Op/Ed

Op/Ed, me, me, me

Guest Post: Why Writing Conferences Work For Me

As I unpack and repack in preparation for Book Passage, a travel writing conference in California, I’m delighted to have a guest post from Eva Holland on why such events are worth the money and the bother. In 2007, I bet it all on Book Passage. I was an aspiring travel writer fresh off a …


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Rant: On Bloggy Entitlement and Such

 More webby criticism. I’ve had quite a bit of thinky free time. Not interested in my opinionated bloviating on blogging? How’s about an odd little museum in Auburn, Washington, instead?

I’ve read a significant number of posts by bloggers saying, essentially, here’s a bunch of stuff I need if you’re going to invite me on your trip. Or, alternatively, here are a bunch of tactics you, blogger, can follow to get a free trip. And often, that stuff irritates the daylights out of me. No, truthfully, every time that stuff irritates the daylights out of me. Rarely, do I see anything saying “Do good, honest work. Strive to write well and love your readers. Everything else will follow.”

Honestly, when I get an invitation to travel somewhere I think:

ARE YOU SURE?! YOU WANT TO SPEND MONEY FOR ME TO DO WHAT, NOW? BECAUSE YOU WANT ME TO WRITE ABOUT IT ON MY BLOG? WHAT? ARE YOU SURE?

Yes, I do I think these thoughts in all caps.


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The Vanity Seven

Stupid memes. (That link tells you what the hell a meme is, if you’ve been lucky enough to avoid learning.)

Does anyone else hate them as much as I do? Then, wouldn’t you know it,  some person you like and respect is all, “Hey, I totally tagged you for the meme!” When that happens to me,  I go off in a corner and mutter about how I’m going to have to unfriend the oh so likeable Dan and Audrey, or that good natured Peter, and that is going to suck for me,  mostly, because they have plenty of fine friends who are much less surly.

The annoyance meme I’m crabby about today asks that I dig through my archives and find posts that fit each of seven categories. It also requires that I be somewhat vain and show-offy. Um. Okay then.

Memes.  Bah,  humbug. Here’s your seven posts, damn you.


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I Love Postcards

No, dammit, the postcard is not dead. I still send them, I still love recieving them. And while, yes, you can’t beat those ruffled edged Kodakchrome color landscapes you can still buy from postcard racks and at garage sales, access to the wonders of digital means that you can create your own postcards with your …


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Stubbornly Clinging to the Organic Web

This is about blogging. It’s meta-crap. If you’re not interested in meta-crap about blogging  (and really, who can blame you!) you might enjoy this tiny story about a moment on the beach on Moloka’i instead.

About three weeks back, I pulled out of a Triberr group. Triberr, if I understand it correctly, allows you to build a “tribe” of like-minded folks. Once you’ve built your tribe, it automates the promotion of the work by anyone in your tribe.

I’d joined a group of top quality writers. Every time one of those writers published a new blog post, Triberr automatically published a link to those posts on Twitter. A few times a week, I’d see something attributed to me, on Twitter — an automatic posting under my name. I hadn’t read the post that was being promoted. It took me about four days to figure out what was going on. And then, I pulled out.


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Why I’m Not a Full Time Travel Writer

I write for a living; I am a writer by occupation. Not a travel writer, specifically, I’m “just” a writer. I sit at a keyboard, put words in a certain order to describe things, and then, I get paid. On technical projects, where I make most of my money, I’m paid by the hour. Rather …


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