New Orleans

I’m calling this entry New Orleans, but this isn’t just about New Orleans, it’s the whole Gulf Coast and I’ve waited and waited to post because the disaster and destruction following Katrina is so hard for me to talk about.

I love New Orleans and the South. My mom’s family is from Baton Rouge and I’ve grown up loving pralines, Dixieland Jazz, and the Southern literary tradition. At UCLA my senior thesis was on Mark Twain and if you know anything about Twain you’d know his world was one of adventure, travel, people and the great Mississippi River. Just last year I set my final Princess Brides book, The Italian’s Virgin Princess, in New Orleans because it’s my favorite American City.

Why is it my favorite city? You all know by now that I’m a hopeless romantic. I’ve a soft spot for New Orleans vivid and sometimes tragic history, its elegant European architecture, the nearby Mississippi with the antebellum mansions and plantations, and the hot, humid tropical climate and you’ve got magic.

You had magic. New Orleans and the Gulf is in a state of chaos right now and while I’m physically unscathed by Katrina, the violence wrecked on New Orleans has broken my heart.

I’m not someone who is comfortable talking about what I’m doing or donating to the Red Cross–it’s not me. But I am involved, and I hurt more than I can say for a people and place that have meant so much to me, and to hundreds of thousands of others.

Please keep the people of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast in your prayers and close to your heart.

New Orleans, I love you. And I always will.

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