For all you “globetrotters” that love to travel even when summer’s over, will find “Travel Happy Budget Low” by Susanna Zaraysky a fantastic and resourceful read. Author, Susanna Zaraysky has created a literary lane for herself by documenting her travels and adventures that take readers on fascinating expeditions near and far. Here’s what she told FBE about herself and other piece of work “Language is Music”:
FBE: How successful has your book been?
SZ: The books, Language is Music, and Travel Happy, Budget Low, will be published at the beginning of June 2009. From February to April 2009, I ran a contest where people could read my books for free online. I had over 114 people sign up to read the books for free.
FBE: Was writing always your passion?
SZ: I think writing was always something I liked. A few years ago, I was going through my boxes of childhood toys and items and found a children’s book I wrote in the 5th or 6th grade.
FBE: When did you see writing as a career?
SZ: The career chose me! I often wrote travelogues about my international adventures and would write short prose or poems and send it to my friends. I even wrote out poems as invitations to events I was planning. For years, my friends would reproach me for not publishing my work or writing a book. In 2005, I became allergic to myself and to my job in wine marketing and knew I needed to follow my passion. Yes! One can literally become allergic to one’s job. I developed allergies to wheat, citric acid (no tomatoes), dairy, chocolate, corn, and grapes. I was in the Italian wine and food business and could not eat most Italian food or drink the wine.
I was at an Italian wine tasting event for work and the speaker was talking about how Italian wine was losing its sense of terroir, its roots. I thought about what my roots were and decided to write a memoir about my life in different languages and cultures. I wrote that book, One Eyed Princess in Babel, but couldn’t find an agent or publisher to take it on. So, I decided to write two smaller books. Language is Music is about how to learn foreign languages using music and other media. Travel Happy, Budget Low is about how to travel the world on a budget. People always asked me how I was able to speak seven languages so well and travel to over 50 countries on a budget. I figured that I’d first make my presence with those books and then get the memoir on the market.
FBE: How did you come up with the concept and title of your book?
SZ: I came up with the idea and name for Language is Music after listening to the audiobook version of Dr. Oliver Sachs’ book, Musicophilia.
For Travel Happy, Budget Low, I was searching for a name for a while. I wanted to call it Budget Globetrotter, but that website was already taken. My mom said the book title needed the word “happy” in it. So, I came up with this name. It sounds like a title for a Chinese movie!
FBE: Are you self published or do your work with a publishing house?
SZ:I will self publish under my business name, Kaleidomundi.
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