My year of getting published
This is my journey from dream to reality as I work toward becoming a successful freelance writer. My ultimate goal - to drop the day job and become a travelling writer.
Monday, September 17, 2007
Madrid...Visiting El Rastro.
Madrid’s best known flea market, El Rastro, is located right in the heart of the city. Run every Sunday and feast days, this market features over 1,000 stalls spread over numerous streets, alleys, and plazas. Popular with both locals and tourists, this is not the place to go if you dislike crowds. It starts out quietly at 9 am but within two hours the streets are packed with people, all seeking bargains.
Everything and anything is sold at El Rastro - clothes, paintings, household fixtures, books, stamps, etc. But don’t expect to make the find of the century. Most of the stuff being sold is quite ordinary. In fact, it’s kinda hard to find anything authentically Spanish. Most of the products for sale seem to have been imported from somewhere else. Pictures from Italy and Africa, clothes from China and Korea, and home decorations from around the world. The market really is a demonstration in the effects of globalization.
Posted by KIWIWRITER at 6:57 AM 0 comments Links to this post
Sunday, September 16, 2007
Fieria de Libros - Madrid's Open Air Book Market
This unique open air book market is located along the Cuesta de Moyano. Named after Claudia Moyano, the politician who reformed the Spanish education system in the mid 1800s, it has been a favorite with locals for generations. Wooden stalls, piled high with old and rare books, sit along the Cuesto de Moyano from the Atocha end of the Paseo del Prado heading uphill to the southwestern corner of the Retiro Park.
The market is open daily from 10 am to 7 pm but Sunday morning is the liveliest time to visit.
Posted by KIWIWRITER at 4:07 AM 4 comments Links to this post
Friday, September 07, 2007
Leaving Madrid...
I’m leaving Madrid this morning heading for La Alberca in the province of Salamanca. La Alberca is one of the first rural villages in Spain to be awarded National Historic Heritage. It is also the venue for the Pueblo Ingles program that I am participating in for a week. Pueblo Ingles is a an emersion program for Spaniards looking to improve their conversational English. Volunteers, such as myself, are recruited from all over world to help maintain an ‘English only’ environment.
It sounds like fun…and perhaps hard work…
I’ll let you know…
Posted by KIWIWRITER at 4:14 PM 3 comments Links to this post
Art around Plaza Mayor...
Artists
Performance Artist
Posted by KIWIWRITER at 3:58 PM 0 comments Links to this post
Madrid on Two Wheels...The Segway Tour
There are many ways to explore a city. You can ride the buses, walk the streets, and take numerous tours. In Madrid, you can also ‘segway’ around the city.
We met up with Antony Bruce, the owner of the Madsegs Tour Company, at the Plaza de Espana in front of the statues of Don Quixote and his faithful servant Sancho Panza. Under their watchful eyes, we learn the basics of Segway travel. Lean forward and the segway moves forward. Lean backwards to reverse. The control on the left handbar lets you turn left or right. A short practice around the Plaza and suddenly we are good to go.
First stop was the Templo de Debod, an ancient Egyptian temple given to Spain in 1968. The Temple once stood in the Valley of the Nile but it’s continued existence was threatened by the construction of the Aswan Dam. So the Egyptian government dismantled the historic site and freely gave it to Spain in 1968. Stone by stone, the Spanish government reconstructed the ancient Temple, opening it to the public in 1971
A brief stop at the Temple and then we zoomed off to the Palacio Real (Royal Palace), Plaza de Oriente and the adjacent Almudena Cathedral. In the courtyard of the Almudena Cathedral, we were given advanced lessons in segway ‘gliding’ and the opportunity to re-key the segway to a faster speed.
Weaving through the small streets and plazas, we received a running commentary about the history of Madrid. We passed by churches, statues, and Sobrino de Botin, world’s oldest restaurant. Ernest Hemminway made the Botin famous in his book The Sun Also Rises.
Arriving in the Plaza Mayor, we stopped for a well deserved break. We are served food and drink and allowed to glide around the Plaza for one last play. Then it was time to return to where we started. No one could believe that the three hour tour was finished. No one wanted to give back their segway. Some even considered booking another tour…
General information:
Reservations are essential for all tours. You can book in advance on the website or call ( 659 82 4499) for same day tours. There are three tours a day - 1000, 1600, and 2100. Each lasts three hours, costs 60Euro and includes a photo CD and refreshment. Safety helmets are available but not required.
Video of Madseg evening tour:
Posted by KIWIWRITER at 6:42 AM 3 comments Links to this post
Thursday, September 06, 2007
Weekly Top 3 Posts for Writers...
1. 10 Years, No Freebies
2. Interview: Matt Gross Talks Travel Writing On the Web
3. The 9 Commandments of Travel Writing
Posted by KIWIWRITER at 6:28 AM 0 comments Links to this post
Riding the buses…the Madrid Vision
With only a few days in Madrid, it makes sense to look for a way to see as much of Madrid as possible. I usually try to ride the local buses around a new city to get a feel of the place and observe and interactive with local people. But this time, with such limited time, I opted for a tourist bus - the Madrid Vision. This highly visible red double-decker bus travels two routes - the historic and the modern - around the city. Each trip takes around 45 minutes and provides an great overall of places and sights around Madrid. And you can hop on and off as often as you wish.
On boarding the bus, you are given a red headset that provide access to a running commentary in the language of your choice. Be warned, though, not all plugs seem to work. It took me three seat changes before I found my commentator. As the bus wasn’t very full, this wasn’t a problem.
The Madrid Vision made sightseeing around the city easy, allowing me to discover the location of places that I had previously only seen in pictures. The bus travelled down the Calle Mayor to the Plaza Puerto del Sol, then on to the Atocha Train Station, stopping briefly at The Prado, skirting the Parque del Retiro and heading back toward the Palacio Real. I saw brief glimpses of the many monuments and statues around the city and was enthralled by the ornate windows, doors, and roofs of the buildings.
Sitting up in the open air top level of the bus, it was easy to look down onto the street and observe the locals and other tourists. It’s a bit voyeuristic really. I could watch people as they wandered along the streets, stopping at lights, and shopping for food and drink.
And from such an elevated location, there was also a much clear view of the buildings, and in particular the monuments and murals that seem to be common place along the streets of Madrid.
Along the way, I also learned some interesting things about buses and sightseeing…
- trying to get a good photography when the bus is moving is impossible.
- there’s never a good shot when the bus is stopped- the view is either blocked, shadowed, none existent…
- standing up when the bus is moving is not always a good idea.
- sun burn and heat stroke is a good possibility when sitting in an open air bus.
Posted by KIWIWRITER at 5:10 AM 2 comments Links to this post
Tuesday, September 04, 2007
Surviving Jetlag...
Three days and four flights later, I am finally in Madrid trying to survive the 'jetlag'. I guess you could say I’m slightly worn out.
I tried to follow all the usual advice. Drink plenty of water, avoid (or at least minimize the alcohol and coffee). Eat healthy foods. Exercise as much as possible (which is easy to do at Heathrow and Madrid airports where you have to walk a marathon to get from A to B). Stay awake until night time at the new location. But I am still very, very weary.
But that’s okay cause I’m where I want to be - in Madrid. Soon I’ll be walking the streets, looking for the Plaza Mayor once the location of beatifications, autos da fe, and public executions as well bullfights, festivals and tournaments. Today, of course, the Plaza Mayor maintains a much more tamed existence, with the Madrid Tourist Center now one of the it’s main attractions.
So the adventures begin…but first I may just take a little siesta.
Posted by KIWIWRITER at 2:11 AM 4 comments Links to this post
Friday, August 31, 2007
Monthly Roundup...(August)
August seems to have flown by. Between organizing and pre-posting for Alzheimer’s Notes and getting ready for the trip to Spain and New York, I’ve once again found very little time to send out query letters. I did manage to send out a few (I think around 4 but lost track somewhere) but none of them resulted in an assignment (yet!!!).
One more sleep and then I’ll be on the plane heading for Madrid (via Sydney, Bangkok, and London). It’s going to be a long, long, long flight. I get tired just thinking about it…
I’ll be turning this blog into a travelogue (technology allowing!!) while I’m away. I’m armed with a laptop and digital camera, so providing I can find WiFi hotspots, I should be able to post. Time will tell.
So stick around and follow my adventure…
Posted by KIWIWRITER at 7:25 PM 3 comments Links to this post
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Weekly Top 5 Blog Posts for Writers…
1. How to Get a Job on Craiglist
2. Build a Better Travel Blog: go offline
3. The 86 Greatest Travel Books of All Time
4. 7 Mistakes New Magazine Writers Make and How to Avoid Them
5. Pitching: Just Do It
Plus two:
Inspiration and L’Esprit Frondeur
Staff journalists who blog: Two cases
Posted by KIWIWRITER at 2:38 PM 2 comments Links to this post
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Interview with a travel writer...Kimberly Kradel
Today we talk with Kimberly Kradel, writer, artist, photographer and website producer and editor. Instead of seeking out places to publish her travel writing and art, Kimberly has developed her own place, the Artist-at-Large, where she and other writers and artists can express themselves. The website's tagline says it all - ‘exploring cultures with eyes open.‘
Check it out. It’s a smorgasbord of travel writing, art, and conversation.
Hi Kimberly and welcome to My Year of Getting Published. Thanks for stopping in and chatting…
1. Did you always want to be a writer? How did you get started in writing?
It was *one*, in a very long list, of the things I wanted to be. Fortunately I had parents and family that encouraged me in my interests, to a point. I think they would have rather that I had gone into journalism than art, or into a field with the possiblity of a stable income. But by the time I got out of high school, I knew that I was an artist, a photographer, a writer, and a traveler.
I thought that I was going to be a travel photographer, for an airline or a large travel agency. I loved the travel posters that were plastered throughout my high school's language classrooms. It didn't help that my grandmother was addicted to National Geographic and Life magazines. All the photos and destinations in the current issues were up for discussion at Sunday dinner.
I was a voracious reader as a kid. I was also an explorer. I started keeping journals and shooting photographs in art school and haven't ever stopped. But I'm an artist first and a writer second.
I also come from a family of storytellers, so writing down my life and travel stories isn't such a big stretch.
2. What do you consider your first "break" as a travel writer?
Working at Lonely Planet. Although I didn't write for them.
I had an office job at LP when I was a lot younger. Having that job really defined not only my focus on how I wanted to (or rather not wanted to) write about my travels, but also the subjects that I wanted to write about and the point of view from which I wanted to write.
It was during that time that I had the idea for artist-at-large.com, albeit in paper pub format, but it was a few more years before the web arrived and then a few more before I knew enough to actually develop it, produce it, and then had time to launch it. I made a lot of other career transitions between working at LP and launching my own site.
After LP, I worked at Ulysses Press as an Editorial Associate and Research Assistant before going full swing into the technology sector.
The cool thing about artist-at-large.com is that it combines all of my interests and abilities - art, travel, writing, photography, technology, and best of all, editorial control. I would not have gotten that satisfaction from just writing for someone else's publication.
3. What advice would you give to someone who is considering going into travel writing? Any tips to breaking into newspapers and magazines?
First of all, do your homework. Read the magazines, newspapers, and web sites you'd like to write for. Get to know their voice and point of view.
Hone your observation skills! You will definitely need them.
Start local. Write about what you know. Sell an editor a story on the wonders of your hometown, or something close by. This will help build up your clips file.
I think it's a great idea to work for a publisher to really learn as much as possible about how the publishing industry works before setting out as a freelancer.
Read the posts on Travelwriters.com and MediaBistro. The 'How to Pitch' articles on MediaBistro are excellent to read if you're just starting out. (They're also good for experienced writers.)
Don't be beyond finding a mentor - someone who can read your writing and can give you a good honest critique. Friends will tell you what you want to hear, mentors will tell you what you need to hear.
Network. Network. Network. Editors and PR people move around a lot, so it's good keep your contacts up to date. Nothing is better than an editor you've worked for successfully at a regional magazine who then moves into an editorial job at a major magazine. Did you just hear that door open?
4. What do you see as the future for travel writers in the printed media and online ?
From my perspective, it's all about the internet and mobile information.
Whether you are writing for a content site, an online version of a magizine or newspaper, or if you decide, like I did, to go it alone and publish your own work on your own site, the internet is the place to be.
Guidebooks will always have their place, but they are outdated even before they are stacked on the shelves at the store. There will also always be a place for travel narrative in book publishing. But people are going more and more to the internet for the latest travel information.
5. As a writer and traveler, what are the biggest challenges you face on the road ?
The biggest challenge is funding the travel!
The second biggest challenge is getting my readers to overcome the stereotype that going to museums and archaeological sites is a touristy thing to do. Being an artist who travels, searching out masterpieces and historical references is part of my career. It's part of my ongoing education.
For most people without an art background, a museum may just be one more thing to tick off on an ever expanding list of must see places, even if they don't know why they are must see. Maybe it's those people I'm writing for? See what a challenge that is?
But, I've got publishing from the road down. Which means that because I travel with my cameras and laptop, I don't have to go home to add content to the site. That also means I can travel for as long as the money holds out and I don't have to be beholden to schedules. I can sit somewhere for a few weeks or a month or more and really get to know a place, absorb it. Because I don't travel by query, I don't have to see or experience certain places or events. Many times I don't write about some of my experiences until a good year after they happen, after I've had time to process them and decide how I really feel about them.
6. Finally, what is your favorite place and why ?
I don't have one. I have about a hundred. Trying to answer this question just makes me realize what an incredible place this planet really is.
But one of my favorites is Saint-Denis Basilica just north of Paris. I love gothic architecture and Saint-Denis is one of the best examples of that building style. It was the first gothic cathedral in France. I love to sit in the back on the steps and watch the light change through the windows. I feel a really strong connection to that building. It is always the first and last place I see when I visit Paris.
Posted by KIWIWRITER at 8:55 AM 2 comments Links to this post
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Tom Miller talks about travel writing…
I’ve been a big fan of Tom Miller ever since I discovered the book Jack Ruby's kitchen Sink(Offbeat Travels Through America's Southwest).
So I pleased to find this recent interview with him.
Here's his advice for anyone considering going into travel writing:
'Don’t quote a cabdriver on the way in from the airport and don’t quote the bartender the night before you leave. Avoid using quaint, charming, nestled, and locals. You want more advice? There are innumerable web sites now devoted to out of the way places, and writing about them. Check out Travelers’ Tales’ site, for example. They’re a class operation devoted to quality travel writing. More advice? Don’t talk to publicists. Carry as few items as possible that require batteries.
Either familiarize yourself with a place thoroughly by reading reading reading, or else wing it. I’m of the former school; I wouldn’t travel anywhere to write about it without thoroughly learning its history and culture, but there are those who can pull it off the other way, too. Getting published on-line opens up far more opportunities than just on paper. And yes, there are on-line travel accounts that have ended up as books. Check out Lois on the Loose, for example.'
Read the full interview over at American Chronicle.
Posted by KIWIWRITER at 12:11 PM 0 comments Links to this post
Monday, August 27, 2007
Bookstores in Madrid - Part II.
I posted in July about the bookstores that I hoped to visit while in Madrid. Of course, I wasn’t all that sure where exactly they were and how easy it would be to get to them. But now that I’ve discovered Google Maps, I can not only pinpoint the location but also create a map that shows me how to get from where I am (the hotel) to where I want to go (the bookstore). What a great tool.
So of course I have to try it out on the blog…
Casa Del Libro
View Larger Map
Cuesta de Moyano
View Larger Map
J&J
View Larger Map
La Libreria de Lavapies Books
View Larger Map
Now all I have to figure out is how to get all the directions placed on one map…
Posted by KIWIWRITER at 6:00 PM 0 comments Links to this post
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Who am I?
KIWIWRITER
I am a freelance writer living in New Zealand. For years I have been saying I want to write for a living, but have never really done anything about it. Until now.
View my complete profile
12 months to Success
It's kinda spooky putting your goals and dreams out in cyberspace for anyone to read. So it makes sense to start launch this blog on Halloween night. Stay tuned, if you dare, for the next 12 months, as I share my successes and failures in this year of getting published.
My Writing Goals 2007
Monthly Roundup
2007 August, July, June, May, April, March, February, January
2006 December, November
29 August 2007 :
Queries and articles sent - 53
Articles accepted - 7
Places My Writing Can Be Found
Liz Lewis Website
Christchurch Tour Guide
Travel New Zealand blog
Alzheimer's Notes
GiftedTravel.com
Vagablond.com
'Interview with a Travel Writer' series...
Kimberly Kradel , Tim Patterson, David Farley, Linda Tagliaferro, Joshua Berman, Roberta Beach Jacobson, Keith Kellett, Nicole Cortoneo, Mike Gerrard, Heather Hapeta, Thomas Swick, Leif Pettersen, Rolf Potts, Ian MacKenzie, Sheila Scarborough, Graham Reid, Candy Harrington, Terah Shelton, Rudy Maxa, Shannon Hurst Lane, Wendy Perrin, David Whitley
Blog Archive
September (8)
August (28)
July (28)
June (25)
May (32)
April (31)
March (38)
February (37)
January (43)
December (37)
November (35)
October (2)
Great Resources
WordSpy
Freelance Writer
Lousy Writer
Freelance Writing Jobs
9/17/2007
Recognize an excellent book proposal or query letter will require a lot of hard work.
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