WHISKERS ABROAD:

Ashi and Audrey’s Adventures in Japan

by

CARRIE CARTER

Graphic Designer: Stacy Vickers

Fiction / Travelogue / Japan

Publisher: Bayou City Press

Pages: 170 pages

Publication Date: October 6, 2022

Scroll down for the Giveaway!

Whiskers Abroad is a lively and charming travelogue featuring a trip to Japan shared by two main characters, Audrey and Ashi, who alternate recounting their versions of events. Audrey, having won the chance to write a magazine article about traveling in Japan, takes along her cat, Ashi. Over the course of a twelve-day trip, the pair visit Tokyo, Wakayama, Shirahama, Kyoto, and Miura Peninsula. Food is of great interest to both, as they sample typical Japanese dishes from ramen to sushi to tuna specialties. They also explore Japanese culture, including food markets, a family farm, temples, and Tokyo nightlife.

Adventures abound, from Audrey losing Ashi in the fish market to Ashi slipping out of the hotel at night to go to a cat café, where he meets an alluring feline. Audrey is still trying to find her place in the universe, while Ashi believes Audrey would sink beneath the waves were he not present to rescue her time and again. Audrey is a dedicated reader of her horoscope, and the prediction for each day offers tantalizing clues as to what’s in store for the pair.

Written by author Carrie Carter and beautifully designed by Stacy Vickers, Whiskers Abroad is both an amusing travel story with unforgettable characters but also a useful guide for tourists going to Japan about such basic travel issues as how to get from the airport to central Tokyo, how to purchase a rail pass, what to visit in Tokyo, and what to eat. Lavishly designed with full-color photographs and arresting page layouts, Whiskers Abroad will delight both your eyes and your sense of adventure.

$0.99 Kindle Pre-Order Sale Through 10/2/2022

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Praise

“Whiskers Abroad is simply a delight, offering respite and reflections that bring readers into Japan from different perspectives, capturing a writer’s journey through new foods, a different culture, and a cat’s eyes. It’s very highly recommended for its ability to reach beyond the usual travelogue audiences to immerse all ages in its fun adventure.” — The Midwest Book Review

AUDREY AND ASHI’S TOP TEN FAVORITES LISTS

Audrey’s favorite Japanese Foods

1. Ramen – noodles with pork, green onions, and a rich broth
2. Gyoza – pork and cabbage dumplings
3. Udon soup – thick wheat noodles in a smoked fish-based broth
4. Tendon donburi – fried shrimp and vegetable tempura on top of rice with a sauce
5. Egg sandwich from 7-11
6. Miso soup – miso is a fermented bean paste mixed into a fish broth
7. Tonkatsu – deep-fat fried pork cutlets with a panko crust, served with shredded cabbage, rice, and miso soup
8. Sardine sushi – raw sardine on top of vinegared rice
9. Tantanmen – spicy noodle soup with a creamy sesame broth, ground pork, a boiled egg, and blanched green vegetables
10. Mister Doughnut – best doughnut shop ever

Ashi’s favorite Japanese foods

1. Ramen – see above
2. Clams – raw, grilled, in soup
3. Grilled saba – grilled mackerel
4. Grilled sea bream – grilled white fish
5. Umeboshi – pickled plum
6. Sashimi of any kind – thinly sliced raw fish
7. Kobe gyudon – thinly sliced beef from Kobe, sautéed with onions, soy sauce, sugar, and sake, served over rice
8. Shabu-shabu – thinly sliced beef that you swish in a hot broth. Can dip in a citrus soy sauce or a sesame sauce
9. Magura Sushi – lean tuna sushi
10. Mushi-gaki – steamed oysters in their shell

Audrey’s favorite TV shows

1. Stranger Things
2. Seconds from Disaster
3. Diagnosis Unknown
4. Bridgerton
5. Pasta, K-drama
6. Mine, K-drama
7. Better Call Saul
8. Star Trek, original series
9. Seinfield
10. Japanology

Ashi’s favorite TV shows

1. Iron Chef, original Japanese version
2. Dotchi, Japanese cooking game show
3. Fast Food My Way with Jacques Pepin
4. Samurai Cat, Japanese drama
5. My Cat from Hell
6. National Geographic: Science of Cats
7. Sabrina the Teenage Witch
8. NOVA
9. Rick Bayless’ Mexico: One Plate at a Time
10. To be honest, Ashi doesn’t like to watch TV that much.

Carrie Carter has a profound love for Japan, cats, sumo, dioramas, and eating unusual foods. She has traveled with her husband Jim to Japan fourteen times, so her numerous holidays across her favorite country were the inspiration for her first book, Whiskers Abroad: Ashi and Audrey’s Adventures in Japan. Carrie has run multiple marathons including the Tokyo Marathon, and as expected, Carrie and Jim live with an adorable cat named Frenemy, who was unhappy at not being selected as the model for the book.

Carrie lives in Houston, Texas, and graduated from the University of Texas at Austin. At home, she loves to cook, design/create Halloween costumes, and daydream about meeting Jacques Pepin. She dislikes overly dramatic music used in reality TV shows. Currently, Carrie is working on her second book, a sequel to Whiskers Abroad, where Audrey and Ashi explore further into Japan and get themselves into even more interesting predicaments.

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GIVEAWAY! GIVEAWAY! GIVEAWAY!

ONE WINNER:

Receives an eBook of Whiskers Abroad plus a set of Ashi stickers.

(US only; ends midnight, CDT, September 30, 2022.)

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