Bay Area Travel Writers

From the Board – February 2012

Carolyn Koenig — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 12:30:35 +0000

2012 has gotten off to a great start, with a lovely presentation on Sausalito’s sister-city, Viña del Mar, Chile, held at the Spinnaker restaurant in downtown Sausalito. Kudos to Lee Daley for coordinating the event, and for working with the presenters who were in attendance.

Over the course of the next several months, we already have an exciting slate of upcoming events. Here’s what we have planned so far:

Feb. 15: Lakshman Ratnapala will be giving an evening presentation on Sri Lanka at the Presidio Branch of the S.F. Public Library, from 5-7:30 p.m. Details can be found online at the BATW site.

March 17: Elisa Southard and Sandy Sims will be spearheading the BATW Anthology Book Launch party at Book Passage in Corte Madera.

April 21: Lee Foster is coordinating an event in Berkeley; details to come.

May 19: Karen Ballard of the Idaho Dept. of Commerce/Division of Tourism will be coming to San Francisco to give us some details on what’s happening in her state.

June 16: Laurie King and Suzie Rodriguez will be providing a professional development presentation on collaboration: the pluses, and the minuses. (Venue TBD.)

If anyone would like to volunteer to help coordinate a meeting, or propose a topic for presentation, please contact Erin Caslavka (erin.caslavka@gmail.com) and present your ideas. Some really great meetings have come about from member suggestions, so don’t hesitate to formulate – and share – yours!

BATW Welcomes New Member

Carolyn Koenig — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 12:25:17 +0000

Joining our ranks as an Active Member is San Francisco-based Mary Jean Pramik. We look forward to welcoming Mary Jean in person at our next meeting.

March Meeting: BATW Anthology Release Party – March 17

Carolyn Koenig — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 12:20:37 +0000

Wear your green and celebrate the launch of BATW’s Writer’s Anthology at Book Passage, in Corte Madera, on March 17. More details to come as we approach the date.

BATW Anthology Winners to Be Announced March 1

Carolyn Koenig — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 11:50:17 +0000

Our trio of esteemed judges (Janet Fullwood, John Flinn and Julia Cosgrove) have completed their task. Now, BATW is reviewing the results, which will be announced with BATW’s March 1 website update. Then, get ready to party and celebrate on March 17.

BATW Needs You!

Carolyn Koenig — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 11:45:21 +0000

Have you been wanting to learn WordPress and some basic web-design skills? Or perhaps you already have these skills and want a fancy title to go with them? Either way, BATW needs you. The volunteer position of Webmaster is open for 2012. This is not rocket science: You will be trained by our own Dick Jordan and MemberClicks to navigate the inner workings of our website—something you’ll no doubt find useful and possibly fun. Please give back to BATW with a bit of your time for this important job. You do NOT have to attend board meetings to hold this position. Contact Ginny Prior or Carolyn Koenig.

Bay Area Travel & Adventure Show – Feb. 18-19

Carolyn Koenig — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 11:40:42 +0000

BATW has formed a partnership, this year, with the Bay Area Travel & Adventure Show, which runs Feb. 18 and 19 at the Santa Clara Convention Center. The Travel & Adventure Show is the nation’s largest active and adventure travel show, showcasing worldwide destinations and vacation packages. BATW’s Lee Foster and Jules Older will be presenting a panel discussion on apps at the show, and BATW members are being offered a free pass to the two-day event.

The first 50 members to write to info@prmagic.com will be signed up for one free pass. Please provide your full name, phone number and e-mail address in case they need to get ahold of you for any reason. The deadline to request a pass is Monday, Feb. 13th. For more information see http://www.adventureexpo.com/santaclara.

Lee Foster Publishes Three Ebooks

Carolyn Koenig — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 11:20:54 +0000

"Travels in An American Imagination" by Lee Foster

Lee Foster alerts BATW members to what he believes is a revolutionary new development in ebook publishing. You can now publish your content in your own ebooks, with relative ease, in all the viable e-stores and keep 100% of the net sale. Lee has done this with his travel literary book, Travels in An American Imagination: The Spiritual Geography of Our Time ($2.99 in the Amazon Kindle, Apple iBook, B&N Nook, and Sony Reader stores). His partner in this venture is a new e-publishing entity known as BookBaby (www.bookbaby.com). Lee describes this in detail in his article “The Ebook Publishing Revolution” at http://www.fostertravel.com/community/travel-journalism-instruction/the-ebook-publishing-revolution/.

At the same time, one of Lee’s traditional publishing partners, Countryman Press, has released ebooks of his two books, The Photographer’s Guide to San Francisco and The Photographer’s Guide to Washington DC. So Lee has a multi-faceted perspective on the ebook situation, starting with an expression of gratitude to musicians, who paved the wave for publishing digital files. Lee is impressed with the simplicity of digital files for text/photo ebooks. Looking ahead, Lee asks whether traditional publishing relationships with the boutique royalty travel publishers will remain viable as independent publishing becomes more plausible and profitable.

This subject of emerging ebook opportunities will be part of the April program on “Entrepreneurial Travel Publishing” that Lee will be presenting in Berkeley.

Mamma Mia! Italy’s The Place to Write

Carolyn Koenig — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 11:15:50 +0000

Street Signs, Italy copyright Kathryn Abajian

Join Kathryn Abajian in Italy May 27–June 2, 2012, for The Heart of Memoir Writing Workshop. “We stay in a lovely medieval hill town in the secluded Abruzzo region. Our focus: travel, food, and memoir essay writing, cultural talks, local wines and cuisine, good company,” Kathryn says. Visit http://www.ItalyInOtherWords.com for details.

Tuscany, copyright Laura Deutsch

Laura Deutsch is leading a writing retreat in Tuscany and Umbria, Sept. 28–Oct. 5, 2012. Register by March 1 and save up to $500. Includes workshop sessions, excursions to nearby hill towns, accommodations and more. The workshop is based in Arezzo, home to Piero della Francesca’s masterwork and the largest antiques fair in Italy, less than an hour from Florence, Cortona, Orvieto, Siena and Assisi. For writers of all levels. More information at http://lauradeutsch.com/retreats_italy.html.

Gold Award and Other Good News for Alex Leviton

Carolyn Koenig — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 11:12:11 +0000

Some of BATW member Alex Leviton’s accomplishments the past few months: She

1. Wrote two articles for the BBC:

http://www.bbc.com/travel/feature/20111018-californias-wine-country-without-the-wine

http://www.bbc.com/travel/feature/20111020-slow-umbria

2. Wrote the intro to the Lonely Planet book Happy, now in bookstores: http://shop.lonelyplanet.com/world/happy-1

3. Was part of the team that won the Lowell Thomas Gold Award for guidebook writing for Lonely Planet’s USA’s Best Trips: 99 Themed Trips Across America:

http://www.satwf.com/2011_SATW_Foundation_Lowell_Thomas_Awards/2011_List_of_Winners

And…In Other News

Gogobot.com, the new travel website where Alex is Editorial Director, was the recipient of $15 million in a second round of venture capital!

Erin Caslavka Publishes “The Land of Luther” in “Rejuvenate Meetings”

Carolyn Koenig — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 11:10:32 +0000

Erin Caslavka’s article for Rejuvenate Meetings (a publication for faith-based meeting planners) recently posted online. It came about as a result of a press trip she took in October to Luther Country in Germany.

Here’s a link: http://www.rejuvenatemeetings.com/2012/01/12/the-land-of-luther/