I really enjoyed this! While our experiences were very different, reading about your arrival in Turkey reminded me so much of my first couple days in Cairo--having to venture out of a hotel, by myself, into one of the more "different" places I'd ever been relative to the West and just...figuring it out. I'm hoping to make it to Turkey later this summer (after many years of itching to go) and am looking forward to hearing more about Istanbul!!
Thank you, Samantha! I'll be back there in July and have a very long list of places I plan to explore and write about. Happy to connect while you're in town.
Also a milspouse here and enjoyed reading this! I can relate to a lot of the sentiments about moving abroad, especially as my husband and I are getting ready to move to Côte d’Ivoire. It’s always scary and uncomfortable at first but then you adjust and wonder why you were even scared in the first place.
I loved this! How come The Expedient Wife ended up on the cutting room floor? any thoughts of a reincarnation? On driving/riding in Turkey--our closest call came during a mad dash to the airport by a crazy Istanbul taxi driver. Thought we were dead a couple of times. The driving there (10 yrs later than your foray) was crazy!
Jeanine, I'm glad you liked this post. I am an "over writer." If there is a sentence that needs 6 words, I will write 20. With suspense and thriller novels, there is an acceptable word count in the industry that I have to meet. When I finish the first draft, I'm usually way over that count, and have to cut unnecessary things. This section was one of those.
I learned a lesson twenty years ago in Turkey about cars. Drive a very large one. The drivers are very agressive.
Funny. And understood! I write thrillers too and in my first, when my editor sent back the ms asking me to cut 30k words (she said 70k acceptable for the genre) of course I did what anyone would do: I cried. But I did the deed and readers enthused at how quickly they got through it. She was right. And I love her dearly.
R.S., love reading about experiences abroad. I can relate. I can also wholeheartedly agree on the baklava advice, haha. My brother-in-law was Greek and he could cook and bake all kinds of delicious meals. Thanks for posting, I enjoyed this. - Jim
I really enjoyed this! While our experiences were very different, reading about your arrival in Turkey reminded me so much of my first couple days in Cairo--having to venture out of a hotel, by myself, into one of the more "different" places I'd ever been relative to the West and just...figuring it out. I'm hoping to make it to Turkey later this summer (after many years of itching to go) and am looking forward to hearing more about Istanbul!!
Thank you, Samantha! I'll be back there in July and have a very long list of places I plan to explore and write about. Happy to connect while you're in town.
Also a milspouse here and enjoyed reading this! I can relate to a lot of the sentiments about moving abroad, especially as my husband and I are getting ready to move to Côte d’Ivoire. It’s always scary and uncomfortable at first but then you adjust and wonder why you were even scared in the first place.
I'm looking forward to reading about your move! I've never been to Côte d'Ivoire, so please start telling me everything I need to know. :)
I will do my best! 😊 I’m looking forward to learning more about this part of the world.
I loved this! How come The Expedient Wife ended up on the cutting room floor? any thoughts of a reincarnation? On driving/riding in Turkey--our closest call came during a mad dash to the airport by a crazy Istanbul taxi driver. Thought we were dead a couple of times. The driving there (10 yrs later than your foray) was crazy!
Jeanine, I'm glad you liked this post. I am an "over writer." If there is a sentence that needs 6 words, I will write 20. With suspense and thriller novels, there is an acceptable word count in the industry that I have to meet. When I finish the first draft, I'm usually way over that count, and have to cut unnecessary things. This section was one of those.
I learned a lesson twenty years ago in Turkey about cars. Drive a very large one. The drivers are very agressive.
Funny. And understood! I write thrillers too and in my first, when my editor sent back the ms asking me to cut 30k words (she said 70k acceptable for the genre) of course I did what anyone would do: I cried. But I did the deed and readers enthused at how quickly they got through it. She was right. And I love her dearly.
R.S., love reading about experiences abroad. I can relate. I can also wholeheartedly agree on the baklava advice, haha. My brother-in-law was Greek and he could cook and bake all kinds of delicious meals. Thanks for posting, I enjoyed this. - Jim
I'm happy you like reading, Jim. Thanks for following along.
Oh wow. If we could only have a bird's eye view to see where we both were then in relation to each other. So interesting.