My year of getting published

Monday, July 13, 2009

Writing Contest: Win Free Entry to 'Linda Formichelli’s Write for Magazines E-Course'...

Dream of writing for magazines but don't know where to begin. Then Linda Formichelli’s Write for Magazines E-Course might just be what you need.

Here's a chance to win Free Entry into Linda Formichelli’s Write for Magazines E-Course.

From Renegade Writer Blog...

"My next 8-week Write for Magazines e-course will begin on August 3, 2009. If you’d like to enter to win free entry into the Premium course (which includes 8 weeks of unlimited e-mail support), here’s a contest for you: Somewhere in my Write for Magazines website, I’ve included instructions on how to enter the contest. Find and follow the instructions by July 20, and you’ll be entered into a drawing to win free entry into a course that has helped students land assignments with magazines such as Writer’s Digest, Woman’s Day, Cottage Living, Black Health, E: The Environmental Magazine, and more. Happy searching!"

Linda co-authored The Renegade Writer's Query Letter's that Rocked, a great guide for anyone looking to get more freelance writing gigs.

Sphere: Related Content

Sunday, July 12, 2009

Newest 'Dream travel writing' Contest: The Big Trip

Well, here we go again. Here's yet another 'dream travel writing' contest.

The details from The Big Trip website:

Need a vacation? Looking for a dream job? TheBigTrip.comsm brand travel site is about to change your life. We are now hiring for the greatest job in the world. Apply now to become our next correspondent traveler and spend 15 weeks traveling The United States in style. Get ready to walk along the beautiful sandy beaches at the country's best beach resorts, drive a Ferrari down the Las Vegas strip, skydive over the Red Rock mountains of the western deserts... and so so much more!

We are looking for our next candidate to live the dream life and get paid to do it. Your responsibilities will include having the time of your life, and documenting your journey along the way for the world to see.

The perks? Of course, all travel expenses are covered and the job comes with a $50,000 salary as well as benefits, and some great must have toys to use along the way. Sounds good? Make a video resume telling us why you would be perfect for this job and fill out the application to see if you have what it takes to be our next big star.

But before you get too enthused about applying, check out my post over at Perceptive Travel on Who Wins in the ‘Best [Travel] Job in the World’ Campaigns ?

and also this post by the art predator on Careful, Murphy-Goode, Social Media Just Might Spit Wine in Your Face.

And if you do decide to apply anyway, let us know...

Sphere: Related Content

Saturday, July 11, 2009

Wanted: Travel Writer for Williamsburg Travel Book...

(found at About Freelance Writing)

Travel Writer Wanted for Williamsburg Travel Book (Williamsburg)

Lake, Inc, a book publishing company based in New York City, is hiring a writer to create the primary content for a travel book about Williamsburg, Virginia, and the surrounding area. This book will be part of the Tourist Town Guides series of travel guidebooks. These books concentrate on regional tourist towns, and are designed to assist readers with planning vacations to these destinations.

Further information on project specifics, writer requirements, timeline, compensation can be found at further information at richmond craigslist writing jobs

Sphere: Related Content

Saturday, July 04, 2009

Weekly Top 5 Blog Posts for Writers...

1. 8 Tips for Success When Freelancing On the Road

2. 10 Useful Productivity Health and Fitness Guides for Web Workers

3. 5 Ways to Step Away from the Freelance Job Boards and Create Your Own Freelance Writing Opportunities

4. 5 Tips for Repurposing Old Blog Content

5. 7 Ways to Showcase Older Blog Posts

Sphere: Related Content

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Guest Post: How Childhood Travel Can Influence Your Writing by Mindy Friddle.

Write To Travel is pleased to welcome author Mindy Friddle. Mindy, who is on a WOW blog tour to promote her new book Secret Keepers, offers an interesting guest post about childhood travel and writing.

But first a little about Mindy who lives, writes, works and gardens in South Carolina where she directs a community-based writing program. Her first novel, The Garden Angel (St. Martin’s Press/Picador) was selected for Barnes and Noble's Discover Great New Writers program in 2004. Secret Keepers, her second novel, was published by St. Martin's Press in May. For more information, visit Mindy's blog Novel Thoughts: Musings on Reading, Writing & the Earth.

Now for Mindy's thoughts on childhood travel and writing...

My family moved from our small hometown in South Carolina to an Army base in Germany in my formative years, and I have no doubt the extensive travel over four years helped shaped me as a writer. By the time I was fourteen, I’d been all over Europe. As a Girl Scout, I’d seen the East Berlin wall. At twelve, I’d taken a bus with a friend to Paris. I’d gone camping in Sweden. And I loved that military families were so comfortable with meeting new people. You welcomed change because every three years you moved...and so did everyone else.

For me, what's so powerful about travel, besides being the ultimate form of escape, is the way it changes your view of the world, even after you return home. Especially after you return home.When I was sixteen, we moved back to the States, back to the small town I was born in, where everyone knew each other since kindergarten, where there was no public transportation, where everything was so set. I loved so many things about it, but the place felt so different to me. I felt like a genie being squeezed back into the bottle.

Maybe that has something to do with why the protagonist in SECRET KEEPERS, my second novel, longs to leave her hometown and travel the globe. As I mention on my website, The Story Behind Secret Keepers, I started the novel with an image of Emma Hanley, gazing at a family portrait, stuck in her small hometown. Like George Bailey in the movie, It’s a Wonderful Life, she yearns to flee. Just when it looks like she might get her wish, her husband heads off to his morning coffee klatch with a gaggle of adoring widow women, and Emma’s dream of travel is stymied. Again.

I'm still here in my hometown, by the way, nearly three decades later. But I'm feeling the itch to travel again-- explore another continent. Only... it seems to get harder to leave as the years go by. Katherine Mansfield expressed this perfectly in a letter: “How hard it is to escape from places. However carefully one goes they hold you -- you leave little bits of yourself fluttering on the fences -- little rags and shreds of your very life.” Exactly.

Have a read of the first chapter of Secret Keepers. It will definitely make you want to read the whole book which can be purchased here.

Sphere: Related Content

Saturday, June 13, 2009

FAM and Press Trips - Good or Bad for Travel Writers?

Press Trips and FAM tours have been around for years. Popular with some writers, not so much with others, they have always generated discussion about how ethicial they are.

Sheila Scarborough, one of my blogging colleagues over at Perceptive Travel blog, who has recently been on a couple of 'blogger' FAM tours - one to Kansas and one to Hawaii - raises these issues in an interesting and thought provoking post Are blogger fam trips a good idea or are they Jurassic PR?

It's a post that all travel writers should read.

Sphere: Related Content

Thursday, June 11, 2009

How to Avoid Bad Travel Writing...

World Hum has an entertaining article by travel writer David Farley on 'How to Write a Bad Travel Story'.

Tongue in check, David explains how easy it is to write a bad travel story and offers a series of tips that will ensure that you do.

Read it carefully. You might just find that you are actually using some of those tips in your own writing. That's fine if you want to write bad.

But I'd rather be writing good, no, make that great, travel articles. So I'll be bookmarking David's article to ensure I avoid his tips.

Sphere: Related Content