I have been in London for the past few weeks updating my Frommer’s guide for the 2016 edition.
Me, Myself, and Eye: Researching London 2016
travel writing
The Stain Runs Deep: Remembering Indiana and the Klan
There is no route to the present except through the past. Indiana’s recent history is, in a word, sordid. Its past record of “religious freedom” movements should burn in memory.
Both of my current books are now out!
As of now, my two current Frommer’s guides are officially released! One came out in November, and one is just released. For your health’s sake, I do not recommend writing two entire 256-page books at once.
A Walt Disney World guidebook for the rest of us
Most of the other Disney guides seemed to be crypto-valentines. The market was missing a guide to Walt Disney World written for the way most of us react to the resort.
What the anti-SeaWorld documentary ‘Blackfish’ leaves out
People acted all surprised when Siegfried and Roy’s tiger attacked, too. Tourists won’t admit complicity; danger is why they go.
The Internet is a directory, but a good guidebook guides
Guidebooks as we know them have declined not simply because reading habits are shifting. The product shifted first. Guidebooks became dispensable because guidebooks, as we now know them, do not retain many of the characteristics—concision, opinion, direction—that once made them an important tool for sorting through the chaff. It’s been so long since guidebooks guided that we forgot what it means to do so.
How to avoid travel scams: some resource links
I spoke about travel scams at the New York Travel Festival. Here are some key links for doing your own research.
NY Travel Festival wants to rock the world (& I’ll be there)
On April 20, a new breed of travel show will make its inaugural appearance. It’s called the New York Travel Festival, and I’ll be speaking there along with some of the most cutting-edge names in travel and travel journalism.
Why ‘travel writing’ can cease to exist
The concept of “travel writing” is so limiting. Who wants to read about travel? That’s a personal process, and it often involves non–illuminating details such as taxicabs, tickets, and uncomfortable beds. If you drop the “travel” and are just a “writer,” you haven’t lost a yard of territory. You are still covering the whole planet.
How Ann B. Davis changed my life
The Ann B. Davis incident fertilized the soil of my skepticism. A new world had opened in me. I became a travel writer, a skeptic, and a storyteller. Thank you, Ann B. Davis.