The Pink Sofa welcomes Jo Carroll

There are some people who are so amazing that I stand back in awe and wonder! Jo is one of those people. We met on Twitter (where else). Jo has brought up 4 children on her own, and now, free of domestic duties (tho' a devoted grandma) she is a traveller. Jo goes to wonderful places in the world, and then shares her adventures on her blog and in her books. The header pic tells you all you need to know about her! The Pink Sofa is in awe, and is contemplating abandoning its latest oeuvre: More Upholstery for Beginners in favour of a travel book. I have told it that Travels Round The Writing Attic may not have the same appeal as Jo's marvellous books. It remains unconvinced.

In honour of Jo's visit, there is rum and coffee and Cuban Shortbread Cookies on the coffee table.So, lovely lady, the sofa is yours:

Goodness, a seat on the Pink Sofa – I’m honoured. (If I’m very good, do you think she’ll give me cake?) Many thanks to Carol for letting me creep in and tell you about my travels. 

For those of you I’ve not met before, I need to tell you that these aren’t any old travels. After thirty years in Child Protection I threw all thoughts of work in the air, bought a rucksack, sold my car, found a tenant for my house, abandoned my children and went off for a year. What I didn’t know, when I bought my round-the-world ticket, is that not many middle-aged women do that.

So when I came home I wrote a book about it. Well, there were far too many stories to tell and far too few people listening to them.

Then I went off again. I no longer try to understand what this wanderlust is about. I simply recognize days when I dream of hot streets and dust, of the screech if cicadas or the smell of incense, of the roar of tigers or sips of tiger beer – and know it’s time to get the passport out again.

And why would I stop writing? Most winter trips have been followed by a little ebook. So episodes like my drive down the Siddhartha Highway after a cyclone could become a funny story (even though it was truly terrifying at the time). I could share my efforts to understand the horrors of years of bombing in Laos.

Last winter I went to Cuba. I’ve written about this trip with some trepidation. I was given so much advice before I left: it seemed that Cuba provoked strong opinions and anyone who has been there needed to share theirs. But my Cuba is not their Cuba. I don’t pretend to draw conclusions from such a complicated country. But I have found the story of my trip, in all its wonderfulness and contradictions, the teased it into another ebook entitled VULTURES OVERHEAD.

It has a cover: 

And a blurb:

It’s time for JO CARROLL to pack her rucksack again, and this time she’s heading west, to Cuba.Everyone, it seems, has been to Cuba, or wants to go to Cuba, or knows about it. Cuba, they insist, is on the brink of change. A market economy will finally see off the old cars and rationing. They’ve been saying that for decades. But what face does Cuba present to a tourist in 2014?

She finds salsa, of course, and cigars, and wonderful coffee. But what surprises wait for her when the music stops?

There are pictures on my website here.

This time I’ll not stop there. I know many people who have asked me to produce print books. I’ve resisted that so far, as the ebooks are small and readers could rightly be miffed about being asked to pay a book-price for something so small.

But I now have three ebooks from my last trips. Put together, they are print-book length. So give me a week or several, and you can read about my travels in a ‘real book’. 

Jo can also be found on Twitter @jomcarrroll

Thanks Jo. You are and hopefully will continue to be an inspiration. Right....while Jo has a coffee and a Cookie, it's over to you......