* Wow. It’s hard to believe we have come to the end of another semester. My group of writers in our travel writing class published their stories today on our WordPress site called MORE THAN MARYLAND that I set up as a place to house of all of my All-Star Travelers who have taken the…
Tag: Travel writing
A Tear Worth Shedding and Other Things
I thought I’d start this Monday with a little recap of a whole bunch of things I’ve been doing over the last week. Let’s begin with a book recommendation. The Next Person You Meet in Heaven Some people are remarkably gifted storytellers. I finished a book at midnight last night by one such gifted storyteller:…
My Experience of Teaching a Travel Writing Course
I’ve been pretty fortunate to have the opportunity to teach a course called Special Topics in Travel Writing at Stevenson University, where I am a full-time professor. It’s one of my favorite courses to teach, and for years in another course I teach called Feature Writing, we cover travel writing as part of the curriculum….
To Write, You Must Fall In Love … With Words
The words in the heart above were made with love. And love was one of the favorite words selected as their favorite by some of my friends. When I put a call out on Facebook for people to tell me what their favorite word was, I received 67 responses. Not too bad for a quick…
Travel Blog: Santa Barbara & Los Angeles
As we packed the car in the morning to make our way to Santa Barbara, we bought breakfast sandwiches from the Inn at Spanish Bay. It was my brilliant idea to take the sandwiches to go so that we could have some time in Santa Barbara, as it was our quickest stop overnight. The ride…
Travel Blog: Day 2-4 | San Fran, Carmel & Pebble Beach
Days 2-4: San Francisco, Carmel, Pebble Beach On the second day in San Francisco, I clocked in over 16,000 steps on my tracker. We walked everywhere. We began by having breakfast at Farmer Brown, a nice homestyle-meets-jazzy-blues place, where we all devoured some eggs, pancakes, and waffles. Afterwards, we lined up at the trolley, and…
They Say That Travel Changes You
They say that travel changes you. This is known to be true. For every time you take a step, No matter how many or few– The perspective that you used to have Is replaced with something new. —stephanie verni—
Eating My East Coast Snobbery and That One Sentence
If you ask my husband, he’ll tell you I’m horrible at admitting when I’m wrong, so I figured I’d practice eating my words today with the hope that I may become better at acknowledging when I am incorrect. Over and over again throughout my years, I have uttered this singular sentence: I am an East…
Meeting Guidebook Author and Travel TV Host Rick Steves
Today, my magazine writing students and I, along with members of the Stevenson University community, were treated to an afternoon session with guidebook author and travel television host, Rick Steves. Steves’ warm and friendly demeanor and sense of humor had the attendees listening intently as he shared his travel and work stories. If you’re not…
The Case for the American Road Trip
A few years ago, I read Andrew McCarthy’s piece entitled U.S. Road Trips: Into the Heart of America, and I couldn’t agree with him more about getting into your car and going. He begins the piece with this sentence: There’s nothing wrong that a hundred bucks and a full tank of gas can’t fix. I…
Annapolis Through A Historic Lens
When I get a few hours of free time and I happen to be feeling inspired, I grab my camera and go. While I have photographed Annapolis several times (and it happens to be my hometown), most often it’s been from the viewpoint of characters in my first novel, Beneath the Mimosa Tree. When I…
Through Books, You Can Travel
*** One of my favorite aspects about reading novels is that they allow us to travel to places we may never get to experience, at least not the same way the author sees them. Books such as Adriana Trigiani’s The Shoemaker’s Wife or Alice Hoffman’s The Museum of Extraordinary Things—two books I can’t and have no desire to…
