John Montgomery and I just spent one month exploring the nooks and crannies of Syria, Jordan, and Lebanon in order to learn more about this important region and its peoples. More is coming up when we do some presentations/slide shows about our experiences for BATW on August 21 and the Foreign Travel...

TRAVEL ADVENTURES IN THE MIDDLE EAST: Syria, Jordan, and Lebanon Saturday, August 21, 2010, 10:00 a.m. Jupiter Temple at Baalbek, Lebanon (photos © John Montgomery) Having traveled from the mysterious souks of Damascus and ancient “Dead Cities” of Northern Syria to the hidden...

Putting Pizzazz in Your Travel Writing Saturday, September 18, 2010 Panelists: Judy Wylie, Georgia Hesse and Bill Fink. We’ll be meeting at the Women’s Building in the Mission District of San Francisco.  More information to come. For more information: Contact: Sandy Sims Phone: (408) 269-8440 ...

BATW Members: Thanks, again, to excellent work by Ginny Prior, press trips are now listed in the Members-Only (log-in) section of the website.  Here’s how to find them: Log-in to the website. Under the words “Members Only Area” there is a black bar.  Click on the word “Services,”...

The deadline for announcements, articles, photographs and other submissions to the BATW newsletter/ezine/website update is the 23rd of the month. PLEASE list “Website” or “Ezine” AND your name AND a slug of what your submission is (such as “new book” or “contest...

cover of Tom Wilmer's Wine Seekers' Guide to Livermore Valley Congratulations go to Tom Wilmer, whose new book, The Wine Seekers Guide to Livermore Valley, will debut at the Taste of Terroir in Livermore Valley on July 22nd and be available to the public in August. – - – - - Georgia...

Here’s news from your BATW Website Editor, April Orcutt: My latest article for Travel + Leisure Online, “America’s Best Beach Boardwalks,” was “repurposed” for NBC’s (or MSNBC’s) The Today Show and ran on television on June 23rd. I wrote the story for Travel...

Sandy Sims’s “Livermore Valley California Wineries” article was recently posted on iNeTours.com, Lee Nelson’s travel website, with supporting photographs and maps by Lee. Sandy’s article includes 41 short pieces about individual wineries and uses research done by Tom Wilmer...

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 or those wanting to update skills — as well spend a few stimulating days with other...

Dick Jordan reports that HarperCollins Publishers has asked him to write a review of a new book, 101 Places Not To See Before You Die, for his Tales Told From The Road travel blog.  The publisher describes the book by writer Catherine Price as “a spirited, ingenious, tongue-in-cheek guide to some...