Jul

19

Keys to the Outback

July 19, 2004 | Comments Off


This story about the time I inadvertently locked the keys in the car in the middle of the Australian Outback was published as in the Travelers’ Tales anthology The Thong Also Rises. You can read it at Travelers’ Tales or below. (1700 words)

“I can’t believe you left them there,” Jim muttered as I squeezed the handle and pulled hard for a third time.

“What do you mean, you can’t believe it? You can see them as well as I can. You’re not going blind, are you?” The keys were clearly visible in the ignition. People were beginning to stare.

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Jul

18

At a Crossroads

July 18, 2004 | Comments Off


This story is included in the award-winning Lonely Planet anthology, The Kindness of Strangers, edited by Don George and with a preface by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. The book includes original stories by Jan Morris, Tim Cahill, Simon Winchester, Pico Iyer, and Dave Eggers, and won both a Lowell Thomas award and an Independent Publishers award. You can read the story here or at Lonely Planet. (2250 words).

I didn’t know whether I was being kidnapped or rescued — that was what made my one big decision so difficult. That and the fact that I was young and foolish, and more than a little anxious about being stranded in the North African desert.

It all began quite innocently. Our bus had deposited Alan, my affable traveling companion, and myself at the door of a small, clean hotel in a dusty Tunisian village …

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Jul

14

Banana Tower

July 14, 2004 | Comments Off


This story won an honorable mention in the 2006 Solas Best Travel Writing competition, and was published in Travelers’ Tales’ 30 Days in Italy.

Paris has la Tour Eiffel
Babylon had its tower as well
But neither has the power to SEIZE YA
Like the Leaning Tower of Pisa

This was my father’s rhyme. When I was young, he bounced me on his knee, reciting the words in a hushed and tuneless monotone. Every time he got to SEIZE YA, he grabbed my shoulders and squeezed, and I shrieked in a confusion of fear and delight.

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