Seeking Employment As Jabba The Hut August 18, 2008

  You know that yucky sluggish feeling, often on Monday mornings, when you’ve spent a couple of days eating too much, not getting any exercise, and you feel like Jabba the Hut?  It’s common in most humans around the holidays or after Super Bowl weekend.
   It’s also a common condition for travel writers any time the year.  [...]

Promises, Promises August 10, 2008

    My husband and I have the honor of being parents to an only child, a fabulously charming young man to whom we’ve attempted to show the world as he has grown up.
  We also have the honor of being aunt and uncle to three equally charming nephews who are among our favorite creatures to [...]

Yabba-Dabba-Doo Time August 4, 2008

  My friend Amy spent this weekend shopping for a new motorcycle.  I haven’t yet heard the results of her individual effort to boost the U.S. economy, but she signed off cyberspace on Friday afternoon like Fred Flintstone sliding down a dinosaur tail when the 5 o’clock whistle blows at the Slate Rock and Gravel [...]

Rollin’ Rollin’ Rollin’ July 28, 2008

    It was one of those days that makes you want to apply for a job making burgers at McDonald’s.  I arrived at Kansas City International Airport about 90 minutes before my flight to Washington, DC, boarded in a timely manner, sat on the tarmac for about 90 minutes, only to learn that the flight [...]

Once Upon A Time… July 22, 2008

    Each writer has his or her own bugaboos about the work we do. For some, it’s overcoming the passive voice for a more aggressive, desirable expression.  Others may struggle with the appropriate metaphor, dramatic placement of quotes, whatever.
   My issue is the lead, or in some journalistic circles, the lede.  That’s the beginning of [...]

Making Hollywood Pay July 14, 2008

    Watching the promos for most of the movies coming out this summer leads me to one very depressing conclusion: I am no longer the demographic age for which Hollywood is making its movies.
    Of course, even when I was the target of movie marketing executives, I didn’t pay to see that many movies in the theaters. [...]

Finding My Ticket to Write July 6, 2008

   I first started thinking about doing a blog about my travels and writing last October at a conference of the Society of American Travel Writers in Manchester, England.  Shel Holtz, a communication and technology consultant who wrote the book “Blogging For Business,” led one of the professional development sessions.
   Now it’s fair to say, [...]

Travel Companions That Don’t Shed June 25, 2008

     “When I was very young and the urge to be someplace else was on me, I was assured by mature people that maturity would cure this itch…. I fear this disease is incurable.”
   That is the opening line of John Steinbeck’s novel “Travels with Charley” and in short, it sums in brief prose my [...]

Toot, Toot June 15, 2008

   My Grandma Eastman lived in little Anna, Illinois, one of those places where still today many people don’t bother to lock their doors.  And certainly 40 years ago, there were fewer reasons to worry about whether that dead bolt and chain were in their places.
   So when we would come to visit, we often [...]

You Can Go Home Again June 9, 2008

    The most exciting part of my work, some might call it glamorous, is exploring and writing about far away places, exotic cultures and experiences that some might call adventures.  But a real pleasure for me is finding a great story and exciting destination in my own back yard.
   That was the case in January [...]