Posts Tagged ‘friends’
Happy Birthday, Amanda in Arabia
Posted April 14, 2023
on:- In: Books | Dreams | Writing
- 81 Comments
Thirteen years ago today, my first print book was published. This was the realization of a dream come true since I was twelve years old when I had a short story published in the Winnipeg Free Press called Stretch Your Food Dollar. It was then that I decided I wanted to be a writer. Life happened, as it does. I got married, had children and worked at some very interesting jobs. I always dabbled in writing, took creative writing courses, sent out stories to writing competitions and submitted work to magazines, but not much came of my endeavours.

Visiting friends in the UAE (you may recognize them from the previous post)
I visited friends in the United Arab Emirates and fell in love with the country, the people and the culture. When I got home I decided to write a story about my experience. But it just wasn’t working for me, the excitement I felt was not coming through on the page. Then one sleepless night I recalled my friend stating that I was as excited as a twelve-year-old while I was there. So I began my story from the point of view of a twelve-year-old girl. The seeds to Amanda in Arabia: The Perfume Flask were planted.

A painted door in the desert

Camels were everywhere. One of my favourite animals, so they had to be included in the story.

An amazing site to see was goats in the trees.

The actual perfume flask I bought while in the UAE.
It took me three years to complete the book. Once it was finished, I started the arduous journey of finding a publisher. I sent out many query letters and received a pile of rejection letters over the next five years. In the meantime, I kept revising and polishing the book. Each rejection letter became nicer and more encouraging. Then I got a call from a gentleman who said his daughter was starting an e-publishing company and would like to attend my writing group’s meeting as a guest speaker. I was keen to hear about this new way of publishing books. She explained things very well, we agreed to meet later for a coffee and she asked for a copy of my manuscript. Amanda’s first adventure was published in November 2009 as an e-book. And people bought it!
Then on April 13th, 2010, Central Avenue Publishing released Amanda in Arabia: The Perfume Flask as a print book. My dream came true as I held my baby in my hands. Instead of nine months, it took nine years to birth this baby!

After all this time, this book is still getting great reviews. Here are two recent five-star reviews on Goodreads:
I read this book a while back and just realized I never posted a review. The book is geared toward middle-grade readers, and if I were a twelve-year-old girl again, it is exactly the kind of adventure I would love to have! Even as an adult, I found myself transported to Arabia, solving a mystery and exploring the culture, the customs, the food, and the climate with Amanda. This type of book allows young readers to travel to far-flung places without leaving home and will very likely instill in them an inquisitive wanderlust.
An enjoyable read providing factual information about the United Arab Emirates. The book is bound to instil curiosity, a love for travel and an appreciation of different cultures which is so essential in the current day. It makes for a perfect gift for middle-school children.
Having lived in the Middle East, I was impressed with the amount of information the author managed to pack in 108 pages in the most interesting manner. To read more of my review, click here. https://smithavpennings.com/2023/02/15/book-review-amanda-in-arabia-by-darlene-foster/
I am now working on the tenth book in the Amanda Travels series. Thank you to everyone who has helped me along this amazing journey!
Copyright ©2023 darlenefoster.wordpress.com – All rights reserved.
Friends From Home
Posted April 6, 2023
on:- In: friends | Spain | Travel
- 82 Comments
We love our life in Spain but miss our friends from Canada and get very excited when someone comes to visit. We’ve been fortunate to have various friends visit over the years. Recently, a couple from Calgary spent five days with us. We packed in a lot in five days. Plenty of eating, catching up and sightseeing. Here are a few pictures.

We took them to Guadalest, one of our favourite places.

and Cartagena, another favourite.

We visited castles

and a Roman amphitheatre


and a church inspired by Gaudi

Sheila and I both have birthdays in March so we celebrated together at a favourite restaurant.

We had coffee at the beach

And happy hour on our terrace

as well as dinners on the terrace

And an early morning tea on the patio.

We met Don and Sheila in Calagry and have been friends for forty years. It was wonderful to show them around our part of Spain.
“There is nothing I would not do for those who are really my friends. I have no notion of loving people by halves, it is not my nature.”
― Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey
Copyright ©2023 darlenefoster.wordpress.com – All rights reserved.
Oh Canada!
Posted October 5, 2021
on:- In: Family | friends | Travel
- 102 Comments
After two long years, I finally made it back to Alberta, Canada. As I landed in Calgary and saw the prairies unfold below me, I burst into tears. It was so good to see my family and friends again. I was given comfy beds to sleep in, yummy meals, pets to snuggle and great conversations. Four generations of women spent valuable time together at my granddaughter´s place. We celebrated mom’s life at a local park by talking about her life and how much she meant to each of us, and by sharing food, conversation and laughter. She would have liked that. Here´s just a few photos of the trip.






And I woke up to goats outside my window!!


I did a book signing event at a wonderful bookstore in Medicine Hat, called Unlimited Characters.


A good friend took me to Banff for a day trip. What a treat. I had forgotten how amazing those Rocky Mountains are. I will do another post just about Banff soon.



And I got to see cousins I hadn´t seen for a long time.



It was time well spent and I have all these wonderful memories to keep me going.
More to come…
Guest post: Darlene Foster chats about Amanda in Malta: The Sleeping Lady and a review
Posted May 15, 2021
on:- In: Blog Launch Tour | Books | guest posts | reviews
- 11 Comments
The next stop on the virtual book tour is from South Africa where the amazing Robbie Cheadle lives. Robbie is a superhero woman. She has a full time, demanding job, is raising two teenage boys, bakes and decorates fabulous cakes and is a prolific writer of poetry, children’s books, short stories and a paranormal historic saga. Thank you, Robbie for taking the time out of your busy schedule to participate in the blog tour, read and review Amanda in Malta, as well as ask me a couple of questions. Check out Robbie’s blog and her many books.
Today, I am delighted to welcome talented children’s author, Darlene Foster, to Robbie’s Inspiration to answer a few questions about her new book Amanda in Malta: The Sleeping lady. I’ve also shared my review of this terrific book for middle school kids.

Amanda and Leah seem to be very good friends. How did they meet?
Amanda first met Leah when she visited the United Arab Emirates in Amanda in Arabia: The Perfume Flask. Leah lived in the same apartment block as Amanda’s aunt and uncle. The girls got along right from the start even though they are quite different. Leah is English and well-travelled as her father’s job takes them to many countries. After the adventure in the UAE, Leah and her parents invite Amanda to spend a week with them in Spain at their timeshare. She also visits Leah in England and Leah visits Amanda in Alberta. Whenever they…
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The Blessed Project
Posted December 7, 2019
on:- In: Christmas | Family | friends
- 43 Comments
Susie Lindau is featuring a Blessed Project on her blog and I’ve decided to join in since Christmas is a perfect time to count your blessings! Here is the link if you would like to join in too. https://susielindau.com/2019/11/26/join-the-blessed-project-i-will-feature-yours/
I have been blessed with an amazing family.












I am blessed to be part of a huge German Canadian family with many loving aunts, uncles, and cousins. Here are a few of them, but not all.


I have also been blessed with many friends, some I have had since childhood, who support me and make me feel loved every day.

So you can see that I am indeed blessed and I am grateful every day.
May you have a blessed holiday season and new year with the special people in your life!!
- In: friends | People
- 90 Comments
You may have read on a previous post that one of the items on my personal “bucket list” was to meet my blogging friends in person. I am excited to say that I have met three recently.
During my last trip to Canada, a blogging friend showed up at my presentation at a Calgary Library. I was delighted to meet Sue Slaght from Travel Tales of Life. She is as delightful in person as she is on her blog. A prairie girl like I am, she enjoys travel too. Her blog provides excellent articles written with a great sense of humour and filled with interesting details and pictures. She is game to try anything and have it videoed by her patient, eye-rolling husband. Check out her blog. It’s laugh-out-loud funny and the stunning pictures will entice you to visit the many locations she writes about. I am so glad to have met Sue in person.
Another blogging friend I met recently is Fatima Rosales Naya. I have been following her blog, Saysell Travels, for a few years now. She writes about her travels with her husband and cute dog, Beano, around France and Spain in their motorhome. They find the coolest places to stop and explore and writes about them. They happened to be near Alicante recently so we arranged a meetup. It was like seeing a best friend at long last and we chatted nonstop for two hours. I’m sure we were sisters in another life. Check out her blog, with fabulous pictures here.
While in Liverpool I had a coffee with Alison Sandilands of Seemytravels.com who lives there. We had met once before when she spent six months in Canada five years ago and made a stop on the west coast. I wrote about it in an earlier blog here. After a coffee, snack, and catch-up, she took me to a historic church and gave me great ideas of things to do while in Liverpool. She was the one who suggested I stop by that fabulous library. It was so wonderful to see her again, especially as now she has a sweet little girl. Her blog is a mixture of travel and lifestyle articles.
There are those who question whether blogging friends are real friends? I for one have always felt they are real friends and meeting some of them in person, makes them even more real. It is so great to have friends scattered all over the world. You can never have too many friends!
Have you had the opportunity to meet a blogging friend?