Midlist Writer: Travel Tuesday: My Travel Year, A Look Back And A Look Forward

Tuesday, 12 January 2016

Travel Tuesday: My Travel Year, A Look Back And A Look Forward

Yours truly in Mzoura, a prehistoric stone circle and burial mound in Morocco, which I wrote about here.

So here we are in another year. As usual at the beginning of a new year, I like to look back on the past year's travel an see what's ahead. This post is a little late because I was, well, traveling!

Last year saw me go to Morocco three times. Mostly I was based in Tangier, working on my current novel, The Last Hotel Room, which is set there. I was even fortunate enough to spend a whole month living in Tangier's medina. My family came down too and I got to introduce my son to North Africa. It's important that he grows up familiar with something beyond Western Europe. We also had our usual Easter and summer stays in England, plus a couple of bonus trips up there!

Besides that, I'm afraid, I didn't travel anywhere. My travel has dropped off drastically since the demise of the late, great Gadling travel blog, which sent me to all sorts of fun places like Somaliland, Ethiopia, and Iraq. The bottom has really fallen out of the online travel writing market and the focus of my career has shifted to fiction and history writing.

Will 2016 be better? It's too early to tell. We'll be back in England at least for the summer, and I'm planning at least one trip to Morocco that will probably turn into two or three trips. It's just so cheap and convenient from Madrid! I'm also pitching editors for various stories on Ghent, Belgium. Other than that, who knows?

2 comments:

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...: Time to go in another direction. Just use all of your travel knowledge to add realism to your books.; 12 January 2016 at 08:33
Sean McLachlan said...: Funny, i was just talking about that in the question section of my Goodrads page!

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/623273.Sean_McLachlan; 13 January 2016 at 00:08

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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)

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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

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