BATW Meeting: A Great Story Idea — Stalking It, Styling It, Selling It — Sept. 18

Marybeth Bond just finished riding a bicycle 3,115 miles across America — and raising $52,000 for osteoporosis research and education.

Congratulations to Lee Foster, who has won four awards in the Society of American Travel Writers (SATW) writing contest.

Morton Beebe is about to return to the South Pole after an absence of 50 years. What an adventure! The URL for the blog for his “Return to the South Polar Plateau” expedition is listed in this post.

Ginny Prior gives us the highlights of our most recent meeting: “George Bernard Shaw said, ‘I dislike feeling at home when I am abroad.’ It was clear from the August presentation on Jordan, Lebanon and Syria that our intrepid travelers Diane Lebow, John Montgomery and Alena Bartoli agree with Shaw’s sentiments. They traveled by horse, camel and burro to chronicle and photograph some of the world’s most misunderstood regions. They ate camel in Palmya, visited mosques in all three countries and immersed themselves in the bathing ritual of the Dead Sea. It was ‘Eat, Pray, Love’ . . . Middle Eastern style. . . . ” (photo of Petra, Jordan, © John Montgomery)

Elisa Southard and Erin Caskavka send information about your chance to help out or be a judge at the BATW High School Travel Writing Contest.

Thanks go to Janice Nieder for sending this link an article in the “Guardian” about the reasons someone took a press trip to Rwanda: “Why I Went on a Press Trip to Rwanda.”

Lakshman Ratnapala reports that “Roger Brooks, CEO of Destination Development International, in a presentation to calTIA’s 2010 tourism conference examined the primary ingredients of change and pointed to 10 things that need to be done to survive in this ‘brand’ new age of tourism. . . . “

Diane LeBow and Laurie McAndish King will teach three classes at the Central Coast Writers Conference in San Luis Obispo in September. Diane says these would be especially good for “budding travel writers and also those wanting to update skills — as well spend a few stimulating days with other writers in the lovely San Luis Obispo area.”

Carla King and Lisa Alpine offer their “Self-Publishng” Workshop in Richmond on Oct. 16.

“Travel Tales — Battle for a Bus Seat” by Bill Fink originally ran in “Islands.” The essay won the Silver prize in the 2010 BATW Best Awards for “Magazine Article.” Congratulations, again, to Bill. He wrote: “I refused to yield to the knuckle in my back. The man behind me had a death grip on the metal frame of my bus seat. His knuckles angled so that whenever I tried to lean back, they ground directly into my spine. Each of the hundreds of times the bus hit a rut in the Philippine road, I bounced back into the sharp, jabbing hand. I felt like screaming — at him, at the driver, at the world — but could barely take a full breath in the stuffy bus. And we were only two hours into the eight-hour trip from Manila to Banaue. . . . “

Ginny Prior’s story “Great Stories to Recount From Girls’ Glacier Get-Away Trip” first appeared in the “Contra Costa Times.” She wrote: “There comes a time in every girl’s life when she just needs to get away. Men, it’s been said, are the reason. My getaway started innocently enough – just five gals and me in Montana. ‘It’s Glacier National Park’s 100th anniversary!’ one girlfriend wrote, and we thought it a grand place to visit. We didn’t plan on Mother Nature, who is – after all – a woman, to get snippy with us. . . . “

Al Auger’s story “Tryst with a Bandido” first ran in the July, 2010, Siliconeer. He wrote: “The night was pitch dark, the only light our fire on the beach, the only sounds the surf schlepping on the sand and the crackle of the flames. We sat in its glow, savoring the after taste of a dinner of fresh caught fish broiled over its flames. Then a new sound interrupted the silence – the clip-clop of a horse on the hard packed sand. Into the small circle of firelight rode a real and living caballero: cowboy hat, droopy black moustache, leather chaps, spurs and high-heeled boots, tall and gaunt on the handsome roan horse, on his hip a long-barreled, mean-looking pistol and holster. In the glow of the fire, his leather-like skin radiated a copper hue, enhanced by his opaque, almost black eyes. ‘Hola, mi amigos, como esta?’ ‘Good lord,’ we thought together, ‘bandido!’ . . . “