I haven’t updated you all on my travel progress lately. To those of you who don’t know, I travel around the world as I write as a working author. Until recently, I was residing in Istanbul for a whole month. This was entirely unexpected because I was only going to stay for about a week. Then it swiftly turned into a month.
Why Istanbul?
Istanbul is probably my favourite city thus far and I have no doubt that if I wasn’t returning home for Christmas I would have added another month or two on top of that.
For me, this is a city where you don’t need to partake in any of the tourist attractions to have a good time. Until my final week, I’d done almost none of the main attractions. I didn’t see the inside of the Haga Sophia until my final few days, for example.
It’s a city where I spent most of my time reading, writing, and drinking apple tea.
The Fountain of Productivity

The Fountain of Productivity!

This is the name of the fountain between the Haga Sophia and the Blue Mosque. Sultanahmet Square has this large fountain in the middle of it with coloured lights and water and all that stuff. Around the outside is a ring of benches.
It was here that I wrote the majority of the first book of my latest series, due to be released on November 30th.
I’m not sure why this fountain was the scene of so much productivity, but it was. It’s just a shame I was in Istanbul when the weather was getting worse. My last week was filled with rain and (relatively) freezing temperatures.
My Third Series
I hope that my third series will bring something different to my growing library of books. The last thing I want to do is to write more books that are exactly the same. I don’t believe that helps me to grow, and it’s a bit boring to do the same things over and over again.
This series will be faster, will utilise multiple points of view, and move even further back in time as I take in the 19th century and the era Charles Dickens wrote about.
Where am I Now?
Right now I’m sitting in Bucharest, Romania. It’s a rather uninspiring city, I have to say, but it’s worth visiting. This is one of those times where the tour guides didn’t lie!
On a side note, you’re probably wondering where Darth Vader’s helmet comes into it. I read this article from the BBC today. It details how the city of Odessa in Ukraine has just converted its old Lenin statue into a statue of Darth Vader, and I’m going to be amongst the first travellers to see it as I’m heading there very soon anyways.
It really does have free Wi-Fi in the helmet!
Until next time…
James Farner