Please welcome multi-published romance author Shelley Munro!
When I was about twelve-years-old, my older cousin flew to India with friends for three months holiday. It was a topic of great discussion amongst my family, the conclusion universal. Why would my cousin want to go there? Surely there were more interesting places to visit?
Fast forward about twelve years to a discussion between my husband and I. I wanted to do an overland trip from London to Kathmandu. My husband wasn’t so sure. Why would we want to do that? he asked.
“Because it’s adventurous,” I said. “It will be interesting. Exciting. Just think about it.”
Finally, after much discussion, research about methods of travel and companies and careful budgeting, we booked our trip with an overland company. Thus started our adventurous streak, where we visited many countries the normal tourist never considers, including India.
These days if anyone asks me what my favorite country to visit is, my answer is instant and without hesitation.
India.
India is a country people either love or hate. It’s bright, bold and in-your-face. It’s full of history and wondrous sights, both man-made and natural. It’s full of rich contrasts, both good and bad. There are friendly people and lots of delicious food. India is full of smiles.
Since I enjoyed my visit so much, it was only a matter of time before I used India as a setting for one of my books. I added in a touch of intrigue, chucked in the odd body or two and Wanderlust was born. Wanderlust is about tour leader, Anna Tietjens who has taken her love of travel and made it into a job. Unfortunately things take a turn for the worse on tour OE68 and the passengers start dying…
Romance and travel—an exotic and deadly combination. Wanderlust is due for release from Cerridwen Press on 17 April 2008. That’s yesterday, so go and buy your copy now!
Do you like armchair travel? Do you like to read about exotic settings and if so, which are your favorites?
Bonus: Leave a comment for Shelley and you could win a pdf copy of her book Playing to Win!
by
Shelley Munro
BLURB:
Not many people live their dream, but I’ve been incredibly lucky. I’m Anna Tietjens, and I work as a tour leader for Wanderlust Adventures.
My current tour is through incredible India. It should be a breeze, except my younger sister is joining in New Delhi. Things are not exactly civil between us—a childhood full of upheaval didn’t help—and our parents have insisted she travel with me or not at all. I see fun times ahead. Now my boyfriend has turned up without warning. Don’t get me wrong. I really like Sebastian Brady. The sex is good, spectacular even, but meeting a few times a year is enough. I mean I’m not looking for love or happy ever after.
But worst of all is the bad luck I’ve been having recently. One of my passengers died in Syria, and now it looks like my co-driver might have to leave the tour. Despite the exotic location, it’s not exactly smooth sailing, and I’m starting to think someone is out to halt the tour…
A loud, terrified scream rent the air. The fine hairs at the back of my neck rose. And when the feminine scream sounded a second time, I grabbed my T-shirt and dragged it back over my head. I only paused to step into my jeans before sprinting from my cabin.
A group of my passengers milled together outside the cabins at the far end of the hotel grounds. Alarm seared through my gut, lending my feet wings. I covered the distance between my cabin and passengers in seconds flat, despite the gravel footpath beneath my bare feet.
“What’s wrong?” I squeezed out the words between adrenaline-fueled pants.
“Oh look. It’s An-An-Anna!” my sister warbled. “She’s dead. She’s dead, dead, dead!” Elizabeth was rotten drunk. She stood between Jack Donovan and Carmichael Jones and wobbled from side to side.
“You’re drunk.” My eyes narrowed to slits. “You’re all drunk.”
“Not too drunk to notice you’ve got your T-shirt inside out,” Jack said.
“And you’re not wearing a bra. Shouldn’t do that when it’s so cold in the mornings,” Elizabeth chided. She spoiled it by hiccupping loudly. The three of them laughed hysterically.
“Antonia’s been murdered,” AJ said.
It was then I noticed Antonia, another of my passengers lying on the ground. Unmoving. Fear and anger knotted inside me. Why weren’t they doing anything? I pushed past my passengers, elbowing Elizabeth and company aside when they didn’t move fast enough. “What’s wrong with her? Are you sure she’s dead? Have you called for a doctor?” Lord, Antonia wasn’t moving. She didn’t even appear to be breathing. Sheer black fright froze me for an instant before instinct kicked in and my first aid training came to the fore. I sank down on my knees and felt for a pulse. A strong, healthy pulse beat beneath my fingers. Confused, I glanced up to find every one of my passengers smirking at me. I looked back at Antonia. Her eyes were open now and she closed one green eye in a wink.
“Gotcha,” she said with a great deal of satisfaction. “We decided we’d award a prize for the best death. I think I might have a good chance of winning.”
Shock yielded swiftly to fury. I leapt to my feet, clenching my teeth together and glared at them all. “I thought there’d been an accident. I thought Antonia was really dead.” I hurled my words at them like stones, but it didn’t seem to puncture their alcohol-induced hilarity. They’d obviously spent most of the night drinking and partying, although some of them were worse for wear than others. A vein throbbed at my temple, and I felt my face grow hot. Damn, didn’t they see how irresponsible they’d been?
“We’ve started playing the murder game,” Sebastian said from behind me.
“You!” I whirled to face him, allowing every bit of my anger to show in my face. I literally shook with it. “You should know better.”
His brows rose a fraction while his face remained expressionless, but I just knew what he was thinking, what they were all thinking. They thought I was overreacting. Fine. They could think what they liked.
“The truck will leave at eight on the dot. Make sure you’re ready with all the packs and sleep gear stowed in the back locker.” My voice was harsh, my words letting them all know I meant business. Yep, bitch number one. Aware of the chill in the air and Sebastian giving my chest the once-over, I wrapped my arms across my breasts and stamped back to my cabin.
Adventure into Romance with Shelley Munro
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The entrance to the Temple of Karnak is lined with rams headed sphinxes. And you know I took more pictures!! It’s just amazing to think that these were each individually made.
I love the small people figures below the beards.
I was lucky to get so many nice pictures that make it look as if we had the place to ourselves – in fact, this is what it looked like in the hypostyle hall – the heat did not deter anyone!
There are 134 massive columns in the hypostyle hall, each heavily decorated with hyroglyphics. This was once roofed and also ornately painted. It’s hard to imagine when it’s already so lovely as it is.
And here is a bit of modern graffiti – added only the day before our visit. I’ll never understand what moves people to deface ancient ruins…
The sacred lake.
A lovely stairway to a now vanished area of the temple complex
A tranquil temple near the rear of the complex where you can still see the remains of paint on the columns and roof. It took us a while to get back this far so we had it mostly to ourselves.
The end of the temple complex – but apparently not the end of the temple. According to our Lonely Planet guide book, this temple was once connected to the Temple of Luxor by a 3km avenue lined with sphinxes – most of which lies beneath the modern city of Luxor. Imagine what that must have looked like! I really could have taken pictures of sphinxes all day!
