May
29
Travel essays (first of several)
May 29, 2006 | Comments Off
How does one string a bunch of travel essays (we each have a bunch, don’t we?) into a coherent collection? Now that I know a bit about self-publishing, and share Lisa Alpine’s enthusiasm for Lulu.com, I’m trying to figure out what it takes to turn my own stack of travel essays into a collection. Is it enough that one person wrote them all? Would it be enough if the one person had a strong voice and a particular interest or point of view to unite the stories? Or do they need to act as chapters in a book, with a narrative line and a story arc?
May
29
Earthquakes
May 29, 2006 | Comments Off
Not sure why I think earthquakes have anything to do with travel, but just in case you’re writing a story that involves earthquakes and need to do some research, here’s the USGS web page for earthquakes.
You can also use the site to find out where earthquakes have occurred recently, view “real-time shaking maps,” check out earthquake probabliity statistics (“USGS and other scientists conclude that there is a 62% probability of at least one magnitude 6.7 or greater quake, capable of causing widespread damage, striking the San Francisco Bay region before 2032.”), and link to the Red Cross site’s page telling What to do after an Earthquake (“Open closet and cabinet doors cautiously…. Look for and extinguish small fires…. Check yourself for injuries…. Watch animals closely.”)
May
29
Stegner Fellowships
May 29, 2006 | Comments Off
From the May 24, 2006 issue of @Stanford-A monthly newsletter of campus news and research:
————————————-
HEARD ON CAMPUS
————————————-
“Who would have guessed that the toughest program to get into at Stanford is not the Medical School, not the Law School, not the Business school or the undergraduate program?”
– John Hennessy, on hearing that more than 1,400 writers applied for 10 Stegner Fellowships in the Creative Writing Program
May
29
In the Know Traveler
May 29, 2006 | Comments Off
In the Know Traveler has re-launched; here’s their new site and here are submission guidelines. “Sadly, we are not in a position to pay our writers yet. I know this stinks. This project is a labor of love with a goal to pay all writers a reasonable fee as soon as possible. However, we can promise to promote, upon story acceptance, you and your writing by posting your personal bio, photos, links to your personal/writing home pages (we will want to approve web content) or possibly find sponsorship to help pay for your hard work.”
May
29
Travel Warnings
May 29, 2006 | Comments Off
Here’s the link for the U.S. Department of State’s current travel warnings.
May
29
InsureMyTrip.com
May 29, 2006 | Comments Off
“Welcome to InsureMyTrip.com, the Internet’s foremost travel insurance comparison site. With our diverse selection of more than 100 travel insurance plans from 19 leading companies, no other site matches our product depth, comparison features, or customer service.
“At InsureMyTrip.com, you can compare each policy and get the information you need to purchase travel insurance with confidence.”
May
29
Travel emergencies
May 29, 2006 | Comments Off
Thanks to Karen Misuraca for sending the link to this article by Tiffany Sharples from Budgettravelonline.com about What to Do When There’s a Travel Emergency. Very basic, but it covers everything from losing your wallet, passport, or traveling companion to getting into trouble with the local law.
The short story: “Make a photocopy of your passport, … [and write] down contact info for your health insurer, credit card companies, and bank.”
May
28
St. Vincent Millay on travel
May 28, 2006 | Comments Off
How shall I know, unless I go
To China and Cathay,
Whether or not
this blessed spot
Is blest in every way?
– Edna St. Vincent Millay
May
28
Dillard on writing
May 28, 2006 | Comments Off
Thanks to the San Francisco Writing Salon for this quotation:
“When you write, you lay out a line of words. The line of words is a miner’s pick, a woodcarver’s gouge, a surgeon’s probe. You wield it, and it digs a path you follow…. You make the path boldly and follow it fearfully. You go where the path leads.”
– Annie Dillard
May
28
About.com
May 28, 2006 | Comments Off
From About.com:
I wanted to let your readers know that writers are currently being recruited to cover the following travel topics on About.com:
Adventure Travel
Amsterdam for Visitors
Central America for Visitors
China for Visitors
Germany for Visitors
Mexico for Visitors
Scandinavia for Visitors
Southeastern United States for Visitors
Spain for Visitors
Click link for more.
May
26
Newspapers A to Z
May 26, 2006 | Comments Off
Incredibly Generous Offer from Constance Hale:
Dear fellow wanderer,
Thank you for expressing an interest in my “Newspapers A to Z” spreadsheet (OK, in the interest of truth in advertising, I guess it should be called “Newspapers A to W.”)
I am a journalist with 20 years experience who has been selling travel stories for the past four years. Those stories have appeared in magazines like National Geographic Adventure, Honolulu, Via, and the Atlantic as well as in newspapers such as the San Francisco Chronicle, Los Angeles Times, Dallas Morning News, and Miami Herald. I have compiled this information to better understand the newspaper market, to improve my efficiency in submitting stories, and to share my hard-earned knowledge with other dedicated travel writers.
Click link to continue….
May
21
Epiphany
May 21, 2006 | Comments Off
I’m reading Susan Orlean’s book, My Kind of Place (Travel Stories from a Woman Who’s Been Everywhere), and I have discovered the secret to her success. Sure, there’s the curiosity, wit, insight, and intelligence — but hey, we’ve got all that, too…don’t we? What is it that makes Orlean the kind of writer who can sell a 32-page story about a grocery store in Queens, or — even more impressive — a 9-pager about Midland, Texas? I’ll tell you what.
She provides readers — and editors — with a little something extra, and she tips her hand right in the introduction: “…I am seized repeatedly by epiphanies (or what I mistake for epiphanies) about how to travel well…how to pack (never go anywhere without a sweatshirt, a string of pearls, and a big, elegant scarf, which can be used as a dress, a shawl, a skirt, a shrug, a blanket, or a tent, and try, try, try not to overpack)….”
That’s the Orlean secret: epiphanies. But she weaves them into her stories in such a subtle and unobtrusive way you’re never completely sure where they are — you just have the feeling that you’ve had one.
click on the header to read the rest….
May
21
The future of books
May 21, 2006 | Comments Off
Thanks to April Orcutt for sending a link to the article Scan This Book! from the May 14, 2006 New York Times Magazine about the future of information management. Kevin Kelly writes that the age-old dream of centralizing all knowledge in one place is closer than we think, and that copyright laws will only slow it down temporarily. The Web’s links and tags will organize and annotate and interrelate and contextualize, Kelly explains, transforming content to information to knowledge. (Maybe there will be some epiphanies in there, too.) The Amazon.com concept of curated reading lists will expand to include not just books, but articles and excerpts, music, film clips, and everything else that can be digitized. Great article.
May
21
Bartlett
May 21, 2006 | Comments Off
I have gathered a posie of other men’s flowers,
and nothing but the thread that binds them is mine own.
– John Bartlett
I wish John Bartlett, the early Curator of Comments, had lived to see the World Wide Web. He died 100 years ago, in 1905.
May
19
Wetpaint.com
May 19, 2006 | Comments Off
Thanks to Laura Read for sending along this note from Heidi Schuessler, previously an editor at Sasquatch Books:
“After three wonderful years at Sasquatch Books, I’m making the leap into online editing and writing. On May 15 [2006] I’ll be joining a company called Wetpaint.com, a new and exciting website that is taking the concept of “wikis”–the name given to websites that are editable by readers–to the next level. If you’ve ever been on Wikipedia, you’ll know this concept, and it’s getting a lot of buzz in web circles as the newest way to build online communities around subject matter that people are passionate about. And yes, it’s true: readers can go into the website and actually add and/or change the content. As they say at Wetpaint: 10,000 heads are better than one. The original writers provide the “seed content” and an outline for the world to follow.
May
19
Outside Traveler
May 19, 2006 | Comments Off
I just saw Outside Traveler (Special Edition Spring/Summer 2006) on the newsstand. It’s a roundup of roundups: 19 Sizzling Hawaiian Adventures; India Rising – 10 Superb 5-Star Journeys; Summer’s Best Trips – 101 Ways to Catch the Wave. The online edition is here. And here are their articles about the evolution of travel guides and about travel blogs — with a list of blogs, of course.
May
19
Lord Chesterfield on travel
May 19, 2006 | Comments Off
The world is a country which
nobody ever yet knew by description;
one must travel through it one’s self
to be acquainted with it.
– Lord Chesterfield
May
19
Travel proverb
May 19, 2006 | Comments Off
The further you go,
the more you shall see
and know.
– Medieval proverb
May
19
Fuller on travel
May 19, 2006 | Comments Off
He that travels much
knows much.
– Thomas Fuller
May
19
Tuckerman on travel
May 19, 2006 | Comments Off
To be a good traveler
argues one no ordinary philosopher.
A sweet landscape must sometimes
atone for an indifferent supper,
and an interesting ruin charm away
the remembrance of a hard bed.
– Henry Theodore Tuckerman
May
19
Santayana on travel
May 19, 2006 | Comments Off
The traveller must be somebody
and come from somewhere.
so that his definite character
and moral traditions
may supply an organ
and a point of comparison
for his observations.
– George Santayana
May
19
Maugham on travel
May 19, 2006 | Comments Off
A good traveler has
the gift of surprise.
– W. Somerset Maugham
May
19
Burns
May 19, 2006 | Comments Off
“O Would that God
the gift might give us,
to see ourselves as
others see us.”
– Robert Burns
May
19
Business for Diplomatic Action
May 19, 2006 | Comments Off
“The alarming rise in anti-American sentiment represents a looming crisis not only for U.S. businesses and brands marketed abroad but for future generations of Americans as well. Even though much resentment of our country currently centers on our foreign policy, much does not. Other root causes include the perception that we are arrogant and insensitive as a people, that our culture has become all-pervasive, and that the global business expansion on the part of U.S. companies has been exploitive.”
May
19
Bigger and Uglier
May 19, 2006 | Comments Off
Thanks to Michael McCarthy for sending the link to this article. “What caught my eye about this story,” Michael says, “is that this new research contradicts the excuses many people have been making for the past few years – at least, since the Bush administration got into power – that people around the world don’t dislike us, it’s our foreign policy (Bush and Co) that they dislike. Not true at all, says this new report. It’s the ugly behavior they dislike. And rightly so. Americans tour the world like they are touring a zoo, talking loudly and pointing fingers and dressed like they may have to clean out the manure from the monkey cage.”