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Favorite Quotes


  • Non-travelers often warn the traveler of dangers, and the traveler dismisses such fears, but the presumption of hospitality is just as odd as the presumption of danger. You have to find out for yourself. Take the leap. Go as far as you can. Try staying out of touch. Become a stranger in a strange land. Acquire humility. Learn the language. Listen to what people are saying. It was as a solitary traveler that I began to discover who I was and what I stood for. --Paul Theroux, Fresh Air Fiend (2000)

  • There are two primary choices in life: to accept conditions as they exist, or accept the responsibility for changing them. --Denis Waitley

  • A child on a farm sees a plane fly by overhead and dreams of a faraway place A traveler on the plane sees the farmhouse and dreams of home. --Carl Burns

  • I write for the same reason I breathe -- because if I didn't, I would die. -- Isaac Asimov

  • What you've done becomes the judge of what you're going to do - especially in other people's minds. When you're traveling, you are what you are right there and then. People don't have your past to hold against you. No yesterdays on the road. --William Least Heat Moon, Blue Highways

  • God's gifts put man's best dreams to shame. --Elizabeth Barrett Browning

  • I quote others in order to better express my own self. --Montaigne

  • Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow-mindedness. --Mark Twain

  • The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in, shockproof shit detector. This is the writer's radar and all great writers have had it. --Ernest Hemingway

  • It's the writing that teaches you. --Isaac Asminov
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Transitions Abroad New Travel Writing Portal

Thanks to World Hum I was turned on to Transitions Abroad new travel writing portal.  This is a resource page that includes a moderated forum, interviews with travel writers, great travel blogs, travel writing leads, travel writing organizations and writers guidelines for several publications that accept travel writing.  Check it out!

Saturday, July 23, 2005 in About Writing, On Becoming a Writer | | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Travel Writing Books & Travel Memoirs/Essays

Okay!  I am not as stressed as I was earlier today.  I pounded out a few things this afternoon (my company's revised fact sheet, and a e-mail letter responding to a negative article that ran about my company and the core of our business in a certain "seniors" publication recently) that made me feel a little more productive and now I feel better.  Plus, I know tomorrow will be an even better day!   (It's a half day at work for me,  and I will be making my way up North to see my honey.  So of course, it will be a better day!)

I was thinking about an e-mail that I received yesterday.  Jill from Travels and Tribulations e-mailed me to tell me that she loved (and related to) the quote by William Least Heat Moon that I have posted on my sidebar and that she loved my writing resources that I listed.  (Jill, I know I thanked you already, but hearing from you was awesome!  Thanks!) 

I was pumped to hear this from her because one of my main goals with my blog was to make this online space a useful and friendly place.  A place for aspiring or amateur writers, and especially wannabe travel writers, to come and find useful resources and to share stories and experiences rants and other feelings about their/our journeys (to publication).  I know that I am not the only one on this adventure who feels the ups and downs of the rollercoaster ride and the craziness of the "inner critic." 

So, please enjoy and use these resources.  Share with me any resources that you have that I don't have listed here.  Also share with me your stories about your writing life/journey.  I want to hear about them.  I like to hear that I am not the only one who struggles or feels the triumphs. And share with me your tips to success, and I promise to get better (more frequent) with sharing mine.  Lastly, please forward my site to other writer friends (enemies, non-writer friends, whomever, etc.)  If Jill thinks my resources are useful, maybe others will too?!?!?

With all that said, if you have not already checked it out, I want to call your attention to my new "Recommended Reading" listing on my sidebar.  Jill asked me whether "Blue Highways" (listed in the favorite quotes portion of my blog) is a book?  It is.  And I got to thinking that I need to share with you all the books that I have read or are planning to read regarding (how-to) writing, travel writing and/or travel memoir/essay/travelogues...whatever you want to call them.  I have read many, and some that have been very helpful for me.  (I may add other books to this list, however, I am going to try and limit them to travel related.  And, I  will most likely start a "What I am Reading Currently" portion of my sidebar...so watch for that).  So, if you have any favorites or "ones-to-avoid" that you think I should whip up there, please shoot me an e-mail with the name and author.

Well, that is it for now! I am off to run about (errands, gym, etc.) and get ready to head to Duluth tomorrow (cleaning the apt--yuck--and packing)!

Thursday, July 14, 2005 in About Writing | | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

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