What is a good topic for a book reading with three fellow authors? A topic to which women and men from the audience can contribute? We chose “Love in a Foreign Land”, and it turned out to be a really good event in the Public Art Gallery in Gibsons, British Columbia, Canada.
I shared the stage with Jan deGrass, Heather Conn and Janice Williams and told the audience about the Canadian fellow who managed to lure me to Canada from Europe. I met him in Northern British Columbia, and he taught me a lot about the local First Nations people, about grizzly bears, fly fishing in the Skeena River and exploring the beautiful islands of Haida Gwaii. After four years, we split but my love for Canada is still strong – and my love for another Canadian man.
Author Jan deGrass told us about a fascinating Russian who enchanted her during an era when only a few Western tourists were allowed to travel in the former Soviet Union, like her because she was Canadian. You can read about the Russian lover in her book “Jazz with Ella” (it is half fiction, half autobiography). Author Heather Conn met an astonishingly emancipated East Indian man while traveling solo in India and she describes their encounters in her not yet published memoir (among other not so pleasant experiences with East Indian and other men).
Janice Williams read from her childhood memories, her childhood was a land very foreign and without love for her. (Later in life though, she met a loving man).)
Even “Rambo” came out to listen ….
