Big News!

I'm sure some of you have noticed I've been MIA for a couple of months. Life has been a bit crazy and unfortunately the blog had to be set on the back burner. But I'm back with good news. I sold my Young Adult novel Toyko Dare! For those who have been following my blog you know how much I love Japan. I wrote Tokyo Dare so that teens could read and learn about Japan through a fun adventure driven novel. I'm so happy to announce that an editor fell in love with my story and it will be published soon. I'll post details as we get closer to the publication date which should be sometime in August. 

Here's the deals report in Publishers Weekly! 

Young Adult

Anne Van's TOKYO DARE, in which a dare sends a high school student to Japan where her host family thinks she's the devil and a wacky to-do list turns her world inside out, to Jude Pittman at Books We Love, by Dawn Dowdle at Blue Ridge Literary Agency.

I'll be blogging about the crazy times ahead as I get closer to the book release. I'm lucky to have a publisher that will let me design my own cover. Those years of art school are finally going to pay off. : ) I'll be posting cover previews as I go along. 

So stay tuned!  

Anne          

Paris Gives Me Museumittus: Part Two

One of the things I love about Paris museums is there are all kinds of hidden treasures right under your nose.  A gold mine for an off the beaten track traveler like me. Take the Louvre for example. Right next to the most famous museum in France is an amazing museum that many people miss —The Museum of Decorative Arts. As you can imagine the French are the consummate kings of decorative arts.  For decades its royalty demanded the most elaborate furniture and accessories to fill their palaces. To the French, a bed isn’t just some place to sleep; it’s a work of art. Like this amazing example.

 

I’m a sucker for beautiful rooms filled with furniture to match and the museum had me practically salivating. My favorite period is Art Nouveau, (French of course) and the museum had the most gorgeous rooms filled with accessories to die for. How I wished I could move right in. The museum had done their job. The rooms were so inviting I wanted to live there.

A friend of mine tagged along on my visit and her jaw dropped when we stood in front of this Nouveau showstopper.

"Wow, the room is beautiful. How could I not know about this place."

Unfortunately she’s not alone. Despite the fact that the museum is right next to the famous Louvre hardly anyone pays it a visit.  

I rolled my eyes. "Because you don't think out of the box. You go to all the predictable places. "

She hung her head. "You're right. If it doesn't make the top ten in the guide books it's not on my radar."  

"Exactly. Think of all the amazing things you've missed. You've been to Paris twice!"

Right then and there she made me a promise. On her next visit to Paris she'd be sure to seek out all the little museums the city of lights has to offer. 

If there's one thing I've learned from my time in Paris, famous doesn't always mean the best.  The Louvre is amazing. Seeing the Monet water lily paintings in person —unforgettable. But the highlight of my trip were the hidden treasures of The Decorative Arts Museum.