Laura Byrne Paquet is the author of The Urge to Splurge: A Social History of Shopping. Her articles have appeared in more than 70 publications in Canada, the U.S., and Europe, including National Geographic, Traveler, Arthur Frommer's Budget Travel, enRoute, Chatelaine, Canadian Living, and The Ottawa Citizen. Between her globe-trotting adventures, she finds time to write romance novels from her Ottawa home.