nerd’s eye view

Administrivia: Personal News and FAQs

June 15, 2008 – 8:30 am | by nerd's eye view

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You might find this boring, it’s a bunch of personal nonsense and news. If you want to skip it, I don’t mind one bit, but hey, maybe you’d like to take a short visual trip to Hawaii, instead. I looked at these again the other day and wow, if you can be homesick for a place you don’t live, I think I might be.

Things are a little slow around the Nerd’s Eye View HQ lately, there’s a real dearth of the exotic adventure that gets us out of bed in the morning. There’s a good reason for that - I’m busy working to refill the exploration chests (I’d rather not call them war chests) and because I’m booked out full time on tech work, well, we don’t get out much. That’s fine - travel costs money and the day job provides that, but focusing on my day job leaves spacious gaps in the blog,

We’ve also been under the gray cloud of The Spring that Refused to Arrive, making us starved for sunshine and temperatures above 5o degrees, I kid you not. Last week, our local paper ran a headline that said “Colder than Siberia” and it was not a joke, the graphic was a map with Siberia called out at a balmy 74 while we sat stubbornly in the low 50s. One night last week, I woke up thinking I’d boomeranged in to February, so cold was our house. The sun is out, finally, twice this week I’ve eaten dinner outside, and thank god for that.

Now that I’ve set the stage (worky, lousy weather, no summer adventures yet) I’m going to move on to the FAQs. People are asking me stuff, the same stuff, so here we go:

Q:What’s your next travel writing project?
A:I don’t have anything on deck right now. I have three things in the hopper for publication, none of them have come out yet. You can be sure I’ll let you know when they’re live. I’m in the exploratory phases of a book project, but mostly this involves a lot of questions about logistics and expenses. I don’t have any assignments right now; I really need to pitch some stories, but I believe I’ve mentioned the day job already.

Q: Where are you going next?
A: Our trip to SE Asia was so supremely satisfying, like the Thanksgiving dinner of travel, that I’m feeling oddly sated. I do want to make a big loop through the National Parks in the American southwest, but that wouldn’t happen until after summer is over. Yes, I know, the price of gas. But what’s the alternative? Staying home? I don’t THINK so. We’ll be camping, so it won’t be an expensive trip.

Q: Are you going to BlogHer?
A: No. There, I’ve said it. The organizers were hoping I’d host the travelblogger’s meet-up, and indeed, I was looking forward to meeting my fellow travelers in person - that was my favorite part of BlogHer last year. I’m keenly aware of the things I’ll be missing - networking opportunities, fabulous swag, new friends… you don’t have to tell me. I decided that if I was going to invest in attending a conference, I really needed to focus on travel, not the broader aspect of blogging. It was a tough call and I am sorry that I don’t have the kind of money that allows me to do it all.

Q: What are you doing instead?
A: This is cool. I’ve been talking to the Adventure Travel Show folks (they partner with National Geographic) about travel blogging and how they can promote it. They’re interested; talks continue - they’re also communicating with my fellow Seattle travel blogger gals… something cool may come of it, stand by. And I’ve registered to attend a writer’s conference in the fall where I’ll have the chance to talk to editors from some of the swanker travel publications. There will be sessions devoted to travel writing and travel writer’s issues. I’m excited about it and I feel like it’s a great opportunity to learn a bunch of stuff I don’t know about the writer’s market.

Q: Is your book out, already?
A: September. It’s very pretty, I’ve seen the proofs.