March, 2010, BATW Meeting: Candy Harrington & Establishing Your Brand

Here’s your chance to see the lovely photos that won the BATW Best Travel Writing & Photography Awards last month. (photo © John Montgomery)

Major congratulations to Laurie McAndish King, whose photo titled Hidden Frog is a finalist in Smithsonian magazine’s 7th annual photo contest! Laurie took the photo on BATW’s Mendocino press trip last September. It was one of 50 finalists chosen from 60,000 contest entries from around the world. (photo © Laurie McAndish King)

BATW is pleased to point out that two BATW members, Diane LeBow and April Orcutt, won awards in this year’s Travelers’ Tales Solas Awards

Join us for a joint BATW/ASMP event for photographers and writers: If you thought the personal computer revolution of the 1980s and the Internet revolution of the 1990s were big, well, they were. But a new revolution merging the best features of personal computing, instant anywhere, anytime communication, and carry-everywhere portability promises to dwarf them both. Smartphones, those amazing handheld devices that offer the Internet in your pocket, are the fastest growing segment in both computing and communications. . . .

The fifth annual Gold Rush Writers Conference will be held April 30, May 1 and 2 in picturesque Mokelumne Hill in the Sierra foothills.

BATW member Donna Peck wrote “Working on the Road: Myth vs. Reality” about BATW member Erin Van Rheenen. It was featured in February on Plugin.com, an online magazine for creative professionals. The article begins, “Being a freelancer is as much about organization and scheduling as talent says Erin Van Rheenen, author of ‘Living Abroad in Costa Rica’. . . . “

Lakshman Ratnapala reports: “Asia eclipsed North America as the world’s largest aviation market, last year. Some 647 million air travelers — more than a quarter of the 2.2 billion passengers who flew worldwide — took to the skies in Asia in 2009, compared to the 638 million air travelers in North America, hitherto the traditional leader in global aviation.” (photo © Bob Ecker)

Are your entries ready for the 26th Annual SATW Foundation Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Competition? The deadline is April 1.

Lee Foster releases his second app for the iPhone: “Washington DC Travel and Photo Guide”

Congratulations to Ginger Dingus, whose article “A Leisurely Trip by Riverboat Through the Amazon Rainforest” won the Gold BATW Best 2010 Travel Writing Award for “Best Text/Photo Combo Article.” Her story begins, “The barefoot fisherman, weathered and sun-browned, silently paddled his dugout canoe up to our drifting motorboat. He carried a handmade spear, two fishing poles cut from twigs and a well-worn rifle. To him, it was just another day’s hunt for groceries . . . ” (photo © Ginger Dingus)

Congratulations (four times over, actually) to David Page for winning the Silver Award in the “Best Newspaper Article” category in the 2010 BATW BEST Travel Writing Awards for his story “Both Paradise and Safe Haven.” The story begins “Rinaldo Brutoco awoke to the sound of myna birds and leaf blowers. It was Thursday, the day Gary comes to do the landscaping and clean the koi pond. Beyond the Jacuzzi and the potted aloes, beyond the jumbled flow of lava at the edge of the 17th fairway, golfers played through. Beyond them, in the distance, lay the Pacific Ocean. Mr. Brutoco does not play golf. But he enjoys the buffer a golf course provides against future development. And tsunamis. . . . ” (photo © April Orcutt)

Congratulations to Karen Misuraca, who won the Silver Award in the “Best Guide Books” category for her book “Backroads of the California Coast” (Voyageur Press). Here is an excerpt from it: “Overwhelming in its vastness, California stretches down the Pacific Coast for 1,264 miles. The state is split lengthwise by a wide central valley, warmed by intense heat of the inland Mohave and Sonoran deserts, and bordered by the high mountain frontiers––the Cascades, the Sierra Nevada and Coast Ranges. . . . “