Tuesday Teaser -- The Pretend Wife

Every Tuesday, Diane at Bibliophile by the Sea posts the first paragraph of her current read. Anyone can join in. Go to Diane's website for the image and share the first paragraph of the current book you are reading.
This week I picked up The Pretend Wife by Bridget Asher. I can't remember why I was drawn to this book, but the book jacket says it's about imagining life with the one who got away. What if you had married someone else? How different would your life be? Here's the intro:

That summer when I first became Elliot Hull's pretend wife, I understood only vaguely that complicated things often prefer to masquerade as simple things at first. This is why they're so hard to avoid, or at least brace for. I should have know this -- it was built into my childhood. But I didn't see the complications of Elliot Hull coming, perhaps because I didn't want to. So I didn't avoid them or even brace for them, and as a result, I eventually found myself in winter watching two grown men -- my pretend husband and my real husband -- wrestle on a front lawn amid a spray of golf clubs in the snow -- such a blur of motion in the dim porch light that I couldn't distinguish one man from the other. This would become one of the most vaudevillian and poignant moments of my life, when things took the sharpest turn in a long and twisted line of smaller, seemingly simple turns.

 

This intro doesn't thrill me. I think I'm not drawn to introductions that summarize the story. I like to be pulled into the story instead.

 

 Also this week is Teaser Tuesdays.
Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along!
Open to a random page of your current read and share a teaser sentence from somewhere on that page.
BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS!
Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers.
Here's mine from page 59:

But then Helen spoke up kind of slyly. "You need a pretend wife," she said, "for your mother's sake. It would be very gallant." She turned to me. "Gwen, you should be Elliot's pretend wife."

 

Hope you all have some books that I'm interested in.



Dreaming of France -- Spectacular Landscape

Here's a new weekly France meme. Please join in. Grab a copy of the photo above and link back to my blog. Share with the rest of us your passion for France. Did you read a good book set in France? See a movie? Take a photo in France? Have an adventure? Eat a fabulous meal or even just a pastry? Or if you're in France now, go ahead and lord it over the rest of us. We can take it
Maybe we can all satisfy our yearnings for France, until we get there again.
I haven't been to France for two years, since celebrating my 20th anniversary there in 2010.
But my 19-year-old daughter went last fall and stayed with a family who had a vacation house in the Alps. This is a photo she took while staying there near Briancon. I love the light and the clouds.

I can't wait to see what the rest of you are featuring to make me even more "homesick" for France.

19th Birthday

Today, my son turns 19 and is spending his first birthday away from home, away from me.
Of course, it's bound to happen unless someone has a summer birthday -- school and jobs will interfere with traveling across the country to visit on birthdays.
This year, Spencer headed off to college in Florida, leaving me here in cold Ohio. I haven't seen him since we dropped him off on August 10. But Earl drove down to Florida to help my parents with a move and he scooped up Spencer for the weekend. Earl sent me a picture of Spencer sitting in a recliner, watching footall and eating nachos. He seems to be doing okay.
But this birthday away from home made me remember that night, 19 years ago, when I gave birth to Spencer in Michigan. I don't let Earl forget that he talked football with one of the many medical interns crowded into the room while I labored.
After Spencer was born, I called my family and friends. My brother Kevin answered the phone and I told him Spencer arrived at 9:20 p.m. on this Thursday night.
"So you missed Seinfeld then?" he asked.
And that's how I'll always remember what day Spencer was born. The early 90s were prime Seinfeld years, and Spencer later came to love the series as well.
Spencer was born curious and caring, and he still is.
He used to run to our bed every morning, his thick feet pounding across the wooden floor before he dived between us.
Once in our bed, one of his favorite games to play was pressing Earl's nose. Earl would honk or beep.
One morning, Earl was too tired to respond. Spencer gave Earl's nose a few more pushes without any results. He  puzzled over it for a minute.
"Huh, must need new batteries," he said before sliding off the bed and onto his next adventure.
I miss my little guy, and my big guy.

Happy Birthday, Spencer.

Saturday Snapshot -- Baptism

To participate in the Saturday Snapshot meme post a photo that you (or a friend or family member) have taken then leave a direct link to your post on Alyce's blog At Home With Books. Photos can be old or new, and be of any subject as long as they are clean and appropriate for all eyes to see. How much detail you give in the caption is entirely up to you. Please don’t post random photos that you find online.
Earl's niece had a baby girl, Regan. Regan was baptized a few weeks ago and the parents asked Earl to be the godfather. After a little squirming at the beginning of the ceremony, Regan slept through the whole thing.

 

Reputations

I'm not inspired to write a clever or funny blog post. I've kind of just ignored it the past few days.
I've had a long week.
I know I can't complain compared to real trials in other people's lives.
The biggest stress was at work. Last Friday, I had a disagreement with a student. He raised his voice, I told him he could not be rude to me, and he filed a complaint with Human Resources claiming that I was culturally intolerant.
So, even though I knew I hadn't done anything wrong, I got called in to HR to explain myself. That's intimdating and nerve wracking.
Now, I know some of you are imagining what this student must have looked like. He's a tiny white guy whose culture is some sort of new age philosophy that is antiauthoritarian, which is why he refused to apologize for being rude. Last year, he told me it was against his religion to use personal pronouns -- you know: I, me, my, we. Whatever, we just roll with it.
After he was rude, I asked him to apologize; he said it was against his culture, and we continued to work together for half an hour -- even though I wasn't happy about it.
But the complaint he sent to HR talked about his German Jewish heritage. What? I was anti-Jewish or anti German when I told him not to be rude?
He talked about his perception that I didn't agree with his Pantheism. I didn't know he was a pantheist, but some of my friends are Wiccan and I definitely don't have a problem working with students of any religion.
In the end, the raised voices were only about treating people rudely. And asking someone not to treat me rudely doesn't connect with a specific culture.
The HR person agreed with me, but nearly a week has gone by with me wondering if it's possible for a student to make up things about me and endanger my job.
I think the answer is yes.
If other people hadn't been around, he could have claimed that I said anything, and I would only have my word and reputation as my defense.
I returned to some parenting advice that I gave my kids when they were younger, early teens, and had  done or said something they regretted. I'd tell them that their friends don't judge them on one event. Friends take it into context of all the other things we've said and done.
And hopefully, my entire teaching career would be considered when wondering whether I'd been intolerant of someone else's culture.
Hopefully, this incident is behind me, but I've seen the lies that students can weave and know I'm not safe from them.

First Chapter, Tuesday Teaser -- The Age of Desire

Every Tuesday, Diane at Bibliophile by the Sea posts the first paragraph of her current read. Anyone can join in. Go to Diane's website for the image and share the first paragraph of the current book you are reading.

I'm not sure why I picked up this book. Maybe I was thinking of Grace who loves historical fiction. The novel is The Age of Desire by Jennie Fields. And, looking at the description, I remember that the name Edith Wharton captured me. The book focuses on the relationship between Wharton and her friend who came from a very different background. Here's the intro:

He stands at the edge of the salon, and Edith has the uncomfortable feeling he's staring. A dark-haired man. Formal. Self-certain. There are ten roues like him in every cafe in Paris. But his sapphire eyes glimmer with a discernible intelligence. His coal black lashes are as long as a giraffe's. Men should not be allowed to have lashes so seductive. He leans on one leg, observing the room, calculating. How hard he seems to work at doing nothing!

 Also this week is Teaser Tuesdays.
Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along!
Open to a random page of your current read and share a teaser sentence from somewhere on that page.
BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS!
Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers.
Here's mine from page 62:

He takes a sip of brandy and laughs. "Imagine that! Our little Anna having the nerve to live a life of her own. Serves us all right for taking her for granted." 

"Since when is she our little Anna?" Edith says with a huff. "She's my little Anna and I want her back."
 

What do you think? Your kind of book?

Dreaming of France -- New Meme

I've been looking for a weekly France meme and haven't found a regular one, so I'm going to try it myself on Mondays. Please join in. Grab a copy of the photo above and link back to my blog. Share with the rest of us your passion for France. Did you read a good book set in France? See a movie? Take a photo in France? Have an adventure? Eat a fabulous meal or even just a pastry? Or if you're in France now, go ahead and lord it over the rest of us. We can take it
Maybe we can all satisfy our yearnings for France, until we get there again.

I started a book called The Chocolate Thief by Laura Florand. What could be better than a book about France and chocolate? I don't usually read romance, and I didn't even realize that it was. I just saw the photo of the Eiffel Tower and the word chocolate and snapped it up. The beginning was a little off putting, but the descriptions of Paris and of chocolate are making me hungry and giving me wanderlust to visit France again.
Here's a snippet:

In the shop, an elegant blonde whose every movement spoke of wealth and privilege was buying a box of his chocolates, unable to resist biting into one before she left the shop. He could see her through the glass window that allowed visitors a glimpse of the way artisan chocolate was made. He saw her perfect teeth sink into the thumbnail-sized chocolate and knew exactly the way the shell yielded with a delicate resistance, the way the ganache inside melted on her tongue, the pleasure that ran through her body.

Hope you'll join in so I can dream of France with you. Put your name and Url in Mister Linky below. Then leave a comment.

Near Nature Mishap

I thought I'd come up with the perfect plan to run safely in the dark, early morning, but I didn't make a good escape plan.
After I fell and broke my nose running in the dark along the street, I had to take about three weeks off from running. My husband, my doctor, my parents, my non-running friends all urged me to stop running in the dark. My running friends, of course, understood the lunacy of running. It was only a matter of time before I started again --  like when the swelling went down in my knee and the bandages came off my nose.
So I made a plan to walk or ride my bike to the high school track. It's about a mile away. The track has no potholes and a rubberized surface. I've gone a couple of times this week, easing my body back into the routine of running.
This morning, with the thermometer hovering at 39 degrees, I pulled on running pants, a long-sleeved shirt, a fleece, gloves and a headband to warm my ears. The one-mile walk was the coldest part at 5:30 a.m.
I pushed the turnstile and walked into the high school football stadium. Lights lit up the entrance, and the home side of stands, but the rest of the track was in darkness. Since I live in town, it's not pitch-black like it would be out in the country.
I stood for a minute scanning the track for any movement. Many times, other people are running on the track or doing sit ups in the middle of the football field or running up and down the steps of the stadium. I didn't see any movement, so I started around the track, taking some time to enjoy the brightness of the stars above me.
I hoped to run three miles, working my way back up to the five miles a day I was running before my fall.
I started in the outside lane -- number 6 -- and each time I rounded the quarter-mile track, I moved in a lane. After a mile, I started moving back out to the next lane.
I'd completed two and a half miles and was passing near the entrance to the track when I saw something moving along the concrete. The whiteness shown in the darkness and I immediately thought it must be an opossum with its pinkish-white chubby body meandering along. I decided to stamp my foot to scare it and send it away from the track, back toward the exit.
Then, as I got closer, I realized the bright white was bushy fur along the back of a pointy-nosed skunk.
Yikes!
I picked up my speed away from the entrance to the track. I tried to glance back to see if the skunk turned away from the track. I figured it was interested in the trash cans or maybe food that people had dropped under the stands, but if it followed the trajectory I'd seen, it would come onto the track.
As I rounded the corner headed back toward the entrance to the track, I pulled my phone out of its holster and turned on the flashlight app. I swept the light back and forth across the track, watching for a flash of glassy eyes or a stripe of white. I ran past the entrance for the final time, not spotting the skunk anywhere.
I thought about the fleece and the head band I'd taken off and hung on the fence near where I'd seen the skunk. If the skunk got scared, my fleece and headband would be so pungent, I'd have to throw them away.
I pictured tomato juice baths and needing to restraighten my hair over and over.
Even if I didn't need to return to the entrance to get my clothes, there was only one way in or out of the track. If the skunk stayed around the entrance, I was captured. I was a prisoner to the skunk.
I looked at the fence as I ran around the track. The fence was high all the way around. I could climb on something to get to the top of the fence, but the drop on the other side would probably give me knee or ankle injuries.
I slowed to a walk before the entrance. Still scanning with my phone flashlight, I saw no sign of the skunk. I peeked around the trash can by the fence, certain the crafy skunk could be hiding there. I grabbed my fleece and headband and cautiously walked forward -- my light swept back and forth across the blacktop and the turnstile. With no sign of the skunk, I raced out the gate and into the open parking lot.
I had escaped my near-brush with nature and another running mishap. I imagined for a minute that I'd disturbed the skunk and it had sprayed me. Upon hearing that story, I'm sure people would just shake their head and suggest I take up swimming at the YMCA instead.

Saturday Snapshot -- The Autumn Leaves

To participate in the Saturday Snapshot meme post a photo that you (or a friend or family member) have taken then leave a direct link to your post on Alyce's blog At Home With Books. Photos can be old or new, and be of any subject as long as they are clean and appropriate for all eyes to see. How much detail you give in the caption is entirely up to you. Please don’t post random photos that you find online.
I bet I'm not the only one in the northern hemisphere who decided it's time for an autumn leaves photo. Some of these I took early in the week, before wind and rain swept many away.

This little red-leafed tree stood guard over a pumpkin.

This little yellow-leafed tree nestled in the corner of a church wall, right under the steeple.

It may be hard to tell how brilliant the colors of this tree were.
But other people stopped to take pictures too.
 

Thanks for stopping by.



My Book as a Movie

Sim at Chapter 1 - Take 1 loves to write about books that are turned into movies. She read my book, The Summer of France, recently and asked me to write a guest blog post casting the characters in my book.
I hope you'll take a look and tell me what you think.
Here's my guest blog post on Chapter 1 - Take 1.
I told Sim that I thought she should do this every week. She could talk to an author, or even people who aren't authors could imagine which actors would play characters in the books they are reading.

I Want a France Meme

Last week, on Thursday, I tried the "I Love France" meme. Unfortunately, it looks like the blog that used to do that is no longer doing it. Sigh...
I want a weekly France meme, but I don't have any bright ideas. Do you?
What could bloggers write about every week if they love France?
I'd like to include books, movies, photos, stories, food, fashion -- all from France.
I could even make a cool logo for it (or ask a more-talented friend to do it).
I'm waiting for your brilliant suggestions. Meanwhile, here's a photo that Grace took of Mont St. Michel with some sort of special effect. Lovely.

Review -- They Eat Puppies, Don't They?

Christopher Buckley has been hit or miss with his novels of satire about government and society. I loved Thank You For Smoking, but didn't finish No Way to Treat a First Lady. Still, I was willing to give his latest They Eat Puppies Don't They? a try, and I'm glad I did.
He sucked me in right away with the main character Bird, a lobbyist for a weapons company. Suddenly Bird's job is to drum up hatred toward China so the weapons company can sell a new communication blocking system. When Bird tries to find something connected to China that Americans will be passionate about, all he comes up with is the Dalai Lama and pandas. Luckily for him, the Dalai Lama becomes ill right around that time, and the outrage with China begins to grow
Buckley's characters are not limited to the lobbyist and a militant woman named Angel who makes the news show rounds. He also takes the reader inside the Chinese cabinet as it struggles with a noble president who doesn't want to escalate and war mongering generals who don't fear conflict with the U.S.
The description makes it sound wonky, but Buckley tells the story to make all of look ridiculous as we go about our consumption, ignoring the direction our government is headed.
One exception I'll take with the book is that the end didn't seem to have much use for the main character. He was kind of allowed to drift off. And I'm not sure whatever happened with the weapon system that set off the entire situation.
By the way, for people put off by the title, there's only one brief mention of whether the Chinese eat puppies, so it definitely was not something dealt with in the book.

First Chapter, Tuesday Teaser -- Wallflower in Bloom

Every Tuesday, Diane at Bibliophile by the Sea posts the first paragraph of her current read. Anyone can join in. Go to Diane's website for the image and share the first paragraph of the current book you are reading.
Claire Cook writes fun books, so I didn't hesitate to pick up her new novel Wallflower in Bloom. Even the cover is invigorating.

My brother was dazzling, as usual. "Do. You. Have. Passion?" he roared. His white teeth gleamed. His elegant hands beckoned. His bedroom eyes twinkled. The sold-out mostly female audience drooled.
 

Also this week is Teaser Tuesdays.
Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along!
Open to a random page of your current read and share a teaser sentence from somewhere on that page.
BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS!
Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers.
Here's mine from page 62:

I loved denial -- it was warm and cuddly like a favorite childhood blankie -- but standing here now, sweats rolled down over my hips, I forced myself to push it away and look at the facts. I'd spent the last decade in and out of a dead-end relationship as I worked seven days a week, twenty-four hours a day at a job that made me disappear bit by bit on the inside, as I bulked up inch by inch on the outside.

Somehow, the main character gets to go on Dancing with the Stars as a way to redeem her life. Maybe that'll happen to me too.

My Book

Well, my book is still chugging along. Probably not keeping J.K. Rowling awake at night worried about the competition, but it is a totally different kind of book. There's not a single mention of a town council in my book.

This is a photo we didn't use for the
book cover. It's the front door to
 Cezanne'sstudio in Aix en Provence.

But there is an Ohio family that travels to southern France to run a bed and breakfast. Some of the chapters are told from the viewpoint of Uncle Martin. He grew up in Kentucky and traveled to Europe to fight in World War II when he was 17. When he got injured, he woke up to find a lovely French woman who would become his wife Lucie. He never moved home to Kentucky again, but he does have a secret from World War II that is catching up with him.
Hope you'll give my book a try.
I have two reviews on Kindle with four out of five stars.
RS says,  "An absorbing story, great characters and writing that sings to you. I couldn't put it down. I only wish I had discovered it on a summer vacation to read at the beach." You can read the whole review here. And sorry, RS, I know it should have been available for the summer since it's called The Summer of France. Why did it come out at the end of September? Okay, one mistake so far.
Another review by HG says, "...if you like realistic dialogue spoken by realistic characters, you will be drawn into the story without realizing it. The pace and tone feel like a "summer in France"; the twists and turns of the plot appear and then recede in a very natural way." You can read that whole review here.
Does this convince you to give my book a try? Only $4.99 to download on Amazon or Barnes and Noble. Or order the paperback version for $14, plus shipping here. It'll be available in paperback at Amazon eventually, but isn't yet.

Homecoming 2012

To participate in the Saturday Snapshot meme post a photo that you (or a friend or family member) have taken then leave a direct link to your post on Alyce's blog At Home With Books. Photos can be old or new, and be of any subject as long as they are clean and appropriate for all eyes to see. How much detail you give in the caption is entirely up to you. Please don’t post random photos that you find online.
Tucker went to the homecoming dance last Saturday with a big group from his class. But he and his friend Josh were the only two guys who showed up for photos on time.
They all decided to wear black and I love to see the girls' colorful shoes, although I couldn't walk in most of them.

Tucker is in the red tie kneeling in front. The next day he said his hips hurt -- probably from shaking his booty, although those weren't his words.

Some of the other guys showed up later so they got another shot with more even numbers.

 

I Love France Meme -- Rooftops

This week, I'm starting the I Love France meme that is sponsored by Words and Peace. I know this won't shock many of you who read my blog regularly.
So what to share about France? It's so hard to choose.
I thought I'd go with a simple photo that definitely says France to me.

This photo was taken from our friend's apartment in Nantes. They have a top floor apartment that overlooks both the chateau de Nantes and the cathedral. Everything is perfect, except that 5-floor walk up, but that's probably what keeps them healthy.
Obviously, the other view is of rooftops. Why do these roofs look so French?

Homeland High School

I couldn't figure it out. I know that around this age, junior in high school, students start getting a lot of letters from colleges and sometimes from organizations that have camps and forums and strategizing sessions. The students are "specially chosen" and "invited" to attend and they can receive college credit. Of course, with a little further reading, a clever parent will see that most of these invitations come with a $3000 price tag or more.

So I didn't think much when Tucker started getting these invitations. Then came one last week that was obviously hand typed on a typewriter rather than a computer with the return address of a Major General. The Major General had signed the letter with his own blue pen rather than computer- generated signature.

Yesterday came a thick packet with instructions to the mail carrier to return this letter within 5 days if it wasn't delivered. Again, the letter was hand signed.                   Both packets invited, and seemed to be trying to win him Tucker to their side. He had been "nominated" to attend a youth leadership program on National Security.  

"I don't get it, Tucker," I told him as I looked through the information. He gets decent grades and did okay on his PSAT his sophomore year, but as he points out, not as good as most of the honors students who took it last year.

"Maybe it's because of my major I marked on my PSAT," he said.

"What?" 

When he took the PSAT last year, he had to choose an area of study for college. Since he wasn't sure, he thought Homeland Security would be a good idea.

Well, that explained a lot.

Of course, he's moved on now. He thinks he might like to be an announcer on the radio or television, which is quite a step from homeland security.

"So you're sure you're not interested in going to these forums?" I asked as I bundled up all the information.

"Not at all," he said, his mind full of music instead of terrorism.

He takes the PSAT next week -- the time that counts. I'm not sure what he'll put down for his intended study area, but I guess the competition for broadcast journalism or music majors isn't quite as great as Homeland Security



First Chapter, Tuesday Teaser -- Imperfect Bliss

Every Tuesday, Diane at Bibliophile by the Sea posts the first paragraph of her current read. Anyone can join in. Go to Diane's website for the image and share the first paragraph of the current book you are reading.
This week I'm starting a perfectly pink book called Imperfect Bliss by Susan Fales-Hill. It wasn't the pink cover that caught me though. It was the blurb on the front from author Adriana Trigiani. She called it "A poignant and piquant comedy of manners..." I'm always up for a comedy of manners. Here's the intro.

Bliss Harcourt stared down at her daughter who stood with cherubically plump arms tightly crossed to prevent her mother from removing her powder-blue ersatz satin princess dress. How do you tell a four-year-old you can have the right outfit and the right attitude but it doesn't mean your prince will come? And even if he does show up, he might just ride away, permanently, mused Bliss as Bella scowled at her through baby bifocals worn beneath a spangled pastic tiara. "Bella, please take off the costume," Bliss pleaded, not wanting to use bodily force, but aware that her stores of patience diminished with every passing minute.
 

Also this week is Teaser Tuesdays.
Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along!
Open to a random page of your current read and share a teaser sentence from somewhere on that page.
BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS!
Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers.
Here's mine from page 63:

"Can't you see we all exceed his age limit, and his IQ threshold. As Madame de Stael said about one of her brawny but brainless lovers, 'Speech is not his language,' " Bliss quipped.

Can't wait to see what great books everyone else is reading this week.

Caffeine

An unintended side effect of this broken nose and surgery is that I have given up caffeine.
I know, it's as hard to make the leap between runnning and broken nose as it is between broken nose and caffeine.

Here I am getting an espresso hit in Paris.

Well, I did indeed fall while running and land on my nose breaking it. And now, I've given up caffeine due to the broken nose.
On Friday, the doctor scheduled surgery at 1:30 to put the bones back in place. That meant I couldn't eat or drink anything after midnight. Since I'm not a little kid, I thought this wouldn't be a big deal. I mean, I do have some self control.
I was up at my usual 5, getting things done on the computer. Around the time Tucker woke up for school, my head had started to ache a bit. I'd planned on running a few errands that morning to keep my mind off everything. By 9 a.m. I was lying on the couch with a pounding headache. At 11:30, half an hour before I was to appear for surgery, I was throwing up from the lack of caffeine. Not that I had anything in my stomach...

The morning after surgery, as I stood in front of the espresso maker, remembering how miserable I had felt without caffeine, and knowing that it was currently out of my system, I reached for the decaf.
If you'd asked me, I would have said my favorite thing about coffee in the morning is the flavor. I mix it with steamed milk and add a little sugar. Mmmm.
But, for some reason, the decaf coffee has not tasted as good.
For now, I'll stick with decaf, until the memories of withdrawal fade away. Then I'll probably be back to regular again.

Books to Movies

When I blogged about my book being published, Sim from Chapter 1- Take 1 immediately asked if I'd picked out who would play the characters in the movie. Of course, her blog is all about books that are made into movies, so that's the way her mind works.
I would love to see my book made into a movie. It has scenic landscapes in Provence, flashbacks to World War II, and a motorcycle chase from Provence to Krakow.
I haven't really pegged any certain actors into roles though -- except one. The handsome Frenchman Christophe should be played by Gilles Marini.


Photo from Google Images

I think I first saw him as Samantha's neighbor in Sex in the City, can't remember if it was the movie or the television show, but it was when Samantha lived in California with her boyfriend. Gilles was the next door neighbor who peeled off his wetsuit on the balcony.
Yummm.
I'll wait til the rest of you have read my book to throw out some ideas about who should play the other characters.