Fran Gendlin has held leadership positions in both magazine and book publishing. She was Editor and Publisher of Sierra Magazine, the magazine of Sierra Club, a worldwide environmental activism organization, and she was the association’s Director of Public Affairs. Later, as Executive Director of the Association of American University Presses, she represented the 100-member publishing houses to the public and fostered scholarly publishing interests. In this regard, she was a member of the first American delegation to discuss joint projects with counterparts in the Soviet Union.

While she was growing up, her family moved several times to different areas of the United States, each with its own characteristics and culture, climate, and cuisine. This has led her to appreciate new cultures, to wonder about their differences and similarities to her own, and to try and understand them.

Thus, in 1993, she wrote Rome as Your Door, an edition of Times Publishing—a widely read guide to living in that city. Since then, she has written and continually updated Culture Shock! Paris and Culture Shock! San Francisco (published by Marshall Cavendish), also in-depth guides that go deeper into the culture of those cities than regular tourist guides.

After having lived in Paris for ten years, she decided to take a new approach, and wrote Paris, Moi, and the Gang: a Memoir of Sorts, issued by Summertime Publications in 2010. A witty look at a middle-aged American woman’s life in Paris, the excellent reviews—especially those published on the Internet—have helped the book to sell well, both in paper and e-book formats.

All her life Fran has enjoyed travel and new adventures, meeting interesting people and making new friends. Currently, in addition to loving Paris, she also enjoys the beaches of Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, where from her desk she can looks out at palm trees , and where is learning to dance the cha-cha-cha.

You can check out her own website at www.frangendlin.com