Allan Stratton: TRAVELLING THE WORLD!

Do you like to travel? I do.

When I was teenager, I was lucky to win a year's scholarship to a small high school in Switzerland. After graduation, I trekked around Europe with a couple of friends. I was hooked.

My favorite memories come from Egypt, Botswana, Turkey, Cuba, Thailand and China. (I went to China with my mom when she turned eighty. Mom's the most amazing person I know. She's absolute, unconditional love. And a divorced, single mother with a career in the 1950s! That didn't happen back then. I think Mom's why I write such strong female characters.)

Anyway, what I love most about travel is meeting new people. The thing I discover over and over is that no matter how different the surface of things, under the skin we're all alike. It's the key to what, and how, I write. With each character I ask: if I was this person, what would I want most? What would I do to get it? How would I think and feel at each moment of my struggle?

Chanda's Wars is set in a world of child soldiers. But at its heart, it's a story about love, friendship, and a courageous young woman who refuses to give up hope.

In writing the book, I met with former child soldiers, their rehabilitators and victims, a village headman, spirit doctors, farmers, and many others from various African countries, both in SubSahara and in the Diaspora. I visited villages and cattle posts, and went into the bush with guides and trackers, who taught me some of the skills Chanda would need to rescue her young brother and sister from the warlord, General Mandiki. It's an experience that changed me.

Travel does that. It opens us up. It lets us see life with new eyes.

Do you have special travel memories? Places you most want to visit? I'd love to hear about them! Or if you've traveled here from someplace else, let me hear about that too. What do you like most? What do you miss most?

Cheers,
Allan

Allan Stratton
Author of Chanda's Wars, Chanda's Secrets, and Leslie's Journal

www.allanstratton.com
www.myspace.com/allanstratton