nerd’s eye view

On BlogHer: Next Year in Kaliningrad Oblast

For about two years, I’ve blogged about travel for BlogHer, the women’s blogging network. I started as a volunteer writing about Europe while I was in Austria - I was bored and lonely, it seemed like a good use of my time. I tendered my resignation once, shortly after I’d returned to the US, but the landscape had shifted at BlogHer and the travel slot was open - I was excited to take it. Not long after I switched to writing about travel, BlogHer started paying their writers - a generous per post amount by the standards I’ve seen. While I’ve had random bouts of fatigue, in general, I’ve really enjoyed the gig. Not that long ago I dropped a line to the BlogHer founders thanking them for keeping me on, that’s how much I liked it. Writing about travel for BlogHer has been natural work, easy for me, and given my erratic work history, I’ve really appreciated the small but steady income stream. It’s been a great little gig. (more…)

Posted in Op/Ed, Werk | 9 Comments »

Full Disclosure: Travel Writer’s Income

So, yeah, you wanna be a travel writer and jet about the planet staying in swank hotels and swanning about the beaches and taking in the exotic markets of, oh, wherever. Whatever. Who doesn’t? And this: me too, duh.

I thought you should know something: I sold a handful of stories in ‘07 and worked on two guidebooks - one an update, one a new title. And yeah, I did my fair share of swanning and it was great, oh, who am I kidding, it was AWESOME. The writing (and even some of the photography) was surprisingly tedious work, but the traveling? That time in Hawaii? Ahhh. And the less rigorous stories I got to write? Oh so fun. I also made some money on my regular blogging gig.

Also, I’ve been doing my taxes and this year, so far (I’m not quite done entering my expenses yet) I appear to have cleared 554 dollars in profits. That’s right, enthusiastic jetsetting handy with language boys and girls, 554 dollars. That’s not even enough to pay for my next trip!

You know how “they” always tell you not to quit your day job? Well, I’m now “them.” Just starting out? Don’t quit your day job, okay?

(Since I’m being honest, I totally think you should quit your day job. It’s just that I also think you should have another line of income in addition to travel writing.)

travel writing

Posted in Passport Travels, Werk | 7 Comments »

Administrivia: Hoi An, Jet Lag, Seattle, DIY

• I’ve loaded up way too many photos of Hoi An. What can I say, it was photogenic there. I wrote a little about Hoi An here and here.
• Jetlag, and boy howdy. Yesterday, instead of taking a nap, we went out for treats with our excellent ex-neighbor at the Columbia City Bakery. A walk in the sun and coffee helped a lot; last night I was able to sleep most of the night. FYI, I’m sorry, Columbia City Bakery, you are good, but no Bakery Nouveau.
• Are you going to the Seattle Metblogs meetup at Bimbo’s? I’m thinking I might. It’s been ages since I’ve had a good burrito.
• I’m working on a project about stay at home stuff to do - both social and solo - for you, fabulous hipster chick. (Has the word ‘hipster’ been replaced with anything new yet?) I could use a little brainstorming material. I now know about Apartment Therapy and I knew the soup swap loving Not Martha would come in handy one day, but do you have other suggested links for me to peruse?

Posted in Administrivia, Seattle, Werk | 1 Comment »

Blogland: Roar Awards

It’s always nice to get a little recognition with your coffee. Blogger Marilyn has passed on to me a “A Roar for Powerful Words” award saying that I’m her favorite travel writer. Flattery will get you everywhere, even enticing this meme-reluctant blogger to participate in the same. The “Roar” comes with the usual “pass it on” guidelines, but also, with a request to write three writing tips. I can do that.

Three tips for writers?

1. Writing is like exercise, the more you do it, the easier it gets. If you write regularly, you will not have as hard a time sitting down to write when you have to for some client or deadline or whatever.
2. Writer’s block is a self-fulfilling prophecy. What if, instead of freaking out, you just went to the movies or did some cooking or walked around your neighborhood instead? Give your brain the day off from time to time and it will be more relaxed when you’re back at the keyboard.
3. Shut up and listen. This is really hard for me because obviously, I can’t shut up. But stories live out in the world and in order to hear them, you have to shut up already. I am getting better at this - and at the art of the well placed, open ended question - but it’s still a challenge. If you listen, you will have a better chance of retelling stories the way they were told.

Now, the pass it on part - here are three travel related blogs.

• WriteAway! is a well written blog about writing, reading, travel, and other stuff.
• On the Road follows all my cardinal rules of blogging - easy on the eyes, interesting stories, and good stuff for travelers.
• Write to Travel might be the most useful blog ever for aspiring travel writers. I read it almost every day.

While we’re in travelblog land, there’s a new travelblog carnival up at Travel Rants. It includes a crazy post about the mundane yet critical subject of crossing the street. The video is more than a little alarming.

Yesterday, we breakfasted with friends who’d been to Vietnam - they gave us specific instructions about how to cross the street there. Be bold, make eye contact, use a stern expression, and go for it. I’m terrified. At least I won’t get lost because I’ll only be able to walk around the block!

ROAR, writing, travel writing, travelblogs

Posted in Administrivia, Passport Travels, Werk | 5 Comments »

The Grind

The mill: I have a confession to make. We bought a treadmill. Stick with me while I rationalize for a bit, then go ahead with your well intentioned derision.

See, the weather in the Pacific Northwest between November and oh, July, is vile. Not only is it cold and wet, but it’s damned dark. Usually at this time of year, I join a gym or sign up for yoga classes, but there’s nothing within walking distance of my house and I hate to get in the car to go exercise, it just goes counter to everything I believe in.

We didn’t buy a new treadmill, heaven forbid, no, we bought it off of Craig’s List from someone who probably bought it off of Craig’s List in the dark part of last winter. Every day or two I do a 2.5 mile workout, while watching Samantha Brown or Anthony Bourdain (love him or hate him? I can’t decide!) or listening to back episodes of This American Life on my iPod.

I know it’s dumb, I know I should go outside, I know, I know, I know. And I will. When it stops with the vile damp cold I will go back to walking to the park. And last week, when the sun was out, we did just that and then some. But for now, I churn away on the treadmill in my basement while Anthony Bourdain eats stuff I wouldn’t want to be in the same room with.

The treadmill cost less than a gym membership to some place I’d never go and because it’s right here in my house, I have to have a pretty lame excuse to not do my workout. I am not getting thinner and I’m often sore, but I’m not getting any fatter, either, which in December and January is really an accomplishment to be proud of.

The hack: I cranked out two more Hawaii articles this week after I carved the 6000 excess words out of my manuscript. It nearly killed me, and no, I knew better than to delete that stuff, I put it in a cut file so I can either recover it if I need filler or repackage it for other uses. I’m always reading about how repackaging and repurposing your writing is the way to financial salvation, and because we’re looking to clear barely minimum wage on the book, it’s nice to get a few extra bucks for the banging on the keyboard.

I don’t have any more travel stories on deck and that makes me a little sad - I’m going to have to do a little leg work to turn up more places to publish my head full o’ Hawaii. I walked away from opportunity to launch a Hawaii blog because the pay was way too low, but not before I turned the idea around 17 different ways in my head to try to make sense of it. It hurt me to say no, but I just couldn’t undervalue my writing like that. It was nice to have those two other stories lined up to validate that decision.

The grind: I lurked around the house for about a week whining about how I needed some real paying work and soon, dammit. That technique wasn’t turning much up, I can’t recommend it, so I tried something else and got in touch with my clients to let them know I was back on the block.

I’m happy to report that I’ve turned up just the right size gig to fill the space between now and our next adventure. I’m unraveling the issues first, next week I’ll turn back to writing technical copy. It’s a bit dry compared to the luscious vocabulary used to describe the tropics, but I confess, I like technical writing because it’s concrete. The thing either has a button there or it doesn’t, there’s no need for florid, subjective poetry about where the button is.

I’m back at the mill, a hack with her nose to the grindstone. If you have any interest at all in knowing how I feel about it, well, I feel totally okay with all of it. I’m getting some exercise, I handed off my book and two related stories, and I have paying tech work. It’s all good.

Happy birthday to me.

Posted in Administrivia, Werk | 9 Comments »

Next, Please?

When I was still walking circles around the idea of writing for a living, my friend M introduced me to his pal B, a Real Travel Writer. B had written a book and had bunches of stories published in magazines. In addition to the classic “You wanna write a book? Well, write the damn book already!” story, B told me something else that I find myself thinking of as I lug myself to the keyboard every morning. I can’t remember where he was flying back from - some plush assignment. The magazine had assigned a photographer to the gig as well. “We’re sitting on the plane and the photographer is totally relaxed. Why? His work was pretty much done. But mine was still ahead of me - I had writing to do.”

I get up early, always have. It’s newsworthy event if I sleep past 8am - my most productive hours are between 6 and 11 in the morning. Combined with the fact that we’d been shifted to Hawaii time, three hours earlier than Seattle, it was no problem for me to sort through the hundreds of photos we took - I estimate upwards of 500 - in about three days. With that done, there was nothing left to do but sit down and write.

To the aggravation of many, I have no trouble writing. So I’m not currently worried that I won’t get my manuscript done in time. I’m gnashing my teeth a little over the intense details, but that’s just normal work stuff. The problem is that while I’m chained to the keyboard, I miss being underway, even in that rushed way. I miss the “on assignment” part of the work. I miss shooting dozens of photos before noon. I can’t take time to do anything but work until I’ve finished meeting my writing obligations, but the writing is also weirdly in the way of things I’d like to be doing. I have a peculiar kind of culture shock, one that’s caused by the shift of going from being a full time observer to a full time documenter of things observed.

I miss the Hawaiian sunshine, that’s for sure, but I miss using my eyes more. I miss those random conversations about how the Wal-Mart was built in spite of the sacred burial ground found during the first excavations, about how there almost no Hawaiian owned hotels, about how the Super Ferry is a problem because it’s all about making it possible for people to easily move Hawaii’s natural resources from one place to another - which is a really un-Hawaiian philosophy. I miss the excuse to have those conversations. It’s not just Hawaii, though, it’s that state of mind that you get into when you’re doing that sort of work. I won’t go all hokey and say it’s the “zone” - plus, it’s not the “zone”, it’s crazy tiring. But I miss the work all the same.

I have a slightly different point of view than B does on the end of travel. Yeah, I have piles of work to do. But that’s not what was bumming me out on the plane ride home. It’s that it’s over. I gotta finish this assignment not just because I have an obligation to do so, but because I need to turn my efforts to finding the next one.

Thank God I have those plane tickets to Saigon.

Posted in Aloha Oy, Werk | 1 Comment »