you still writing?

 

Laura:            Oh, completely, yeah. The transplant and everything has made me even more fearless so I'm embarking on my first novel, my first fiction and it's called “A Vineyard for Two” and it will be out hopefully before Christmas, then there will be lots more books in the Grape series and then further novels as well.

 

Sheryl:           Well, this is amazing.

 

Laura:            And I'm sure I'll have to write the story of my transplant, too because that's just the way I process things.

 

Sheryl:           Right.

 

Laura:            And so I'm sure that that will come out at some point as well.

 

Sheryl:            Laura, thanks so much for being here this morning. It was sure great to talk to you.

 

Laura:            Thank you.

 

Sheryl:            And these books, wonderful escapism.

 

Laura:            I hope they are!

 

Sheryl:           Thanks so much. That is Laura Bradbury and her memoirs are called “My Grape Year”, “My Grape Paris”, “My Grape Wedding”, “My Grape Escape” and “My Grape Village”. More to come, as you were hearing and for information about all the books and to read her blog and information about the rental homes in Burgundy, go to her website and subscribe to the newsletter here.

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Introverts Anonymous

The Extrovert & The Introvert

Are you an introvert or extrovert? Or a mix of the two? Getting sick forced me to get honest with myself about this for the first time in my life. That honesty has completely overhauled my approach to work.

At the time of my PSC diagnosis I was almost forty, and working in both my family’s real estate business and with Franck. My job(s) entailed days packed with meetings and consultations with others.

When my PSC symptoms landed me with sepsis and a prolonged hospital stay about a year later, it dawned on me that this constant interaction and communication about work, even with people I loved dearly, was something that sucked the precious little energy I had right out of me.

I am a seriously impatient person. Like, dire. It is not my most appealing trait (just ask Franck) but I had to get honest about this too. Discussing and consulting about doing stuff made me feel like I was going to jump out of my own skin. I just wanted to get the stuff done (and on my own thankyouverymuch).

I was OK with making mistakes on my way to learning. Screwing up is, in fact, my preferred method of education.

As you can imagine, my true nature plus the dementia-like symptoms I was experiencing due to my sick liver made working with me a veritable fairy garden of delights. I declare openly to my CEO friends that I would make the world’s worst employee and it is #truth. I’m certain I was a nightmare. Desolé.

What replenishes me? Being alone with my own thoughts and ideas. Preferably on a beach, but most days a desk or the dining room table will do. I still make mistakes all the forking time - like constantly. I continue to be surprisingly OK with this, as long as they are my mistakes.

I got honest about the fact I am a card carrying introvert, and that I need far more of this alone time than the average person. I threw myself into writing for the first time in my life and the more I wrote and published, the more it dawned on me that this was the perfect career set-up for my introvert self.

I spend most of my days alone writing, thinking, and strategizing. My assistant works from her house, and she provides an awesome skill set that helps plug the many gaps in my own. I adore meeting and chatting with my fellow writers at conferences and online. By the time my family come home after work and school I am sick of being by myself and am nice and “fresh” to hear about their day.

My days are punctuated a few times during the week with breakfasts, lunches, walks, exercise classes, and drinks with dear friends. I cherish every second of these moments. It’s a fallacy that introverts don’t have many friends. We are, as a matter of fact, fantastic friends. It’s just that we need to balance that alone time with the social time so we can engage as deeply with our friends as we like to.

I love my family and my husband, I just don’t want to work with them. No offense.

My daughter Charlotte, on the other hand, is a born extrovert and often comments how she would be miserable working like I do, spending entire days with my laptop and my thoughts.

Thank God we are all different. As long as we can all get honest with ourselves, we can all find ways to play to our strengths, as well as play nice...well, nice-ish anyway.

I highly recommend embracing your introversion, preferably on a beach.

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Wedding Weekend Contest

I'm not even going to pretend that I'm not obsessed with the royal wedding. I bought a tiara headband a few days after Harry & Megan's engagement was announced and I plan to wear it for most of this weekend. 

This wonderful Getty Images photo of the engaged couple. I think Agnes would have thought Megan was the best thing for the royal family because in her opinion they were inbred.

My grandmother Agnes passed her royal obsession on to me. She would chat about them in all their facets, and tell me the advice that somebody (aka herself) should give them. She thought Charles should grow a backbone, Camilla needed to brush up on her morality, and that Diana needed to play less tennis. 

I think it was Agnes from up above that orchestrated things so, completely coincidentally, the newly edited and redesigned version of My Grape Wedding was released today. It is not only gorgeous, but also includes a Q & A with moi and a Bookclub Discussion Guide. 

New edition of My Grape Wedding, packed full of bonus features and All The Romance. 

Because this weekend is clearly all about Weddings, I decided to run with it.    

I not only put My Grape Wedding on Amazon.com at the bargain price of 99 cents, but I am also running a Wedding Weekend contest. 

I let my imagination run wild with this one, so it's going to be trés amusant.

The details: 

Contest Prize: 

A newly redesigned & signed paperback copy of each of my five books  + an antique key (100+ years old) the length of my hand from France + your very own diamond (ok, rhinestone) tiara. 

Don't make the mistake of thinking you won't get a lot of use out of a tiara. I wear mine most days, particularly when writing. They are a gravely undervalued wardrobe staple. 

Picture this stack + the two missing books (My Grape Escape & My Grape Village) which will be available in about 2 weeks. 

That's not all! Take a gander below...

Trust me. You need this. Tiaras go with everything. 

How to Enter: 

1. write a review (or have written one in the past) on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Goodreads, etc. 

2. correctly guess the answers to the THREE questions that will be posted over the weekend on my Facebook page (on Thurday, Friday, and Saturday)

3. email me with a proof of review(s) and the three answers

Voilà! You will be entered! Here is the first question...

Question #1 in the Wedding Weekend Contest. This is an actual photo of our actual wedding accordionist. I merde you not. 

Bonne Chance and have a wildly romantic weekend, wherever you are. 

P.S. Have you bought your copy of My Grape Paris yet? No? It is the book that comes right before My Grape Wedding, and has been garnering rave reviews.

Just click here to buy your copy! 

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New Beginnings and The Miracle Book

It's May 1st, which in France is a National Holiday and a symbol of new beginnings. On May Day, it's a centuries old tradition to buy bouquets of lily-of-the-valley (called muguet in French) on the streets all over France. The lily-of-the-valley is symbolic of the love, joy, and new life Spring brings. 

Fittingly, today My Grape Paris is finally available for digital download or to purchase in paperback. This book, the fifth in my Grape Series, is also very much a Spring miracle.   

Wednesday of last week was one of the best days of my life, even though it had a wretched beginning.

I sat in a medical examination room at the transplant centre in Calgary, waiting for my doctor to arrive. My hands were shaking, my heart was pounding, and there was definitely some PTSD throwing a party in my nervous system. 

Forty minutes later I walked (OK, more like danced) out of the transplant centre with the verdict that I was thriving. Nyssa's liver was happy in my body (but not nearly as happy as my body is to have Nyssa's liver - I can guarantee that). Just goes to show you that a day that starts out dire doesn't always stay that way. 

Walking out of the Transplant Clinic in Calgary

As we pulled into our driveway after the flight home I spied an Amazon box on our doorstep. The proofs of My Grape Paris had arrived...this miracle book that at times last year I honestly thought I would not be alive to finish.  

I think a set a new speed record for ripping open this box of proofs.

Even if I sold zero copies of My Grape Paris, it would still be a complete triumph to hold this book in my hands. I tore open the box, grabbed the copy of top, and held it to my chest. I made a strange sound that was somewhere between a yelp and laugh. I may have cried.

Thanks to my lovely readers, I have in fact sold hundreds of copies of My Grape Paris on pre-order, which makes me so grateful to have reached so many people with my writing. My readers are, quite simply, the best. 

A wee bit of an emotional moment to be alive with this completed book in my hands. If you look close you can see my eyes are a bit shiny.  

Today I want to take a moment to say a huge MERCI to you all. By reading my writing, you made me feel supported and understood throughout these crazy six years. You are the reason I am the bestselling writer I am today, and that actually I am still here at all. Writing - which means you readers I wanted to share my stories with  - was my lifeline. 

For that, I'd like to give you this virtual bouquet of muguet, along with a massive merci. 

Pour toi! 

I wish you a joyful May 1st with much love, joy, and Spring magic. 

Thanks too from these crazy kids, living together in Paris, trying to make their dreams come true but unsure whether those dreams can be realized together.  

Photos taken by us during our year in Paris, in one of the métro's many photomatons. 

If you already have your copy of My Grape Paris or plan to buy one soon, I hope it provides many hours of reading joy, romance, daydreams, and laughter. 

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I Say "MERCI" with Paris Cherry Blossoms

I don't know the weather situation where you live, but it's safe to say that Spring is proving to be an extremely tardy visitor in a good chunk of the world. Here in the Pacific Northwest people are getting rather sweary and belligerent about it (aka moi).

After transplant of course I am happy to just, you know, NOT be dead any day, regardless of the weather. Still, I have to admit being alive is more enjoyable when you don't have to wear your soccer-mom parka in April. That's a straight up truth.   

You too need an adecdote? Voilà!

Photo by @georgiannalane

Ahhhhhh...doesn't that feel better? Did you too perform a full-body exhale when you feasted your eyes on those green Parisian benches enjoying the performance of the cherry blossoms above? How about...

Photo by @georgiannalane

Oui, oui, oui, that is the timeless facade of Notre-Dame with its fluffy pink skirt. I have been spending a lot of time with the photos of the Paris cherry blossoms this week. Friends and family in Paris and Burgundy tell me that it is hot and gorgeous there right now, which makes me hate them just un petit peu. 

They can flit around in linen tunics and capris and their new clogs whereas I am dealing with a Soccer-Mom Parka Situation over here.  

Photo by @georgiannalane 

I'm particularly jealous because Franck is flying to France for a month next week while I stay here to look after the Bevy and, you know, publish that little ole' book I have been writing on throughout almost dying and then being restored to life. This is one of those instances where I wish I could splice myself and be in two places at once. Nyssa did it, after all. Because, I mean, look...

Photo by @georgiannalane

Speaking of that little 'ole book, I also wanted to post these photos to say MERCI to the many, many readers who have pre-ordered their copy of My Grape Paris. The pre-order numbers are clocking in beyond my wildest hopes.  See? 

THANK YOU!!!!!! 

This is my first time experimenting with pre-orders. Up until now I have always chosen the highly technical method of hitting "publish" when I am just too exhausted to work on my book any further and need to sleep. 

I hope all of you who have pre-ordered already entered to win a 60 minute Flytographer shoot anywhere around the globe. If not, you can still enter by clicking here.  

I don't know about you, but the idea of doing a Flytographer shoot in Paris next year with the cherry blossoms sounds like a fine plan to me. 

Photo by @fallingoffbicycles

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Win a Flytographer Shoot Worth $350.00

Photo Credit: Olga for Flytographer

Win a 60 minute Flytographer shoot in any of their 200+ locations across the globe . To enter, it's as easy as 1-2-3:

1. Pre-order a copy of My Grape Paris before May 1st 

2. Email any proof of purchase (i.e. screenshot, emailed receipt, etc.) to catherinebyng@gmail.com 

3. You are now officially entered!

*You can have a separate entry for each book you buy, so if you pre-order 10 books, you will get 10 entries.

Bonne chance!  

The Magic of Travel & A Gift For Toi

What a few weeks it's been. I jetted off with my family to Bermuda for eleven days and discovered a quirky country with the most sublime beaches and, crazier still, because it was still off season we had them mainly to ourselves. I felt like Robinson Crusoe. 

We toured around Bermuda and saw all kinds of interesting things, as well as spent time with the wonderful family who hosted my middle daughter for the past month on a school exchange. Every day, we spent at least a few hours on this beach just five minutes from our rental apartment. I could not wipe the grin off my face. See? 

See the grin? Yup. 

There were messy times of course. If you've read my books, you know I don't gloss over the imperfect stuff. I can't help it - I've always been far more interested in what's happening in the wings than on the stage.

Our three girls had to squeeze into two beds in our bare bones rental, so of course there were melt-downs and slammed doors. Our middle daughter was not entirely thrilled her parents and sisters crashed her exchange. Buses were often obscenely late and Franck kept confiscating everyone's cell phones...because, you know...family vacations...  

My philosophy when traveling is not to aim for the perfect trip, but to instead find and enjoy the perfect moments. There were lots of those. Climbing to the top of a local lighthouse. Playing in the translucent waves. Enjoying local Bermudian Rum Cake. 

Besides, after having a travel ban imposed on me by my doctors three years ago, I was just so freaking overjoyed to be on a plane for a vacation instead of medical appointments, tests, or, you know...a transplant.  

Oldest daughter who complains of me never posting photos of her. 

Travel, I realized over the past three years, is a massive privilege. As long as I am well enough to travel and explore, I will do it. It is far from the most prudent financial decision at this juncture in our lives, but when Franck said to me, "Laura, we can't really afford to go to Bermuda," I responded, "I'm healthy right now, we can't afford not too."

In the past three days, right after we got back from Bermuda, Franck and I flew to Calgary (where it was -25 Celsius - whelp) so I could have my yearly transplant tests done - an MRI and a liver biospy (just about as fun as it sounds). The past week has been such a contrast of The Carefree (Bermuda) and The Dreaded Adulting (liver biopsies). I definitely want more of the former and less of the latter going forward.  

As long as my health holds we are planning an epic trip this summer to Burgundy, Paris, Rome, Apricale (a hilltop town in Italy), and Greece. It makes no sense, but at the the same time for us right now, it makes ALL the sense. 

Because I'm all about travel right now, I have concocted a travel-related contest for any readers who pre-order (or have pre-ordered) a copy of My Grape Paris before its publication date on May 1st.

I've collaborated with my friend Nicole Smith, who started the incredible company Flytographer. Her brilliant concept was to enable people to hire vetted, talented vacation photographers all over the globe. Check out her website at www.flytographer.com . Look at these Flytographer photos from Paris to get an idea of what they do - these were both taken by Krystal Kenney, one of Nicole's Flytographer's in Pairs: 

Photo by Krystal Kenney for Flytographer 

Photo by Krystal Kenney for Flytographer

For anyone who pre-orders My Grape Paris before its May 1st publication date, you will be entered in a draw to win a 60 minute session with Flytographer, in any of the their 200 destinations worldwide. This prize is worth $350.00 US. 

To enter, just scan and send or forward any proof of purchase to this email: catherinebyng@gmail.com . 

I highly recommend travelling and capturing those moments...but it doesn't matter whether you travel by plane or by reading a book (another one of my favorite methods of transportation). Whatever you do, DREAM. 

Beautiful Bermuda 

My crew - on a family vacation for the first time since my liver transplant - yipee! 

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My Grape Paris - The Book I Worried I'd Be Too Dead to Finish

There was a problem when I was writing My Grape Paris, and it wasn't one of my usual struggles with dialogue, overwriting, or pacing. The problem was that I knew I might be too dead to finish. 

Exactly a year ago I was dying. My body was letting me know loud and clear that it was shutting down. The smell of my beloved chocolate made me nauseous. An impenetrable fog had rolled into my brain and wouldn't clear. My skin was the delicate shade of a Chiquita banana. All I wanted to do was sleep, all the time. Everything hurt. 

And yet, I kept writing My Grape Paris. Some days a word or two was all I could manage. Sometimes five hundred words, or even a thousand. Not quality words, but each one was a microcosm of hope that I would be around to make it better.  

Even though I was on the transplant list at the U of A hospital in Edmonton, my blood test scores weren't bad enough to put me high enough on the list to qualify for a donated liver. That's the way it is with the auto-immune disease I had (PSC)—the standard tests rarely reflect how the disease is killing us. 

One amazing friend had been tested as a living donor and was rejected after a surgery date had been scheduled because our bile duct anatomy didn't match up. Another was approved but backed out because of understandable personal reasons. A third donor, my friend Nyssa, was being tested in Edmonton, but I was too battle-scarred to let myself hope anymore. Plugging away on My Grape Paris was the only way I would allow myself to keep faith. 

Just in case the third time (or, in this case, the third potential donor) proved a charm, I was doing all the paperwork for the transplant to go ahead if Nyssa was approved. I remember having to decide the exact number of days I wanted to be left on a respirator before they could unplug me. Twenty? Thirty?  

Death was riding shotgun with me all day, every day, but in that paradoxical way of being on the transplant list, I had to simultaneously prepare for my demise while hoping for a rebirth. 

I knew I could die waiting for transplant. Many friends of mine in the PSC community had, and it was devastating and unreal every time. Even if I did get a transplant, I was informed by my transplant team of the numerous ways that the high-risk surgery could kill me. They wanted to make sure I was heading into my uncertain future with my eyes wide open. Mission accomplished. They were pried open with toothpicks of terror. 

Still, I kept writing. My Grape Paris reminded me of the amazing experiences I had been privileged to have. I found myself circling back to the theme of choosing love, again and again.  

A week later I was typing more words for My Grape Paris (on the couch, between multi-hour-long naps) when the phone rang. It was Nyssa calling from Edmonton.

"What are you doing next Wednesday?" she asked. 

"I don't know." 

"How about you come to Edmonton and I give you a piece of my liver?"

Exactly one week later, Nyssa and I waited on our gurneys with our ridiculous puffy hair caps in the waiting pen of our side-by-side ORs. Were we actually doing this?  We held hands and cried. When they finally managed to detach us from each other, they wheeled me into a massive OR that smelled like disinfected steel and was filled with about thirty people bustling around.

I had time to think. None of these people were paying any attention to me; they were too busy making sure everything was ready so they could save my life.

I could never live with myself if Nyssa died, but if I died...for the first time in my life I could envision that possibility without fear. By some miracle, I felt at peace with this thing I was never able to reconcile with before. 

I had chosen love in my life, and without me realizing it, love was turning out to be the main theme of My Grape Paris. If I didn’t make it, I knew I had left some of myself for my daughters in my books. Of course I wanted more, but if it ended there...that was enough. Plenty, in fact.  

Looking back, I can now see that writing My Grape Paris was my way of holding space for miracles. 

The fact that it will soon be in your hands is proof they happen.

 

***

Pre-orders are available now at this link. The official publication date is May 1, 2018. Save your receipt if you pre-order to enter to win a fantastic My Grape Paris swag pack. 

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