I was asked that question a few months ago by an editor.  She went on to say that England has lords and ladies while Scotland has men in kilts.  My answer:  Wales has dragons.  Here’s one of my favorites.  It’s actually set in a roundabout (rotary for New Englanders, traffic circle for the rest of the US) in Carmarthen, Wales.

Today I tried sketching out the chapters for my fun project.  Three chapters which will give me an idea if the project is viable or just one of those great ideas that aren’t really meant to be written for publication.  I started Chapter One with a scene that was in my head when I woke up this morning.  Then I made my first mistake of the day.  I decided the story needed to start at a different place.  WRONG!!!  I wrote out most of that scene before I realized it wasn’t the right place to start the story.  The scene that had come out of my subconscious while I was sleeping was the right scene to begin the story (or so I think now).  Tomorrow, I will go back and slice out the offending scene, decide what parts of it — if any — need to be saved for another spot in the ms.   Yes, despite the missteps, this is still fun to work with.  It’s quite different from anything I’ve attempted before, but the challenge excites me.

And in the meantime, I’m having fun reading, too.  Right now, I’m reading Stone Heart by Charlie Fletcher on the recommendation of my writing friend (and new ImaJinn author) Karen Dennen.

I’m working on a project…just for the fun of it.  I have a contracted book I could be working on, but a few days ago I had a character come knocking on my brain.  She told me her name.  Now that’s really unusual for me.  My standard operating procedure is to come up with a concept and then fight for a name for my characters.  Not these.  They stepped right up and told me their names.  Everything in their story seems to be falling into place with ease.  Why?  Because I’m having fun with the characters and the plot.  Will I ever go further with it than writing up a truly bizarre synopsis/overview — not in story, but in structure?  At this point, I don’t know.  What I do know is that I’m glad Miranda and Jack came knocking on my brain.  It’s been a great way to spend a holiday weekend, and it’s a wonderful reminder about why I love my job.  I get to meet new people (if only in my head and on the computer screen) and learn about their adventures, their victories, their failures…and I can let them be all they want to be.  I can be swept away by their enthusiasm for their tale…and by mine.  Who knows what will happen with this idea?  A trunk book or a best-seller or something in-between?  Or just a fun exercise?  At this point it doesn’t matter…because I’m having fun with it!

Cue the Twilight Zone music.
Imagine, if you will, you are coming out of a grocery store.  You are pushing your cart and scanning the parking lot as you try to remember where you parked your car.
Suddenly a woman grabs your arm.  She cries out that she’s been followed by a stalker.  Can you help her?  From around the corner, a man appears.  He’s carrying what looks like a gun, and, you can tell by the way he’s looking over his shoulder, he’s being chased.  He shouts to the woman to run, that he’s not sure how much longer he can hold off the person pursuing him.  He grabs her arm and pulls her after him.  Blood is streaming down his sleeve.
***
Got the scene in your mind?  Okay, what did you notice first about the woman?  What did you notice first about the man?  What emotions swelled up in you at the thought you could be shot by either the man with the gun or the person coming after him and the woman?
You did notice the sex of the people involved.  You did notice the gun.  You did notice the tone of their voices and the fear on their faces.  You saw the man’s bloody sleeve.
But I bet you didn’t stop long enough to take a full appraisal of the two people.  You paid no attention to her chestnut hair pulled back in a ponytail or the way his denims fit his butt so well.  You don’t know why they are here in your grocery store parking lot.  You don’t know what events led up to this moment.  You don’t know their hopes (other than to escape) and goals.  You don’t know their favorite flavor of ice cream. . .unless one snatches that half gallon out of your shopping bag.  You don’t know anything about their families and friends.  You don’t even know if they are the good guys or the bad guys.
You did see their fear and the blood.
And that’s what you need to bring into the opening of your book.  You want to draw your reader in so quickly she’s already on page 10 by the time she dares to take a breath.  Put your characters into the middle of terrible trouble, which can be physical, as in this example, or emotional.  The heroine standing in her room waiting to marry the evil man who’s foreclosing on the ranch is a cliche simply because it works so well.  The reader is caught up in her emotional turmoil – does she marry Snidely Whiplash or does she believe that Dudley Do-Right will arrive in time to save the day?
But, I can hear you say, how can my readers connect with my characters if they don’t know more about their background, their appearance, and their goals, motivations, and conflicts?
First, trust your reader.  If you’ve started your characters at point where they’re in the midst of trouble that is going to require them to risk something physically or emotionally, then the reader is going to connect to them right away.  All of us have faced such circumstances, although most of us – I hope – haven’t been chased by a madman through a grocery store parking lot.
Play fair with the reader.  Have the first female character introduced (through her point of view) be the heroine.  The same rule holds if you start with the hero’s POV.  If you begin with the heroine, the first good-looking, take your breath away guy who shows up in the book had better be the hero.  I’ve judged contest entries where the heroine is the POV character, and a great guy wanders in to chat with her – but he’s not the hero.  That’s very confusing to the reader, who’s already committed herself to seeing how the heroine and that guy are going to work out their “happy ever after”.
You can give quick descriptions of the non-POV character by focusing on things that move the scene along.  Assuming it’s the heroine’s POV at the start, you can mention his rough hand gripping her arm with a strength that matches his muscles.  Or blood could be seeping through his blond hair and dripping on his broad shoulders.  Or she feels a bit more protected because she’s seen that he shoots with the skill of Hans Solo.  Or she should have known better than to trust a handsome guy with a scar on his left cheek.  Just quick snapshot things, because people really don’t stop to take note of everything during a stressful situation.  If they did, witnesses wouldn’t disagree about what happened during an accident or a crime and what the perpetrator looked like.  But they sure all know how they feel about what they witnessed.  It’s that feeling that lures the reader into the story and has her cheering for the good guys.
Trust yourself and your story.  If you put your characters at a crisis point in their lives, you have to show the reader how they cope under such pressure.  You’re not telling the reader how the heroine has faced such challenges before and triumphed.  Who cares about what happened in the past when the heroine is fleeing with the bloodied hero from the bad guy?  All the characters (and the reader) want is for them to escape.  The reader wants them to have their “happy ever after” ending as well, but as she is engrossed in that opening scene, she will focus only on hoping they escape.
Later, when you’ve gotten them over that first bump on the sweet primrose path to love (don’t gag, okay? <g>), you’ll have a resting spot where you can give us more information on them and their background.  It’s at this point that you allow the secondary characters to have a bit more time “on-stage”.  This is where the friend/mother/sister (for heroine) or best buddy (for hero) come into play to provide a reflection for the main character to lay out their goals, motivations, and conflicts.  It’s called a reflection character because it keeps the POV character from talking to him/herself.
So hit the ground running either emotionally or physically and emotionally.  You need to have that emotional connection established right from the get-go in a romance.  Then your reader/editor will immediately become a part of the story and have a high stake in seeing how the characters resolve their differences, confront their fears, and reach their goals as they fall in love.

This is an article I wrote about 15 years ago, but the truth about the hero who has a touch of villainy in him remains timeless:

Once upon a time, it was easy to tell the bad guys from the good guys.  The bad guys wore black hats and wicked mustaches and tried to steal kisses (and the ranch) from the heroine.  The good guys wore white hats and had chaps that seemed to repel dirt and sang songs to their horses before riding off into the sunset.
Let me tell you – it ain’t that easy anymore, folks.  And thank goodness!  Our heroes don’t need to be all good – no more Clark Kent/Superman for us in every novel.
Recently the heroes that have populated my novels, as well as many other novels, would definitely need to wear a hat in some shade of grey.  I’ve begun to work more often with male protagonists who are neither hero nor villain but a combination of the two.  It’s a fine line to walk because the reader needs to fall in love with the hero, even if he evolves from dark and dangerous bad boy hero to just plain dangerous bad guy hero.  The secret of doing this is in one of the most basic tenets of writing – motivate, motivate, motivate.
When I am working on a historical, the easiest motivation for a bad guy hero is upholding honor.  The legends of King Arthur and his knights of the Round Table along with Chansons de Roland and Sir Walter Scott’s novels have painted us a picture of chivalry that’s very loosely based on historical fact.  The knight, sans peur and with a heart of gold who is willing to die for his lady faire, is a well-established tenet of this romantic period.  Yet, when I begin to work on a historical novel, one of the first things that comes into my head is the song from the Broadway show Camelot – “Fie on Goodness”.  The knights of the Round Table have discovered that a life based on only virtue is not only boring, but downright impossible.
So I gave my hero a hefty dose of that non-goodness (if that’s not a word, it should be!) which should make him anything but boring.  What will a man do for honor and duty to country and family?  Can he do the wrong thing for the right reasons and still be a hero?
Rhys ap Cynan, the hero of Wake Not the Dragon, the 13th century medieval I wrote for Harper, considers the honor of his country of Wales and his clan more important than anything.  He deceives and drugs the heroine the first time they meet in order to protect his obligations.  He foments insurrection against the English king, twisting the heroine into his plans even though he knows it may break her heart.  Yet the reader – I hope – will fall in love with Rhys as my heroine Gizela does, because he holds his vows sacred.  She knows when he finally offers his love, he will be forever faithful to that pledge.  The strength of conviction can be a powerful aphrodisiac.
Honor is only one motivation.  I also like revenge as a motivation.  In Ride the Night Wind (also published by Harper), my 14th century hero, who rides the night as the mysterious Lynx, is a puzzle to the heroine.  Is he her savior or will he destroy everything she is trying to build?  He does do damage to her fief, but every action is motivated by his compelling desire for revenge against a man who has hurt his family…and may hurt the heroine.  Is Lynx less of a hero because he goes beyond the law – risking death or having his real identity outlawed, a very serious punishment in medieval England?  I think, rather, it makes him a more complex, realistic character, someone the reader can relate to (Haven’t we all wanted to get even with someone – even if it’s only the guy who cut us off in traffic?), and the reader will fall in love with.
It was with Under the Outlaw Moon, that I first discovered the hero/villain.  My hero was a sheriff who robs trains on the side and blackmails the heroine (who is a full-time train robber) into assisting him in his schemes.  His motivations are much the same as Lynx’s – an eye for an eye vengeance.  Good, basic motivation that can be developed into an intricate hero capable of doing what he must for his goals and the heroine.
I don’t suggest that a hero, even with the proper motivation, can rape and pillage and loot with abandon.  For example, I cannot imagine having a hero who would rape the heroine – or any other woman.  Remember a hero is always good at heart.  His methods might not be within the laws of his time and place, but he is trying to make things better…for his family, for his country, for those who depend on him.
That is an important facet of a bad guy hero.  He never commits his crimes or threatens to shatter the heroine’s heart to further himself in prestige and power.  He is selfless, willing to risk his good name and his life in order to right what he sees as a wrong.
Do these dark knights work only in historicals?  No, of course not, although that’s where I’ve had the most fun with them.  I have done paler versions of them in Regencies.  Ross Hogarth, the hero of The Wolfe Wager, risks breaking the heroine’s heart simply to ease his boredom at the end of a boring Season in London.  Yet at the same time, he chances falling in love with her.  The hero must always be willing to gamble something incredibly precious – in this case, his freedom as a bachelor, a not insignificant commodity in Regency England – or he falls over the line into becoming a true villain.
So toss the white hats into the trash, and look around in your creative subconscious for that hero who has more than a touch of villainy in him.  After all, the man who has risked everything and won your heroine’s heart and respect will be so much more interesting for your heroine to spend her “happily ever after” with…and satisfying for your reader.

When I ask my students to write a synopsis for the class, I always get the same complaints:  “How can I write a synopsis when I don’t know what the story will be?” and “If I write the synopsis first, I will lose all that wondrous spontaneity when I write the book.”
I understand these complaints.  I once thought the same way, but that was before I had a moment of epiphany and realized the truth of the following ten reasons to write the synopsis first:
10.  You write your synopsis while you are flush with the excitement of “the beginning.”  It’s always easier to write when you are enthralled with your characters and story rather than when you get mired in the realities of all the details of the story.
9.  You can see holes in your plot before you start writing.  Do you need more events for the length of your book?  Fewer?  Is there a subplot?
8.  You can see if there is a lack of conflict/motivation in your characters.  What are their goals?  Their fears?
7.  You will find it easier to keep the synopsis short — you won’t want to add all those wonderful scenes and characters you’ll discover as you write the book.  And we all hear from editors that they like short synopses, especially in slush pile submissions.
6.  You can focus on the through-line of the story without wandering off into irrelevant (to the synopsis) detail.  The through-line is the main plot.  If you don’t know how to determine what your story’s through-line is, read the back cover copy on books to see what other stories have as a through-line.
5.  You will be able to pitch it more easily to an editor even before the book is completed (this is for all of you who plan on taking an appointment with an editor or agent and already have completed one book but want to be able to have a back-up — just in case).
4.  You will be able to share the synopsis with your critiquing partner, so you can brainstorm any plot problems.  By reading it early in the process, you both are familiar with the important aspects of the story.
3.  You have a road map while you are writing.  It will keep you from getting lost or wasting time wandering down a “road” that won’t lead you to your conclusion.
2.  You want to be able to sell on a proposal (or just a synopsis) once you have sold your first book.  So you might as well start practicing now on how to write a synopsis early in the process.
And most importantly:
1.  You won’t have to write it later.

In my hometown of Salem, New York, July 4th has been celebrated the same way for years and years — a parade and then the firemen’s carnival that ends after dark with fireworks.  The small town of under 1000 people swells to twice its size and more as bands, firetrucks, livestock, and floats come down Main Street to enthusiastic applause.  It’s a special tradition that never grows old.

Here are some photos from the parade:

And the day ends with:

I recently completed the first draft on a project.  While I wait to do the next draft, I use the time to refill the creative well.  How do I do this?  I treat myself to some fun things.  I watched the very rainy US Open today.  I cleaned up my screensaver, so I can put in the photos from my most recent trip.  I wander around the internet and visit some of my favorite sites.  And I read.  I started keeping track of the books I’ve read last year.  Not so much so I can pat myself on the back and give myself a gold star for each one read — though those days in grade school were a lot of fun because I was always a bookworm, and my row of stars filled in very quickly.  It’s simply a way to look at how I was feeling, because I pick books based on my mood.  I’m sure a lot of people do.  Sometimes I want a rollicking adventure.  Other times, I want humor.  Then there are the times when I just want to read something that deals with the end of the world…and the people who try to put the pieces back together.  Or I’ll find a new author, and I’ll read everything s/he has written that I can find.

All these things fill the creative well.  And it’s a great excuse to catch up on those books I’ve been hearing about as well as watch some of my favorite movies…for the 100th time.

And then the itch will begin, and I know it’s time to get back to writing.  I’ve come to recognize the cycle…and how important it is to fill that well so I don’t burn out.  I learned that lesson when back-to-back-to-back deadlines forced me to skip a few steps in the process.  Not only did my characters’ voices grow so soft I couldn’t hear them, but I got physically sick.   So now I go to the well, not only to take out, but to refill it.

Somehow this failed to appear, so let’s try again (and be nice and don’t mention now how the lessons are out of order!)

If you haven’t already “dropped” from all those castles and gardens and tramping through the countryside, then it’s time to shop.

Shopping malls as we know them in the US – set away from the old-style business district of a town – don’t really exist in the UK.  The shopping malls in the UK are in the city centre.  They usually keep the same hours as the shops on the streets around them, so they close earlier than their US counterparts.  These city centre shopping malls often have a parking garage attached for the ease of their customers.  You’ll find all the standard shops in the mall – clothing, shoes, books, music.  Just remember that European sizes are different from the US.  Shoes are easy if you’re wearing sneakers (oops, trainers) because the corresponding sizes are listed inside.  When our luggage was delayed on one trip and we had a clothes allowance from the airline, we stopped at a city centre mall in Leicester.  I stuck with small, medium, and large…but even those can be different from US sizes.  So try on anything before you buy.  Again remember that the UK system of credit cards is chip and pin, so you may need to walk the clerk through swiping your card.  This is not a problem in big cities, but the smaller the town, the more likely you are to run into a clerk who doesn’t know/remember how to use a swipe card.

Smaller towns have high streets.  Bigger cities have them as well, but the shopping may have moved with time toward the malls or pedestrian promenades.  More than 90% of the time, the high street is called “High Street.”  You’ll hear references to this in “high street fashion” or “high street prices”.  What those mean is retail as compared to used or discount.  On High Street, you’ll find everything from clothes to fruit to the butcher to a travel agency.  You may see familiar names such as Staples…where we’ve gone to get tape for the boxes we brought to ship things home.  We will bring an empty suitcase or a knocked-down box (and tape!) if we’ve got extra luggage allowance.  Also you’ll see T*K* Maxx, the British version of TJ Maxx here in the US.

And you’ll find charity shops.  Charity shops are a great venue for finding deals.  The charity shops usually are open Monday-Saturday, but not Sundays.  Each charity shop raises money for a particular charity from Oxfam for world hunger to Scopes for cerebral palsy.  Some shops are well arranged.  Others look like someone’s attic exploded.  Some are single rooms while others go through room after room or up/down stairs.  If you’re looking for used books, bric-a-brac (we decorated our pub out of charity shops), framed pictures…go to a charity shop.  To find them, use Google maps.  Type in the search box the town you’re visiting and the words “charity shop”.  It will bring up a list of shops and their location on the map, and you’re set to go off and shop.  Keep your eye peeled for special charity sales events that might be going on in the area where you are traveling.  Also for specialty shops such as Oxfam Bookstores and Oxfam Furniture stores.  Just be aware that used books in Oxfam Bookstores are more expensive than in most charity shops…but the choice is soooooooo much wider.

Antique shops dot the British countryside, especially near tourist areas.  As always, shop with a careful eye and feel free to negotiate the price.  Even a moment of hesitation can get you a few pounds off on an item.  Let the owner know what you’re interested in, and s/he may have something that’s not displayed that’s exactly what you’re looking for.  Antique sales are held in many communities.  These are big events – often under a marquee (tent) – with an admission fee and lots and lots of dealers.  If you’ve seen “Bargain Hunt” on BBCAmerica, you know what these shows look like.

Markets are a great way to spend a morning.  Market towns were established in the middle ages, and they’re still around today.  The DK Eyewitness Books list market days and times, or you can look online.  When we last went to North Yorkshire, I typed in “north yorkshire market days”, and up popped this link:  http://www.northyorkshire.org/market_days.php  Market day means the main street or the town centre plaza is closed to traffic, and vendors set up their wares on tables and/or in booths.  You can find everything from food (including take-away food – food to go) to toothbrushes to antiques.  Wandering among the booths is great fun.  Definitely feel free to bargain, and be ready to walk away if you don’t like the price.  Some of the big cities – like Norwich – have markets every day and permanent booths.  Other towns – like Hexham in Northumberland – have a market day with lots of vendors, but also a daily farmer’s market.  Pickering in North Yorkshire has a market day once a week, and at the same time has an indoor market for antiques, books, and collectibles every day.  These indoor markets are fairly prevalent throughout England and Wales.

Auctions for all of us who have seen “Cash in the Attic” have great appeal.  Just be certain that you know all the costs involved, including what the buyers’ premium will be.  This is a percentage added onto the price you pay.  Also know how to buy at an auction – don’t get carried away on the excitement.  If you’ve never been to an in-person auction before, go to watch the first time.

Boot sales are great fun.  Think of a community yard sale in a field on the outskirts of town, and you’ve got a boot sale.  The boot sale is named for the boot (trunk) of a car.  However, most people will have their wares spread out on tables or on blankets.  Boot sales are weekend events from early spring to late fall, and you’ll see LOTS of signs for any upcoming one.  Some boot sales have a charge for parking or admission.  When you go to a boot sale, bring your negotiating skills, especially if you’re interested in multiple items from a seller.  Hey, what’s the worst that can happen?  They say no!  And we’re writers – we’re used to hearing the word “no” and persevering.

What do you do if you find something you just love…but it won’t fit in your suitcase?  Have the seller (assuming you’re buying it in a shop) ship it back to the US for you.  Make sure you arrange for insurance as well because items can easily be broken on the trip.  It won’t be cheap, but it may be worth it to you.  See below with used books for another suggestion.

If you’re interested in used/OOP research books, charity shops and boot sales are your best bet.  However, if you’re *really* interested in used books, you want to visit a book town.  The biggest and first is Hay-on-Wye on the Wales/England border (there is another in Wigtown in southern Scotland, but I’ve never been there, so I can’t say how good it is – check out http://www.booktown.net/ ).  Dozens of shops await you in Hay.  I usually give myself a day and a half to visit Hay…and I don’t try to get to all the shops.  I have my favorites including the Hay-on-Wye Bookshop, Addyman’s, and Richard Booth’s.  Some shops have bargain basements, so don’t miss those.  Check out Hay-on-Wye at http://www.hay-on-wye.co.uk/  Obviously weekends are busier than weekdays, and I hear it’s packed during the Book Festival, so we avoid visiting at that time.  At one time, Richard Booth (who established the first shop in Hay and who owns the castle and who is truly a character in his own right – as we found out the day we met him and chatted…don’t get him started on politics…although I don’t know how you can halt him from talking about it <g>) offered shipping through his shop.  He goes to the US to purchase books for his shops (so be careful you’re not buying something you could get at a used book store at home) and ships them by container back to Wales.  He used to ship items back to the US in those empty containers for what was a reasonable price.  I’m not sure if he still offers this service.  If not, there are other places that do.  If you’re buying a piece of furniture or an antique, talk to the sales clerk.  They’ll often know of places that will arrange shipping for you.  This will mean your items may take more than a month to cross the pond to get to you, but if you’re not in hurry – or the item is cost-prohibitive to ship – consider this.

Don’t forget the gift shops at the various venues you are visiting.  Most of them have excellent books on their site and also on their historical period, especially if you’re looking for recipe books or social histories.

Grocery stores – if they’re big like the ones in the US – are usually at the edge of town or set off from the town centre where they’ll have room for a car park.  If you want something quick – like a bottle of water or you are in desperate need for a Dairy Milk bar (btw, the British Milky Way is in actuality a Three Musketeers – no caramel in it!) – look for Spar’s.  It’s sort of a 7-11/Cumberland Farms/Circle K/bodega type of shop.  You’ll find all the basic needs of life – bread, milk, candy, crisps (potato chips to Americans), ice cream, disposable diapers, and newspapers.  These are also available at many petrol stations which have an attached shop as well as the welcome breaks on the motorways.

If you get sick, look for the sign with a green cross which is a chemist’s/drug store.  Boots is the big chain drug store, and you’ll find them on High Street and in shopping arcades.  They sell glasses, so should be able to help you if your eyeglasses are broken or lose a screw.  But make sure you have all your meds with you – both prescription and OTC.  Items that are OTC in the US aren’t in the UK.  We ran out of Advil once, and Bill went into the chemist’s…and he had to wait until the chemist came back from lunch because it couldn’t be sold by a store clerk.

Sadly Woolies (Woolworth’s) went bankrupt and has vanished in the past year from the British town centres.  There are still dollar (um…pound) stores like Poundland and Thing-Me-Bobs where you can find good, cheap stuff.

Hmmm…I think that covers shopping.  Follow the same rules you do here.  Retail doesn’t allow for bargaining; other shops/sales, go for it.  Always greet the owner/manager of a small shop when you enter and bid them farewell when you leave.  Avoid tourist trap shops unless you want a tourist item.  All of their items will be more expensive than in shops away from the tourist routes.

Oh, don’t forget what you aren’t allowed to take out of England/bring into the US (and those of you in other countries, check your regulations).  You can’t bring meat or dairy products – including cheeses – home.  You are restricted on the amount of alcoholic beverages you may bring in (and yes, both England and Wales have some amazing vineyards…who’d guessed????).  No plants of any kind.  No soil…although no one at customs has offered to do laundry for us so we don’t bring in those stained jeans where we clambered through the mud.

Now that we’ve had a whirlwind tour of the countryside – which I don’t recommend, as you’ve seen in real life, because I think it’s fun to spend time really getting to know a small area on each trip – it’s time to bop across the Channel and pay a visit to the Continent.  There are several ways to do that.  You could jump on the Chunnel Train in London and arrive a short time later in Paris.  You could go to Dover and catch one of the ferries, assuming you want to go to France.  Check out the ferries all along the coasts of England and Wales.  There is a ferry that comes to Newcastle-upon-Tyne from Norway, which we considered when we went to Sweden and Norway a couple of years ago for my husband to take delivery of his new car.  It sounded like great fun until we imagined driving in the UK with a car set up to drive in the US.  That quickly sent us back to the trip planning board, and we rented a car in Bergen, Norway, to drive through the fjords.  From Cornwall and Wales, you can go to Ireland.

But the focus of this class is flying to the Continent.  All the major airlines fly from all the major airports to the major tourist cities and capitals of Europe.  But what if, as we have in England and Wales, you want to go off the beaten track?  The choice is low-cost airlines at alternate airports.  Sort of the Southwest Airlines of Europe…but with a lot less service.  Remember the news item a few weeks ago about the airline that wanted to charge passengers a pound to use the on-plane toilet?  That’s Ryanair, one of the airlines we’re going to discuss…and, yes, they did back off from that plan.

If you decide to book via any airline a trip that will be complete within your original booking (in other words, the trip isn’t a leg of your complete journey), you need to book it before you leave home.  The two low-rate, out-of-the way/alternate airport airlines are Ryanair and EasyJet.  We have flown the first but not the second.  However, we’ve talked to people who have flown EasyJet, and their experiences were similar to ours on Ryanair.  And we called ours “The Greyhound of the Sky” – not in a nice sense, but in the sense it was more like a bus than an airplane (although in the past year, most airlines have lost so many of their services and tacked on so many fees that there isn’t as much of a difference).

You’ll notice that, for the most part, their planes leave from Luton and Stansted, so if you don’t have a car, you need to arrange public transportation via train or bus to the airports.  If you do have a car, you need to make a reservation for parking before you leave from home.  We use the Pink Elephant off-airport parking (also at Heathrow and other airports).  http://www.pinkelephantparking.com/  It will ask for a license plate number, but just put in some random letters (5-6), and it’ll think that’s the plate number.  If necessary, you can update when you have your rental car and know its plate number.  Your reservation will be connected to the credit card, so make sure you have that credit card to swipe when you reach the lot.  You may have a reserved spot, so make sure you park there.

For information on parking at British airports, check out http://www.baa.com/

Now it may seem to you that it’s crazy to pay for a rented car in England while you’re on the Continent, but remember you’ll need transportation when you return, and it’s cheaper to have one reservation (unless you’re going to be gone for more 3-4 days).  The other use of a rental car is to store your extra luggage.  Not only do the low-cost airlines charge for each bag, but they have very specific restrictions about what you can bring on before you trigger an extra charge for an oversized bag.  We leave our extra bags in the rental car (out of view, of course, even though the lot is patrolled and has the ever-present CCTV cameras), so we carry only what we need for that side trip.  What we save puts a big dent into the cost of the idle rental car.  There are some B&Bs we know of near Gatwick (The Lawn Guest House B&B, specifically http://www.bedandbreakfast.com/surrey-gatwick-horley-thelawnguesthouse.html ) that will allow you to leave your baggage with them for a fee when you’ve been a guest.  When we stayed in London at the Cumberland Hotel http://www.hotel-in-marble-arch.co.uk/ , we left our extra baggage with the bell captain while we went to Bath.  In that case, we stayed there both before and after our driving visit to Bath.  So there are alternatives to leaving your extra luggage in your car.  Just ask and see if where you are staying will offer this service to you.  Don’t expect it to be free.

Make sure you are at the ticket desk with your reservation and passport to check in before it closes for that flight (often 30 minutes or more before the flight – the web site should inform you of the requirements).  Be early if you want the first choice of seats.  With Ryanair, we were given numbers based on when we checked in – and the first, say 15, people were allowed to board first.  Ryanair makes its money by turning its planes around fast and getting them back in the air with a full load of passengers.  We timed it at Poitiers, France, and they took 20 minutes from the time they reached the gate until they left the gate with a new load of passengers to subject to what is an in-flight infomercial for whatever they happen to be selling – duty-free, credit cards, food, drinks, etc.  My last flight on US Airways resembled that Ryanair flight.

Know the restrictions of the countries you’re traveling to as far as export/import restrictions and carry-on bag restrictions.  At the moment, it’s the same as here – one carry-on and one personal item, but it changes with each terror threat.

Hope your next trip across the pond is great fun!