My Favorite Trips

 Hi, I’m Judith Ashley, author of The Sacred Women’s Circle series, soul nourishing romantic women’s fiction with light paranormal elements. My stories show you what life could be like if you had a place like The Circle where you are unconditionally accepted, supported and loved. And where, with this support, you make choices to overcome the darkest nights and choose love and light.

Welcome to July! We’re now officially half way through 2022. If you live south of the equator, your days will begin to get longer. Here, north of the equator, ours begin to get shorter. Unlike many of my friends and family, I’m not a summer person. The sun is too bright, the temperatures are too hot and traffic increases as people head out on vacations.

Not to be too curmudgeonly and because our monthly theme is Vacation Trips and Bucket Lists, I’m going to share my favorite trips. I’ve had the pleasure of adding on a few vacation days to more business oriented trips than taking an actual vacation.

Because of my involvement with The William Glasser Institute International and Glasser Institute for Choice Theory-US, I’ve visited places I heard and read about and never dreamed I’d see in person – both in North American and elsewhere!

Here in the U.S.

I’ve attended conferences in

Houston and San Antonio, TX;
Copper Mountain and Colorado Springs, CO;
Boston, MA;
Hollywood and Orlando, FL;

Vacationed in Cayman Islands after
Hollywood, FL Conference where
my friend and I went to Hell!

Kansas City (twice);

Cincinnati, OH;

Chicago, IL,

New Orleans, LA;

Phoenix, AZ,

Albuquerque, NM;

Los Angeles, CA;

Seattle, WA (twice);

Portland, OR;

Jersey City, NJ with views of the New York skyline and

Philadelphia, PA. Oh and

Nashville, TN in 2010!

One of both of my granddaughters attended the conferences in italics.

In addition conferences were held in Canada (Montreal and Vancouver, B.C.). I missed the one in Toronto.

So that’s North America!

Where Else Have I Been?

Dublin, Ireland

Sidney, Australia
Edinburgh, Scotland

A typical planting of flowers. This one is in Dublin.

Edinburgh, Scotland

And as a bonus, my involvement also ended in 2 trips to the Balkans. Croatia and Slovenia which meant I spent time in Switzerland and Italy.

Bled, Slovenia - we spent a few days here to debrief
after being ordered to leave Croatia during the
Balkan Wars

What has also been a blessing is that I’ve had the opportunity to take one or both of my granddaughters on several of these trips. The Big One was the Edinburgh, Scotland trip with a week in London and sightseeing (Dover, Stonehenge, Glastonbury as well as a London tour).

Why did I, at times, take my granddaughters?

Because in the past, the organization held a “Kids Institute” so the conference was more family oriented and people could plan a vacation around it. Through the Kids Institute, my granddaughters had their own adventures while I was in workshops or giving my own presentation. 

2010 at Stonehenge

They had the opportunity to meet and interact with kids from around the world (Japan, Korea, Australia, Europe, South America as well as various parts of the U.S.A.). I believed then and believe now that when we meet and get to know people from other places in the world, our lives are enriched and we have an opportunity to see how we are similar, what we have in common and that creates a positive impact in our lives.

Bucket list? I used to think I wanted to visit Scandinavia or various places in the Orient. Japan was high on my list because in 7^th and 8^th grade I had a Japanese pen pal.

However, at this point in my life I think my long distance traveling (think international or at least outside North America) is less likely to happen. It isn’t just Covid or cost although they are a factor.

I love my house and my yard. I’m less than 2 hours from the Pacific Ocean although my favorite spot is closer to 3. I’m about the same distance from Timberline Lodge on Mt. Hood and only 20 – 30 minutes from the Columbia River Gorge and waterfalls. A five minute walk and on a clear day I can see Mt. Hood.

Mt. Hood as seen over the trees on
the Rose City Golf Course

I’m not saying “never” to long distance traveling. Who knows what the future may bring. What I am saying is that at this point, as I sit here at my computer with my larch tree’s limbs blowing in a breeze, the geraniums and salvia adding cheerful color, the hummingbirds stopping by for a snack, I’ve no particular plans to go anywhere.

Come fall when the weather cools and, hopefully, the traffic eases, I may head off on the 2 – 3 hour drive and spend a few days along the Oregon Coast. As I’m rather weak-willed, the probability of my taking another dozen or so pictures of the waves crashing on the rocks is high. And I will remind myself of the saying we never stand in the same river…thus these will be different waves from the multiple thousands if not millions I’ve watched over the decades.

Number 1,002,010(?)

One of the additional blessing of my trips is creating believable settings in my books. Much of Elizabeth: The Lady and The Sacred Grove takes place in Ireland. The scene at the Ashford Castle? Yep, I did stay there in 1994 when I traveled there for the Dublin Conference.

Fremont, OR is loosely based on my hometown, Portland, OR. The little house you first see in Lily: The Dragon and The Great Horned Owl  is based on my own home. Some of Diana: The Queen of Swords and The Knight of Pentacles as well as Gabriella: Chaos to Symmetry take place in Italy. I spent a short amount of time in Milan and Venice but over a week along the Aegean Sea in Croatia and Slovenia. Those views are similar to the ones along the west coast of Italy.

The places I’ve seen, the people I’ve met, the lessons I’ve learned along the pathway of my life, I’ve used as inspiration and fact in my books.

You can read my Sacred Women’s Circle series to learn more about every day women and the struggles and challenges they overcome to find unconditional love.

My Staying Sane in a Crazy World, provides you with a template to create your Personal Staying Sane Plan to help you through the challenging times.

You can find all of my books at your favorite e-book vendor. Be sure to ask your local library if you’d prefer to read my books through that resource.

Learn more about Judith's The Sacred Women’s Circle series at JudithAshley.net

Follow Judith on Twitter: JudithAshley19

Check out Judith’s Windtree Press author page.

You can also find Judith on FB! 

© 2022 Judith Ashley

A Charitable Plan

Back in 2011, when I was newly published with only three titles out, I needed to find a way to be found. Take a hard look at reality: with well over a million new ISBNs generated every year, the pool of available books is literally getting deeper by the minute. I'm standing in the midst of it all, treading water, waving my hands, and shouting my own name ~ but who can hear me?

Everyone says that the best promo is good word of mouth. I thought about that and made a decision: I would create my own romance reader event ~ Arizona's only one, by the way ~ and bring the readers to me. Why not?

And, because I strongly believe in helping others along the way, I tapped two dozen relatively new romance authors, and pulled them in with me.

The concept was simple: I bring four of my fans, you bring four of yours, and we cross-pollinate. We help each other out. Easy peasy.

Only it wasn't.

Turns out, there are a lot of authors who don't "get" promotion. Authors who don't think to toot their own horns, much less someone else's. Whose visions are really quite tiny. Yet I pressed on, linking arms with a couple gals who understood what needed to be done. Though much smaller than we hoped, the very first Arizona Dreamin' was nonetheless an huge hit.

Along the way, I knew that just helping other authors wasn't enough, we needed to make some sort of impact on the world outside of ourselves. We needed a charity.

I was in line at a Starbucks when I said that out loud. The woman in front of me turned around and said, "No one ever picks my charity."

"What charity?" I asked.

"Huntington's Disease Society of America."

I grinned at her. "Give me the contact information. That will be our charity." Just like that, it was done.

I felt bad, then, when our inaugural event was so sparsely attended. Even so, we raised $350, and I sent the check the next week.

What happened next, really surprised me. I received two emails from the HDSA headquarters in Los Angeles, thanking me profusely for the donation.

Really? It was only $350. For someone like Susan G Komen, that wouldn't even buy the staff coffee for the week. But these women were truly grateful. And I was truly glad to have helped.

In Arizona Dreamin's second year, our attendance grew by 50% and we raised $550.

When this blog posts, we will have JUST completed our third annual event. We grew in attendance by another 50%, and expect that will be reflected in our donation. I'll comment when this blog posts and reveal the final amount.

As for the authors, some of them have been with me from the start and we are growing together. There are no egos here, but a genuine understanding that the best way to help ourselves is to help others. In fact, this year we added an aspiring-writer sister event, Buildin' the Dream, whose subtitle is "Authors Helping Authors."

Might you join us next year? We are doing good ~ and having a blast!

Buildin' the Dream: May 29-30, 2014 (BuildinTheDream.com)

Arizona Dreamin': May 30-Jun 1, 2014 (ArizonaDreaminEvent.com)