Grab Your Passport by EM Lynley

Who loves to read? Did you all raise your hand? Okay, maybe only a few of you actually raised a hand. Good for you! Who likes to travel? I raised both hands, even in the privacy of my office. For me, books don’t get better than when they combine a great story with a real trip, even if it’s just from reality….

When you’ve had a rough day or a particularly grueling week, you probably can’t wait to get away from it all by escaping into someone else’s world in the pages (or pixels) of a book. We’ve all been there. I admit to reading for escape as much as simple entertainment. A good writer can make us feel we’re in another place, time, world or even in someone else’s body. A great writer makes us want to stay there and never come home. If only we could.


Have you ever read a book that made you want to visit a place you’ve never been? Not only give you a description of somewhere else, but immerse you in the sights, sounds, smells, tastes and textures, so you really are there? I love when that happens. And it’s what I’ve tried to do in my latest release, Rarer Than Rubies, set in Thailand and based on my own visits there.


It’s little things that drew me in, almost as much as the spectacular scenery of the countryside or the magnificent temples and palaces.

It was a special pleasure to bring little details and delights of Thailand, from Bangkok and its heat, so thick you feel it wrapping around every limb, to the dirty backstreets where all manner of trade–more than you’ve imagined–takes place.


Food is a special passion of mine, so I wanted to share the duck with anise and ginger and my favorite coconut drinks they serve “to go” with a straw in a plastic bag and a looped rubber band to hold it, boucing along as you walk and sip.
My goal is to make you want to book your flight right away!


[Read a foodie excerpt from Rarer Than Rubies.]

Ready yet?

Where would you like to visit based on a book you’ve read? How did the author make the place come alive for you?

I’ll share one of mine: when I was a kid I loved horses. Probably this sounds familiar to some of you, right? I read every horse-related book I could, including all of Marguerite Henry’s books. One of them was The Wildest Horse Race in the World about the Palio in Siena, Italy. The race has been going on for hundreds of years and it pits different neighborhoods against each other, so much so that married couples from different parts of town split up for the week of the race! It took a long time, but I eventually made it to Italy to watch the Palio. In fact, it’s featured in one of the books I’m working on right now. If you visit my website or personal blog you can keep up with details on when that will be released.

That dream vacation was based on a novel, but I’ve read some great travel writing. I spent a year traveling around Europe and Asia on my own and I read plenty of books to prepare. One of my favorite authors is Paul Theroux. If you want to take an adventure without leaving the house, be sure to check out The Great Railway Bazaar. I read it before I visited many of the places in the book and re-read it after riding on a hundred different trains throughout Europe and Asia. Theroux travels by rail from London to Tokyo as long as there was a train. If not, he flew, but he rode a hell of lot of trains and talked to everyone along the way. His observations about food, culture, plumbing, scenery, and those of his travel companions are priceless. I absolutely love train travel, and wish we had better trains here in the US. It brings you back to a different age and time when getting there was part of the excitement and lure of travel, and when people weren’t in such a damn hurry. Now we rush here and rush there and have lost the joy of getting from place to place and the people we meet along the way.

Have you made it to one of the places you’ve longed to visit? Tell us all about it!

–EM Lynley

EM Lynley writes gay romance. Her latest release romance/adventure, RARER THAN RUBIES from Dreamspinner Press) is set in Thailand, described as “Indiana Jones meets Romancing the Stone.” Also available from Amazon.com. (Read an excerpt.)


Visit EM at her website, Facebook or follow her on Twitter. She’s even got some free stories on offer.