When you’re a travel writer, the “cake” is a mixture of a good story idea and a publication willing to publish it. The icing is all the free stuff that comes with exploring this idea and getting your words on paper. When I first started travel writing, story ideas were a challenge. But then I […]
Press trips are the icing on the cake for freelance writers. A well-designed, informative, well-organized and, most of all, fun press trip provides writers with the tools to let our stories flow freely and naturally — after all, we writers love to tell stories, don’t we? So, when I was asked on a free, five-day […]
When you start travel writing, you want to stand out. You want editors to work with you — to pick your pitch, assign you stories, give you helpful feedback, creatively collaborate and brainstorm. Ultimately, it’s a team effort, and editors are looking for star players. Tryouts are the hardest part, because getting on the team […]
A couple of weeks ago, I was out for dinner with my sweetie, and he asked me to name something that inspired or helped me to be who I am today (yes, he’s one of those “thousand questions” kind of guys). In the time it took me to swallow my mouthful of chicken piccata, I […]
Gap year, sabbatical, vacation, press trip, exploration — the label doesn’t matter. Every travel adventure promises personal change. It’s virtually impossible to travel to a new place – where you’ll be surrounded by new people and a new culture — and be completely unaffected. Everyday life revolves around familiar locations and people: It’s comfortable. Your […]
Sometimes it’s the little things that make the biggest difference. This has certainly been true in my travel-writing career. Over several years, I made hundreds of little baby steps as I put one foot in front of the other to follow the path to my dream to become a travel writer. There was the baby […]
One of my very first published pieces was the result of a river trip I had taken on my own, just for fun. This vacation on a boat was down the Colorado River through Cataract Canyon, one of my favorite stretches to float, and consisted of two days of flat water (aka: a booze cruise), […]
When I attended Great Escape’s Ultimate Travel Writing Workshop in San Diego in 2014, I knew it was time to make a change in my life. I’ve been a registered nurse for 32 years and I’ve loved it. It’s been an awesome and rewarding career but I can’t do it forever. It’s time to take […]
Listen, I get it. No one likes to be criticized. It makes us uncomfortable. No one wants to hear there’s a better way to do something – especially when we’ve spent hours on a project and think that we’ve “nailed it.” Whether you’re writing an article or a taking a photograph, someone else offering a […]
Most of my readers don’t know this about me… I was a lobbyist before I became a full-time travel writer. And yes, it’s true, politics is like watching sausage being made… you really don’t want to see what’s on the inside. Even after years of success, I knew I had to come up with an […]
