Title: Found in Prague
Author: Dana Newman
Genre: YA Romance/Travel
A [warm, sunny] Day in the Life of Dana Newman
Note: Dana Newman is an expat American writer living in Munich, Germany, who pays the bills and keeps her grammar skills sharp teaching ESL (English as a Second Language) to an assortment of students around town.
6:30: Phone alarm goes off; German hubby must have been fiddling with it the night before because it’s a Eurotrash techno track from the Hardbass Chapter 20: The Very Best of Kickin Hardstyle and Dancecore album that soothes me to consciousness
6:35: Brush teeth (Crest toothpaste), shower (The Body Shop Spiced Vanilla shower gel and Dove shampoo & conditioner), get dressed (sundress? jeans and a tank-top that looks professional because it’s got little lace frills on the top? skirt and a T-shirt?)
7:00: Scrambled eggs in a whole-wheat pita with cheddar cheese for breakfast. Yum
7:15: Hair, makeup, out the door. Often rushing
8:15: Teach ESL to a small group of adults dressed way more fashionably than me at a fancy department store downtown (think Saks Fifth Avenue meets Nordstrom)
9:45: Exit department store; admire elegant silk scarves and lavish leather purses I cannot even begin to fathom ever being able to afford
10:25: Walk through the sprawling white legs of the towering, naked, sexless statue that is the entrance to my next class at a reinsurance company
12:30: Meet a girlfriend for lunch at a beer garden, which is an outside picnic-type area owned by one of the town’s Big Six breweries; you’re allowed to bring whatever food, dessert, snacks, or veggie sticks you want, but you must buy your drinks on the premises. And if you bring veggie sticks, you will be teased
1:30: Head home, walking the beer off with a 45-minute stroll (it is completely acceptable to drink beer with lunch in Munich--beer is considered a food here and not an alcoholic beverage)
2:30: Settle onto the couch with my laptop and a bowl of juicy strawberries; it’s finally time to write/edit/proofread/pace around stumped and frustrated with my writer’s block, mumbling to myself and occasionally growling (yes, growling)
5:30:
Scenario 1) Meet the love of my life at the front door with a smooch; dinner is on the table and smells delicious
Scenario 2) Meet the love of my life at the front door with a smooch; dinner is on the table and smells like battery acid
Scenario 3) Love of my life comes home to find me cross-legged on the couch, hunched over my laptop clicking ravenously away on the keyboard. “Just a sec! Just a sec! Just a sec!” I mumble, never breaking my concentration away from the glowing screen before me. He graciously begins to chop the vegetables that I had at least taken out of the fridge and placed on the counter
6:45: “Oh honey, this is delicious. Thank you so much, sweetie,” I coo, batting my big brown eyes. “I promise, promise, promise I’ll cook tomorrow.” We both know there’s only a 15% chance of this actually coming to fruition. But I may at least chop the veggies
7:15-8:15: In the words of Ben Franklin, “Only bitches kiss and tell.”
8:30: Video games! Perhaps Little Big Planet or Uncharted (this is also the official Dana Newman Snack Time)
10:00: Brush teeth to stop from eating anymore of the divine, addictively delicious Reese's Pieces my parents so kindly shipped over to me; fill backpack with appropriate supplies and papers for next day’s classes
11:00: Dilly-dally my way to bed, procrastinating the inevitable
11:30: Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz
**Note regarding the photo of me in the beer garden wearing a dirndl: While only Bavarian natives are allowed to wear the traditional dirndl dresses year-round, during Oktoberfest, everyone takes part!
Synopsis:
After receiving an odd email during her first semester of college, Katica Coleman traverses fearlessly across the Atlantic Ocean to Prague in the heart of Europe looking for answers to her family's past but ends up finding so much more. Katica quickly learns that it's easy to fall in love while meandering through the winding cobblestone streets, snow-covered castles and aromatic crepe cafés of the magical country that is her family's homeland. But is the charming Czech boy with the intoxicating accent and cool, charismatic gait someone she should let herself get lost in? He always seems to come to her assistance at just the right moment, but can he really be trusted? Katica cannot help but wonder whether she should listen to her wary gut or give in to the giddy waves of excitement coursing through her body....
Author Bio:
Dana Newman, like Katica Coleman, the main character in Found in Prague,
is a second generation Czech-American. Her childhood was filled with dinner table stories about dynamic adventures of life in another land during another time. After graduating from the College of Journalism and Communications at the University of Florida in 2008, she set off on her own adventure with Prague as the destination. To write this book, she has woven the vivid stories from her childhood into her own travel experiences and then sprinkled a little fairy dust on top.
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Thanks for being such a lovely host! :) Hope you enjoyed getting a peek into my life...
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