Gayle Keck

Bay Area cuisine and travel writer Gayle Keck is interviewed on Rolf Potts’ Vagabonding. How did she get started? Biggest challenges? Advice? Gayle also writes at Been There, Ate That.

This photo I took of a frog in Mendocino is a finalist in Smithsonian magazine’s 7th annual photo contest. Who’d have guessed? I’m so excited! There were 60,000 contest entries from all around the world, and mine is one of the top 10 finalists in the “Natural World” category.

It’s doing pretty darned well in the People’s Choice competition, too (it’s in the top 5 out of 50). You could do me a big favor by voting for it here. It’s photo #17, and you can vote once a day through the end of March.

First, I recently started a little blogito called Around the Blog — aroundthebloc.wordpress.com — about traveling, writing, books, and combos thereof. Please take a look!

I’ve also just released my first anthology, Best Women’s Travel Writing 2010, which features essays by 27 far-flung correspondents. It should be landing on bookshelves near you this month, and you can meet the contributors either on my blog or at one of our upcoming events.

Kelly Hayes-Raitt

Kelly Hayes-Raitt explains below why she enters writing competitions. Wow; I can’t wait to read her book:

In my preparation for a search for an agent, I started sending out chapters of my nearly complete book to various contests.  My book (tentatively titled Keeping the Faith:  An American Woman’s Listening Tour Among the World’s Forgotten) is about my work with Iraqi and Palestinian refugees — a series of stories that put a human face on US foreign policies — and about my healing from a mid-life loss.  I call it a political Eat, Pray, Love.

It was a ballsy move to enter chapters for competition.  This is my first book, and I hardly consider myself having award-winning chops.  Additionally, my work is highly political, making it even more subjective to judges’ whims.  But, last year my Chapter Three was awarded First Prize by the country’s oldest writing group, the Alabama Writers Conclave!  A month later, it was awarded Second Prize by the Southern Illinois Writers Guild, then placed Honorable Mention at the DePaul University Summer Writing Conference.  Chapter Three now considers itself a stuck-up breadwinner…

Not to be outdone, Chapter One just won Honorable Mention for International Essay in the SF-based Soul-Making Literary Competition.  This chapter will also appear (along with an excerpt from another chapter) in an anthology Random House is publishing this spring.  More on that extraordinary development later!

I continue submitting other chapters in competition.  I feel the process prepares me for rejection, shows potential agents and publishers that I’m not afraid to get my work “out there,” starts building an audience for my book, and, hey, every once in a while, a chapter wins something, allowing me to plump my book proposal and queries.  Besides, I never know who is reading these contest entries.  One judge recently asked if I would consider having my (losing) entry included in an anthology she is pitching to publishers.

Contest entries are time-consuming and entry fees add up, so I choose wisely, making sure I beat the deadlines and meet the entry specifications (word count, format).  I only enter contests I feel I can win and contests I feel I can afford to lose.  Like everything else in publishing, it’s a numbers game, so I just keep submitting!

Kelly Hayes-Raitt, is an (ahem) award-winning author who is tempted to start her own competition among agents to drum up interest in her book…except, of course, it doesn’t work in that direction.  She blogs at www.PeacePATHFoundation.org.

Anne Sigmon

Check out Jungle Pants, the beautiful new website just launched by Bay Area adventurer and travel writer Anne Sigmon.

BootsnAll is looking for for travel writers. Apply by March 15:

We’re excited to launch the BootsnAll Travel Writer platform — a partnership with passionate travel writers to create expert-driven content on your favorite destinations and topics.

BootsnAll Travel Writer Current Opportunities:

* Destinations: Amsterdam, Australia, France, Hawaii, Indonesia, Ireland, Las Vegas, London, Mexico, South Africa, or you tell us!
* Themes: Adventure Travel, Business Travel, Round the World Travel, TEFL, Travel Gear or you tell us!

How It Works:

* You get to focus on your passion — travel writing; BootsnAll covers the technical aspects.
* Weekly tasks: feature article writing, blog posts and social media interaction
* Time commitment: up to 10 hours/week
* Compensation: base pay of $100-500/month with profit sharing of 30-40%. The base pay is based on how much content is produced. Some destinations will require more content than others….that’s why the variance in base compensation.
* The “fine print”: Just like a guide book, your content will have a copyright and non-compete, but unlike traditional guide books, BootsnAll shares the profit (up to 40%) with each writer!
* If you love independent travel, fancy yourself to be an expert, and want to get paid to write about a destination you love, fill out the BootsnAll Travel Writer Platform application by Monday, March 15, 2010.

Get more information and apply now at http://writers.bootsnall.com/platform

Winners of the Fourth Annual Solas Awards for Best Travel Story of the Year were announced March 1, 2010 on BestTravelWriting.com by the editors of Travelers’ Tales. Grand Prize winner Tawni Vee Waters collected $1,000 for “The Ashes of San Miguel,” her haunting story about death and its effect on cultures and people. Kevin McCaughey won the silver award and $750 for “We Wait for Spring, Moldova and Me,” his quirky tale of life as a teacher in the post-Soviet state. Regina Briefs-Elgin took the bronze and $500 for “The Train at Night,” her poetic, charming, and sometimes chilling account of a cross-country journey on Amtrak. Read these stories on the Great Stories page.

More than 250 entries in 21 categories kept the judges busy. This year the work entered in the competition was excellent, but as usual not every story that deserved an award received one. Here’s the complete list of winners. Winning stories are posted on BestTravelWriting.com and many will appear in future Travelers’ Tales books. Here’s a list of stories deserving honorable mention.

Deadline for the Fifth Annual Solas Awards is September 21, 2010. The competition is year-round, however, so submit your stories any time.

The Solas Awards are an annual competition to find the best writing being done about the world today. The Travelers’ Tales editors choose winners in 21 categories ranging from adventure to humor, from destination to memoir, and everything in between. The grand prize category has cash awards of $1,000, $750, and $500; all other category winners receive a certificate and a copy of the most recent edition of The Best Travel Writing or The Best Women’s Travel Writing. Plus, winners may be published in Travelers’ Tales books. Check out BestTravelWriting.com for details of the awards and more.

Central Coast, CA: Travelers hungry for the greatest diversity of experiences now have an appetizing resource to feast upon with the new 2010 edition of the California Central Coast Visitors Guide.  Available online at www.CentralCoast-Tourism.com or free hard copy requests may be made via email to info@centralcoast-tourism.com. Please include your name and full mailing address.

Indexed by geographic area, the guide’s fuss-free functionality nourishes the traveler’s quest for exploring our favorite region of California. The Central Coast includes more than 300 miles of pristine coastline from Ventura County to Santa Cruz County and inland to enchanting southern San Benito and Santa Clara Counties.  Come experience the thrill of The Channel Islands, Monterey Bay Aquarium, National Steinbeck Center, Hearst Castle, scenic coast Highway 1, Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, and acres upon acres of award-winning wineries throughout the region.

In the March issue of Popular Photography magazine, the editor’s note, by Miriam Leuchter, is called “What Is a Photograph?”

You’d think that, after 73 years, a magazine called Popular Photography would have figured that out. (Ba-da-bump!)

Actually, though, the editorial is about the magazine’s annual Reader’s Photos Contest. This year, in two of the categories, the winners were what the magazine calls composites, and what I call Photoshop jobs.

One photo shows a motorcyclist being chased by a tornado; another shows a flock of seagulls wheeling around a lighthouse in amazingly photogenic formation. Neither scene ever actually existed as photographed.

Now, in my experience, photographers can be a vocal lot. And a lot of them weren’t crazy about the idea of Photoshop jobs winning the contest.

I have to admit that when I saw the winners revealed in a previous issue, I was a bit taken aback, too. I mean, composition and timing are two key elements of a photographer’s skill, right? If you don’t have to worry about composition and timing, because you can always combine several photos or move things around later in Photoshop, then, well — what is a photograph?

Read the rest of David Pogue’s New York Times article here.

Saturday, February 20, 2010 ~ Berkeley, California

A one-day workshop with Constance Hale, 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.

Are you a writer, editor, or copyeditor interested in being a freelance editor for magazines and nonfiction books? This workshop covers the role of freelance editors in the publishing world. Topics include understanding the mission of the magazine or the program of the publisher; evaluating queries and proposals; tailoring narratives to specific audiences; developing strong story structure; editing for clarity, brevity, and vigor; and working effectively with authors. The class ends with a discussion of how to find freelance work and develop a robust editing business.

Just added: participants may bring a short piece or a query to class for critique.