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ThingsAsian Press has just released To Myanmar With Love: A Travel Guide for the Connoisseur. The second in a new series of books that fall somewhere between the traditional travel guide and the personal anthology, To Myanmar With Love offers an intimate collection of essays, tips, and recommendations from seasoned travelers and people who live and work inside the country.

Combining information with inspiration and practical, insider’s knowledge, the book has been called “a one-of-a-kind guide for the passionate traveler.” Contributions are organized by themes such as “Moveable Feasts,”  “Secret Gardens,” and “Paying it Forward.” To Myanmar With Love is edited by Morgan Edwardson, with photographs by Steve Goodman.

May 26 2009 — A tiger reserve in India and a former military training area in Germany are among the 22 new sites from 17 countries added by the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) today to its World Network of Biosphere Reserves.

Today’s additions brings the total number of sites on the list to 553 sites in 107 countries, UNESCO announced during its International Coordinating Council of the Man and the Biosphere Programme (MAB-ICC) meeting on the Island of Jeju in Korea. Ten of the sites are in Asia, with Europe getting six and the rest divided among Australia, the Middle East, Africa and the Americas.

Thanks to Jim Land for sending along this inspirational message from Paul Hawken:

Paul Hawken is a longtime friend of CharityFocus, renowned entrepreneur, visionary environmental activist, founder of Wiser Earth and author of many books—most recently Blessed Unrest. He was recently presented with an honorary doctorate of humane letters by University of Portland, when he delivered this superb commencement address to the class of 2009.

University of Portland, May 3rd, 2009

When I was invited to give this speech, I was asked if I could give a simple short talk that was “direct, naked, taut, honest, passionate, lean, shivering, startling, and graceful.” Boy, no pressure there.

People send me the strangest stuff! This was circulating on the web; sorry I don’t have more info:

The fully outfitted, meticulously detailed, two bedroom, Boeing 727 fuselage suite. We have refurbished a vintage 1965 Boeing 727 airframe, which in its prior life shuttled globetrotters on South Africa Air and Avianca Airlines (Colombia). Our phoenix is now ready for its future duty as the most exclusive hotel suite in Costa Rica.

Thanks to Karen Misuraca for forwarding this POV about micro-niches and “experience engines.” (Beekeeping tourism in Slovenia—who would have thought…?)

The following is an excerpt from an article entitled “Riding Out the Rough Seas: Some New Ideas for Success,” by Karen Weiner Escalera, principal at KKWE group and one of the leading marketing/PR experts in luxury travel, hospitality and lifestyle (KWE represents a variety of resort, destinations and other travel-oriented entities).

Escalera writes, “We must focus on niches and micro niches for our markets, products, delivery of these products and distribution channels. It’s no longer sufficient to pitch products to a broad category, such as the family market. Tomorrow’s success stories will cater to new subsets of a mature family niche, such as gay/lesbian parents, teens, single parents, active families, multi-generational travelers, multi-cultural families, and family reunions. And then there are the new travel niches, from grief tourism (visiting Holocaust sites and Ground Zero), to danger tourism, slum tourism and glamping (glamorous camping). For example, in late 2008, Slovenia was quick to capture an offshoot of eco-tourism, beekeeping tourism. Months later the Fairmont Royal York’s urban beekeeping initiative

June 28, 2009

8:00 pm

From Litquake:

Lewis Black in conversation with Marc Maron
June 28, 8 p.m.
Herbst Theater, Van Ness @ McAllister
San Francisco

For its biggest fundraiser of the year, Litquake proudly presents comedian, actor, author, and Daily Show contributor Lewis Black, live and uncensored! This will be the curmudgeonly comic’s only Bay Area appearance to promote his bestselling book Me of Little Faith, just released in paperback. In a freewheeling onstage conversation, Black and comedian/radio host Marc Maron will gleefully dissect politics, religion, and other American foolishness.

Thanks to Arvis Northrup for telling me about Trazzler.com, which uses “virtual teleportation” to place you “emotionally into specific moments and locales all over the planet.”

What I think is most interesting about Trazzler is that, as a travel writer, you can submit a short post to Trazzler that links to your longer articles elsewhere on the web, and thus drive traffic to your other articles. In fact, Trazzler encourages this: “You are always free to republish anything that you submit to Trazzler or to submit previously published (copyright-friendly) material that is edited to fit Trazzler’s style. Published Trazzler trips always come with a prominent credit/byline for the author, appear on a profile that you can customize, and look professional, so please feel free to use them to promote yourself and your writing.”

September 1, 2009

12:00 am

Travel writing that helps to sustain or enhance the unique and valuable character of a place—its environment, culture, aesthetics, heritage, and/or the well-being of its residents.

Categories:
Best Travel Article or Essay for Planet Earth
Best Travel Book for Planet Earth

June 18, 2009
7:00 pm	to	8:30 pm
June 28, 2009
3:00 pm	to	4:30 pm

I hope you’ll join the fun as authors (including myself, Laurie McAndish King) read from the Travelers’ Tales anthology, The Best Women’s Travel Writing 2009.

Thursday, June 11: We’ll be reading at Get Lost Books in San Francisco (1825 Market Street) at 7 p.m.

• Bonnie Bruinsslot is comforted — and then some — by a handsome young Italian man.
• Pamela Alma Bass considers love and loss in San Miguel de Allende.
• Francesca de Stephano discovers pain, pleasure, and porcini mushrooms in Liguria.
• Kathryn Kefauver loses her privacy in Laos — but gains something equally valuable.
• Laurie McAndish King hunts lions on foot, and without a gun, in Botswana.
• Stacey Tuel inspires a Mexican housewife to rediscover her youthful exuberance.

From Janice Cook Newman: Just posted the first essay from one of my students in the Afghan Women Writers Project. It’s heartbreaking & lovely. Read it, and please help spread the word. We want to get these women’s voices out there.

“When I was child I wished to be a doctor like my uncle, who wears a white shirt and everyday checks on lots of ill people. But one day, all of my wishes were destroyed. It was the day the Taliban came to our country, Afghanistan…”

[And, from your editor, Laurie McAndish King: I'm experimenting with using Apture links in this post. If you click on Janice's name above, there should be three related links. Try it!]

Thanks to Cheryl McLaughlin for this link to a demo video on Scobleizer.com to a way-cool service (free to small-time bloggers) called Apture, which “makes it easy to add contextual images, videos, reference guides, links, maps, music, news, documents and books to your blog to create a connected media experience that keeps readers engaged on your site.”

By the way, I can’t think of a better way to get up to speed on “new media” than by picking Cheryl’s brain.

May 23, 2009
10:00 am	to	4:00 pm

Speaking of Cheryl McLaughlin and new media, if you’re ready to move forward using new media and social networking tools and resources, I can’t think of a better next step than taking Cheryl’s class: Getting Eyes for Your Blog, Book or Website: The 1-Day Intensive for Authors, Publishers, and Publicists.

Here’s the rundown:
You have a blog or a website. Now what? How do you get people to know about it, become a fan and sell more books and other products?

“There’s no more inspiring way to practice travel writing than to immerse yourself in a foreign culture. You find yourself crafting image-rich journal entries or lyrical postcards and emails. But how do you fashion prose with style and substance — that give your words broader appeal, longer shelf life, and publishing opportunities?”

Join travel writer and editor Camille Cusumano, who will lead a travel writing workshop in Mendoza, Argentina, from July 25 to August 1, 2009.

Program Cost: $1,495.00 U.S., double occupancy; $350.00 U.S. single supplement. (Fee covers lodging, tuition and excursions, most lunches and some dinners, but not airfare).

Polldaddy.com is a free service that lets you create and administer polls and surveys by embedding them into a post or article. Sounds like a useful tool for people who want to develop online communities. You can change the appearance of the poll, integrate the poll into your Wordpress blog (I didn’t use the Wordpress-specific function here), include images and video in your poll, subscribe to the results of the poll in an RSS feed, set survey response paths using conditional branching, create custom start and finish pages, and more.

To see how it works, answer this poll:

From Kayak and Sidestep:

A little while ago, two companies independently created a new way for you to shop for travel products: visit one web site that would search all the others, then buy from whatever web site you want. You, the traveling public, liked this idea, and both Kayak and SideStep have become very popular.

Airfare Watchdog is another site that lets you sign up to receive emailed information about air fares.

“The airlines lower airfares every day without advertising them. Our team of fare experts tells you about these “hidden” fare reductions and alert you to $0 “blooper” fares and other air fare bargains that you might otherwise miss. And we provide straight talk about finding low air fares on the Web. Airfarewatchdog.com is the only fare listing site that shows fares on all airlines, even Southwest.”

Thanks to Laurie Weed for this link to local photographer Jak Wonderly’s website. Check it out for some beautiful animal shots, as well as to see the SmugMug photo gallery hosting format.

Looking for health insurance? Kaiser offers small business plans (no “pre-existing conditions” issues) for companies of two people or more. So, theoretically, two self-employed individuals could create a company of two partners (no employees needed) and qualify as a small business.

I’ve been investigating health insurance plans recently, and have heard good things about Kaiser from multiple sources. Thanks to Laurie Weed for this link. Now I just need to determine which would work best: a straight copay plan, a copay with deductible, an HSA, HRA, PPO, PPO with HSA, point-of-service … or some other plan configuration.

I’m thrilled to announce that the Bay Area Travel Writers newsletter is now live as an online e-zine. April Orcutt, who has contributed to Travel Writers News many times, is doing an excellent job of editing it.

One reason I’m thrilled is because the newsletter contains lots of useful tips and information for travel writers; the other reason is because I worked very hard to get the online newsletter up and running, and now that it’s working I’ll have a life again. In addition to April, Diane LeBow, Marc Longwood, and Bradley Charbonneau all contributed many hours to the site development.

September 25, 2009

12:00 am

September 25 – October 2, 2009
Optional extension for Arezzo Antique Fair, October 2 - 5

Join nationally published writer Laura Deutsch for a week of writing and traveling in Tuscany and Umbria. Medieval hill towns, Renaissance art, peaceful landscapes and lively markets will provide great material and inspiration for writers of all genres. Accommodations in lovely studio apartments, each with private bath and kitchen.

For more information, go to lauradeutsch.com and click on Writing Retreats in Italy. To register, contact Laura at 415.388.0900 or info@lauradeutsch.com.

While you’re on her website, be sure to check out Laura’s other writing classes.

From the New York Times:

SURE, you’d like to take a vacation. But with layoffs hitting your best friends and your own company hinting at pay cuts, how can you justify it?

Consider the guilt-free vacation. To counter customers’ reluctance about jetting off for conspicuous consumption during a recession, travel companies are pushing trips that emphasize service, values and personal fulfillment. The message: If there is more involved than frivolous pleasure, you don’t have to feel bad about dropping all that cash on a splashy vacation

April 26, 2009

12:00 am

From the sensual sway of Cuba to the vibrancy of Mexico and the Hispanic experience in America, the literature of Latin Americans and Hispanics chronicles revolutions and romance like nobody else. Led by Maria Finn, this reading group at Book Passage will discuss contemporary Latin American and Latino authors and themes such as how the political is related with the personal, the complications of sex and love, as well as cultural identity.

Maria Finn is planning a course on food and wine writing that will be held in Mendoza, Argentina in November, 2009 at the Posada de Rosas. Participants will visit vineyards and meet winemakers, have barrel tastings as well learn how to make an asada, or traditional Argentinean barbeque along with other cooking classes and culinary adventures. Maria is still working on the details for this trip, but please let her know if you might be interested and she will keep you updated as plans solidify.  Here’s a travel article Maria recently wrote about Mendoza.

May 30, 2009
10:00 am	to	4:00 pm

Have you ever met a fascinating person you’d like to write about? Ever wanted to write articles about art, culture, food, or travel? Feature writing might be the niche for you. In this class we will find unique angles on your subject, craft a query letter, research topics, develop interview techniques, and write a draft and then a polished article. Maria Finn writes for Saveur, The New York Times, Metropolis, The Los Angeles Times, ABC.com, Forbes FYI, Forbes Traveler, and Audubon Magazine. She has compiled and edited two literary travel anthologies, Cuba in Mind (Vintage 2004) and Mexico in Mind (Vintage 2006). Her memoir Embraceable Me: Lessons in Heartbreak, Desire and the Argentine Tango is forthcoming from Algonquin Books in autumn 2009, and she is working on a book about growing edibles for Rizzoli Books to be published in 2010.

The big push is on to lift travel restrictions to Cuba. See travel writer Christopher Baker’s blog about Cuba (and Costa Rica) and hear his recent comments about travel to Cuba on an ABC Newschannel interview.

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• Upcoming Events

  • September 1, 2009:
    • Travel Writers Can Change the World: Planet Earth 2010 (12:00 am)
  • September 12, 2009:
    • Writing Workshops in Turkey (12:00 am)
  • September 25, 2009:
    • Writing Retreat in Italy with Laura Deutsch (12:00 am)