BY MINDI SCOTT

I’m excited to share another YOU ARE HERE travel-photo post with y’all.

This one is from Sarah Guillory, whose debut novel Reclaimed is coming out October 15, 2013.

I had the opportunity for an early read and I offered up this promotional blurb (my first!):

“Packed with atmosphere and surprises, Reclaimed is one of those rare books that kept me guessing throughout and inspired an immediate reread.” – Mindi Scott, author of Freefall and Live Through This.

The paperback and e-book for Reclaimed are available for preorder now at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and IndieBound so I hope you’ll consider checking it out. 🙂

Hogwarts Express and Sarah Guillory

Location: ORLANDO, FLORIDA, USA
Contributor: Author Sarah Guillory

“I fell in love with reading when I was four years old and spent my childhood visiting worlds much different than my own. I’m from a small town in Arkansas, and while it was an idyllic place to grow up, it was a very vanilla view of the world. We didn’t have the Internet and we didn’t get cable, so what I learned about this world I learned from books.

In college I majored in English and spent my time buried in the classics. As part of my education curriculum, I was required to take a young adult literature class. I was indignant. I did not believe in dumbing down education. I was going to teach the classics and they were going to like it!

The first book I was introduced to once I got to class was Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. At that time there were only three books in the series, and I was hooked from the first page. I was often late for class because I was sitting in my car, reading. That was when I fell in love with children’s literature.

So you can imagine my elation when my husband came home last summer and informed me that we were going to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. I immediately became a child. I squealed, jumped up and down, and then called my sister to rub it in.

I was up before dawn the first day we went to the park. We had early access passes, and I was a bundle of nerves as we rode the boat over. Once we got through the gates, I wanted to run. I would have if my husband hadn’t been with me. He stayed an adult, but I had shed all respectability at the door. I walked as fast as I could and kept telling him to hurry up. I saw Hogwarts in the distance and felt a lump form in my throat. When we rounded the corner and came to the entrance to Hogsmeade, I teared up.

Because here was one of my favorite books, my best adventure, come to life.

I stood in line with all the other kids to have my picture taken with the conductor. I wasn’t even a little embarrassed. While I was taller than the others in line, and had celebrated more birthdays, I was still a kid, one who had cheered Harry on, worried about him, cried over him.

Standing in front of the Hogwarts Express was everything I’d imagined it would be.

Reading itself is the Hogwarts Express. We board the train in a familiar place and end up thousands of miles from home. And like Harry, who never wants to leave Hogwarts and return to the normalcy of the Dursley’s, I am loathe to finish a book and find myself back in reality.

But the great thing about reading is that I don’t have to wait for September 1st to return to Hogwarts. I don’t need fairy dust to find my way to Neverland. I don’t have to go through the wardrobe or looking glass to find adventure. I only have to pick up a book.”

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Sarah Guillory has always loved words and had a passion for literature. When she’s not reading or writing, Sarah runs marathons, which she credits with keeping her at least partially sane.

Sarah teaches high school English and lives in Louisiana with her husband and their bloodhound, Gus. Reclaimed is her debut novel.

BY MINDI SCOTT

I’m so excited! Michelle and I have a brand-new feature here at our blog called “YOU ARE HERE.” Michelle came up with this great name, and I love it. Hooray!!!!!!!

Since the novel that we’re writing together (FAR FROM US) includes a road trip, we’re going to feature photos on this blog from our own travels as well as photos submitted to us from some of the authors we know. Each photo will also have a few paragraphs of explanation. We thought this would be a really fun way to see new places and “hear” about where others have been. 🙂

Here’s our first photo to show off!

School Girls in Haiti – photo by Debbie Rigaud

Location: HAITI
Contributor: Author Debbie Rigaud

“I took this photo in a small town in Haiti last year. It was my first ever trip to Haiti and I was so excited to be there. I was with a group of Haitian-American and Haitian-Canadian people who, like me, had been raised with the language, food and culture of Haiti, but had never visited the country. My parents emigrated to the US from Haiti the decade before I was born, but they instilled in me an understanding of the culture and knowledge of Creole and French, so I was able to wing it (somewhat) while I was there.

During our tour through Haiti’s gorgeous mountainsides and into various villages, large towns and cities, I was struck by the colorful ribbons I’d see adorning the hairstyles of countless school girls along the roads. It was like they all had candy-colored butterflies atop their heads. And the ribbons were not just worn by the younger girls, but also by tweens and even girls in their early teens! It was almost as if childhood lasted a lot longer in Haiti than it did in the neighborhood where I grew up in New Jersey. The girls in this photo are singing along to the praise music at an outdoor church. Though the church was completely destroyed in the earthquake and remained but a stone shell (minus the roof!), there was tarp overhead and plastic chairs assembled, along with a portable sound system. The place was packed and everyone was joyously worshipping and giving thanks. I couldn’t walk by without snapping this photo.” 

Debbie Rigaud began her writing career covering news and entertainment for popular magazines. Her YA fiction debut, HALLWAY DIARIES/Kimani Tru was followed by the fish-out-of-water romantic comedy PERFECT SHOT/Simon Pulse. Since then, Debbie’s non-fiction essays have been published in anthologies IT’S ALL LOVE/Broadway Books and DEAR BULLY/HarperTeen. Her short story “Voila!” is featured in OPEN MIC/Candlewick Press, and TURFQUAKE, her first YA e-book will be released late 2013.

About OPEN MIC
Listen in as ten YA authors use their own brand of humor to share their stories about growing up between cultures. Edited by acclaimed author and speaker Mitali Perkins, this collection of fiction and nonfiction embraces a mix of styles as diverse as their authors, from laugh-out-loud funny to wry, ironic, or poignant, in prose, poetry and comic form. www.facebook.com/openmicanthology

About “Voila” 
Thanks to overprotective parenting, Simone’s elderly great aunt Ma Tante has more of a social life than she does. But one afternoon, Ma Tante’s social scene awkwardly intersects with Simone’s in the unlikeliest of places.