Midlist Writer: My travel year, a look back and a look forward

Saturday, 11 January 2014

My travel year, a look back and a look forward

Tallinn in winter.

This past year has been pretty good for me as far as travel goes. I managed to visit three new countries—Estonia, Slovenia, and Austria. In addition I got in some other smaller trips such as visiting an Italian book festival to celebrate the translation of one of my books, did lots of caving, saw Edinburgh, plus the usual visits to Oxford and London. I also visited Tangier three times. I’ve really fallen for that relaxed Moroccan port and I’ve been getting a lot of work done on a novel set there.

Sadly, there was no great adventure travel in 2013. In 2012 I got to visit Iraq and the year before that I spent a couple of months living in Harar, Ethiopia. This year I spent entirely in Europe with a toehold in Africa. Am I getting old? No, it’s just that my travel funds are drying up thanks to my main sugar daddy, the travel blog Gadling, closing up shop.

This is going to make 2014 a tight travel year. Oxford and Tangier are in, but I’m not sure I’ll be able to afford much more than that. Both of those will be working/research trips. Beyond that, I may just hole up in my apartment and write a ton of fiction, like I mentioned in an earlier post.

Of course, the New Year might bring some surprises. Who knows where I may end up in the next twelve months?

What were your big trips in 2013? Anything good planned for the New Year?

2 comments:

Sioux Roslawski said...: Sean--My biggest trips were small ones...a writing retreat in Conception, Missouri...a trip to see my daughter and her family in Florida...a workshop in Santa Barbara...

I have no plans for a big trip this year, because I'm saving to take my daughter and granddaughter to southern France (my favorite place in the world) in 2015...

Oxford and Tangier sound wonderful (said the woman stuck in the Midwest). I hope you have some great travel surprises that fill 2014, along with lots of writing jobs...; 11 January 2014 at 05:44
Alex J. Cavanaugh said...: Hope you get to make it out for some other excursions. Perhaps your wife's job will take you on a trip? And if not, well this just might be the year you produce a lot of written work!; 11 January 2014 at 07:44

The Case of the Purloined Pyramid

The Last Hotel Room

He came to Tangier to die, but life isn’t done with him yet. Tom Miller has lost his job, his wife, and his dreams. Broke and alone, he ends up in a flophouse in Morocco, ready to end it all. But soon he finds himself tangled in a web of danger and duty as he’s pulled into scamming tourists for a crooked cop while trying to help a Syrian refugee boy survive life on the streets. Can a lifelong loser do something good for a change? A portion of my royalties will go to a charity for Syrian refugees.

Warpath into Sonora

Arizona 1846: Nantan, a young Apache warrior, is building a name for himself by leading raids against Mexican ranches to impress his war chief, and the chief’s lovely daughter. But there is one thing he and all other Apaches fear—a ruthless band of Mexican scalp hunters who slaughter entire villages. Nantan and his friends have sworn to fight back, but they are inexperienced, and led by a war chief driven mad with a thirst for revenge. Can they track their tribe’s worst enemy into unknown territory and defeat them?

Radio Hope

In a world shattered by war, pollution and disease. . . A gunslinging mother longs to find a safe refuge for her son. A frustrated revolutionary delivers water to villagers living on a toxic waste dump. The assistant mayor of humanity's last city hopes he will never have to take command. One thing gives them the promise of a better future--Radio Hope, a mysterious station that broadcasts vital information about surviving in a blighted world. But when a mad prophet and his army of fanatics march out of the wildlands on a crusade to purify the land with blood and fire, all three will find their lives intertwining, and changing forever.

Refugees from the Righteous Horde (Toxic World Book 2)

When you only have one shot, you better aim true. In a ravaged world, civilization’s last outpost is reeling after fighting off the fanatical warriors of the Righteous Horde. Sheriff Annette Cruz becomes New City’s long arm of vengeance as she sets off across the wildlands to take out the cult’s leader. All she has is a sniper’s rifle with one bullet and a former cultist with his own agenda. Meanwhile, one of the cult’s escaped slaves makes a discovery that could tear New City apart. . . Refugees from the Righteous Horde continues the Toxic World series started in Radio Hope, an ongoing narrative of humanity’s struggle to rebuild the world it ruined.

The Scavenger

In a world shattered by war, pollution, and disease, a lone scavenger discovers a priceless relic from the Old Times. The problem is, it's stuck in the middle of the worst wasteland he knows--a contaminated city inhabited by insane chem addicts and vengeful villagers. Only his wits, his gun, and an unlikely ally can get him out alive. Set in the Toxic World series introduced in the novel Radio Hope, this 10,000-word story explores more of the dangers and personalities that make up a post-apocalyptic world that's all too possible.

Trench Raiders

September 1914: The British Expeditionary Force has the Germans on the run, or so they think. After a month of bitter fighting, the British are battered, exhausted, and down to half their strength, yet they’ve helped save Paris and are pushing toward Berlin. Then the retreating Germans decide to make a stand. Holding a steep slope beside the River Aisne, the entrenched Germans mow down the advancing British with machine gun fire. Soon the British dig in too, and it looks like the war might grind down into deadly stalemate. Searching through No-Man’s Land in the darkness, Private Timothy Crawford of the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry finds a chink in the German armor. But can this lowly private, who spends as much time in the battalion guardhouse as he does on the parade ground, convince his commanding officer to risk everything for a chance to break through?

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Saturday, 11 January 2014

My travel year, a look back and a look forward

2 comments: