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 Club on August 26 (a colleague from Jordan who has her own educational tourism business there will be flying in from Amman to join us in our presentations). However, in summary: this region, the crossroads of our history both ancient and current, is welcoming, safe, fascinating, and well set up for tourism and travelers.

Diane LeBow dances in a cafe in Baalbek, Lebanon (photo © John Montgomery)

Successful panel and upcoming meetings:

Thanks to Erin van Rheenen for coordinating the June program on “The Ethics & Etiquette of Travel Writing.”  BATW members Edward Hasbrouck, David Page, and Tom Wilmer and Associate Member Catherine Boire were the panelists for an informative and thought-provoking presentation.  See Suzie Rodriguez and April Orcutt’s full report on this excellent event in the “Tips & Resources” section of this ezine.  Also in “Tips & Resources“: practical information regarding “Copyright Infringement” from Laure Latham, Edward Hasbrouck, Suzie Rodriguez and Dick Jordan.

We appreciate new BATW member Eliza Southard taking over the role as Greeter at this event. I was pleased to meet new member photographer Bill Scull at the meeting.

Our endlessly amazing Program Chair Sandy Sims continues to pull superb programs out of her hat with a terrific line up for us for the remainder of this year. In July, we meet at the newly revamped Aquarium at Pier 39 and learn the just-off-the-press updates about San Francisco events and developments. Thanks to Carole Terwilliger Meyers for coordinating this event. In August,  John Montgomery and I will tell tales, share adventures, information, and photography from our travels in the Middle East: Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan. The September program will be about putting the pizazz into your travel writing, with Judy Wylie (coordinator), Georgia Hesse, and Bill Fink. And, of course, there’s the December 11 holiday party on the Jeremiah O’Brien that Monica Conrady is coordinating.

Sandy points out that our members’ work is increasingly incorporating 21st century publishing techniques. For example, Lee Foster, as always, leads the way, with his iPhone applications ,and Lee Nelson has his successful website inetours.com. Many of our members are segueing their publications on to internet venues. BATW’s own website and excellent ezine edited by April Orcutt increasingly attracts a wide reading public and serves as a center for our own community.

Georgia Hesse, internationally recognized travel writer, founder of the San Francisco Examiner travel section and member of the BATW Editorial Board, recently gave BATW some high praise: “BATW offers so much to its members with its top quality monthly programs. I have gained information at our events that I can’t find anywhere else.” Coming from Georgia, who is a member of and speaker at key travel-writer organizations and events around the country, these words are a great honor to all of us in BATW. Thanks, Georgia, for your continuing support, ideas, and participation in our lively organization.

A sampling of our members’activities:

Susan Alcorn writes from Puente la Reina, Spain, on the 12th day of their recent hike near the Camino de Santiago route: “Coming out of France and over the Pyrenees was beautiful as has been the gradual descent through the foothills…The wildflowers have been incredible–especially the brilliant red poppies… We have been having a great time…We have now finished our Arles route–Somport Pass–Aragon route, 138 miles, some of it through rather deep mud, but we will probably walk on another four days, then get ourselves over to Bilbao for a day of two and fly out of there.”

Tom Wilmer is ecstatic that his new Livermore wine country book is at the printers and is already receiving top critical acclaim. BATW members Sandy Sims contributed to the content and John Montgomery the cover and other photos.

Morton Beebe, with a National Science Foundation Artists Grant, is planning another trip to Antarctica in November, leading an expedition to carry the Explorer Club Flag to the South Pole. Mort asks if we’d like to send a BATW flag south with him.

Laurie McAndish King and I were invited to teach travel writing seminars at the 26th Annual Central Coast Writers’ Conference on September 17-18, 2010.

I had fun at my Left Bank reading in Paris on June 1 from my award winning story about my experiences in Afghanistan.

We wish Marc Longwood a speedy recovery from his recent ankle injury and hospital stay.

Katherine Bruce recently returned from a year living and teaching in Japan.

News from the BATW Board of Directors:

The Board, along with website/ezine people and other active leaders, is planning its annual one day retreat in July. Among our topics will be fine-tuning a full schedule of on-going month-by-month tasks that must be done throughout the year, with listings of responsible parties. This will be useful for future and on-going leadership and coordinators. Our Policies and Procedures Handbook, created a few years ago by Suzie Rodriguez, and Members’ Handbook, created by Janet Wilson, both need updating. We welcome volunteers for these projects. These documents are available in the Members’ Only section of our website.

Our Annual Financial Report is distributed to all members at our Annual Meeting in January. Regular updates are presented throughout the year to the Board of Directors and available by request to Treasurer Susan Alcorn, as is the final financial report from the BATW Awards contest. Susan is seeking a person or persons to work with her in order to prepare for taking over as Treasurer in 2011 and to assist with our upcoming annual renewals procedures. Please contact her to volunteer.

Questions at any time regarding any aspect of BATW should be addressed directly to the Officer or Chairperson responsible, including Membership Tom Wilmer, Programs Sandy Sims, Treasurer Susan Alcorn, Website/Ezine/Newsletter April Orcutt, Webmaster Lee Nelson, Secretary Robert Kaufman or general questions to me, President Diane LeBow.

This organization maintains full transparency in all activities and urges your active participation and volunteerism.

Our ongoing success depends on working together as a community and all sharing responsibility for this terrific organization.

– Diane LeBow
BATW President

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 cliff city of Jordan’s Petra to the chic nightlife and galleries of Beirut (often called “The Paris of the Middle East”) Diane LeBow and John Montgomery will share tales and images from their recent month-long pilgrimage among these crossroads of some of our earliest civilizations. Diane and John debunk prevalent myths about this region and tell about exploring backroads and byways and enjoying the hospitality, safety and comfort of travel in this region, which is known as The Levant. Diane is the President of the Bay Area Travel Writers, and John is an Advisory Board member of the American Society of Media Photographers. Venue information to come in your email.

Members, for more information:
Click on “Register here for the next BATW meeting” on the right side of the home page
OR
Click here to sign-in and get more information (and register)
OR
Contact: Sandy Sims
Phone: (408) 269-8440
Email: sansims@aol.com

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
Email: sansims@aol.com

1. Log-in to the website.
2. Under the words “Members Only Area” there is a black bar.  Click on the word “Services,” and you will see a drop-down menu.
3. In the drop-down menu click on “Press Trips.”

Many thanks go to Ginny Prior for pulling all this information together.

PLEASE list “Website” or “Ezine” AND your name AND a slug of what your submission is (such as “new book” or “contest winner” or “article about . . . “) in the subject line of your email.  Thank you.  Please send submissions to: webeditor.batw@gmail.com.

See complete submission guidelines at:
http://www.batw.org/help/submission-guidelines/

Thank you.

April Orcutt
Website Editor
Bay Area Travel Writers (BATW)
www.batw.org
webeditor@batw.org
webeditor.batw@gmail.com

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 Hesse, , founding editor San Francisco Examiner Travel Section, contributing writer San Francisco Chronicle and Nob Hill Gazette, has written a lovely review of the book:

Mon Dieu! Does the world need another wine book?

Believe it or not, it needs this one.

Thomas C. Wilmer’s The Wine Seekers Guide to Livermore Valley is free of cute cant and pompous pretension. It reminds me of an afternoon’s long, comfort-filled conversation with a savvy but generous friend eager to share with new-old friends his enthusiasm for good things: culture, cuisine, community, art, history; all those qualities that pair so well with fine wines and la dolce vita.

Northern Californians have accustomed themselves to thinking of vines and vineyards as bounty given by Mother Nature and wine gods (Dionysus, Bacchus, Alexis Lichine) primarily to valleys named Napa and Sonoma, with an occasional nod in the direction of Alexander.

Wilmer takes us wandering in a strangely unfamiliar wine valley that lives nearby but, until recently, has seemed almost remote: Livermore. (Names on the land, however, are hoary with age for western vineyards: Concannon, Ruby Hill, Wente, the oldest, continually-operating, family-owned winery in California.)

As we wind with Wilmer along tranquil trails or sit in the sun sipping a little something at a sidewalk café; as we stroke a golf ball or roll down the tracks of the Niles Canyon Railway, we ease through history: Did you know that James Concannon came from the Aran Islands off Ireland to grow grapes here in 1883? Are you aware that wines offered for Communion by the first Archbishop of San Francisco, Joseph Alémany, were descendants of cuttings from the Bordeaux vineyards of Château d’Yquem that produce “the costliest wines in the world?”

Whatever delights are available throughout Livermore Valley, you’ll find your way to them in these pages: bookstores, theater, festivals, lodgings, restaurants, villages, parks, all in the company of compelling photographs from yesteryear to yesterday.

Yes; the world, especially the California corner of it, needed this book.

– Georgia Hesse

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 + Leisure Online, but, as many of you know, the contract says they can reuse it in any format anywhere in the universe without giving you credit (which is a real drag).  So it ended up on The Today Show.  I figure that next they’ll be beaming it to Saturn.

Jumpstart your Writing with Travel

Expand your travel experiences—whether a sumptuous meal, a sunset on the Sahara, or a conversation with a local—to write destination or adventure articles, food and wine reviews, political pieces, memoir, and even fiction. We’ll explore tricks of the trade: from pre-trip research and note-taking tips through capturing scenes and hooking your story; all the way to post-trip productivity. Learn the 7 essential items in a travel writer’s toolkit and more than 30 publishing venues.

Travel Writing — From the Road to the Page

Like creating a delicious soup from many ingredients, turning your notes and memories into a well-crafted piece of writing takes both creativity and planning. We’ll explore angles, leads, and kickers; structure and pace; uses of conflict; voice and point of view; epiphany and sensory imagery; revision; and much more. Learn the 7 essential elements of a great travel story, 20 types of plots, and 10 types of closes.

Marketing, Publishing, and New Media

Explore the dynamic world of blogs, tweets, and vooks. We’ll cover online resources, websites, blogging, FaceBook, social networking, podcasting, and self-publishing. Learn to plan your blog, develop your niche, strengthen your platform, write for the web and drive traffic to your site, and brand yourself. Develop an action plan to make new media work for you. Learn 10 tips for better blogging and 8 steps to successful self-publishing.

26th annual Central Coast Writers Conference
San Luis Obispo, CA
September 17-18, 2010
Register before July 29 for $129
http://www.facebook.com/CentralCoastWritersConference