Feature article in the Monterey Herald

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BEAR ME AWAY
TO A BETTER WORLD

by Ginna BB Gordon

“You lovely art, in so many gloomy hours,
While the turmoil of life swirled around me,
Have you kindled the warmth of love in my heart
And borne me away to a better world.”
~ from a poem by Franz von Schober, Vienna, 1817

Bear Me Away to a Better World is a cozy mystery with big heart. It tells the story of two intensely creative people who meet in the 1950s, bond, and form a partnership that touches countless lives.

Fifty years later, at their beloved Villa Zanetta, a thriving performing arts center in California's Sonoma Valley, someone is (presumably) murdered, but someone else is secretly loved, while another is disgraced, and yet another finds solutions.

Hector trims the rose bushes in the garden, Marcus discovers new artistic vistas, Martha grieves a tragic loss, and Kendra hopes for a future.

Always on the periphery of Villa Zanetta's colorful creatives are Hayne Williams and Diesel Edwards, the octagenarian "duo." They make discoveries of their own and manage to hold everything together with the power of art, ideas, music, and love.

Author Ginna BB Gordon and her husband David Gordon have a lifetime of professional experience in the entertainment industry, and their insight into the world of the performing arts gives an authentic color to this engaging story.

In today’s confounding universe, Bear Me Away to a Better World wraps its arms around you and gives you sweet joy and dear hope.

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For a playful glimpse of the (totally fictional) setting of this novel, visit the 2008 Villa Zanetta Summer Opera Festival website...

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Ginna BB Gordon has been surrounded by music and the arts since childhood. Her father, Richard, was a musician, composer and conductor; her mother, Virginia, an actor, architect, and accomplished artist in several mediums.

In her teens and 20s, Ginna experienced 14 years on the stages of community theaters and occasional bits in film and TV.

Meanwhile Ginna’s passion for organic gardening and cooking beautiful food led to myriad venues where she reigned as chef, from a small conference center in Calistoga to the Chopra Center for Well Being in La Jolla, and other California cafés and restaurants in between.

Ginna’s first cookbook, A Simple Celebration, the Nutritional Program for the Chopra Center for Well Being, was published by Random House in 1997.

While honing her writing skills, Ginna served for eight years as Operations Director and Event Planner for Carmel Music Society, the oldest performing-arts non-profit west of the Mississippi.

Following that, for another seven years she planned and managed major events for the Carmel Bach Festival and other West Coast organizations.

Ginna has written five other cookbooks, including The Soup Kit, a comprehensive guide to making gourmet soups; Bonnebrook and The Gingerbread Farm, the first two volumes in her cooking memoir series; and First You Grow the Pumpkin, about growing, making, and preserving culinary treats. Her latest cookbook is Once a Baker: 100 Bakery Favorites (Available December 2022).

Ginna’s previous novels are Looking for John Steinbeck, Deke Interrupted and Humming in Spanish, the first three volumes in her ongoing Lavandula Series, a coming-of-age saga set in California in the 1960s.

Bear Me Away to a Better World is her 11th book and fourth novel. View all of Ginna's books here.

Ginna lives on the Pacific Rim with her husband, David Gordon, career musician, book designer, and author of two non-fiction books. Ginna and David are Lucky Valley Press, a boutique design and pre-press company serving independent authors throughout the US.

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