It’s not every day that I open my emails to find I’ve been invited to write a guest column for a magazine. Oh sure, I get those you’ve-won-a-million-quid-just-click-here offers, and how-to-earn-big-money-from-travel-writing scams which go straight into the Junk Box. But when I saw an email in my Inbox from Lyn Hughes, Editor-in-Chief of my favourite travel magazine Wanderlust, I have to admit to a flutter of excitement.
“There is no silver bullet. It’s trial and error. It’s hard work. And perseverance. And you won’t get that from any course. You’re better off finding a little community of like-minded individuals, like the Itinerant Writer’s Club, and asking for advice, ideas, comments. Plus you develop your own voice and style. Creative writing courses are like battery farms for writers. They all come out sounding the same.”
Read Peter Moore’s explosive interview!
One top tip: if sending [a pitch] by email, give a lot of thought to the subject line. We get a couple of dozen proposals a day… and that’s on top of the other 300 emails I get. So give us a reason to open it. Which would you be more tempted to read: “Wanderlust Proposal” or “Beyond Mandalay – off the beaten track Burma” ?
A wide and well-tended path stretched upwards to the main group of buildings. We had walked into another country: there were no plastic bottles, crisp wrappers, bright blue tangles of frayed nylon rope, plastic bags, sweet wrappers, turds or stinking puddles anywhere. Just nice green grassy borders either side of the well-trodden path, and a hand-built wooden stairway.
I entered the competition with a piece about trekking in the Himalayas with Jamie, and I’ve just been told that I won. Not only that, but Helen Moat from our own Itinerant Writers Club was runner up! You can read our winning entries on the Sheldrake website.
We love publishing gripping stories of exciting but harrowing adventures in exotic locations, such as The Backpacker or Lost in the Jungle, where the author barely survives the ordeal. Unfortunately for readers (fortunately for travellers), that kind of journey doesn’t happen very often
Bradt and the Independent on Sunday have announced their 2012 annual travel writing competition. This year the theme is ‘A Close Encounter…’.
My piece on our first walk round Kolkata has been chosen by the Guardian to appear in their blog, and is currently being showcased on the home page of the readers’ section. The full piece appears at the top of their blog section, where it sits just above my previous blog on Mumbai.
Dolphins peel off into the navy blue sea, and a hitch-hiking tern flies away. Balancing high up on the boom, Jamie peers into the now crystal water, navigating by sight – and the seat of his pants.