Photographer ~ Author ~ Traveler
Hi my friends!
For those who live in the area – an invitation! Join us if you can! If you’ve seen me present on Roadtrip with a Raindrop before, this is changed up a bit with more emphasis on the natural world that the Mississippi River nurtures and sustains. It will include the video and a book signing. It’s FREE but you do need to call to register. Hope to see some of you there!
Love, Gayle
Hello my friends!
I am thrilled to share this with you!
I AM HONORED TO BE WORKING FOR NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC!
I have been hired to provide content and photographs for an amazing new travel-planning website about the Mississippi River. Here’s a sample – an essay and photos called “Local Voices.”
http://mississippiriver.natgeotourism.com/local-voices
The website is a massive project that has required 18 months of work and the efforts of hundreds of people and I am excited to be a part of it! Let me know what you think!
Gayle Harper
Roadtrip with a Raindrop: 90 Days Along the Mississippi River
Hi friends!
If you live anywhere near Springfield, MO, this is especially for you.
Next Thursday, June 25th at 6:30 p.m. at the Library Center, will be the only hometown event scheduled for this year. (I’ll be on Book Tour on the road most of the rest of the year!) I would love to see YOU there! I’ll share the backstory of how “Roadtrip with a Raindrop: 90 Days Along the Mississippi River” came to be, share the Multimedia Presentation that takes you on the journey – and I’ll be signing books. And, YES, if you have a book you would like signed, you are very welcome to bring it! A flyer with all the details is printed below!
If you can help to spread the word by sharing this post, printing the flyer or linking to the Facebook page www.facebook.com/GayleHarper.MississippiRiver that would be fabulous!
Want to see the Book Trailer that gives you a sample? Go here www.gayleharper.com
P.S. – As you may have heard, “Roadtrip…” is a FINALIST for “Book of the Year” in Foreword Review’s annual competition! The winners will be announced in just a few weeks now at the American Library Association’s annual conference in San Francisco. https://indiefab.forewordreviews.com/books/roadtrip-with-a-raindrop/ Cross your fingers!
Hope to see you soon!
Love, Gayle
Hello, my Friends!
I’ve got some VERY exciting news to share!
I have signed a contract to cruise on the Mississippi River aboard the American Queen Steamboat!
If you aren’t familiar, it is a stunningly gorgeous ship – the largest steamboat in the world, with a capacity for 436 overnight passengers! I’ll be an onboard presenter – sharing the adventures of our little raindrop with river-loving guests from all over the world.
I’ll be traveling with her from July 23 – 29 on the gorgeous piece of river between Dubuque, Iowa and St. Paul, Minnesota, and again on the return trip, presenting the Multimedia Slide Show and signing copies of “Roadtrip with a Raindrop: 90 Days Along the Mississippi River.”
Wanna come?? There will be incredible food, great shore excursions (they have buses and bikes at every port) a boatload of new friends and an opportunity to experience America’s greatest river in a very unique and special way! I just announced this on www.facebook.com/GayleHarper.MississippiRiver as well and it’s generating lots of excitement, comments and thoughts about coming along!
Check it out! It would be SO wonderful to have YOU there!
www.americanqueensteamboatcompany.com
Xoxoxo, Gayle
The winners of this prestigious award will be announced in June at the American Library Association’s Annual Conference to be held in San Francisco. Keep your fingers crossed, my friends…but, whatever happens, I am humbled and honored to have it included as a Finalist!
ON THE ROAD
Second, I’ve just completed the first leg of the 2015 Book Tour and it is SO much fun! (Even though we got caught up in that last-gasp-of-winter snowstorm that surprised everyone.) We had to cancel a few things, but we will reschedule. This trip was to Southeast Missouri and included Multimedia Presentations and Book Signings in Charleston, Sikeston, Cape Girardeau and Ste. Genevieve, Missouri. Everywhere we were welcomed by warm, happy, open-hearted people. Sharing these stories is PURE JOY! There are lots of photos on the Author Facebook Page.
photo by Sikeston Standard Democrat
I’m filling in the schedule now for the rest of 2015, so if we haven’t been in touch yet and you would like to arrange something in your community, please message me through the “Contact” box at gayleharper.com. I’ll be posting the Schedule of Events on Facebook, so please do stay connected – I’d love to see you somewhere this year!
NEW BOOK TRAILER
Haven’t seen it yet? It’s on the website and on YouTube. It’s quick, fun and lively – check it out and please DO share it with anyone you like!
DO YOU HAVE YOUR COPY YET?
If not, you can order signed and/or personalized copies directly from me here. They are also available at Barnes & Noble stores along the Mississippi River and online and on Amazon.
And, if you could take just a moment to write a “Customer Review” on Amazon and/or B&N it would be SO appreciated! Readers DO value your opinion – and it makes no difference where you bought your copy!
EVENTS IN THE OZARKS
FINALLY, if you happen to be in the Ozarks region, here’s two events coming up very soon…
This Saturday, 3/21 Book Signing at Barnes & Noble in Springfield, MO – 1:00 to 3:30 p.m. Details here https://www.facebook.com/events/608883579242810/
Thursday, 3/26 Noon – 2:00 p.m. A very special event at Chateau on the Lake in Branson! Join us for an Author Luncheon and presentation of the new Multimedia Show taking you on the roadtrip of a lifetime! Details here https://www.facebook.com/events/1048675155148123/
Chateau on the Lake at Sunrise photo (c) Gayle Harper
Stay tuned, my friends! It’s going to be a very fun year!
Love, Gayle
Calhoun County, Illinois
Hello my friends!!!
LOTS of news from Serendipity-land!
FIRST – I’m very excited to share with you the BRAND NEW BOOK TRAILER – Just posted! Here’s the link…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0zmzxmkj4s
If you are a follower on the Author Facebook page www.facebook.com/GayleHarper.MississippiRiver you’ve seen the wonderful media coverage lately for Roadtrip with a Raindrop!
You can also go to the “News” tab on gayleharper.com where you’ll find links to radio & tv interviews as well as newspaper and magazine articles about our little raindrop!
The calendar for the year is looking VERY busy!
Soon, I’ll post the Book Tour and hope to see you somewhere! Let me know if you’d like the raindrop tour to come to your community!
In the meantime, stay warm, my friends! Spring will come!
Love, Gayle
Whew! It’s SO good to have you back!
In the process of rolling the existing blog into the brand-new website gayleharper.com , there were a few technological hiccups! For a period of weeks, my ability to communicate with you through this blog wasn’t working! Then, there was that random re-send of an archived post from waaaayyyy back! Technology is SWEET when it works and hair-pullingly frustrating when it doesn’t!
AND the good news is, the issues seem to be resolved and I’m told we are solidly reconnected!
If you’ve been able to follow the adventures of our little raindrop on facebook.com/GayleHarper.MississippiRiver or other social media (which I’ll list at the bottom), you know that it’s been a VERY exciting launch so far!
There have already been seven different Book Signing/Presentation Events, all of which were wonderful. Sharing these stories and hearing how hearts are touched is SO much fun, it sometimes feels like my heart just might explode with Joy.
On Saturday, Barnes & Noble said “Bring us more books! We are sold out and people are asking for them.” I did – and on Sunday when I walked in to find they had made a display of Roadtrip with a Raindrop right up front at the Information Counter, it brought one of those crystallized moments of pure gratitude and humility. I feel like the luckiest person in the world to be involved in this amazing project!
There’s been lots of GREAT media coverage too (and it’s from word of mouth as this is the “soft launch” and we haven’t done News Releases yet). I’ll update the “News” section of the website with links very soon.
Meanwhile, Roadtrip with a Raindrop is now available in these ways…
WHEREVER you choose to get yours, it would be a GREAT help if you would make a “Reader’s Review” on Amazon and/or Barnes & Noble. It’s easy and no purchase is required. Readers DO value your opinion greatly! Thank you!
Thank you, my friends, for traveling with Serendipity and me! Know that, however noisy or quiet this Holiday Season may be for you, the same underlying Love and Peace is always present for all of us. May your heart be filled with that.
Love, Gayle
Twitter @riverroadwoman
FIVE STAR REVIEW!
“Roadtrip with a Raindrop” has just received its first official review! Here’s what “Readers’ Favorites” has to say!
| Review Rating: | 5 stars! | |
| Reviewed By Jack Magnus for Readers’ Favorite
Roadtrip with a Raindrop: 90 Days Along the Mississippi River is a non-fiction travel book written by Gayle Harper. Harper is a travel writer and photographer who’s had a lifelong love of the Mississippi River. While she always had the inkling of a thought about a full-scale adventure on the river, it wasn’t until she saw a factoid on the National Park Service’s website that her thought bloomed to its full potential. The site said that a single drop of water falling at the headwaters of the Mississippi travels for 90 days to reach the Gulf of Mexico. Harper calculated that that drop would travel about 27 miles a day on its 3-month long journey; then she decided to call that drop ‘Serendipity’ and to travel along with it, and her project was born. I settled into an easy chair with a cup of tea and Gayle Harper’s non-fiction travelogue, Roadtrip with a Raindrop: 90 Days Along the Mississippi River, and found myself falling in love with the headwaters of the Mississippi and the marvelous natural settings of Minnesota. I had to keep reminding myself that it gets very cold there in the wintertime, and then I continued reading on, and studying one stunningly beautiful picture after another as Harper and her raindrop continued their journey south. There were so many places to see and stories to hear; all quite new for someone who’s only ever lived on a coast and barely seen the arch of St. Louis flash by on a road trip. Roadtrip with a Raindrop: 90 Days Along the Mississippi River is an exceptionally good travel book that reads as smoothly as fiction and is filled with history, nature and the warmth and kindness of strangers soon to become friends. It’s a splendid read, and it’s most highly recommended. |
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Louie, my big, loving, serene (I would never say “lazy” cat), who spends most of his days in the office with me, got a little nervous one day last week. I didn’t quite set off fireworks, but I did get up from the computer and do a little happy dance, which he found quite unseemly!
Roadtrip with a Raindrop is on its way to the printers!! It was, without a doubt, the biggest, most complex project I have ever undertaken – AND it will be worth every bit of what it took to bring it to this point!
The book will be 10″ tall x 9″ wide, 240 pages with nearly 200 full-color photographs. I shared the cover in the last post – and thank you for all your wonderful responses! The interior design is clean and inviting and is perfect, I think, for both the photographs and the stories. Every detail is the best possible quality – there is even a satin ribbon placeholder. I cannot wait to share it with you!
I want to tell you a little story that unfolded in these last days of preparation of the book…
Bob Krist is an internationally-acclaimed photographer for National Geographic Traveler, National Geographic and Smithsonian. He has won “Travel Photographer of the Year” three times. I have admired him and his work for more than two decades. Back in 2002, I was lucky to be in a workshop with him at the Maine Photographic Workshops and it was life-changing. He encouraged me to find time for a personal project that really moved me. That is what opened my heart for this Mississippi River adventure.
So, I’ve always known that someday I would ask him to write the Foreword for my book. I did, and I was thrilled that he agreed to do so. It is an honor to have him be part of this! I still don’t have words to describe what I felt when I received what he had written, but I can tell you that I cried. Here it is…
Foreword
“As literature and myth illustrate time and time again, a river journey can be a life-altering experience.
Whether it’s the young Buddha in Siddhartha, Mr. Kurtz in Heart of Darkness, or Huck in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, an epic river voyage teaches the traveler as much or more about himself than about the topography and geography of the waterway itself. It’s an exterior trip that prompts an interior journey.
Fortunately for us, Gayle Harper’s book, Roadtrip with a Raindrop, is both. While her encounters with the beauty of the Mississippi and the wide array of humanity who make their home along the river — barge captains, blues musicians, artists, hunters, historical reenactors and even a jolly nun — obviously move her in a profound way, she never fails to take us along to share her experience.
Like Vasudeva, the ferryman who helps Siddhartha find enlightenment in the rhythms of the mythic river, Harper acts as our ferryman, documenting the beauty of this mother of all North American rivers and its people in stunning photography and rich prose, while she herself undergoes the profound changes that occur when an artist meets her project of a lifetime.
The result is a beautiful, warm and intimate portrait, as stunning to look at as it is to read, that makes us appreciate all that the Mississippi River has meant and continues to mean to America. In these pages, we feel the river’s pulse, we come to know and appreciate its people, and in doing so, we learn more about ourselves.
A river doesn’t bestow enlightenment in and of itself — but it can provide clarity and insight for someone who was ready to observe and listen to it. Fortunately for us, Gayle Harper was prepared not only to learn and be moved herself, but she has the vision and the craft to make it as vivid an experience for us as it was for her.”
– Bob Krist
So, with a heart overflowing with gratitude for this entire, incredible adventure, Roadtrip with a Raindrop was kissed, bundled up and sent off to the printers. We expect to have books by Thanksgiving. I will be back in touch before long with details about when and how it will be available.
For now, thank you for being part of this amazing journey!
Love, Gayle