Happy Thanksgiving

We’re just back from a glorious Thanksgiving celebration at the Porters. This was a multi-family affair, and a very happy gathering of friends old and new. Philip and I reminisced about good old days playing tennis in the summer, enjoying carefree times that we didn’t realize would seem so precious so many years down the [...]

Connecticut in November

We’ve arrived, and once again I’m enraptured by the bleak November beauty of Connecticut. Probably you have to have grown up here to appreciate it. It’s easy to celebrate the bright glory days of Connecticut in September and October, when the trees flare all red and yellow. But the barren days of November require a [...]

Connecticut Bound

Tonight we’re taking the red eye to Connecticut. I’m looking forward to being back in the Old Country, with the entire family, for Thanksgiving. Somehow Connecticut seems like the right place to celebrate Turkey Day. I remember long walks in the woods behind my childhood home, and playing touch football up the street at the [...]

The Gift of Travel

I’m going to be appearing on KFOG Radio on Dec. 2 to talk about travel gifts, and so my mind has been wandering the wide world of possibilities. Here are some gifts any wanderluster on your holiday list would be pleased to get: A bike riding trip in Italy; a small ship cruise in the [...]

Adventures in Writing

I’m finishing up the second edition of the Lonely Planet Guide to Travel Writing, and in the course of doing my research, I’ve stumbled across the writings of Kira Salak. She is a truly extraordinary writer with the ability to bring a trip vividly to life and then to connect the significance of that experience [...]

The Changing Travel Publishing Landcape

As I continue to work on the Travel Writing book, I’m struck by how the landscape of travel publishing has changed in just the three years since the book weas published. In particular, the proliferation of web sites devoted to travel and, especially, of travel blogs — like this one! — is astonishing.

The Art of the Arc

These days I’ve been thinking about the narrative arc. Most stories follow the same formula — a lede that captures your attention by describing some climactic experience from the middle or end of your trip; fill in the backstory; describe the trip by pulling out the most relevant anecdotes, propelling the quest as you do; [...]

Travel Writing Update

These days I’m focused intensely on updating the guide to travel writing that I wrote and Lonely Planet published in 2005. It’s a tremendous and exhilarating challenge to re-evaluate and re-assess the world of travel publishing and the art of travel writing. My feeling at this point is that the essentials of good travel writing [...]