Naples and Capri: Day Two

The sunny Bay of Naples is a beautiful sight as one approaches the city by ship. The plumed heights of Mount Vesuvius dominate the skyline. We didn’t have time to visit Naples but strolled along the streets lining the harbor to check a fortress or old castle.

A half hour ride in the ferry took us to the romantic island of Capri that I visited when I was eight years old with my parents.

All I remember from that first visit was that I lost my brand new straw hat. The wind blew it from my head to the sea and I stared at it unable to believe Daddy couldn’t get it back, then I started crying. I bought a straw hat in memory of my Dad and this time I held it with both hands. It came with me to the States!

From Capri, we took a boat to the famous Grotta Dell Azura.

You can’t see any grotto from the sea. Just a rock with a small opening.

And I mean small. Not higher than a table, about four-foot wide. Only a canoe could go through.

After waiting for our turn for another hour, we finally jumped from the boat into a canoe operated by an expert who asked us to lie down and put our arms inside the canoe.

He rowed through the narrow arch in the rock. Suddenly we were in the dark, pitch-black. We heard Italian songs, mingled with exclamations. I looked back toward the opening and was stunned by the incredible blue color. The water and air looked bright blue, a festival of blue light as if a thousand blue lamps illuminated the grotto. Unfortunately the pictures don’t give credit to the ethereal atmosphere.

Two new reviews for BABIES IN THE BARGAIN:

Joyfully Reviewed: This an old-fashioned, tender romance... Romance blooms amidst tragedy in BABIES IN THE BARGAIN. It tugs heart strings and stirs emotions.

Readers Favorite: 5 Stars. This is Mona Risk at her best. The characters are easy to relate to. The plot is excellent. fns of romance will love this story.

Rome: Day One

We landed in Rome early in the morning and were supposed to be taken straight to the ship to start our Mediterranean cruise.

The handsome young man who greeted us—too bad I didn’t have my camera available—had dark curly hair framing his face, attractive features la Roger Federrer and a cheerful smile. He apologized for the fact that we wouldn’t be able to board the ship before noon. To compensate for the inconvenience, Princess Cruise had arranged for us and other early birds a complementary guided tour of Rome while our luggage was transferred directly to the ship. Who could ask for a better deal? I forgot the lack of sleep, uncomfortable plane seat and exhaustion of the long trip.

Here are some of my pictures of Rome taken between 9:00 and 10:00 am from the so-comfortable tour bus before driving to Civitavecchia, the closest port to Rome.

Vittorio-Emmanuele Monument.

The Forum.

The famous Piazza d'Hispania with the unending steps and the church on the top. We didn't stop to look at the gorgeous view.

Here approaching St. Peter's Square.

As the bus circled around St Peter's Cathedral, I noticed there was a Sunday Mass celebrated on the piazza. Two large screens on each side allowed the congregation to view every detail.

The Pope would step on the third balcony from the right to give his blessing every Sunday at 10:30 am.

I thought I had a picture of the Colliseum but apparently my camera didn't click fast enough as the bus toured around the famous arena.

Out on Vacation

I am leaving tomorrow morning for a vacation in Greece. My great-grandparents came from Salonica. I have been to Greece three times but never to Salonica. I am not even sure we will have time to stop there.

Salonica (officially Thessaloníki), Greece's second largest city and capital of Greek Macedonia, lies at the head of the Thermaic Gulf (Gulf of Salonica), the most northwesterly gulf in the Aegean.

In 1430 the town was captured by Sultan Murad II, and it remained Turkish for almost 500 years, until 1912, under the name of Selanik. The Turks expelled many of the Greek inhabitants and turned most of the churches into mosques. It was finally liberated in 1912. Some of the town's many Christian churches were converted into mosques and later were used by the Jews as synagogues. As the power of the Ottoman Empire declined Turkish rule in the Balkans, and particularly in Macedonia, grew steadily harsher, and the inhabitants of Salonica, suffering ever greater hardship and privation, several times rose in revolt.

I plan to take a lot of pictures and carefully report all I see.

As I mentioned in my last email, I have been extremely busy, babysitting my grandchildren but also creating a newsletter I hope to send as soon as I come back.

My new book, Rx for Trust, is part of a three-book series, Doctor's Order. It will be released by The Wild Rose Press on December 4, 2009. The second is Rx in Russian, and third is Rx in French.

See you on November 8 or earlier if I can manage to connect to the Internet while abroad.

If you like to travel and love to read, come and enjoy my international romances. I will take you around the world through stories that simmer with emotion and sizzle with heat. Meet the spirited heroines and the alpha heroes who share irresistible chemistry.

Please sign the mailing list-white box on the right- to receive my newsletter, if you haven't already done that in the past.

Recent news

Signing my books at Romanticon. My bear dressed as General Sergei, the hero of To Love A Hero, attracted a lot of attention.

I havent't post in the last three days as I was still recovering from my recent trip to Akron for Romanticon. It just occured to me that during this month I have been packing a suitcase while still unpacking another from the previous trip.

I went to visit my daughter and take care of the girls while their mother rested in bed after surgery-by now you probably know that my three granddaughters and only grandson are the pupil of my eye. So I left to Virginia on a Friday, came back on a Monday, unpacked and packed , left again on Friday, came back from Akron on Monday. I am still unpacking and packing to leave on Saturday. Are you able to follow that!!! Never mind. I am jumping on a plane... again...

But I can never afford the luxury of wasting time packing at a leisurely pace. Not when I enjoy the comapany of my two granddaughters who came from VA to spend ten days. Their mommy is partially recovered from her surgery and already back to work and on a business trip. The girls insist on helping me pack. Try to imagine the mess and fun around my place as discipline is totally ignored and the only rule is to have fun and laugh. Too bad if Mommy and Daddy can't understand that.

Today we walked to the pharmacy, picked up flowers from neat parterres and had a blast at the pharmacy trying to choose Halloween cards and stickers to decorate the cards. The girls insisted on stuffing their cards in the wrong envelopes and spoiled a few in the process. I had to buy a bunch of useless cards to make every one happy, including the pharmacy manager who was about to throw us out.

I hope I will be able to send my first newsletter during this week. I may announce a contest to celebrate my new book that will be released on December 4th, a story of psychiatrists who don't practice in their lives the good priciples they preach to their patients, a story based on this theme:

Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive.”-- Walter Scott.

Here is for the first time the blurb of Rx For Trust:

Successful physician and loving mother, Olivia Crane fiercely believes youthful mistakes should be kept secret and skeletons are better left in closets.

Unfortunately, Dr. Luc George, the French psychiatrist, she loved ten years ago, detests secrets and has a professional tendency to dig into people’s minds.

Can Luc help her conquer her inner fears or will he get burned by the past too? Will Olivia grab her second chance and finally find happiness with the love of her life?

My heroine is an all-American career woman and my hero is a French doctor coming to a mid-western hospital as visiting physician.

If you like to travel and love to read, come and enjoy my international romances. I will take you around the world through stories that simmer with emotion and sizzle with heat. Meet the spirited heroines and the alpha heroes who share irresistible chemistry.

Please sign the mailing list-white box on the right- to receive my newsletter, if you haven't already done that in the past.

Romanticon: Sunday

Breakfast in the covered pool area.

Ellora's Cave man pulling a winning ticket for the raffle at the Booksigning


Mona and her General Sergei bear from To Love A Hero




Betty Hanawa and her bear

Afton And Brooke London

Joanna Waugh

Cindy Pape and Hailey Steele

Romanticon: Saturday

Saturday started with a delicious leisurely buffet breakfast around the indoor swimming pool. When I say leisurely, I mean it. I was there from 8:00 am to 9:30 am chatting, signing programs for various people and asking authors to sign my program. This was one of the neat ideas the EC organizers came up with. There were several pages with authors and models' names followed by a couple of lines for each author to write a friendly word and sign it. A great keepsake of the Romanticon and a nice way to remember our fellow authors.

I am posing here with my editor Helen Woodall who came all the way from Australia.

Around noon we attended the Author Mania. Readers brought their own books and asked the authors to sign them. Betty Hanawa and I brought our bears to show them around. My bear is dressed like a Russian general, General Sergei, the hero of TO LOVE A HERO. It was given to me by my friends at Writers at Play when I signed my first contract. Betty's bear wore glasses and played on his guitar.

Editor Helen Wodall invited her froggies to an Australian lunch of vegemite served on bread and butter. We had Tim-Tam for dessert.

Helen and Tracie, an author from Down Under, sang the Aussie national anthem at the end of the lunch and Helen distributed little gifts, kaola bears and others. Thank you, Helen, for a lovely time.

Did I mention that our videos trailers were playing non-stop in a dark room called Voyer for the occasion? I sat there for a few hours watching many trailers. A big round of applause to my friend Fran Lee who created several of these trailers including the one for my FRENCH PERIL. Before dinner many of us gathered at the bar to chat, drink or munch on snacks and salad.

During each event, Ellora's Cave models pulled raffle tickets for baskets and incredible gifts, and personally delivered them with a smile and a kiss. Those guys were awsome, handsome, fun, and so helpful. Too bad we were not allowed to take one home.

Saturday night's big event was the appreciation dinner. You should have seen the pretty outfits displayed there. Joysann was sitting at my table and took a picture of our group that you can see on Publishers Weekly with her own report.

After a delicious dinner, EC publisher Raelene Gorlinski handed a star trophee-Rising Star-to new authors who published their first books in 2009 and to authors -Super Star-who thrived in a special field. (example Best Matchmaker in a book) ... Later, the authors recognized the fantastic staff of Ellora's Cave with special gifts. Here is Betty Hanawa showing her Rising Star.

If you like to travel and love to read, come and enjoy my international romances. I will take you around the world through stories that simmer with emotion and sizzle with heat...and introduce you to yummy hunks.

Romanticon: Friday Evening

Romanticon Day 1 started on Friday at 5:00 am with a strident alarm from my digital clock. After hiding my head under the pillows for a moment, I shook myself and walked groggily to the shower. I really didn’t want to miss my early flight. I read and napped during the flight, changed planes in Charleston, NC, and arrived around 1:30 pm in Cleveland.

At the baggage claim, I collected my suitcase and donned my heavy jacket, while wondering if I would be able to locate my pre-reserved limousine’s driver. Just then I saw a man in suit walking by with a sign that said Romanticon. Before I could say anything he asked if I was Mona Risk. God bless him. My first worry vanished when he informed me that two friends were waiting for me outside. I hugged Judith Rochelle and recognized Rita Thedford. Big hugs again. Our driver Greg was the perfect gentleman and promised to be on time to pick us up on Monday morning for the return flight.


I checked in and unpacked. My roommate Betty Hanawa hadn’t arrived yet. I went to register and met my wonderful editor Helen Woodall who flew all the way from Melbourne, Australia, for the conference. Helen was as lovely and nice as her emails suggested. Of course, her nails were painted in green and she wore a frog ring. She handed me my Romanticon bag loaded with books from Ellora’s Cave and Cerridwen Press books, and a special gift from The Lotus Club. Martha Punches who was handling the registration with Helen received my special hug.











If you have never attended a workshop by Raelene Gorlinsky you’ve missed the crème de la crème. She had the chairs arranged as a big rectangle so that the attendees could all face each other and actively participate in the workshop. The first one I attended was: Act It Out, where she had volunteers act some weird scenes from rejected manuscripts to show what was wrong with the writing. During another workshop, So You Want to Be An Author? published authors were asked to share their experience and advise aspiring authors. In Tell Us what You Think? Readers told authors what genre they like to read. Another interesting workshop was Promo Items by Marianne Stevens, Anny Cook and Judy Atkin.

A Reviewers Panel, Joysann (Publishers Weekly), Chrissy Dionne (Romance Junkies) Sheila Gallagher (Two Lips Reviews), Mimi Tremont (IMRR), and Moderator EC Editor Helen Woodall. The reviewers told us how they review a book and how the review should be received (never take it personally).

About 200 people, women and a few brave husbands dressed in their best 60 and 70ish outfits for a fun soiree of music and dance with the Cavemen ( Ellors’s Cave models).


Kelly Kirch,
Anny Cook,
Joanna Waugh,
Helen Woodall








Mona Risk,
Betty Hanawa

Marianne Stevens



Stay tune for more on Romanticon: Saturday on tomorrow’s blog.


If you like to travel and love to read, come and enjoy my international romances. I will take you around the world through stories that simmer with emotion and sizzle with heat.