Friday, December 28, 2018

Travel writer Carolyn Heller starts with FOOD


HALLIE EPHRON: Years ago, when I first thought I might like to write books, I took my first writing classes and joined my first writing group. That’s how I met Carolyn Heller. She was raising twin girls, discovering her passion for travel,  beginning what would grow into a stellar career as a travel writer.



Nowadays, Carolyn lives in Canada, and she's a regular correspondent for the Forbes Travel Guide where she reports on luxury travel, culture, and food, and for Hotel-Scoop, where she shares the scoop on lodgings around the globe. She's also a Vancouver local expert for Google's new Touring Bird site.



Reminiscing, now, on how she got started writing travel.



CAROLYN HELLER: In the early 1990s, I was doing marketing work for a software company in the Boston area, and I realized that what I enjoyed most about my position had nothing to do with software; it was the writing and traveling I got to do.



With no real idea of how to get started as a “travel writer,” I found two classes at our local adult education center: one was an introduction to travel writing, while the second was called “The Business of Freelancing.” Taught by the editor of a technology magazine editor who dabbled in freelance travel writing, the latter course was a fantastic introduction to everything from where to find ideas, to how to pitch stories, to how to manage your time. During that class, I sold my first travel piece – about a family trip to the Caribbean with my then two-year-old twins – to the Boston GlobeLos Angeles Times, and several other newspapers.

When the course ended, I asked the instructor to think of me if she was ever approached about a travel project she couldn’t do. And not two weeks later, she called to say that an editor at the Fodor’s guides was looking for writers to help update a New England guidebook, and should she give them my name? That was my entrĂ©e into guidebook writing.



HALLIE: It’s all about making opportunities for yourself, and following your passion. Carolyn, you’ve gone on to write slew of articles and books for various publishers.



CAROLYN: I’ve since done numerous assignments for Fodor’s, spent several years as the Boston editor for the Zagat restaurant guides, and write regularly for both the Moon guides and Lonely Planet. Between these 50+ book projects, I’ve been writing travel articles, too. 

Whether you’re writing a full book or contributing several chapters, travel guides are big projects with lots of short writing – often you’re describing a restaurant, sight, or place to stay in about 50 words – so even a 500-word article can feel like you have plenty of room to spread out!



HALLIE: And your latest book is on Ontario in your adopted country, Exploring Ontario with Travel Writer Carolyn B. Heller.

CAROLYN:
I moved to Canada from the United States in 2003, and as a travel writer, I’ve been able to do lots of
exploring in my adopted country while calling it “work.” I’ve written three travel guides covering different Canadian regions, including two books – Moon Vancouver and Moon Vancouver + Canadian Rockies Road Trip – about western Canada, where I live. Writing Moon Toronto and Ontarioavailable this month in a new third edition, let me get to know another part of the country. 


Most people know Ontario for its largest city – Toronto – and for its most famous attraction, Niagara Falls. But as I found while researching Moon Toronto and Ontario, there’s so much to discover in this diverse region.

HALLIE: What's your approach to writing an entire guidebook?

Start with the Food

In any place I visit, I always start with food. Toronto is one of the most multicultural cities on the planet, where you can eat
your way from dim sum to bibimbap to baclava. I’ve tried Finnish pancakes in Thunder Bay (which has a large Scandinavian community), checked out local wineries and craft breweries (of course, I had to try “beer pie”), and sampled my way along a “cheese trail” through southwestern Ontario. I was excited to discover gooey, sugary butter tarts, too, which might be Ontario’s signature dessert. You can even follow a “butter tart tour,” traveling from bakery to bakery to find your favorite.

From Outdoor Adventures to Indigenous Cultures

And there’s more to Ontario than food. Bordering four of the
five Great Lakes, Ontario offers plenty of outdoor adventures. You can canoe on the lakes, hike trails that border Caribbean-blue waters, or snorkel among surprisingly intact 19th-century shipwrecks.

In central Ontario, Old Order Mennonites still travel by horse and buggy and sell homemade preserves at local farmers markets. With Ontario’s large indigenous population, you can take a hike with an aboriginal guide or watch a performance
at a First Nations-run theater. Ontario has lots of great museums, too, where you can check out everything from Inuit carvings to Elton John’s platform shoes.

HALLIE: Do you prefer writing about where you live, or where you don’t?

CAROLYN: As a guidebook author, I’ve covered places where I live and destinations that are farther away. Writing about an area that’s not my home base is exciting, since I love exploring new places, although it’s definitely a lot more work. ]

When I researched the first edition of my Ontario guide, I was on the road for almost four months. It’s a big province! For this new third edition, I still spent eight weeks traveling around the region. There are always new destinations to discover and new experiences to try. And of course, lots of new things to eat.

HALLIE:  Start with food! That’s why Carolyn’s travel books are perfect for me.

Anyone else out there ever toyed with the idea of being a travel writer? Seem daunting? Carolyn will be dropping by today to answer your questions, or to hear your WISH LIST of what you're looking for in a travel guide.
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37 comments:

  1. Although it seems daunting to me, Carolyn, you certainly make travel writing sound like lots of fun.

    Do you travel alone or with your family when you’re working on a travel assignment?
    If food is the easy part, what’s the most difficult part of writing a travel book?

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    1. That's what interests me, too - how different is traveling for writing a guidebook versus traveling just for yourself, and does doing one spoil the other?

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    2. Good morning from the west coast. Thank you for letting me join the fun here with the Reds!

      Joan, often I do travel alone when I'm on assignment, because even though it's "travel," it's also a job. And as in any job, it can be challenging to juggle other people's needs and interests when you have work to do.

      But I do take my family when I can. I contributed to several editions of Lonely Planet's China guide, and my husband and daughters tagged along for a couple of weeks on two of my trips. There were days when I was researching something that we could do together -- when we hiked up a mountain, I gave the girls, who were preteens at the time, the assignment of counting how many steps it would take to reach the top -- while at other times, they hung out in the market or scouted out the best dumplings, until I finished looking at hotel rooms or whatever else I had to do.

      Now that my daughters are adults, it's easier to take them along, at least when they can get time off. This summer, my daughter Talia spent a week road-tripping through British Columbia with me, my daughter Michaela and I climbed a Via Ferrata and scouted bakeries for a weekend (yes, that was work), and my husband Alan joined me for a few days of research in BC's Okanagan wine country.

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    3. Hallie, guidebook writing is all about the details. You start with the big picture of "Why go here?" and then provide short snapshots of all sorts of things to see and do. In 50-100 words, you need to give enough details that readers can assess "is this experience for me?" And why is this craft brewery or art gallery or hiking trail or hotel room different from the many others you could choose?

      When I'm writing a travel article, details are important, too, but you can expand on the experience. What's it like to take this particular road trip with your 10-year-old kids? What is "heli-hiking" and why would you do it? Or even what happened the day the earthquake hit?

      In many ways, travel writing has made me a better traveler, even why I'm not traveling for work, because it has taught me to tune into these details and to be open to all kinds of experiences. You never know where you might find a good story!

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  2. Good for you for following your dreams, Carolyn! I'm interested in your answers to Joan's questions. I have traveled a lot but mostly writing letters home about the trips has been the extent of my travel writing.

    Except...twenty years ago, well before I'd finished writing my first mystery, I lived in Burkina Faso for a year and wrote a memoir, a collection of essays about my experiences there (with and without husband and sons 9 and 11). When I got back I fired it off to Lonely Planet, thinking it filled a unique niche. Oddly, they declined. Now when I look back I cringe at all the editing it needs, but I needed to write it, and one of these days (maybe) (when I'm not writing three plus novels a year) I will dust it off, tighten it up and try again.

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    1. There still may be no guidebook for Burkina Faso... just sayin'

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    2. Thanks, Edith. You should definitely revisit your travel memoir if that interests you. Often I find that the "story" of a trip or experience becomes clearer after some time has passed.

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    3. I'm sure it would, Carolyn. One of these days!

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    4. I'd love to read that story, Edith!

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  3. What a great story! I love how you assessed, early on, what you loved, and turned that into a vocation. Do you read travel books for fun? What do you think makes a good one? I love that you start with the food… But how do you know exactly where to start? And what a responsibility! Do you hear from readers?

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    1. Thanks, Hank! I do read travel books for fun, both guidebooks and travel memoirs. The best travel memoirs draw me into the author's life through the perspective of the place that they're exploring. I find that my own travel frequently makes me re-evaluate the places I've called "home," and I enjoy reading about other people's discoveries.

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  4. I'm a photographer. Before we take a trip I read a guidebook filled with photos and walking tours for our destination. A used copy of an AA guide to Ireland was perfect. I'll check out your Canadian guides.

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    1. And I'm one of those travelers who AVOID seeing photos... it's like reading a movie review before I see the movie. I feel like it spoils the experience of seeing for the first time. Fortunately my husband does our trip planning.

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    2. Hi, Margaret. I love to look at photos as part of my travel planning, too. And while I consider myself more of a writer than a photographer, I've taken nearly all the photos in my Moon guides.

      Hallie, I guess I'm enough of a planner that I like to get an idea of where I'm going, both through reading about a destination and looking at photos. Even if I've looked at a lot of photos before my trip, when I arrive, I still feel like I'm seeing a place for the first time.

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  5. Welcome to Jungle Reds! I love to take photographs. I once came home from the United Kingdom with a thousand photos before digital cameras! I have toyed with the idea of travel writing. I will check out your travel guides. Do you also write mystery novels?

    Diana

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    1. Thanks, Diana. No, I've never written fiction of any kind. It seems so much harder to make things up than to write about what actually happened!

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  6. Welcome to the Reds Carolyn! I think the first writing class I ever took was with a travel writer. My first idea about writing was to freelance to magazines--my goodness that's hard work! I ended up spending way more time pitching than writing. Now living in Key West, and writing a mystery series set there, I've also tried pitching a few pieces on "best places to visit in KW"--no success with that so far. Do you have any suggestions about how to shape an irresistible pitch?

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    1. Oh, pitching! The challenge of every freelancer! I know that I don't pitch as much or as regularly as I should. I find that if I can think about pitching more about finding the most interesting nugget of the story and less about "selling" the idea, it's not quite as onerous for me.

      The first step in pitching is always to know the publication you're pitching to. What types of articles do they run, in what sections and in what formats? Who are their readers?

      I usually start my pitch with the beginning of the story I want to tell, to try to draw the editor in and illustrate where the story is going. If I can make it surprising or unexpected (while still within the parameters of what the publication covers), all the better.

      It's also important to let the editor know why the story is important now. Does it tie into an event that's happening or something new that's opening or a trend that you've observed?

      And you need to introduce yourself (briefly). Why are you the expert on this particular topic or the best person to write this story?

      To sum up, my pitches normally all follow this format: a few sentences to start the story, a short description of where I see the story fitting into the publication and why the piece should run now, and a brief intro to me and why I'm the person who should write this article.

      Do whatever you can to make it easy for the editor to say "yes!"

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    2. Pitching is never easy, I'm afraid, although, as with anything, the more you do it, the less daunting it becomes.

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  7. Welcome Carolyn, and lucky you, getting to emigrate to Canada. We live just across the pond in Rochester NY, and we drive across the border several times a year, always wondering and wishing we lived on the Ontario side.

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    1. Hi, Ann. I do feel lucky to be living in Canada, although it was never part of any "plan." We were happily settled in Boston when my husband was unexpectedly offered a job in Vancouver. Neither of us had ever been to Vancouver before he flew out for his interviews. But it seemed like a great opportunity for him, and because I was already freelancing, I figured that I could do what I do from almost anywhere. That was 15 years ago, and Canada feels like home now.

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  8. Welcome Carolyn!

    I love Canada! I have visited four provinces, and have driven across Ontario on the way back from Michigan. I wish I could get to more of Canada. Nowadays, I don’t travel outside of the northeastern US.

    I love a travel guide that includes inexpensive places to eat, tips on public transportation, recommendations of historic sites to visit. When I visited Hawaii in the late seventies and early eighties I relied heavily on Arthur Frommer’s guide. We found places to visit that other tourists never heard of, and we ate cheap but good food.A lot of the time we went to neighborhood restaurants that we found out about through Frommer’s. When we got home, people couldn’t believe how little we needed to spend on meals!

    DebRo

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    1. Don't you love finding cheap-but-good restaurants? When I was in Bermuda I followed the office workers as they left their buildings for lunch. The food in the tourist places there is not cheap, but the folks who live there know all the subterranean sandwich shops and backstreet breakfast places where prices are more reasonable and and the food is really good.

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    2. I love to discover local restaurants and to share those places with readers. Of course, it's fun to include some "splurge" places if you can, but my most memorable meals have often been in back-alley dumpling shops or street markets or in people's homes.

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    3. Gigi, that's a great tip to follow the office workers on their lunch break! My husband and I were once traveling in Hong Kong when we saw a crowd of people waiting at a food stand, so of course, we had to get into the line. We ended up with some kind of delicious (and very cheap) pancake that was so good, we got back in the line for seconds. Because we were clearly not locals, the vendor noticed us when we came back the second time and gave us a big "thumbs up!"

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  9. Hi, Carolyn, and thanks for visiting us on Jungle Red today. I love travel guides, especially if they are "food first." I just got the London 2019 Michelin Guide and am having so much fun dipping into it.

    I made my first few trips to the UK and Europe with my parents using Frommer guides. They were such fun--very conversational--and as DebRo says above--we ate wonderful food in places that other people didn't go. Although now it's pretty hard to imagine Europe on $25 a Day...

    Have you ever done in pieces about the UK?

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    1. Hi, Deborah. Yes, it's hard to find $25 a day anywhere any more. Alas, I've spent very little time in the UK and haven't written about it. While I've been lucky to travel a lot, I still have so many destinations on my wish list! I'd love to hear your recommendations for places in the UK that you've enjoyed.

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  10. Hello, Carolyn! I've thought about travel writing, but never dipped a toe into it. I do love planning trips, though. I don't always go on them, and I don't always take as much time as I'd like to, but I love to get out the maps and visit the travel websites to see what historic hotels are there, and if I should go by car, plane or--heaven!--train. It's good to know that following something you loved paid off for you with a career.

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    1. Gigi, my daughters tease me about reading guidebooks for fun, but dreaming about travel is its own particular pleasure!

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  11. Hello Carolyn!
    I was delighted with your fascinating travels, and this very interesting post which resonates with me. Being Canadian and having travelled through the entire country I do have such fond memories of vacations and trips when I was much younger. I lived in Ontario for 18 years and am familiar with so many places which are unforgettable in many ways. Summers were spent vacationing in Eastern and Southern Ontario as well as The Thousand Islands. I had relatives in Ottawa whom I visited frequently, Smiths Falls, delta and loved these memorable summers spent in another area. The beaches on Lake Huron and Georgian Bay were beautiful. Where do you live? What is your favorite place to visit?

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    1. Ontario has lots of beautiful areas, doesn't it? Do you still spend much time there?

      I love the Georgian Bay region, especially the Bruce Peninsula National Park. The rock formations along the coast are really striking, and I'm always surprised at how blue the water is this far north -- in some places, it's almost like the Caribbean. Killarney Provincial Park is a great place for hiking, with unique pink stones and dramatic cliffs, and the Lake Superior beaches are especially beautiful, too.

      I always enjoy spending time in Toronto, which -- no offense to New York City -- feels like a kinder, gentler Manhattan, with great restaurants, museums, and interesting neighborhoods to explore. And Canada's capital, Ottawa, is heaven for museum lovers, especially with the excellent National Gallery of Canada and the Canadian Museum of History. It's so hard to pick a favorite place even just in Ontario, let alone the rest of Canada or anywhere else in the world.

      I live in Vancouver, which is a beautiful diverse city, too, set between the mountains and the ocean. It's a very outdoorsy place, where people are always outdoors walking, running, kayaking, or just having coffee in an outdoor cafe. One of the best things about my job is that I get to explore not just my own community, but also other parts of the country and elsewhere around the globe.

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    2. This is making me think I need to plan a trip to Canada. So many of its parts are unknown to me.

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  12. What an amazing an wonderful career, Carolyn! I'm a part-time Nova Scotian, so I love that you're representing Canada! My parents took us across Canada in an RV for two months when I was 14. I have so many memories distinct to each province. I love traveling but travel writing is absolutely daunting to me. I would be anxious that I might miss something crucial to the area. Do you ever feel like there is just too much to cover? How do you decide what to leave out?

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    1. Hi, Jenn, That must have been a fantastic trip, road-tripping across Canada. When we moved to Vancouver from Boston, my daughters and I took six weeks to drive across the US, and we have some great memories from that journey. And when I became a Canadian citizen several years ago, I marked the occasion by taking a three-week train trip from Vancouver to Halifax. I wanted to spend some time getting to know the country that had welcomed me and my family.

      You raise an excellent point about travel writing, and guidebook writing in particular. There's always way more to do and to include than you ever can, even if you're writing a 450-page book. One of the best pieces of advice I received from a fellow guidebook author is that no matter how much research you do or time you spend, there will always be one more place to visit or one more experience to try, but you'll still know more about the destination than the vast majority of travelers who might read your work. You can't go everywhere, and you never have enough time or space to write about every place. That's part of your job, as a travel writer, to decide what to cover.

      In writing a guidebook, you have to cover the major "attractions;" you couldn't write a guide to Paris and not include The Louvre. But I feel like an important aspect of my work is to tell people something they don't know and can't easily Google -- an interesting neighborhood, a lesser-known but excellent restaurant, or what it's actually like to walk a particular trail. I'm especially happy when someone who lives in Ontario comments on a particular tidbit of information in my Ontario guide with, "Hey, I didn't know that."

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    2. You're right - I want to know the ins and outs of the Eiffel Tower but I also want to know about an open market or a gorgeous view that I wouldn't otherwise know existed.

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