Title: Meet Me in Barcelona
Author: Mary Carter
Publisher: Kensington
Pages: 352
Genre: Mainstream fiction
Format: Paperback/Kindle/MP3 CD, Audiobook, MP3 Audo, Unabridged
Purchase at AMAZON
A surprise trip to Barcelona with her boyfriend, Jake, seems like the perfect antidote to Grace Sawyer's current woes. The city is dazzling and unpredictable, but the biggest surprise for Grace is discovering who arranged and paid for the vacation.
Carrie Ann wasn't just Grace's foster sister. Clever, pretty, and mercurial, she was her best friend—until everything went terribly wrong. Now, as she flees an abusive marriage, Carrie Ann has turned to the one person she hopes will come through for her. Despite her initial misgivings, Grace wants to help. But then Carrie Ann and Jake both go missing. Stunned and confused, Grace begins to realize how much of herself she's kept from Jake—and how much of Carrie Ann she never understood. Soon Grace is baited into following a trail of scant clues across Spain, determined to find the truth, even if she must revisit her troubled past to do it.
Mary Carter's intriguing novel delves into the complexities of childhood bonds, the corrosive weight of guilt and blame, and all the ways we try—and often fail—to truly know the ones we love.
THE IDEA TREE
By Mary Carter
“Where do you get your ideas?”
It’s the question I am asked most often. It’s typically accompanied with furled eyebrows and the asker leaning forward slightly in case I’m about to divulge an ancient, Chinese secret. As if there is an idea tree out there, and I alone was chosen to pluck from it. As if ideas were UFOs and I had been granted exclusive access to my own personal Area 51. Here’s what’s really behind that question. I would be a writer too, if I just knew how to come up with an idea. Maybe instead of writing novels, I should open a chain store: IDEAS R US
In the writing workshop I teach, we say that “Good Ideas” take a back seat to Experience. Bringing an experience to life on the page is what it’s all about, and experience is everywhere, happening to everyone, everyday. In my most recent release, MEET ME IN BARCELONA, I bring the experience of Barcelona to life. There’s more to it, of course. Complex female relationships. Love versus lust. Dealing with loss. People disappearing. All against the background of beautiful Barcelona. My observations were made over a decade ago when I had the chance to visit Spain for seventeen days. One of the electric aspects of La Rambla, both the name of a pedestrian-only street, and a reference to the neighborhood itself, is the street performers. Rafael, in the novel, is one such street performer. I also describe a “tin man” riding a bicycle with two child-sized skeletons riding beside him. Here’s the picture of the actual performer that I was able to use in my fiction over ten years later. It still feels like ten days ago in a lot of ways. I didn’t take this picture, one of the girls I was with did. You’ll see that the performer is holding his hand in front of his face, she must have snapped this picture without tipping him. I was fascinated with the variety and talent of the performers. I wondered what they looked like beneath their make-up, outfits, and props. I wondered if they were fun to have at dinner parties. I wondered if they ever got tired of dressing up to go to work. I wondered how they could stand so still. I wondered what they thought about since most of them were completely silent. I wondered if they loved or hated the people they posed with. I wondered if there was good money in it. I wondered how they came up with their outfits. I wondered what they did in their free time and what their flats looked like. I wondered if they changed right away when they arrived home or if they sat hunched around a tiny table smoking a cigarette first, leaking flakes of silver spray paint onto the top of the table. So if you want to know the secret to getting ideas, here it: Observe something and wonder about it. It can make wondrous things happen.
About the Author
Mary Carter is a freelance writer and novelist. Meet Me in Barcelona is her eighth novel. Her other works include: Three Months in Florence, The Things I Do For You, The Pub Across the Pond, My Sister’s Voice, Sunnyside Blues, She’ll Take It, and Accidentally Engaged. In addition to her novels she has written six novellas: Return to Hampton Beach in the anthology, Summer Days, A Southern Christmas in the upcoming 2014 anthology Our First Christmas, A Kiss Before Midnight in the anthology, You’re Still the One, A Very Maui Christmas in the New York Times best selling anthology Holiday Magic, and The Honeymoon House in the New York Times best selling anthology Almost Home. Mary currently lives in Chicago, IL with a demanding labradoodle. She wishes she could thank her gorgeous husband, but she doesn’t have one. In addition to writing she leads writing workshops.
For More Information
- Check out her writing workshop at The Writer’s Loft
More books by Mary Carter.
Giveaway
Mary Carter is giving away 3 books including My Sister's Voice, Three Months in Venice and Sunnyside Blues!
Terms & Conditions:
- By entering the giveaway, you are confirming you are at least 18 years old.
- One winner will be chosen via Rafflecopter to receive one set of three books by Mary Carter.
- This giveaway begins August 4 and ends on October 31.
- Winners will be contacted via email on Monday, November 3.
- Winner has 48 hours to reply.
Good luck everyone!
