A case can now be made that Carol is a slip-and-fall attorney’s dream. Back in Lyon during our first trip together (is that when I should have started thinking about travel insurance?) she had an epic heels-over-head tumble as she left our restaurant and started home in a drizzly French rain that turned those ancient tiled […] The post Legends of the Falls appeared first on Reid Champagne Blog ..read more

DL 65 to Paris We were walking in the hotel parking lot after checking out when Carol realized she didn’t have her jean jacket. I continued on to our rental and put the luggage in the trunk while she went back to retrieve it. At the rental return we were on the bus to the Delta terminal, when she realized […] The post The Jacket appeared first on Reid Champagne Blog ..read more

Our upcoming European trip will be different on two fronts. First, we’re going for the longest stretch for one excursion: almost six weeks, give or take. Secondly, “excursion” is a misnomer. For we’re going to spend all this time in a place we’ve already been to and had extended our stay once we got there. This time, we’ll be expanding […] The post Return to Rota appeared first on Reid Champagne Blog ..read more

  That’s the lead from the most recent review of A Roomful of Monkeys posted on Amazon’s web page featuring my book. Along with “playful” from the Kirkus Review, those two words sum up precisely what I was intending to achieve with my first comic novel.   To say I was relieved to see words like those associated with Roomful would be an understatement. I could barely breathe waiting for the manuscript’s acceptance, the first round of edits and, finally, publication day. Why? Because, as with almost everything I write, I start with the premise that here is where I ..read more

This review reminds me of the admonition from that high school composition teacher of mine who’d admonished me to leave humor for those that can write it. Well, the admonition didn’t stop me then, and it looks like this one won’t stop me now. Still looking for buyers of A Roomful of Monkeys and readers for the sequel Get These Monkeys Off My Back. It’s not literature folks, I write strictly for the chuckle. Still what the reviewer wrote I can’t argue with. Hah! Click on the link below if you still insist on buying A Roomful of Monkeys after reading the review, and PM me if you want to re ..read more

Day 20 Flamencos and staying up late Carol had been hinting at finding a nightclub featuring Flamenco dancing throughout our whole trip. I’d spent the whole trip hoping to avoid just that. I’d had my fill of the art form in Seville during the Feria. It’s a lot of twirling, arm swinging and stomping around with a rose stem in your mouth. The moves reminded me of a matador’s, so that the whole spectacle came off like a bullfight without the bull – a vegan bullfight, if you will. The thing about Carol is that if she gets a bug in her head to do someth ..read more

   We were the underdogs. Eleven years old and younger, with oversized gloves and a still-to-be-developed relationship between a baseball and a bat. All knew the stakes. Win and move on, lose and go home. Would the parents feel it more than their kids?   In the first inning the visitors (us) scored twice and our opponents got one back. Who would know that would be the margin of victory; the little league game suddenly would take on the grind-it out with pitching and defense emerging front and center. It certainly never matched any memory I could conjure of my own playing days b ..read more

Want to keep me from harping on my new comic novel A Roomful of Monkeys? How about buying it? If that won’t shut me up, nothing will. Visit reidchampagne.com and scroll down to my published “works.” Buy both (An American Walkabout) and save! (Not really. I have no idea how that would even work.) Oh, and BYE the way… Anyone willing to risk their reputations and/or self-esteem by becoming a beta reader for my new manuscript Get These Monkeys Off My Back can PM me with total anonymity guaranteed! Click here to “bye” the book…. A ROOMFUL OF MONKEYS on AMAZON! The post BYE-BYE this book…. appeared ..read more

Days 9-11 Meet the Rotarians   The winds had calmed, which meant our day-trip to Cadiz would be by ferry and not by bus. You might remember that Cadiz had been our original planned destination, but thanks to Carol’s monumental screw up, we wound up in Rota, and as Robert Frost said of the road taken, “that has made all the difference.” He suddenly broke from his family circle and joined the throw-a-round, no doubt fascinated at being able to touch the ball with hands and not incur a penalty kick.   We expected Cadiz to be more crowded and touristy than our off-the-beaten track Rot ..read more

Days 3-5 Devon and the Deep Blue Sea   While the weather remained quite unsettled by wind and rain, we were still able to take advantage of the breaks to make a couple of discoveries that would help define our stay in Rota. The first couple though, not so much.   A friend of Carol’s had recommended a flea market operated by local gypsies out near the bus station. Imagine a flea market popping up at New York’s Port Authority and you have a pretty good visual of what we came upon. Not seeing much of anything that would interest even Goodwill, we wandered off into town where an apparen ..read more