From Wisconsin to Utah and Australia to Mexico
City: What Some of Our Recent Course Graduates Are Up To
Recent Graduates
Murray Friedman
Murray Friedman attended our Workshop in San Miguel, Mexico in
2003…
“I registered for the travel writing course specifically
because it was being held in San Miguel. For several years I
had been subscribing to International Living researching places
to move to that offered a nice lifestyle, inexpensive cost of
living, and decent health care. Early retirement with the idea
of exploring my creative side was the goal. Travel has been
a very enjoyable avocation for years. Exploring the travel writing
field through the AWAI course in San Miguel was icing on the
cake.”
In addition to opening a B&B, Las Terrazas San Miguel, Murray’s
Mexican adventures were recently published in International Living.
Wendy VanHatten
Wendy VanHatten has completed both the written course and the live
workshop
She offers high praise for both and has the clips to prove it! Wendy
has sold four articles since taking the plunge.
“The positive reinforcement was invaluable. I appreciated
the time all of you took to review my work and give me useful
feedback. The printed material is helpful and will be a good
resource. The small group sessions were good opportunities to
gain insight on our work. On a personal note, I was glad I had
completed your written course prior to taking this workshop.
It made quite a difference for me.”
Heidi Levy
Travel Writing isn’t limited to magazine articles either! Heidi
Levy has just finished her book Famous Wisconsin Artists and Architects.
While the book is primarily about people, Heidi incorporated the
skills she learned from our course to find hidden nuggets. She used
her travel writing know-how to uncover unique places- all helping
to paint a better picture of where these artists lived.
Mike Slagle
“I've always had passions for both travel and for writing
-- but whenever I tried combining the two, I failed miserably.
Since starting the Passport to Romance Course, I've had four
articles accepted for publication! Quite simply, the course
teaches you things that it would literally take you years to
discover by trial and error. I consider it a modest investment
for restoring my dream of becoming a travel writer! Thanks to
AWAI for providing the seeds to grow journal entries into publishable
stories”
Mike’s article “Accidental Pilgrims at the Abbey of Sant’ Antimo
will be published in The Traveler in August.
Eunice Traske
Eunice attended the live travel writing workshop on board Royal
Caribbean's Vision of the Seas sailing around the Pacific Coast
of Mexico and has achieved great success. She’s been published in
Trips and Journeys and is in Fiji researching her current project.
“All of this thanks to the Mexican cruise workshop and
your follow-ups. Without all of you and the workshop, I would
still be out there foundering amongst the hit and misses.”
Loren Worthington
Loren Worthington was a novice before he enrolled in the written
course. Now he can boast several published articles and paychecks
along with them! Plus he scored a “free ride”- literally! Loren
experienced a complimentary, high speed run down the Olympic bobsled
track in Utah. He’s now working on an article about his “adrenalin
travels.”
Tom Colvin
Tom’s learned a few tricks of the trade splitting his time between
Manila and Mexico
“I'm not yet making a fortune -- but my earnings do nicely
supplement my retirement income. And the perks -- free dinners
and concert tickets -- aren't bad either”
Diane Joy
“I must tell you what the workshop meant to me. It opened
doors on my possibility list, making two of my favorite things-
travel and writing- a new lifestyle for me. Since I am retired
and have no baggage to haul around the world (except one suitcase
and my laptop!) I am good to go...good to write!”
Andrew Hawkins
Many people wish for a “portable career.” Andrew Hawkins is a graduate
of the written course and is about to get his wish. He plans to
leave Canada for six months and travel around Europe with his wife.
He hopes to use the skills learned in Passport to Romance to make
his life dream come true.
Laura Gaff
Laura is a “trailing spouse” living with her husband in Switzerland.
She’s been traveling with a writer’s eye during her four years abroad
but never knew how to incorporate her observations into published
pieces.
“The future I am hoping for is to be able to do something
that I can take with me as a profession no matter where I live.
Our plans to stay here in Europe living in our own properties
in various countries may very well come to fruition. As long
as I have a computer, I hope to be employable. "Have Computer
Will Travel" will be my motto.”
Denise Cullen
Denise moved to Malaysia with her fiancé a few years ago but wasn’t
content with being a stay at home expat wife. After taking the written
course, she started exploring the area around her. Her Asian adventures
have been published by several publications including United Airlines
in flight magazine Hemispheres.
"The advantages? Working as a travel writer allowed
me to more fully engage with the country and its people than
I ever would have been able to as a tourist or "trailing
spouse". My fiance and I travelled throughout Malaysia
and other destinations in South East Asia at any opportunity
and grew to love it so much we were eventually married in a
lily-strewn ceremony on Langkawi Island.”
Lee Harrison
Lee spent a recent week in the Bahamas. He was there for eight
all-expenses-paid days, exploring three islands, enjoying what may
well be the world's best beaches, diving, boating, and restaurants…
and of course he got paid to write about what he found.
Tom Schueneman
Tom was a sound engineer for bands. He'd never written an article
before he enrolled in Jen's course. Today he boasts by-lines in
all sorts of publications and even publishes his own travel e-zine,
which Writer's Weekly recently rated one of the best places for
new writers to get published.
Last year, Tom took advantage of his travel-writer status and stayed
for next-to-nothing at the luxurious Outrigger Hotel in Waikoloa
on the Big Island of Hawaii. This summer he's traveling to Botswana
to take a first class safari at a deeply discounted rate. When he
gets home, he'll sell a few articles about his trip. Plus he'll
be able to take the lion's share of his expenses as tax deductions.
Duane and Harlene Harm
Retired television executive Duane Harm and his wife Harlene (just
ordinary folks, bored with golf and looking for a sideline to keep
them busy) spent a recent summer traveling across the western U.S.
All told, they visited 23 different dude ranches in Colorado, Wyoming,
and Montana over a three-month period, staying for free an average
of three days at each ranch. The total value of their summer stays?
About $55,000... and they didn't pay anything. Not one cent.
What's more, they wrote an article for Steamboat Magazine, a high-end
coffee-table publication based in Steamboat Springs, CO that comes
out twice a year. And they were paid for their work.
Mike Palmer
Mike Palmer planned a week-long vacation in Ecuador and wanted
to spend a few days at an all-inclusive tropical rain forest lodge,
reachable only by boat on the Napo River. Instead of paying hundreds
of dollars for the experience, Mike contacted the owner, introduced
himself as a travel writer on assignment doing an adventure story,
and he was offered the trip at no charge!
And that's only the beginning. As a travel writer, Mike has played
golf, free, on some of Ireland’s best links courses. He’s taken
all-expenses-paid trips all over the world -- to places like Russia,
Belgium, Panama, and Spain, just to name a few. And he’s enjoyed
complimentary meals as well as comped tickets to theatre productions,
movies, sporting events, and more
Daryl Emerson
Daryl planned to write an article about a few places in the Caribbean.
So he contacted several hotels in Bonaire and Belize and was offered
a free week's stay in both locations. And it didn't stop there --
the manager of the hotel in Bonaire even invited him to stay an
extra week at their resort in Curacao.
Larry Sugarland
Larry received his first by-line and the paycheck to match before
completing The Ultimate Travel Writers Course.
"The information and examples included in your Travel Writers
course were so good that I’ve landed an assignment with an international
travel magazine even before completing all the course elements...I
largely credit the course material for putting me firmly on the
path to success in travel writing."
Tim O'Rielly
Tim is a freelance photographer who travels regularly. He was looking
for a way to get more mileage (and more money) out of his journeys,
and travel writing seemed a good fit.
So he put the lessons he learned in the course to the test. Just
two months after he completed the program, his first full-length
feature article about travels in the Mayan World appeared in Vision
Magazine. Since then, he's written two more cover stories for that
publication (and sold his photos along with the stories).
Laura Gagnon
Lauara, based in New York, has been successful, too. A bass player
in a band by trade, she travels the world on tour and was looking
for a way to spend her daytime, off-the-stage hours more productively.
She signed up for The Ultimate Travel Writer's Live Workshop in
Paris and now she has had two restaurant/lounge reviews published
in an online guide to nightlife in New York and LA. They were works-for-hire,
so she wasn't credited for each review. But her name appears on
the contributor list in the print edition of the guide. And she
said the editor was great to work with... and paid promptly.
Peter H.
Peter attended our live workshop in Paris 2003.
"I've had two bits published by, guess who? International
Living! It's a good system to subsidize the course fee! And
clip-generating, of course."
Brian Norris
Brian has already had dozens of "postcards" as well as
four feature articles published in International Living. And he
didn't stop there. He's also been published in e-zines such as Australian
Homepage and The Traveler.
Faith LaRosse
Faith is planning a motorcycle ride with her husband and his parents
down the eastern seaboard to the "Autotrain" or what she
calls the "motorcycle train". She writes…
"I have always been a 'writer.' By that, I mean I've
always journaled, scribbled and jotted as second nature. It
comes easily to me and I love it. But, until I ordered your
course, I never actually believed I could consider myself a
'professional' writer.
"I sent a query to the publisher of a small local
magazine regarding an idea for an article about a trip that
I will be taking in the end of September. I called the story
"Bikes on trains!" The magazine focuses on local motorcycle
"flavor" and the publisher loved the idea and agreed
to publish the story! I just wanted to say thank you for your
program. It has given me new confidence in myself!"
MORE TESTIMONIALS…
"I finished Passport to Romance a few months
ago and have since been published three times in a local magazine
in Nagoya, Japan (where I live). My online serial tale, Vin, is
also being published with a worldwide audience (it's not travel-writing
but I've been able to use what I learned in the course in many different
ways). With what I learned in the course my writing has improved
tenfold and I'd like to say thank you to you and Ms. Jen Stevens."
-- Rob Dupuis
"I've been comped four nights at a deluxe resort on Oahu
after advising them of my plans. I wrote a letter explaining that
I am a 'freelance travel writer' intending on writing an article
on 'Hawaii's Most Romantic Room Views.'
"Although I won't be on 'assignment,' I've gotten some
pretty good feedback from a couple of newspapers...so wish me luck!!
I've got another idea, too. Something about 'Affordable Luxury in
Paradise...Off-season in Hawaii.' I'm sorry to ramble on and on,
but I'm pretty excited!
"This could be the start of something BIG! Thanks a million!"
-- Alice C.
"Loved the opportunity to write creatively again. Absolutely
I would recommend this course...I’ve been a copywriter for 30 years
and feel like I’ve been reborn. Thank you."
— Kathryn L.
"I got a huge amount out of the course! In fact, IL has
very kindly published an e-postcard. "An Oxford Afternoon"
already. It is definitely a psycological kick-start for me, so I'll
keep going. I'm enjoying this so much." -- Jean
F.
"Jen is absolutely wonderful—there is an astounding amount
of information." -- Amanda S.
"Thank you for providing not only a marvelous array of
speakers and events, but excellent textbook materials that will
be a tremendous resource I will turn to often. Classes were to the
point, inclusive of our individual needs and concerns, and covered
an exhaustive array of valuable tools and tips. I have been telling
everyone who will listen what a great experience I had. Thank you."
--Colleen A. Quill
"Many thanks for the wonderful seminar. It was most worthwhile
from all aspects and we would attend another in a heartbeat. Material
covered was extensive but well presented. We were impressed by our
well qualified and informed instructors." --Duane
and Harlene Harm
"It was more than I expected, and I learned more than I
can put to use in a lifetime. The travel arrangements were perfect,
economical, no hidden costs to surprise me, and since I was traveling
alone, it was surprisingly easy to negotiate. Thanks for making
my first trip out to the city of lights so pleasurable... and you
can quote me." --Constance Daley - American Reporter
Correspondent
"Enthusiastic and well-presented! You all really do want
to share and I think you stimulated everyone to rush out and try
their hand." --Bobbie Hamilton
"John gets the info across with humor. It’s entertaining
and painless. I'm really impressed with both the curriculum and
coordination of this workshop." --Laura Gagnon
"Let us know what's next - Let's do a follow up to Course
1; Loved it!" -- S Thomas
"Definitely, this workshop gives you a tool box of skills:
information, writer’s secrets and how-to’s for writing. The completeness
of the workshop’s travel writing “helps” surprisingly works for
any articles, not just for travel writing. A college course packed
into 3 days which I’d recommend to any aspiring writer.” -–Judith
Allred
“Yes, the course is thorough and well-organized offering valuable,
useful information as learned and presented by actual working professional
writers. I am somewhat astonished by their generosity in imparting
their hard-earned knowledge.” --Carol Delgado
“Yes, powerful tool in improving one’s writing and it gives insight
into what is required.” --Rick Terry
“Best workshop I’ve attended in many, many years-focused, practical
tools and templates for successful travel writing plus the nuts
and bolts of how to get published.” -–Nadia Beiser
“This excellent, realistic and easy to follow workshop provides
a step by step guide to becoming a travel writer. There is no better
way to absorb the culture of another country then to write about
it.” -–Dale Gaber
"Excellent orientation for people who are interested in
writing for a living- but who need a little push or some encouragement
to do so.” -–Ruth Ann Green
|
