Carrie's Travel Books

24/06/2025

No wonder I became a travel author 🤭...

05/12/2024

I'm proud to announce the release of a short and sweet, fun memoir for your holiday reading. Blurb below. Releasing 26 December! I wanted to make it free, but the sales websites won't allow that, so it's $1. My other books are also joining the Smashwords end of year sale, so they'll be half off from 12 Dec-1 Jan. Grab them all while they're hot! And I hope your year-end runs smoothly for you :-)

"What happens when a seasoned travel writer becomes a parent? Magical mayhem? Or just a very expensive series of midday naps?
Carrie decided to find out. Well, she didn’t decide so much as feel compelled to follow the wanderlust of her past self without thinking it through very much. Most new parents do this: flailing and thrashing as they try to hold onto as much of their past lives as they can. Can dancing and childcare be accomplished by the same person simultaneously? Can a toddler and four bags be magicked around an airport in a state of levitation? And why would Thomas the Tank Engine travel on a motorway? Find out in this short memoir from renowned travel author – and new mum – Carrie Riseley."

10/11/2024

Dear readers, a poll! I'm trying to choose a back cover for my new mini-book, "Toddling Around". Please give a "like" or "love" reaction for your favourite image! :-D

24/10/2024

Good news! People asked me to write a book about my recent long-haul trip with a toddler, so I did! Stay tuned for a release date - likely November. It's only short, so it'll be a free ebook and very cheap print book. But the question is, is this image terrible for a front cover? I could use the original photo, but thought it might be nice to make it look a bit cartoony for the kiddie theme. What do you think, yay or nay? Or if you know of a better way I can make a photo cartoony, let me know 🤣

09/08/2024

yaaay I'm on a blog again! Linda Austin of Moonbridge Books was kind enough to write this for me. Check out her blog! I love her cherry blossoms 😊Linda asked me some questions I've never been asked before about my process of editing my journals into books.
moonbridgebooks.com/2024/08/04/travel-writing-smiles-and-spices-and-more/

-publish

19/04/2024

Hooray, it's book fair time! If you are or can be in Hobart, come to The Long Gallery, Salamanca Arts Centre on 4th May between 10 and 2 to meet me and my books 😊 There will be giveaways and many other great authors to meet - as well as the Salamanca Market, Hobart Tasmania happening right outside! Thanks for hosting me, Tassie Indie Author Book Fair !

Meet your new favourite author at this year's Tassie Indie Author Book Fair!

Could your next favourite author be Carrie Riseley Carrie's Travel Books?

Carrie started writing travel journals nearly 20 years ago and has a box full of them at home. She's published 3 books so far using her original journals - so readers can really feel like they are on the journey with her.

11/04/2024

Woohoo, I'm on a blog again! 😃 I had fun answering the questions - I could talk about travel all day... Thanks so much, Jonny, for interviewing me!
https://dontstopliving.net/world-travellers-carrie-riseley-travel-author/

04/04/2024

I visited the Empress Sisi museum in Vienna and it features in my first book, "All Aboard!" This account goes into much more depth. Fascinating woman.
Fun fact: there's a Takurazuka musical about her in Japan! I tried to go but it was booked out :-(
www.facebook.com/share/p/2HXWkVbFQAfuHfyQ/?mibextid=xfxF2i

Elisabeth Of was obsessed with her appearance, and she implemented some bizarre beauty techniques? She seldom ate meat, living mostly on dairy and eggs. Her regimen included daily workouts with gym equipment as well as equestrian and fencing exercises. Even a slight weight gain brought on days of fasting—her weight got as low as 96 pounds, which is very thin for a woman who was 5'8".

Born into the royal Bavarian House of Wittelsbach, Elisabeth enjoyed an informal upbringing, where her hands-on mother and father raised her to explore the countryside and enjoy creative musings. The young wed Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria at the age of 16, a marriage that thrust her into formal Habsburg court life, for which she was unprepared and found unpleasant. Eccentric and educated in the values of creativity and adventure, the dullness of royal life was no match for Sissi.

However, the young empress was far from the optimum combination of beauty and good health. She suffered from an eating disorder and severe depression (or ‘melancholy’ as it was dubbed in the 19th century) as a result of a lack of stimulation from palace life. In addition to a vigorous exercise regime, the empress practised several demanding beauty routines.

Elisabeth placed high value on her remarkably long hair and spent nearly three hours per day caring for it. She wore no makeup, opting instead for creams made of whale oil, wax, and rosewater. She slept with raw meat and crushed strawberries on her face and soaked her nightclothes in vinegar in an attempt to preserve her tiny waist. Elisabeth had a secret staircase installed in one palace so that she could secretly binge in the royal kitchen without anyone's knowledge.

Despite her renowned and dedication to maintaining her looks, Elisabeth refused to sit for portraits or allow formal photographs beginning at the age of 32. She was famous for riding on horseback or walking in public with a fan or parasol covering her face to prevent people from photographing her.

While travelling in in 1898, Elisabeth was fatally stabbed in the heart by an Italian anarchist named Luigi Lucheni. Her tenure of 44 years was the longest of any empress.

24/03/2024

This is a fun group I've been in for a while now. Come and join us! They are having an online party on Sunday where I'll be giving some of my ebooks away - as will many others :-)

08/03/2024

'The man led us down to the car park, where one would expect to see a taxi rank, but there was none. “Is he a real taxi driver?” I thought.
Suddenly he stopped next to a white Peugeot panel van which contained no taxi markings whatsoever. He opened the doors, to reveal just one passenger seat.
“Umm, where are we gonna fit?” I said.
“Do you have a taxi licence?” Ruby said.
“You share,” he said.
“We each need a seatbelt,” we said.
“It’s OK,” he said.
“That’s not safe!” I said.
“Do you have a taxi licence?” Ruby repeated.
“No,” he said. “None of the taxis here have a licence.”
Ruby looked concerned.
I wasn’t as worried about that as I was about the fact that there was only one seat and we were two people.
“Up to you,” I said to Ruby.
Eventually we got in. We weren’t sure about the safety of it, but we knew it was gonna be a hell of a story.
Ruby sat with her left leg on my lap and her right leg jammed painfully into the window k**b. I was squished against the gearstick. We pulled the one seatbelt around both of us.
“It’s not necessary,” the driver said.
“Yes it is,” I said.
“If we crash, the seatbelt is going to choke me,” Ruby said.'

- from Carrie Riseley's fourth book, as yet unnamed and unpublished, but follow me to find out more! 😁
Image: Phil's Shoe in a windowless window frame in our grimy hotel in Tunis, Tunisia, where said "taxi" took us

carriestravelbooks.weebly.com

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01/01/2024

HAPPY NEW YEAR! Apologies if my posts are fewer this year. I've got a lot on. I'm still working on that new book, tho. And I'm here anytime you need me - just message or comment :-)
I've also been too busy to promote my awesome new website - oops - check it out, it's really sexy! http://carriestravelbooks.weebly.com/
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