Hi there! I’m Kim Fielding, and if you follow me on social media, you know that travel is one of my passions. Whether it’s a quick drive from my house to the Sierra foothills or a long flight to Europe, I love opportunities to escape home and find adventure elsewhere.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I don’t cage-dive with sharks or scale Mt. Everest. But the wonderful thing about travel is that anything can become an adventure: Finding the right machine to buy train tickets in Barcelona. Catching a taxi in Porto. Deciphering a menu in Prague. Getting to a bathroom in time in the mountains.

Travel brings the delight of the unexpected—like last year, when I got to use my rusty high school French to have a conversation with a cab driver in Lisbon (we got where I wanted to go!). Like the time I visited Plitvice Lakes, an enormous national park in Croatia, and while walking along a trail ran into one of the six other Americans I knew in the country. Like this summer, when my daughter and I joined Amy Lane and her family for a tromp around Gold Country, and the owner of an old bar came out to tell us ghost stories. Like discovering in Edinburgh that my other daughter, then 11, liked haggis. Like going on a train excursion in Alaska and seeing black bears and a grizzly. Like the great conversation my friend Les and I had in Le Marais—again in my bad French—with the neighboring couple in a restaurant where I was the only female customer.

Of course, travel can also bring complications and frustrations. Within the past few years, various airline delays have left me stranded for an extra day in Iowa City, San Francisco, and Lisbon. Christopher Koehler, Amy Lane, and I nearly ran out of gas—through no fault of our own—in South Central LA. Air France lost my suitcase for 24 hours when I flew from Zagreb to Barcelona. I grew ill during a trip to Budapest. But even these problems may have silver linings, such as the extra day I got to spend with a good friend in Iowa, the hilarious tweets Amy and Christopher sent, and the cute emergency replacement pajamas I bought myself in Spain. Oh, and that upset tummy in Hungary? That turned out to be morning sickness, the result of which is now an amazing 13-year-old kid.

Whenever and wherever we travel, most of us eventually return home. And that’s a benefit of travel too, because going away helps us put home in perspective. It can give us fresh insights about familiar territory and help us better appreciate things we take for granted. For instance, after I spent a wonderful semester living in a fourth-floor apartment (with no elevator) in Croatia, I was happy to come home, where I face a lot fewer stairs and where I can generally understand the language.

And of course this brings me to my newest book, Equipoise, which released yesterday from DSP Publications. It’s the final book in the Ennek trilogy, and after a lot of adventures overseas, Ennek and Miner are ready to return home. Since they remain fugitives, however, and home is not a safe place, their troubles are far from over. But their experiences elsewhere have made them wiser and more experienced—so we can hope that will help them survive.

Please share some of your travel adventures in the comments below!

Equipoise:

DSP Publications

Amazon

Blurb:

Ennek, the son of the Chief, and Miner, a former slave, have escaped the totalitarian city-state of Praesidium and remain fugitives. Having defeated two mighty wizards, they begin to realize complete freedom can be as dangerous as absolute power. Now Ennek and Miner must face battles, corruption, and further journeys through lands both new and familiar.

As they grow more secure in their relationship, they learn the greatest challenges sometimes come from very close to the heart and everything of value has a price. With the help of a few allies, they seek equipoise—a balance for themselves and for their world.

Kim Fielding:

Website: http://kfieldingwrites.com

Facebook: http://facebook.com/KFieldingWrites

Twitter: @KFieldingWrites

Kim Fielding is the bestselling author of numerous m/m romance novels, novellas, and short stories. Like Kim herself, her work is eclectic, spanning genres such as contemporary, fantasy, paranormal, and historical. Her stories are set in alternate worlds, in 15th century Bosnia, in modern-day Oregon. Her heroes are hipster architect werewolves, housekeepers, maimed giants, and conflicted graduate students. They’re usually flawed, they often encounter terrible obstacles, but they always find love.

After having migrated back and forth across the western two-thirds of the United States, Kim calls the boring part of California home. She lives there with her husband, her two daughters, and her day job as a university professor, but escapes as often as possible via car, train, plane, or boat. This may explain why her characters often seem to be in transit as well. She dreams of traveling and writing full-time.