OVERLAND

I was a worker bee, but yearned to travel. I went to bookstores to research my trip. I bought an India travel guide and absorbed it as if it were a page turning novel. I read that the monsoon season ended in India the end of August. It was May 30^th when I left the US, and spent three months in Europe, just biding my time, while having the time of my life.

On my birthday, August 16, at age 32, I flew to India. A mishap caused my backpack to not make the flight on a brief transit stop from Sri Lanka to Southern India. I spent two frustrating hours in the Trivandrum airport lining up my backpack with hopes it would show up a few days later.

Resigned to the fact that there was nothing I could do, I took my  trusty India guide and asked an auto rickshaw driver take me to the Hotel Blue Sea. As I was whisked through the balmy palm lined, slow paced, exotic streets, I completely forgot about my backpack. In that moment, my life had changed forever.

OVERLAND was so intoxicating...your writing so picturesque without being wordy, the locales were postcard perfect, you really not just painted the image with your words, but I could hear the sounds and smell the scents of each scene that you described...I really felt as though I was there, as though I was Danny.  I adore Emily, even the briefly introduced Anna.  That's what I mean, you described each character, that they became people in my world. I even found myself weeping at the Tea Garden when they embrace at the end.  And although you realistically described the horrific personal tradgies of war, I loved the way the doctors and towns folks were united and had the intimate relationships that this environment created.  And you made it realistic but not gory where you want to skip thru it, I wanted to read every word because even with the bad you worked in a bit of compassion/good over evil/humanity at it's best a the time when it was it's worst.  And the village story where Emily and Danny have their hut was such a romantic and perfectly time respite from the realistic war.  From the birth then it went to the war and threat of death but ended in the escape...I just didn't want to put it down but at the same time I didn't want to read it too fast because each section was so wonderful I didn't want it to end.  Your story has everything...one minute I was laughing, then teary-eyed. This would make one heck of a movie, like "The Notebook" quality movie.

• Author Talk on August 7th