Back in Oxford

After three days in Madrid, just time enough to shake the Ethiopian dust off my boots, I'm writing amidst the dreaming spires of Oxford. Now this is culture shock!

We're up here for the Easter break. My family and I come up to Oxford every year at this time and also for the summer. I research in the Bodleian Library, my wife works at the astronomy department, and my kid goes to school and improves his English.

Visiting Harar, Ethiopia, for two months has left me a bit behind. I have a lot of emails to catch up on, edits for my book on the Adowa campaign waiting for me, plus I'll be chatting with the good folks at Osprey Publishing about more book possibilities when I visit their offices this week. I also need to finish my Harar travel series.

In the longer term, I'm working on a book proposal about Harar. I'm looking at its history and culture, and how the Hararis want to take advantage of Harar's UNESCO World Heritage status to develop tourism. Tourism is a mixed blessing, and I'll be looking at how an increasing number of foreigners are affecting this once-isolated town.

Of course I'll also be spending lots of time with my family, lounging in parks in the beautiful English springtime, going for at least one party night in London, and who knows what else! I love adventure travel, but being back in the First World has its advantages!

Back from Ethiopia

Hello again!

Yes, I've been silent for two months, but I've had an excuse. I was living for two months in Harar in eastern Ethiopia and not only did I have to struggle with a dialup connection (remember those?) but it turns out the Ethiopian government censors Blogspot. Apparently too many dissident Ethiopian expats have blogs, and instead of trying to block each one they just block all of Blogspot! Strangely enough I can get onto Blogger and write posts, but since I couldn't see my end result I decided it wasn't worth the ages it took to load.

Anyway, I had a great time. I've started a series on Harar for Gadling and am working on a book proposal. More on that once it begins to take more shape. Today was my first full day back in Madrid and I spent it playing with my son. I won't have long here, though. On Monday we all head up to Oxford for the Easter break!

Now that I'm back I'll be keeping a more regular schedule with this blog, at least two and preferably three posts a week. So stayed tuned, friends, I haven't forgotten about you!

Leaving for Ethiopia tomorrow!

Hi everyone! I'm leaving for Ethiopia tomorrow for a two-month stay in the walled medieval city of Harar. I'll be working on a travel series for Gadling and an adventure travel book proposal.

I was originally supposed to leave last Sunday but I was flying Egyptair. With a layover in Cairo. Needless to say my flight was canceled! They gave me a full refund but I still had to scramble to find another flight. Luckily I found a Turkish Airlines flight that was only a bit more expensive.

Once the first post in my series is up on Gadling I'll be sure to mention it here. I'll also try to post some photos and thoughts now and then and I have at least one guest blogger. Inevitably, though, this blog will be a bit less regular until my return. In the meantime, you can follow my adventures via my Gadling feed. Feel free to subscribe to the RSS feed; upping the numbers makes my editor happy.

This is a photo I took on my last visit to Harar. It shows one of the more than 300 saint's tombs in the city. I like how that tree has grown all around it.

Writing links: travel writing contest and getting published with academic presses

It's Monday and I'm in my usual post-book slump, having finished Ride Around Missouri: Shelby's Great Raid 1863. It's my latest American Civil War book for Osprey Publishing and as you can see from the link it's already available for preorder and at least one fine person has already preordered it! I've discussed here before why readers preorder books. It's a sign of loyalty and interest, and I'm glad they show that!

Enough blather about this Midlist Author. I promised some writing links. Transitions Abroad is running a travel writing contest that's well worth a look if you are a student writing about travel. You can win up to $500 plus publication!

The other link comes from fellow writer Dianna Graveman, who recently attended a panel on getting published by the academic press. She gave a link to a post by Beth Mead, Lindenwood University's MFA Program Director took notes on the publishers' panel that are well worth a read for anyone writing literary fiction and thinking of submitting to an academic press.

Websites for Writers: Piers Anthony

It's Monday, so it's time for another website for writers. Today we're looking at Hi Piers, the official homepage of Piers Anthony.

In the unlikely event you haven't heard of him, Piers Anthony is a longtime author in many genres. He's most famous for the Xanth series of humorous fantasy, but he's also written science fiction, horror, and an increasing amount of erotica.

Piers has seen it all, and luckily for us tells it all. He's famous in the writing community for tangling with editors and even suing when he felt he was being wronged. Because of this, he's been blacklisted by many publishers. He says that no major house is interested in his work except for the bestselling Xanth series. To make sure his several novels a year see the light of day, he has resorted to various small presses and epublishers.

Of greatest practical use to aspiring writers is his no-holds-barred review of epublishers and vanity presses that he updates every month. Cheated writers often tell him their stories, which he then posts online, although he's always fair-handed when it appears the writer has unrealistic expectations of their publisher.

For inspiration, check out the section on books by Piers Anthony. He's published more than 140 in the past 50 years! This is what persistence and a solid work ethic will get you.

Also of interest is his newsletter, where he talks about his life, what he's reading, and his views on publishing. At times his views of the publishing industry seem to me to be overly negative, but then again he's been in this crazy business forty years more than I have, so maybe I'll feel that way some day. He's also a strong advocate of self-publishing, once being a co-owner of Xlibris. In his latest newsletter he states, "I think of mutation, wherein 99% of the changes may be deleterious, even lethal, but the 1% that survive power the forward evolution of all living things. We would not be here today without mutation. Editors reject 99%, but the 1% they accept is not necessarily the best; natural selection operates imperfectly in publishing. So yes, we need self publishing, even if it is 99% bad, for the sake of the 1% that may otherwise be lost."

Good point, but I think that for most writers self-publishing is a bad idea.

While I don't always agree with what Piers has to say, I always check out his newsletter and value his insights. It's rare to find a writer so brutally honest about the business.

Shifting focus as a writer

I've been a bad blogger. I haven't written for a few days, and even skipped my regular Monday feature Websites for Writers. This was partly due to going on a Jesse James road trip around Missouri. I'm writing a series called On the Trail of Jesse James for Gadling. Check it out if you want the real story of America's baddest bad man.

The other reason for my silence is I've been getting deep into a new book proposal. It's a travel narrative about Harar, a medieval walled city on the border between the Ethiopian highlands and the Somali desert. I had an intense experience there and I'm writing a proposal in order to drum up funds to go back. I miss Ethiopia!

It's been a while since I've written a travel book that wasn't a guidebook. My very first book proposal back in 2001 was about my time spent at the Hindu pilgrimage of Kumbh Mela. I landed an agent, but she wasn't able to sell it and eventually dropped me. She was young, a very junior partner in an established agency, and I have a feeling she was in over her head. She certainly had piss-poor communications skills with yours truly, so I can't imagine she was much better with the publishers.

Despite this disappointment, I steadily climbed the writing ladder, writing a couple of guidebooks and then landing a regular history gig and a job as a travel blogger. Not a bad bunch of work, but I'm not content. Never be content as a writer or you're doomed. I've been wanting a change for a while now and was wondering why my fiction wasn't flying out of my brain like it usually does. Now I'm going back to what originally got me into this business: creative nonfiction about travel.

As writers we need to be flexible. Not only do we need to move with the market (if we're doing this as a living) but we also have to be flexible with our sources of inspiration. Right now my well of ideas for fiction is a bit parched, but I'm full of ideas for the Harar book. Instead of fighting it, it's best to embrace it. I suspect that I'll have several more shifts in the course of my career.

Writing a book on Rome?

How can a writer not be inspired by Rome? Here's yours truly in a proud moment. I'm standing at one of the entrances to St. John Lateran, leaning against the giant bronze doors that once led into the Roman Senate. They were moved here in the 17th century to grace this massive church.

This poorly framed photo taken by some Italian kid reveals one of my original historical interests--the transition from pagan to Christian in the period of Late Antiquity. How did an empire that embraced a variety of gods and showed toleration to any religion that toed the line turn into a monotheistic force that changed the direction of faith forever? I covered this in my first solo book, Byzantium: An Illustrated History, and I'd like to get back into the subject.
Rome is a good place to study this because so many buildings from that period remain. Here's Santa Maria Maggiore, a fourth century Roman basilica converted into a church at a time when Christianity had only become the state religion within living memory. Some of the mosaics date back to 440! This was the first sight I saw in Rome and my biggest thrill. I've seen plenty of Roman sights, even hiked Hadrian's Wall, but all the ruins I had seen had been just that--ruins. Now I was actually standing inside a Roman building!
Not far away is Santa Pudenziana, with this beautiful fourth century apse mosaic. Within a century the Romans had gone from sacrificing to Jupiter, Mithras, and the emperor, to building churches.

This period is often overlooked in tours and guidebooks, and I'm thinking of doing a history/guidebook that would tell the story of the city's transformation from pagan stronghold to Christian capital. I'd tell it in straight historical narrative, but anytime a sight in Rome fits into the story, I'll switch into guidebook mode. Thus the visitor could follow the struggle between paganism and Christianity through Rome's buildings, while the armchair traveler could simply read it as a history book.

I've done a bit of research and I haven't seen any book that does exactly what I'm proposing. I'll have to look more before making a pitch to an editor and agent, though. There's a lot of books about Rome out there!