Category Archives: Travel

Gift Books Across the Sea

February 20, 2020 by Mara Purl
There’s a person, now, whose love of books inspired me, and who I’ve been able to encourage in turn with a simple gesture. She had collected books to enjoy and to share. Who knows, now, how far and wide her own sharing will reach? I know I touched her heart, and she touched mine.
Posted in about issues of the heart, Art and Entertainment, Author Mara Purl on Book Tour, Authors, Book Marketing, Books, community and transformation, Connecting through books, Creativity, Cruising, Finding treasures of the heart in books, Gifts, Head & Heart, Heart, Heart and head connection in books, involvement in issues near and dear to heart, Live Your Best Life, Love of Books, Magical moments, Mara Purl, Milford-Haven Novels & Stories, Nurturing the soul, Opening up to New Worlds, power of the universe, sychronicity of life, Travel, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Why Do Words Count?

March 27, 2019 by Mara Purl
Words are the connective tissue between idea and expression. We tell ourselves about our ideas with words, using them to move from vague conjecture to clear concept.
Posted in American West, Authors, Book Marketing, Books, Colorado, community and transformation, Connecting through books, Editors, Heart and head connection in books, history, inspiring through fiction novels, involvement in issues near and dear to heart, life's purpose, Live Your Best Life, Louis L'amour, Love of Books, Mara Purl, Personal Essays, Publishing, Uncategorized, Writing | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Irritating Characters – Nemesis “Mrs. Lime” Debuts

May 29, 2018 by Mara Purl
Comic relief . . . dramatic tension . . . extreme contrast . . . she serves all those purposes. She had me laughing, then my editor laughed out loud, and soon my readers decided she was a “contrarian favorite”. See what you think of “Mrs. Lime.”
Posted in about issues of the heart, AHA Moments, Artists, Author Mara Purl on Blog Tour, Authors, Bellekeep Books, Book covers by artist Mary Helsaple, book covers painted by artists, Book Marketing, Books, California, Cambria, Central Coast, Coastal regions, Connecting through books, E-Books, e-books by Mara Purl, Environment, Fictitious town of Milford-Haven, Finding treasures of the heart in books, flow of life, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, head and heart connection, Heart and head connection in books, heart of an artist, inspiring through fiction novels, Integrating lifes purpose through art, Magical moments, Mara Purl, Milford-Haven Novels & Stories, mission and core purpose in life, Nurturing the soul, Painting, power of the universe, Power of Universe, Small Town Fiction, When Hummers Dream by Mara Purl, When Hummers Dream e-book, Wildlife, Women's Fiction | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Writer at Work, Otters at Play

February 14, 2018 by Mara Purl
So here was this cute, inventive, self-sufficient creature who was an “index species”—that is, one whose presence was a key to the ecological well-being of its own region. I was liking these furry, sweet-faced critters even more than I thought I would.
Posted in about issues of the heart, Bellekeep Books, Bellekeep Books by Mara Purl, California, Central Coast, Current Event, E-Books, e-books by Mara Purl, Ecology, Environment, Escapism through romance novels, Fictitious town of Milford-Haven, Finding treasures of the heart in books, Head & Heart, head and heart connection, head and heart connection, Heart, Heart and head connection in books, heart of an artist, inspiring through fiction novels, Integrating lifes purpose through art, involvement in issues near and dear to heart, Live Your Best Life, Magical moments, Mara Purl, Mara Purl Romance novels, Marine Mammals, Milford-Haven Novels & Stories, mission and core purpose in life, Novel series, Nurturing the soul, Ocean Elements, Romantic fiction, Santa Barbara, Science, Small Town Fiction, When Otters Play by Mara Purl, women and romance novels, Women authors, Women's Fiction | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Book Signings at Sea

January 27, 2018 by Mara Purl
Imagine being featured inside an elegant, well-appointed mall, with passengers hearing announcements about authors signing their books. They add us to their schedules, or happen by as they consider where to shop after lunch. Our events were something like that, though better, since we had a captive audience. What we found was that people were curious, inquisitive, and eager to find just the right book for themselves, or to have gifts to offer when they returned home from their cruise.
Posted in Art and Entertainment, Author Mara Purl on Book Tour, Book Marketing, Creativity, Innovative marketing, Mara Purl Romance novels, Mara Purl using new marketing methods for Books, Marketing, Milford-Haven Novels & Stories, new methods of marketing books, Ocean Elements, Travel | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Cozumel – European Legacy in the Caribbean

January 26, 2018 by Mara Purl
Since I write about a small, coastal town that draws tourists both with its picturesque beauty, and it's local arts and crafts, I always find it fascinating to find parallels in other locations. So Cozumel deserves a closer look. At least we scratched the surface of that beautiful island off the Yucatan, and we look forward to returning to those sparkling waters for further adventures.
Posted in Authors and Publishers Services, Bellekeep Books, Book Marketing, Connecting through books, Creativity, Cruising, ideas for books, Live Your Best Life, Mara Purl, Marketing, Milford-Haven Novels & Stories, Ocean Elements, Opening up to New Worlds, Small Town Fiction, Travel, Women authors, Writing | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Jamaica – European Legacy in the Caribbean

January 24, 2018 by Mara Purl
My husband and I, and a few other friends, however, chose to spend our day differently. The ship offered a “Pay It Forward” option that would allow us to spend a day first at a homeless shelter in the country, then at a soup kitchen in the inner city.
Posted in Cities with Artistic Expression, Cruising, Travel, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Haiti – European Legacy in the Caribbean

January 23, 2018 by Mara Purl
Haiti is the only nation to have won its independence, rather than having had it granted. The brave Haitians, led by former slave Toussaint Louverture—an educated man who’d studied the campaigns of Julius Caesar—strategized well, pitching the battle for independence during years the French government was engaged in their own Revolution and in the Napoleonic Wars. Later in its history, Haiti went on to become a founding member of the United Nations.
Posted in Cruising, Travel, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Meet my Guest Author Roger Seiler

June 23, 2017 by Mara Purl

In today’s post, I’m hosting author Roger Seiler on one of the stops along his Blog Tour. I’ve been the guest of some marvelous Blog Hosts during my own previous tours, and was delighted to be host to such an accomplished person as Roger Seiler. Enjoy!

MASTER OF ALASKAMasterOfAlaska cover

Roger Seiler’s new book is the perfect read for anyone interested in history, particularly about the storied expanse of lands and archipelagos connecting the northernmost regions of Russia and Alaska that stretch like a taught sinew between and across time and cultures.

Eons earlier, we read, Native Peoples traversed these land-water bridges to travel southward, branching into groups that became the Tribes of North America.… Read more

Posted in Alaska, Author Mara Purl on Blog Tour, Authors, Blog tour of author Mara Purl, Blog Tours, Blogging, Central Coast, Coastal regions, Connecting through blogs, Connecting through books, E-Books, e-books by Mara Purl, Environment, Mara Purl, Men's fiction, Milford-Haven Novels & Stories, Santa Barbara, Syncronicity between bloggers, Travel, Uncategorized, When Otters Play by Mara Purl, Women's Fiction | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Ancestors in the Mountains

July 5, 2015 by Mara Purl
In my memories, honeysuckle twined itself densely through the framework along one wall of the wrap-around porch, sweetening the air. In the cool of the cellar, I reached high to grasp one of the scores of jars of applesauce my grandmother had made. My little legs pumped hard to make the rope swing go higher. I sat on my granddaddy’s lap and asked for the hundredth time to listen to his “tick-tock”—his gold pocket watch. The aroma of biscuits wafted out from the kitchen.
Posted in about issues of the heart, AHA Moments, Bellekeep Books, familial history, Family, family history and genealogy, head and heart connection, involvement in issues near and dear to heart, Live Your Best Life, Mara Purl, Nurturing the soul, self-growth, Travel | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment