media mention: travel writing 2.0 - a conversation with charyn pfeuffer

Take a quick minute to check out this interview on yours truly conducted by Travel Writing 2.0 author Tim Leffel and edited by Kristin Mock.  Thank you, Tim and Kristin for being such pros and for giving me this opportunity to talk travel writing with your readers.

read: tbex 2011 review by go, see, write

Usually, I'm the one who says what everyone else wishes they had the chutzpah to say. Well, Michael Hodson of the blog Go, See, Write beat me to the publishing punch with this spot-on review of this year's TBEX conference in Vancouver, B.C.

"When the guy running the local food cart knows your conference is unorganized, you have a problem" sums up TBEX's dysfunction, although I'd have to put co-founder, Kim Mance's tacky opening remarks pretty high on the list.  During the first few minutes of the weekend-long conference, Mance called out a travel blogger who had demanded the Presidential Suite at a nearby hotel. For free. I've crossed paths with plenty of travel bloggers who behave badly (ditto for PRs), so such a scenario isn't unfathomable.  But, there are two sides to every story, and whether this story is or isn't true, starting a conference on a note of public humilation for one of its attendees is pretty crappy.

Sure, there were many positives to attending TBEX, but for me, the most memorable interactions did not take place within the confines of the conference center. It was about the people and the place, seeing old faces and making new friends. Being in Vancouver for Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Finals was an absolute thrill.  And for those moments, I am grateful. 

But would I do it again? Hmm...I doubt it.

media mention: tbex weekly roundup

Thank you TBEX for including me in this week's Weekly Roundup!  This volunteer gal-on-the-go is very much looking forward to June's travel blogger and writer festivities in Vancouver, B.C.  My room is booked at Sunset Inn & Suites and I'm shacking up with roomie extraordinaire.  Can't wait to see everyone hot off the heels of the The Global Citizen Project.

"no" is my new mantra

Really, I don’t mean to be a bitch, but, I need to get this rant off my chest. I’ve been freelancing fulltime for 12+ years. I did not attend journalism school and I learned everything I’ve needed to know to support myself solely off a writing career by making every mistake in the book. Yes, I had a few big serendipitous breaks, but I did not have a mentor or a whole lot of guidance to show me the way.  I just jumped in, did it, worked my ass off and made it work, because I fell hard and fast in love with writing and knew nothing else in the world would fill my soul quite the same way.

So, when I get nearly three dozen emails a week asking me how to become food writer, a travel writer, an author, a ghostwriter, a blogger or a social media expert, I cringe, and now, more times than not (there are a few exceptions), politely decline help and say “no.”  For one, I simply don’t have time to dole out career advice, especially while engaged in this year long volunteering tour de force. Secondly, a “small” favor inevitably turns into a never-ending string of questions and pseudo-mentoring that I didn’t sign up for and then I find myself in an awkward cyber break-up situation.  Lastly, the percentage of people seeking help who actually thank me is ridiculously small.  (I’m a stickler for giving thanks.) 


Don’t get me wrong. I want to encourage people to write and follow their dreams – I just don’t want to hold their hands or be a go-to source for career advice and information. At least not for the 100 or so people who hit my inbox each month seeking a “short” phone conversation or a “small” favor.  No thanks.  If I’m going to spend time inspiring budding writers, I’m more inclined to guest speak at a high school or university class or share insights in a blog comment or engage in back-and-forth banter on Twitter. This friend-of-a-friend email referral situation, though, is driving me batshit crazy.  It’s like asking my dentist, lawyer, veterinarian how I can do their job and expecting a quick, all insightful answer.  It’s impossible to sum up a decade plus of experience into a short and sweet email.  Creating a successful freelance writing career is not easy, but if I can do it, I’m guessing there are other passionate people out there who can do it too – without my help. The influx of outreach is flattering (thank you), but I'm afraid “no” is my new mantra. All of my charitible resources are maxxed out for the time being. Well, at least through June 2011.

media mention: kirstenalana.com "woman doing good"

Let the waterworks begin.  Again.  The stars aligned on Tuesday night for travel writer and photographer, Kirsten Alana to join me and a handful of friends I haven't seen in ages at the WE Do Good Awards in New York City.  I've been a fan of hers on Twitter, but she is even lovelier live and in the flesh.  I am so thankful she was able to come kick up her heels with me and look forward to continuing a real life friendship. 

I was a nervous, emotional wreck for most of the actual WE Do Good Awards ceremony, but Kirsten captured all of the highlights oh so eloquently here.  Thank you 100 times - this is too sweet for words. XO

one of these volunteers is not like the others

I’m quickly learning that volunteers tend to fall into four main catgeories: the missionary worker, the retiree voluntourist, long-term Peace Corps and NGO workers, and 20-something shoestring budget backpackers. And then there’s late 30-something me.


As a travel writer, I’ve been on my fair share of press trips* and have learned how to get along with (or at least, bite my lip and tolerate) people from all walks of life. I figured volunteering abroad with any well-intentioned person maybe not exactly in my demographic had to be easier than traveling anywhere with a high maintenance travel writer with 101 demands. Surprise, surprise; both scenarios present their own complications and require sacrifices, compromise and some extra effort.

In the volunteer world as I know it, finding short-term, non-faith based volunteer work that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg has been a real challenge. Different people are steered down the path of volunteering for different reasons, and I don’t believe that one path is more righteous than another when good deeds are being done. I also don’t believe it should be prohibitively expensive to volunteer, but that is a discussion best saved until after I’ve experienced a few more opportunities in a wider range of budgets.

I’m living a pretty rough and tumble lifestyle this year and things like outbreaks of Dengue Fever and Bubonic Plague (project #1 and #2 realities, respectively) are beyond my control. I do, however, have a say when it comes to the cleanliness of accommodations, volunteer work expectations or having running water, and will always require reasonable safety, respect and some privacy on occasion. I’ve dropped the “gourmet” from my usual global gourmet existence (also my Twitter handle) and have been living on simple volunteer meals, street food and the occasional cerveza. Accomodations have ranged from a comfortable private room in a home stay to a roach infested basilica to a shared dorm-style room without heat in the dead of winter and a twin bed in a barrio where gun shots lulled me to sleep at night. There’s nothing glamorous about what I'm doing this year, but The Global Citizen Project is not all about me; it’s about giving back. But, there’s a small part of me that wishes I could do just that with a (preferably) female peer coming from a similar place, instead of feeling like the odd woman out.

Whether you volunteer or not, I think we all feel and need a lot of the same things, and hope for a world without so much hardship. At least my ever optimistic self would like to think so. I just wish there were more accessible and appropriate opportunities for women like me, who aren’t afraid to live a scaled back existence, but would appreciate working with people with similar life experience. There are 10 projects to go, so there’s still hope for me to find the perfect fit volunteer project. Fingers crossed.

One objective of The Global Citizen Project is to participate in a variety of volunteer opportunities and report back with honest, firsthand feedback. That is why my project involves me in 12 different areas and styles of service. Although I’m only in the throes of Project #2, there are already many comparisons to be made between my experiences in Peru and Honduras. I’m sure when all 12 projects are said and done, the big picture perspective will be very insightful (and hopefully, helpful) for other service-minded folks, especially 30-something women like myself.

If you’re a 30-something gal who has had a fantastic volunteer experience, I’d love to hear from you. Nancy Drew here is on the detail to see if such scenarios exist. In the meantime, I’ll keep plugging away at my save the world efforts with an open mind, my bottles of bug spray and SPF and a smile.

* For those not in the know, a press trip, also known as a FAM – Familiarization Trip, is basically an all expenses paid travel tour de force sponsored by hotels and tourism boards who woo and pamper travel writers, vying for a few inches of ink (or 12 point type, in these print media world gone to hell days) in one of our published musings.

the (not so) underground seattle travel writer mafia

C'mon, throw 'em up like gang signs and read all about my new (ahem) family here.

it's on. pre-registration tix for tbex 2011 went on sale today.

Holy crap. Within minutes of receiving an email from Wanderlust and Lipstick Founder and Editrix, Beth Whitman that Travel Blog Exchange tickets had gone sale, more than half of the blogger pre-registration tickets had already sold. In less than seven hours. Wow. Since TBEX is being held in roadtrip friendly nearby Vancouver, B.C. and I'll be hot off the heels of The Global Citizen Project, I plunked down the $50 pre-registration ticket fee (it jumps to $80 during regular registration, which I believe starts September 5th, 2010). Sure, my travel dance card is locked and loaded with the next 11 volunteer projects for TGCP and I'm typically not one to plan anything so far ahead, but I'm giddy about the prospect of having so many of my peers in the PacNW and hope that folks take me up on my offer to show 'em around Seattle. Mi es su casa and there's not much I love more in life than a good roadtrip. I don't want to get all Julie the Cruise Director, but there's anything I can do to make my fellow travel writer/blogger's stay in the PacNW more enjoyable, holler. When it comes to my hometown, Seattle, baby I was born to hostess.

reading: the lunatic express

This afternoon, I signed The Lunatic Express: Discovering the World...via Its Most Dangerous Buses, Boats, Trains, and Planes by Carl Hoffman (Broadway, 2010) out of Ballard Library based on fellow travel writer, Jenna Schnuer's recommendation. After giving it a quick looksee, I'm pretty geeked out to read it, although the author touting 159 days of travel over two years did not make me blink an eye.

Here's what Simon Winchester of the Wall Street Journal had to say:

“Carl Hoffman, a courageous and interestingly untroubled man from Washington, D.C., has done a great service by reminding us, in The Lunatic Express, of this abiding truism: that the world’s ordinary traveler is compelled to endure all too much while undertaking the grim necessities of modern movement…Mr. Hoffman spent a fascinating year going around the world precisely as most of the world's plainest people do—not on JetBlue or United or American or Trailways, modes of transport that look positively heavenly by comparison, but in the threadbare conveyances of the planet's billions….He learns along the way a great deal about the habits of the world's peripatetic poor, and he writes about both the process and the people with verve and charity, making this book both extraordinary and extraordinarily valuable….It is a wise and clever book too, funny, warm and filled with astonishing characters. But it also represents an important exercise, casting an Argus-eye on a largely invisible but un-ignorable world. It is thus a book that deserves to be read widely. Perhaps in some airport in a blinding rainstorm in the Midwest, while waiting for yet another infernally delayed American plane.”

(Update 4/19: Hoffman traveled 159 days over the course of one year - not two. Read the book, absolutely loved it and cannot recommend it enough to my fellow adventurers and wanderlusters.)

win it: grantourismo travel blogging competition

The fine globetrotting folks behind Grantourismo, Lara Dunston and Terence Carter just announced the first of a yearlong series of  travel competitions with monthly prizes. The travel writing twoesome is inviting you to create an inspiring blog post, consisting of a 500-word piece of evocative travel writing and one compelling photograph that motivates people to:

•explore more authentic and enriching ways to travel
•get beneath sthe skin of a place when they travel
•learn to live like locals
•travel more slowly and more sustainably, and/or
•give something back to the places they visit.

FIRST PRIZE is a stay at a HomeAway Holiday-Rentals property of your choice anywhere in the world valued at UK£500 (US$750) and a Viator tour voucher worth £100/US$150.

Visit Grantourism's website for all fine print, details and how to enter. Good luck!

what is "the global citizen project?"

“I never went to Europe,” my mother sighed in a Percocet-induced state of delusion. (That comment was followed up with “And I can never have sex again,” but I readily ignored that statement.) It was a Thursday night in 1990, exactly two weeks before my mother’s 38-year-old body would surrender to metastatic lung cancer after a brief, half-year battle. At the time of her diagnosis, I was 17 years old, and the “C” word made me take a step back, examine my life and redefine what I wanted it to mean. As a result, my mother’s words have inspired me to live my life fully, spontaneously and with purpose. Okay, maybe it’s also been influenced by some strong-willed Taurus tendencies (the blessing/burden of sharing a birthday with Earth Day), but regardless, I’ve made deliberate choices to live a life of travel and authenticity.

January 2010 marks the 12-year anniversary of my career as a freelance travel, food and lifestyle journalist. 2010 also marks the 20th anniversary of my mother’s passing. Nice round dates, numbers and new years seem like a good time for introspection, and I’ve decided to refocus my personal and professional efforts.

So, here’s what I propose. I’ve given a lot of thought to what aspects of travel teach and inspire me and it comes down to the beauty, virtue and power of the people I cross paths with. Over the past few years, I’ve been fortunate to spend time in communities around the world, including Honduras, Costa Rica, Peru, and Chile. It is clear to me that despite the countless cultural differences, we all have dreams, we all strive for happiness and, really, we’re all not so different.

In an attempt to understand, connect and contribute, it is my plan to swap my BlackBerry for a backpack and volunteer around the world as part of what I’m calling, “The Global Citizen Project.” I would like to volunteer with 12 community projects in 12 countries over 12 months. I know it’s impossible to save the world with bite sized stints of service, but I want to give something to the bigger picture, spread the love around, share my experiences in an editorial capacity via this blog, social media and a eventually, a book, and promote responsible travel and volunteer tourism.

I am in the process of creating a “wish list” itinerary of volunteer projects I feel my skills are best suited for, spanning 12 different countries and 12 areas of service (i.e.; health education, eco-tourism, reef conservation, sustainable farming, national park service, etc.). I am seeking a KickStarter.com invitation (fingers crossed) to help fundraise money for this project, as well as brainstorming creative sponsorships. Thankfully, I have a lot of frequent flyer miles banked, but am fairly certain, no matter where I go, I won't log anywhere near 150 flights in the process. I promise to keep readers posted with details as they come together. Right now, I'm shooting to embark on this adventure in June 2010. I’m very much a “Believe it, achieve it” kinda gal (ask me how my first book got published sometime), so if anyone has any insights or ideas to share, please feel free to shoot me an email at cpfeuffer@yahoo.com. Thank you for reading.