Cara Bertoia

Click the link to find at Amazon.com
Click here to find at Amazon Canada
Click the link to find at Amazon United Kingdom
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Click the link to find at Amazon Brazil
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Ray and Cara have also produced the number one guide on walking the Camino de Santiago in Spain.
The Desert Woman calls it inspiring.
Click the link to find the DVD Camino de Santiago a Walkers Guide at Amazon

Growing up in a strait-laced Southern family, I was always fascinated with casinos. In my twenties on a summer hiatus from teaching in North Carolina, I drove to California and became a dealer at Caesars in Lake Tahoe. Well, I can tell you that after teaching high school, handling an unruly gambler was a piece of cake. My mother highly disapproved of my working in a casino, "a place so bad it has 'sin' in the middle." I wanted to write the first realistic novel about casino life from the perspective of an experienced table games dealer. I spent the next five years circling the globe for Princess Cruises. Sometimes life exceeds your dreams. I was awed by the wonders of Venice, the fjords of Norway, and the Northern Lights in Leningrad. I returned from ships with a very special souvenir, my Scottish husband Ray. We went to work in Palm Springs. We now live in Hollywood, Florida, where I write about my casino years while wistfully gazing out at the ocean.

TAKE A WALK THROUGH SPAIN - READ ABOUT THE CAMINO DE SANTIAGO - GET IN THE KNOW - GET IN THE HOT SPOT

Do you remember the song, it mainly rains on the plains in Spain? Well I am here to tell you it rains all over Spain. I know because I walked the Camino de Santiago, one of the most famous medieval pilgrimages in the world. My husband and I walked five hundred miles across northern starting near the French border and ending at Santiago a beautiful city.

We have written a guest blog about our walk for Get in the Hot Spot, a very popular Australian travel blog. I love this blog because Australia is a place I visited many times over the years when I worked for Princess Cruises. The people are extremely open and very funny. It is great to read travel stories with a little different perspective than we get here in America.

So please visit our post and find out all about Get in the Hot Spot.

Click this link to read about the Camino at Get in the Hot Spot

Cara and Ray in Santiago

The Camino changed our lives in so many ways that are hard to express in words. We have made a video of our journey and would be pleased to tell you about it.
Please go to www.caminovideo.com to find our movie 'Camino de Santiago a walkers guide' or
Click here to find our movie at Amazon

Please check out our novel Cruise Quarters A Novel About Casinos and Cruise Ships about our decade working on luxury cruise ships:

About the author:

Cara Bertoia is the author of Cruise Quarters A Novel About Casinos and Cruise Ships. Her novel is really a travelogue, a narrative, a romance, a self-help manual for gambling and cruising, and a real-life story all rolled into one funny, obsessive, and entertaining story of two people whose separate life journeys meet at a crossroads. Kindle Fire Dept. says, "This novel is a gem that is nothing short of a vacation in a book!"

Below is the links to Cruise Quarters - A Novel About Casinos and Cruise Ships

Click the link to find at Amazon Brazil
Click to find at Barnes and Noble

THE LINK TO ANNE MARIE'S WHEEL CHAIR COVERS

I HAVE A GREAT IDEA - FROM IDEA TO INVENTION

I have a great idea. How many times have we said that today it is easier than ever to see an idea come to life? With websites like Quirky and Kickstarter, it is also easier to get feedback and potential financing for your idea. Today I will share a story about a woman who took that idea all the way from idea to invention.

As an inspiration today I am thrilled to present Anne Marie Daniels, inventor of wheel chair covers that are manufactured for Sure Fit. I met Anne Marie when she was leading tour groups on the cruise ships that I worked for. We reconnected after she read my novel 'Cruise Quarters'. She is a cheerful, resourceful person with a tremendous amount of patience. My mother-in- law was in a wheelchair when Anne Marie told me about her idea. I immediately saw the need for her product. Besides being an inventor, she is an independent contractor, working in corporate events: meetings, incentive programs and individual events out of Boston. Now I will let Anne Marie tell her story of taking her invention from an idea to a product.

What was the inspiration for your invention.

The covers started with my mother, she was my muse! She fell and broke her hip, and subsequently ended up in a nursing home, and in a wheelchair. It was kind of jarring seeing her in that chrome and vinyl contraption. The nursing home also kept rotating wheelchairs, which were different widths. I wanted to find a way to mark one chair that fit her well, so she would not end up in uncomfortable, too-narrow chairs. Hence, the concept of the wheelchair slipcover was born! But only when I had scoured the internet and visited several medical supply stores and found out (at that time) that there was no such thing.

After you decided it was a good idea what was the next step?

I started designing various pieces to cover the seat, the back; added a skirt - eventually figured I out how to cover the arms and then I had my final product!

What were the obstacles that you faced. What is the patent process?

I was fortunate that a patent search yielded no other cover like mine had already been submitted or approved for patenting. An inventor can submit a provisional patent fairly simply, which protects his design for a year. I did that then moved forward with a utility patent to protect the features of my cover. A design patent only protects the look of your invention. The biggest obstacle for me was the cost. Patent attorney fees vary from firm to firm, so it's best to shop around. It is a very costly process, with no guarantee that your application will be appoved for patenting.

Did you get encouragement or did people think that you were crazy?

I can honestly say that even my four brothers, who would be most critical, never said it was a stupid idea. They were very supportive. I never had any negative feedback, which is probably very unusual for a new product design. Most people 'got it' and wondered why no one had thought of covering wheelchairs before.

How did you find out about the contest.

I was googling around one day and found an inventor's association here in Boston - Inventors Association of New England (IANE) -which meets monthly at MIT. It serves as a networking tool but most importantly has a featured speaker at each meeting. One night our speaker was Louis Foreman, publisher of Inventor's Digest magazine and CEO of Edison Nation, a product development company. I had never heard of Edison Nation! They produce Everyday Edisons on PBS. Another one of EN's functions is to partner with companies in search of new products to bring to market. I submitted my covers to the search sponsored by SureFit slipcovers, which was looking for new solutions in coverings. My invention was vetted through a 7-step process, investigating my intellectual property, marketability, etc. before the decision was made to present to SureFit. The rest is history!

What are your plans now.

Well, I still haven't given up my day job! I have another idea, but still working on the details.

Since your mother was your inspiration, and she is now deceased what do you think she would say to you.

I think she would be pleased with how far her slipcover has come. She used to teach slipcovering and upholstery and really appreciated the ones I made for her. I think Mom and Dad have both been giving the project a heavenly nudge along....

I want this piece to inspire anyone that has a good idea but is scared to try it out.

Associations like IANE, here in Boston, are located all over the country. For any inventor looking for some support or inspiration it's a great resource. There's no need to reveal your invention to receive help. Attendees are a mix of inventors from those in the thought process to accomplished licensees.

Since This article was first posted Annemarie has some news to share with us.

Well, pigs have flown and SureFit's version of my slipcovers has finally hit the big time! It debuted around Father's Day, on QVC's "Sunday Mornings with Carolyn & Dan."
Also now available on Costco's website, among others -

Click the link below for the actual TV segment - A little iffy on the issue of sizing, but hey, I'm not complaining!

http://www.qvc.com/Sure-Fit-Quilted-Wheel-Chair-Cover-Slipcovers-Decorative-Accents-For-the-Home.product.H199429.html?sc=H199429-User&cm_sp=VIEWPOSITION-_-6-_-H199429&catentryImage=http://images-p.qvc.com/is/image/h/29/h199429.001?$uslarge$

About the author:
Cara Bertoia is the author of Cruise Quarters - A Novel About Casinos and Cruise Ships. Her novel is really a travelogue, a narrative, a romance, a self-help manual for gambling and cruising, and a real-life story all rolled into one funny, obsessive, and entertaining story of two people whose separate life journeys meet at a crossroads. Kindle Fire Dept. says, "This novel is a gem that is nothing short of a vacation in a book!"

Below is the links to Cruise Quarters - A Novel About Casinos and Cruise Ships

Click the link to find at Amazon.com
Click here to find at Amazon Canada
Click the link to find at Amazon United Kingdom
Click the link to find at Amazon Germany

Click the link to find at Amazon.com
Click here to find at Amazon Canada
Click the link to find at Amazon United Kingdom
Click the link to find at Amazon Germany

THE TOP TEN ROMANTIC MOVIES - FROM THE HOPEFUL ROMANTIC

I was listening to Katy Perry's song Not Like the Movies, when I started thinking about romantic movies and what makes the good ones work. A movie needs a good script, likeable stars and a believable premise. I love movies about ordinary people, who I can relate to. I have to feel like I could be the star in that movie. Those of you who have read my novel Cruise Quarters know that I am the hopeful romantic. With that in mind I have given you my top ten romantic movie choices.

I hate to know too much about a movie before I see it. I like to be surprised; I only read movie reviews after I see the movie. Therefore I will just give you a teaser about each of my picks, just enough to pique your interest. My movies span decades and continents. I have watched a lot of bad movies so that you won't have to. My top ten list is in alphabetical order. I couldn't pick a favorite.

Happy Viewing, from the Hopeful Romantic!

1. 500 Days of Summer - starring Joseph Gordon - Levitt and Zooey Daschanel. I saw this movie at a screening sponsored by the Palm Springs Film Society. The writer Scott Neustadter told us that this movie was based on his life story. The movie wanders through your consciousness like time does.

2. Ae Fond Kiss - starring Attat Yaqubj and Eva Birthisttle Director Ken Loach This movie has a fond place in my heart because my husband is from Glasgow and lives in a neighborhood that is a mix of native Scots and Pakistanis. If you want to take the pulse of a culture this movie gets it right.

3. The Breakup - starring Vince Vaughn and Jennifer Aniston How many times have you gone to see a movie and wondered, really why are these people together? A manic Vaughn plays a guy's guy to the hilt, a very funny script.

4. Bull Durham starring Kevin Costner and Susan Sarandon This movie is about a minor league baseball team in a small Southern town. It is about a time when summer seemed to last forever.

5. Chilly Scenes of Winter starring Mary Beth Hurt and John Heard This movie is based on a novel by Anne Beattie. It is about that time after college when you are trying to find a life for yourself. Anyone who has ever sat in a cubicle for eight hours a day will certainly relate to this movie.

6. Frankie and Johnnie at the Claire de Lune starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Al Pacino These superstars play two ordinary people working at a diner in New York City.

7. Modern Romance starring Albert Brooks and Kathryn Harrold Albert Brooks plays a fickle guy who just can't commit. This movie feels like a replay of my dating life before I met my husband. This movie was the first romance I had ever seen that got it right.

8. Starting Over starring Burt Reynolds, Candice Bergen and Jill Clayburgh. Watch this movie and you will know why Burt Reynolds was the biggest box office star for years. I spent most of my single years in Boston where the movie is set navigating through the crazy dating scene and by that I mean most of the men I met were crazy.

9. A Town Like Alice starring Bryan Brown and Helen Morse based on a novel by Nevil Shute This might be bit of a cheat because this is an Australian mini-series. It takes the romance through many years from a Malaysian prison camp to a town in the back of beyond in Australia. This movie captures the awkwardness of reconnection and starting over in a new land.

10. The Year Of Living Dangerously starring Sigourney Weaver and Mel Gibson See this movie and for a few hours Mel Gibson once again becomes the sexiest man alive. Set amidst a revolution in Indonesia the country provides a dramatic backdrop. The movie provides an unlikely matchmaker in Linda Hunt.

If any one in Hollywood is listening I have a great story about two ordinary people who meet in a very big world. It would fit in quite nicely at number eleven.

Cara Bertoia is the author of Cruise Quarters - A Novel About Casinos and Cruise Ships. This novel about her experiences working on a luxury cruise ship is the top rated casino or cruise ship novel at Amazon. This novel is really a travelogue, a narrative, a romance, a self-help manual for gambling and cruising, and a real-life story all rolled into one funny, obsessive, and entertaining story of two people whose separate life journeys meet at a crossroads. Kindle Fire Dept. says, "This novel is a gem that is nothing short of a vacation in a book!" It will be featured at E- Reader News Today on September 3, as bargain book of the day. You can read more of her blog at carabertoia.blogspot.com and please let share your own picks for top romantic movies.

Below is the links to Cruise Quarters - A Novel About Casinos and Cruise Ships

Click the link to find at Amazon.com
Click here to find at Amazon Canada
Click the link to find at Amazon United Kingdom
Click the link to find at Amazon Germany

CAROLINA BEACHES ARE THE BEST IN THE WORLD

I am a Carolina girl; I was born in Charleston, grew up in Charlotte and went to school at East Carolina, so I know my Carolinas. I also worked on a cruise ship for five years, and what do cruise ships do? They visit beautiful beaches. Yes, the Caribbean has aqua water, and California has dramatic cliff sides, but I can tell you after crossing the globe you can't beat the Carolinas for the ultimate beach experience.

The ultimate beach experience combines food, fun, fine sand and relaxation with beaches that go on and on and on. My earliest memories are of my father taking us kids to the beach at Sullivan's Isle, an island outside of Charleston. The beach was wide with a sandbar just perfect for a five year old to wander about watching hermit crabs burrow into their holes. Shells were scattered up and down the shore just waiting to be picked up and carried home every week filled with new treasures. The sand was fine, just perfect for building and by mixing the sand with a little bit of water you were able to drizzle the sand onto your masterpiece giving your castle a fairytale effect.

And when the day was over we would visit my aunt's house on the island and shower up. The best treat of all after a day at the beach was when we would stop off for a seafood dinner at a restaurant on the waterfront. Forget about your diets there is nothing healthy about a meal at the beach but there is also nothing that compares to fresh shrimp fried with a thin coating of flour and egg mixed with just a dash of cornmeal or crab mixed with seasoned breadcrumbs stuffed back into their shells and fried to a golden brown. Throw in a side of crisp hushpuppies with just a hint of sweetness and I am in heaven. Everywhere I have traveled around the world I have tried to duplicate that ecstasy but I can only do it in the Carolinas.

But life is not just a day at the beach. I now I live in California, but sometimes you do get to relive those golden days of your youth. I am very lucky that my best friend has a lovely beach house at Topsail Beach an island just north of Wilmington. I am even luckier that she and her husband love to take us there with them. My friend Penny and I have been going to the beach together since high school when every holiday was a chance to escape to Ocean Drive, where we shagged to beach music under the stars at the bars on the beach.

Breezeway Restaurant - 'No Extra Charge For Sunsets'

Now we are adults who are content to walk on the shore dipping our toes in the surf to cool us down. One day as we cruised up the inland waterway on a motor boat we anchored near a small beach at the tip of the island, and we walked to a sandbar where hermit crabs were still digging their holes. It was a perfect day at the beach and how do you top that off? Well that night we ate my perfect seafood meal at the family owned Breezeway restaurant located on the inland waterway. Their motto is 'No extra charge for sunsets.' They made the best batch of hushpuppies I have ever tasted but just to be sure I had to ask for refills and I got to wash it all down with home brewed sweet tea.

That trip was so wonderful I want to beg everyone, before it is too late before summer is over take that trip to the beach, or the lake, leave your cell phone in the car remember what it is to be a kid. Relax, take a walk, swim in the surf, or read a book on the beach. You'll remember how easy it is be seduced by the sound of the sea.

Below is the links to Cruise Quarters - A Novel About Casinos and Cruise Ships

VINYL IS BACK -THE RETURN OF THE RECORD ALBUM

This year for Christmas I got a just released Coldplay album, yes an old fashioned vinyl album with a paper sleeve! It seemed so substantial compared to a CD. It all began last year when my husband told me that he wanted to buy a record player because he thought music sounded better when the needle hits the record. As a child his father - an opera buff, had owned a beautiful stereo and a huge record collection that was strictly off limits. Growing up Ray listened to most of his music on the BBC's Radio One and the television show Top of the Pops, so he never got to listen to the whole album, only the hits.

My husband is man of many interests, once he asked me to walk 500 miles across Spain, not only did we go we made a movie of our journey. He helped me write a book about our experiences working on a cruise ship. So the fact that we only owned a few albums, old Beatles albums that were framed and hung in our office, didn't faze me a bit. I said sure and wondered where this new hobby would take us.

Well it turns out this new hobby has taken us to thrift stores, the Salvation Army, and yard sales all over California. We attack a thrift store as a team, pull out all of the albums we might fancy, check them for scratches and buy the good ones. In a little over a year we have amassed a fantastic collection of over 400 classic albums for a little over $200. You can buy the same albums on E-Bay but nothing matches the thrill of the chase! Last week when traveling back from a casino reunion at Lake Tahoe we stopped in Bishop California and I found two great Frank Sinatra albums in premium condition. I felt like I had struck gold.

Our collection spans the decades from the fifties to around 1985 when CD's took over. We have records from performers as diverse as the Beatles, Jethro Tull, Blondie and Barry White. It has also introduced us to performers from our parent's generation. When you listen to the smooth sounds of Johnny Mathis or Frank Sinatra you realize why these crooners were so popular. There are also great Broadway soundtracks, like Camelot and The Sound of Music. But it's not just music; learn some history by listening to The First Family a comedic look at the life of John and Jackie Kennedy when they lived in the White House.

This year's Mad Men even had a scene where Peter Campbell proudly shows off his new console stereo housed in a massive wooden cabinet. Pete marvels at the size of the hi-fi cabinet: “It’s a beautiful piece of furniture. It’s seven feet long.”

Ray proudly displays his collection in the cabinets he built!

Actually records have been cropping up everywhere. In last year's movie Crazy Stupid Love, Ryan Gosling puts the needle on the record as a seductive move. In the show Girls they show Charlie's apartment - a marvel of carpentry. He had custom designed a one room apartment with built-ins to maximize every bit of space, but Ray only noticed the albums on the shelves. Ray had already designed custom shelves to hold his albums. He wanted his albums to face out and be accessible like they were at 'Rockaway Records' in Los Angeles. The store is a great player in the second hand record store scene.

Once you begin looking you realize that albums are everywhere, all the castoffs from all the homes across America, a part of our heritage. They are sitting in thrift stores begging you to take them home and remember what a thrill it was to open that album you had saved all week to buy. Even an article titled 'Turntables' in the July issue of 'Wired' magazine proclaims, "If you care about the sound of recorded music, there's nothing better than vinyl. Even casual listeners can hear how much richer vinyl sounds than MP3s or CDs." As I write this the room is filled with the silken tones of Johnny Mathis.So step back in time and visit that second hand record store and you too just might be seduced.

Cara Bertoia is the author of Cruise Quarters - A Novel About Casinos and Cruise Ships. Kindle Fire Dept says - If this one doesn't put a smile on your face, I don't know what will. Cruise Quarters is a romantic comedy about a woman whose unlucky-in-love past is about to meet its match on board a luxury cruise ship departing for exotic ports around the globe. Managing to be informative about cruises and richly detailed with the locales while offering a compelling romance and plenty of laughs, this novel is a gem that is nothing short of a vacation in a book!

Below is the links to Cruise Quarters - A Novel About Casinos and Cruise Ships
Click the link to find at Amazon.com
Click the link to find at Amazon United Kingdom
Click the link to find at Amazon Germany

Click to find Cruise Quarters at Barnes and Noble

Ray and Cara have also produced the number one guide on walking the Camino de Santiago in Spain.
The Desert Woman calls it inspiring.
Click the link to find the DVD Camino de Santiago a Walkers Guide at Amazon

Click the link to find at Amazon.com
Click here to find at Amazon Canada
Click the link to find at Amazon United Kingdom
Click the link to find at Amazon Germany

CASINO MOVIES THAT GET IT RIGHT

The April issue of The Atlantic ran a great article about gambling. The title was The Gambler Who Broke Atlantic City. It is a fun article to read and it really explains in an easy to read way about how to win in a casino. Don Johnson is the man who won millions in Atlantic City. The only factual problem was when the author was describing a double down hand; a dealer always turns up their hole card before they hit their hand. But as a casino professional we know that they always get it wrong. It is a rare movie or television show set in a casino that doesn't make some mistake. That is why we took so much care when we were writing Cruise Quarters - A Novel About Casinos And Cruise Ships to get it right.

Don't even start me on 'The Cooler' there is no 'Cooler' it was just something made up to sell a movie. Walk up to any dealer and call them 'The Cooler' and watch them cringe, anyway 'The Cooler' wasn't a dealer but a player who stood behind the table. Casinos don't cheat, they may lure you in with bells and neon but the donations you make are purely voluntary.

After we both read the article my husband Ray and started talking about the few movies that have gotten it right. I enjoyed Casino and Bugsy Malone but they were a little before our time. I felt like Owning Mahowny was the best movie about the modern casino business that I have ever seen. This is a movie about an assistant manager at a Toronto branch of a leading Canadian bank. On the weekends he flies to Atlantic City where he gambles hundreds of thousands of dollars. The gambler is played by Oscar winner Phillip Seymour Hoffman, and his love interest is Minnie Driver. It is the most realistic portrait of a compulsive gambler I have ever seen, maybe because it is based on a true story. Set in the 80's before gambling had expanded into all corners of the country. It shows an Atlantic City at the top of its game.

Ray loved Croupier, which I also loved because who doesn't like to look at Clive Owen? Clive Owen plays Jack Manfred an aspiring writer who becomes a croupier to make ends meet and falls under the spell of casino life. Ray said it really replicated his experiences in casinos in London, he learned to deal there and we talk about his training days in our novel Cruise Quarters - A Novel About Casinos and Cruise Ships. The dealers all used to frequent a Greek Restaurant, The Grecian Grill, after the casino closed at night just like in the movie. What male doesn't like to relive his carefree bachelor partying days? There is a heist in the movie with the usual amount of holes in the story but don't let that get in the way because it is the mood and settings that make this movie so great.

Both movies are a few years old so you will probably have to download them or catch them on a movie channel. But if you like to gamble and are interested in what goes on behind the scenes in a casino they are worth a watch. Or you can read all about it in our novel Cruise Quarters - A Novel About Casinos And Cruise Ships.

About the author: