Nov
18
Sin and Syntax
November 18, 2009 | Leave a Comment
Love writing? You’ll love the Sin and Syntax website, on which author Connie Hale offers writing exercises (she’s teaching at Harvard) and discusses grammatical and stylistic issues such as Barack Obama’s use of pronouns (politically correct but grammatically reprehensible), her own pet punctuation peeves, and the secrets for writing sinfully succulent prose.
Hale is the author of Sin & Syntax: How to Craft Wickedly Effective Prose. She also wrote Wired Style (the manual for Wired magazine) for which she was dubbed “Marion the Librarian on a Harley, or E. B. White on acid.” Her articles have been published in many newspapers, and in magazines including The Atlantic Monthly, National Geographic Adventure, Smithsonian, Health, and Honolulu.
Nov
18
Katy Butler Workshop at Esalen
November 18, 2009 | Leave a Comment
| November 29, 2009 12:00 am | to | December 4, 2009 12:00 am |
I’m posting this information about an upcoming memoir workshop because Connie Hale (herself an exceptional writer and instructor) recommends instructor Katy Butler. In fact, when Connie was running Harvard’s Nieman Narrative Conference she brought Katy in (twice) to teach.
Here’s the scoop:
What: “Straw into Gold: the Alchemy of Memoir” 5 day writing workshop.
Who: Leader Katy Butler is a former finalist, National Magazine Award, and
a current contributor to the New York Times magazine, MORE, & elsewhere.
When: Nov. 29 through Dec. 4.
Where: Esalen Institute, Big Sur, California.
How: Sign up at Esalen.org or 831 667-3000.
More info from Katy Butler at 415 789 8366.
Do you have a story you are longing to tell? This is your chance to take a great leap forward with the help of a writer whose memoirs and literary nonfiction have appeared in the New Yorker, Vogue, the New York Times, Salon and elsewhere.
Nov
18
New Orleans: A T(w)een Travelogue
November 18, 2009 | 1 Comment
Twelve tween and teen writers spent a week in New Orleans last summer, touring, eating, enjoying music, and participating in a writing and photography workshop. The resulting book (!) is now available on Amazon.
“The stories and photos that comprise New Orleans: A T(w)een Travelogue offer a rare look at the Crescent City through the savvy words and sassy eyes of 12 young women ranging in age from 11 to 14. Follow them through the narrow streets of the French Quarter as they spend eight days among tarot card readers, restaurant chefs, Mardi Gras floatmakers, street performers and vampire guides. The girls’ strong and varied voices celebrate New Orleans as a destination for t(w)eens, teens, and families of all ages. So, curl up with these stories and a steaming cup of café au lait. Before you know it, you’ll be making reservations for the entire family.”
Nov
18
AOL hiring travel bloggers
November 18, 2009 | Leave a Comment
Here’s a link to Examiner.com author Erin Van Rheenen’s article (follow the link for the entire article, posted October 27) with a tip on how to get paid to blog:
“AOL Travel is hiring Travel Bloggers in around 25 different cities and areas, including Las Vegas, New York, Rome, Amsterdam, and San Francisco. You need to live in the destination you’ll be writing about, have writing experience and insider knowledge of your beat, and be able to churn out a few posts a day (150 – 300 words each). Pay starts at $15/post.”
Nov
18
Free e-books for your Kindle
November 18, 2009 | 1 Comment
Erin Van Rheenen shares info on how to get free e-books for your Kindle on her blog, Living Abroad in Costa Rica. File conversion takes a few steps, but it looks do-able. Erin also writes, “Even as I take advantage of these free digital books, I know that Google’s drive to get all the world’s books online is problematic for authors and publishers. For more about the class action lawsuit against Google books, go to the Practical Nomad, then scroll down to ‘Articles by Edward Hasbrouck on other topics’” to read a ddownloadable PDF.
Nov
16
NY Shouts & Murmurs — Subject: Our Marketing Plan
November 16, 2009 | Leave a Comment
Thanks to April Orcutt for sending along the link to this probably-too-true-to-be-funny essay from the New Yorker‘s Shouts & Murmurs
by Ellis Weiner
Nov
16
The Photographer’s Guide to San Francisco
November 16, 2009 | Leave a Comment
| November 24, 2009 | ||
| 6:00 pm |
Lee Foster will appear at Book Passage’s San Francisco store in the Ferry Building on Tuesday, November 24 at 6 p.m. Lee will talk about his new book, The Photographer’s Guide to San Francisco: Where to Find Perfect Shots and How To Take Them. I’ve seen the book (it’s beautiful), and I’ve watched Lee take travel photos; you’ll learn a lot from him.
Nov
16
From Doug McConnell at OpenRoadTV
November 16, 2009 | 1 Comment
From Doug McConnell at OpenRoadTV:
Greetings everybody,
I’m happy to report that our new Public Television series is having a terrific first season. It began airing on KQED and KTEH in the Bay Area this April. Our principal time slot is Monday evening at 7:30. Our ratings have been excellent so far. As our presenting station within American Public Television, KQED has done a wonderful job leading our effort to distribute OpenRoad nationally. We are already being broadcast in about two-thirds of the nation and almost all of the top 25 markets and continuing to gain ground, and we’re receiving mostly excellent time slots from coast-to-coast.
Nov
16
Contest for Wannabe Travel Writers Includes Assignment in Japan
November 16, 2009 | Leave a Comment
| December 21, 2009 | ||
| 12:00 am |
Littleton, CO, November 9, 2009 – Write your way around Tokyo, all-expenses paid, and get published to boot. The travel writing scholarship 2010 from WorldNomads.com offers chance to explore and cover Tokyo for Rough Guides.
WorldNomads.com in conjunction with Rough Guides, Intrepid Travel and Hotels.com announces a contest for aspiring travel writers ages 18 and up. Candidates can be students, emerging and non-professional writers and lovers of travel looking for a career change. The prize is the chance to travel for a week, all-expenses paid, to Tokyo and learn tricks of the trade from Rough Guides travel writer, Simon Richmond.
Nov
16
Self-Publishing Boot Camp
November 16, 2009 | Leave a Comment
| January 30, 2010 | ||
| 9:00 am | to | 4:00 pm |
Lisa Alpine and Carla King are offering their next Self-Publishing Boot Camp on January 30, 2010. They’re both experienced writers, editors, and self-publishers; you’re sure to come away with lots of useful information. Call 415-887-8820 or email info@selfpubbootcamp.com for more info or to sign up.
“Whether you’re a new author or a published author, you have got to be thinking, “There has to be a better way!” Yes there is. We’ll show you how in 10 easy-to-follow steps.” And here they are:
Nov
16
Writing Class in Abruzzo, Italy
November 16, 2009 | 2 Comments
| June 13, 2010 | to | June 19, 2010 |
Kathryn Abajian will be teaching travel writing in Italy from June 13 to 19, 2010. The week-long writing workshop takes place in the medieval fortified hill town of Santo Stefano di Sessanio, a World Cultural Heritage site located high in the Gran Sasso National Park in the Abruzzo region of Italy. Daily writing instruction and workshops are for both beginning and seadsoned writers; emphasis wil be on memoir, travel, and food writing. Yum! For more information, visit www.ItalyinOtherWords.com.
Nov
16
Wyndham Worldwide Opportunity
November 16, 2009 | Leave a Comment
| January 4, 2010 | ||
| 12:00 am |
PARSIPPANY, NJ — (Marketwire) — 11/16/09 — Women on Their Way by Wyndham Worldwide (NYSE: WYN), the hospitality industry’s longest-running branded program dedicated entirely to female travelers, is kicking off The Local Nation travel writing contest to find ten adventurous individuals who feel that they could represent their fellow travelers on the newly formed Sounding Board and to shape the future of WomenOnTheirWay.com.
Starting on November 11, 2009, the Local Nation contest by Wyndham Worldwide invites participants to enter their essays of 350 words or less, plus a photo or video on why they should be selected. All entries will be posted on www.WomenOnTheirWay.com with a voting process starting on January 4, 2010. Entrants may share their entry with their social networks in hopes of securing “thumbs up” votes. The top ten entries, as decided by a combination of WOTW Judges’ scores and the results of online voting, will then be named to the Sounding Board. All winners will be announced by February 15, 2010 and posted on the Women on Their Way website.
“The Sounding Board is a win-win both for Women on Their Way and Wyndham Worldwide,” states Alyson Johnson, director of marketing communications and writer of the WOTW blog, Adventures with Alyson. “The Local Nation will feature blog entries, pictures and fun videos of the contest winners and their vacations at various hotels, rentals and/or timeshare properties within the Wyndham Worldwide family of brands, while the contest winners will provide Wyndham Worldwide feedback on programs and properties. That ‘local knowledge’ will also help to shape the future of the Women on Their Way website, www.WomenOnTheirWay.com.”
Nov
15
Packing Light
November 15, 2009 | 1 Comment
I love how-to-pack-light lists, even though they usually disappoint. Here’s one from “Ridiculously Extraordinary,” a website by globe-trotting, couch-surfing, internet-entrepreneur Karol Gadja. Never mind that his idea of acceptable tops is two black T-shirts and one orange one; this guy is doing some extended traveling, and fits everything into one backpack. And the 78 responses to his packing list contain some useful packing info for women.
Nov
15
New FTC Guidelines
November 15, 2009 | Leave a Comment
I’ve been hearing a lot about the new FTC guidelines, and what they may—or may not—mean to travel writers and bloggers. The biggest issues seem to be about disclosure of comp’d trips and affiliate marketing. Ed Hasbrouck’s article on The Practical Nomad spells out some of the issues and provides links to resources for more information.
The short story: transparent disclosure of freebies or affiliate relationships is appropriate. Consider adding a Disclosures page to your website. If all or part of your trip was comp’d, say so in a note at the end of any article you publish.
Nov
15
Lowell Thomas Awards
November 15, 2009 | Leave a Comment
Congratulations to the Bay Area writers and photographers who won Lowell Thomas awards this year:
- Bill Fink won a gold award in the Newspaper Article on Foreign Travel category for his article, “Magic Realism, Realized,” in the San Francisco Chronicle.
- Fred Gebhart won a gold award in the Environmental Tourism Article category for his article, “The Industry Takes Action” in Travel Professional magazine.
- Don George won a bronze award in the Personal Comment category for his article, “California Dreaming,” in VIA.
- Rolf Potts won a bronze award in the travel book cvategory for “Marco Polo Didn’t Go There,” published by Travelers’ Tales.
Nov
15
Birth of a Movement: Let’s Get Global
November 15, 2009 | Leave a Comment
Rita Golden Gelman’s Birth of a Movement blog chronicles the development of “Let’s Get Global,” a movement “whose mission is to encourage and assist youth in the United States to have international experiences, particularly during the year between high school and the next phase of their lives.” If you can help with writing, organizing, brainstorming, or fundraising, Let’s Get Global is looking for volunteers.
Nov
14
The Illiterate Minority
November 14, 2009 | Leave a Comment
Thanks to John Montgomery for sending along these photos from the Washington, D.C .Tea Party; they were circulating on the web in October, 2009, with this preface: The ancient Greeks said, “The Gods themselves are helpless in the face of stupidity.”
Nov
14
Oops—Wrong Bookstore
November 14, 2009 | Leave a Comment
Thanks to John Montgomery for sending along a little silliness:
“If you can’t find the book you’re looking for,
it’s probably because you’re in the …
Sep
1
Win a 12-day culture and spa tour of Vietnam
September 1, 2009 | 1 Comment
| November 30, 2009 | ||
| 12:00 am |
The website Wanderlust and Lipstick – “Your destination for women’s travel” announced a travel writing contest with a Grand Prize of a 12-day Health and Harmony land tour of Vietnam—valued at $1995—with Buffalo Tours. There will also be five Best in Category prizes of Bayliss bags from Overland Equipment and CoolMax Blankets and Travel Pillows from Cocoon. The contest is open to women only. Deadline for submitting your entries is November 30, 2009. Categories are:
- Adventure
- Family Fun
- Food & Drink
- Off the Beaten Path
- Spiritual
Complete contest details here.