From The Author of  “Everlasting Lies”

Author Barbara Warren is with us today, on tour with her debut novel, Everlasting Lies.  Ms. Warren is currently on a virtual book tour with iRead Book Tours, with stops at a number of sites.

Take a look at the list below to find interviews, articles and reviews.

As part of the tour, she has shared this  terrific article.  In case you missed it, you can find our review of Everlasting Lies here.

I Had A Dream And I Followed It

By Barbara Warren

When I was six, my grandmother gave me a bookmark with a picture of the magnificent but mysterious Taj Mahal.

On the other side of the bookmark was a description …The Taj Mahal is an ivory-white marble mausoleum in the Indian city of Agra. It was built in 1632 by the emperor, Shah Jahan, to house the tomb of his favorite wife, Mumtaz Maha.

I used that bookmark for many years and it was the last thing I used before I went to sleep at night. Many nights I dreamed about handsome Indian emperors and their beautiful wives. I longed to visit the Taj, not only when I was a child but throughout my life. It was a lifelong dream.

In 1998, when I was 58, I followed my dream. My husband and I joined group of six other Albertans on a tour of India and Nepal that took us to some of the cultural treasures of those two countries.

As our flight from Singapore descended towards the airport in Delhi we could see thousands of fireworks going off on the ground and the Air India flight attendants told us that it was the beginning of Divali, the Festival of Lights, a month long celebration that is the most important of all the many Hindu festivals.

Landing in Dehli was a tremendous culture shock for us all. It was dark when we arrived and there were very few streetlights in this teeming city of more than 20 million. Our group was ushered onto our private white bus and we headed for the hotel. As we got close to the airport’s exit we could see that it was protected by a high wire fence on which hung hundreds of men, like monkeys, just staring at the crowds arriving and leaving the airport. It was very intimidating.

As our bus wove through the dark streets it was engulfed in a maelstrom of cars, trucks, tuk-tuks, bicycles, camels and elephants. Cows, sacred to Hindus, strolled and defecated on the sidewalks, in the alleys and among the traffic. Because it was late at night, thousands and thousands of people were bedding down on the sidewalks simply because they had nowhere else to sleep. The smells of diesel, gasoline, burning garbage and human waste were overwhelming and our luxurious hotel was a welcome island in a sea of poverty and mystery.

We spent a few days in New Delhi, learning some of its 5,000 yearlong history and visiting the Red Fort, Humayun’s Tomb, India Gate and other important sights. Then we were off to the city of Agra, home of the Taj Mahal.

Shakti, our local guide in Agra, was knowledgeable and interesting and, on our first afternoon, took us to Agra Fort. It is the former imperial residence of the Mughal Dynasty and a UNESCO World Heritage site and Shakti held our group spellbound as he described the history, art and architecture of the fort. But I was getting closer and closer to the end of my patience. I knew that my first sight of my beloved Taj Mahal, after over fifty years of waiting was an hour, then thirty minutes and then a few steps away and I found it excruciating to wait patiently. Then, through a window in the rock walls of the fort I saw it glowing in the afternoon sun about a mile away across the River Yamuna.

The tears ran down my cheeks and I sobbed and sobbed with the joy of achieving this lifelong dream. Soon, my husband, the other six Albertans and even, Shakti, were caught up in the emotion of my moment and had tears in their eyes and on their cheeks. It was a breathtaking and beautiful moment.

Next morning we were up and on the bus an hour before dawn so that we could travel to see the sun rise on the Taj Mahal…but that’s another story.

My book, “Everlasting Lies”, tells the story of my maternal grandparents from the time they met and married in England in 1910 to the time they settled in India in 1920. My bookmark came home to England with them.

The Tour

Book Description:

Edina Paxton is kissed at twelve, seduced at fourteen and married with child at fifteen. She immediately regrets her marriage to Charles Vernon and is relieved when he leaves to fight in the trenches during WW1. She soon finds love, comfort and sexual satisfaction with Bill, another soldier and the boy who first kissed her.

Charles is invalided out of the army and is sent to India on a hospital ship. There, he becomes a manager of a coalmine in Britain’s Indian Empire, with all the privileges that his position rewards, including sexual favours from female employees. At the end of his army service in 1920 he returns to England to collect his family and return to India, only to be greeted with the news that while he was away Edina was at play. She is pregnant.

Reluctantly, Edina and her three children sail for India with Charles and Edina gives birth to her fourth child while sailing south on the Red Sea. On reaching India Charles finds his Indian mistress is pregnant and Edina finds Charles’s Indian boss to be very attractive. It’s a mutual attraction. Neither Edina nor Charles is a saint.

Buy the Book:

Author’s Bio:

Barbara Warren always has the pedal to the metal. Born in England and educated at a convent, she left school at sixteen and was selling encyclopedias in the roughest part of London at eighteen.

She married and emigrated to Canada when she was twenty-three, had three charming daughters, went to university when she was thirty-six and retired from teaching in her mid fifties.

Then she pursued her passion for the arts and for travel. She and her husband rode camels in India, elephants in Nepal and horses in Montana. They hitchhiked in Norway, cycled across Denmark and snorkeled on the Great Barrier Reef.

Barbara’s paintings grace homes in Canada, USA and Mexico and she designs her own clothes. She spends the winters in Mexico and the summers in the bible belt of southern Alberta.

Connect with the author:  Website  ~  Facebook

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Merry Citarella, often writing as Merrci, writes on a wide range of topics. Recently relocated to the Oregon Coast in the northwest United States, she frequently writes travel features on the beautiful Pacific Northwest. She specializes in health and aging, Alzheimer’s Disease, food, lifestyle, and book reviews. For more information you can see her on The Writers’Door. You can read more articles here or at her websites Alzheimers HQ and Simple Living Ideas