Behind the Scenes at the 2011 Book Passage Travel Writers & Photographers Conference - Register for 2012

by Lavina Spalding
visit Lavina's Blog at www.lavinaspalding.com

Around midnight on Saturday, I sat in a piazza under a perfectly full moon listening to my new friend Pam Mandel strum a ukulele. On my left, legendary travel writer Don George crooned "I Will Survive," while across the table, San Francisco Chronicle travel editor Spud Hilton plucked at his own ukulele. On my right, award-winning photographer Liza Gershmann used my iphone to search for lyrics to an Indigo Girls' tune, and World Hum's Jim Benning sang a Death Cab for Cutie song. Together, we belted out "Rocket Man," "The Rainbow Connection," and "It Had to Be You." Our coda was "Summertime"--the perfect song to end the perfect evening.

You really should've been there.
Let me rephrase that: you really could have been there.

This was no private party for the travel-writing elite or some secret society of travelerati. It was the annual Book Passage Travel and Food Writing & Photography Conference in Corte Madera, California--open to anyone and hands down the most exciting writing event I've ever attended. Consider this: there's no application process, no previous publishing credits required. No judgment, ego, or cliques, and absolutely no limit to the connections you can make.


I spent four days in Corte Madera. During that time, I discussed the origin of my name with Andrew McCarthy over lunch; sipped absinthe with the hilariously irreverent David Farley; laughed in the afternoon sun with travel-writing God Tim Cahill; discussed travel journaling books with Phil Cousineau; drank wine with Dame Georgia Hess; hung around with Travelers' Tales co-founder Larry Habegger; bonded with veteran conference attendees Abbie Kozolchyk, Jill Robinson, and Marcy Gordon, spilled lemonade on Jeff Greenwald before he released seven live snakes into the audience; overshared about my personal life with AFAR executive editor Julia Cosgrove; and debated the literary merits of the words "slut" and "whore" with Spud Hilton. And in the process, I made friends. So many wonderful new friends.

And next year you can do the same.

On day one, novelist/poet/travel writer Linda Watanabe McFerrin addressed the conference attendees. "Park your shrinking violet at the door," she instructed. This was it--the best chance you might ever get to network with people whose words you may have only read in the pages of National Geographic Adventure; your opportunity to clink glasses with Lowell Thomas award winners, to make an impression on someone who could literally change your life.

Janice Cooke Newman also spoke, introducing herself as "the poster girl" for the BP conference; once an unpublished attendee, she was now on faculty and the author of two award-winning books, as well as numerous articles published in The LA Times, The San Francisco Chronicle, and Backpacker.

The conference isn't free (or even cheap, for that matter), but for what you get, it's an uncommonly good deal. Moreover, I'm here to tell you it's worth it. Even at twice the cost, it would be worth it.

Admittedly, I'm not a fledgling writer. I've written two books and edited one, I contribute regularly to Yoga Journal, and I've published in a number of magazines and online. I'll confess that my main objective in attending the conference wasn't to learn, but to put faces to the online names I knew by heart. I wanted to meet some of my travel-writing heroes, and I did. In fact, I did more than meet them.

I sang karaoke with them.

But guess what: it turns out I did learn. A lot.

In four days, I learned everything I ever wanted to know about writing for newspapers, pitching stories, and structuring a travel story. I learned how to get a foot in at magazines like AFAR and Sunset. I learned what editors appreciate (gratitude, honesty, focus) and what they detest (press trips, plagiarism, staycations). I even learned how to improve my website. As you can tell from my photos, I did not attend any of the photography classes. I wish I had, so I could have learned to take a picture that did justice to this extraordinary conference.

Next year.

On Sunday afternoon, Don George and I were talking for a few minutes in the parking lot, discussing the previous night--the full moon, karaoke, wine, camaraderie, and finally, that amazing ukulele singalong.

"It was magic," Don said. "Wasn't it?"

Yes, I agreed. It was.

And this is mostly what I learned--that when you take the leap and invest in your passion; when you trust that it'll be worth it, it will be more than worth it.

It will be magic.

###

Register for the 2012 Conference >>

August 9-12, 2012
51 Tamal Vista Blvd., Corte Madera, CA 94925
(San Francisco Bay Area)

This year's participants will spend four event-filled days in beautiful Northern California writing, workshopping, networking, and perfecting their craft with an internationally acclaimed faculty featuring prize-winning journalists, authors and photographers including Susan Orlean (staff writer at The New Yorker and author of The Orchid Thief, Rin Tin Tin); Andrew McCarthy (Actor, director, and Lowell Thomas Award-winning travel writer); Spud Hilton (Travel Editor at the San Francisco Chronicle); Pauline Frommer (internationally syndicated travel expert and host of The Travel Show with her father Arthur Frommer).

View the complete faculty list >>

Conference Coordinator: Kathryn Petrocelli
(800) 999-7909, ext. 239
Email the coordinator

Register >>

SUSAN ORLEAN, STAFF WRITER AT THE NEW YORKER, AND ACTOR
AND TRAVEL WRITER ANDREW MCCARTHY
JOIN THE FACULTY OF THE 2012 BOOK PASSAGE
TRAVEL WRITERS AND PHOTOGRAPHERS CONFERENCE

The 21st Annual Conference in the San Francisco Bay Area

For Travel Writers and Photographers

This year's participants will spend four event-filled days in beautiful Northern California writing, workshopping, networking, and perfecting their craft with an internationally acclaimed faculty featuring prize-winning journalists, authors and photographers including Susan Orlean (staff writer at The New Yorker and author of The Orchid Thief, Rin Tin Tin); Andrew McCarthy (Actor, director, and Lowell Thomas Award-winning travel writer); Spud Hilton (Travel Editor of the San Francisco Chronicle); Pauline Frommer (internationally syndicated travel expert and host of The Travel Show with her father Arthur Frommer). View the complete faculty list >>

Book Passage Bookstore proudly announces the 21st annual Book Passage Travel Writers and Photographers Conference. Travel writers, photographers, essayists, bloggers and food and cookbook writers from around the globe will convene at Book Passage in Corte Madera, California, just a short drive across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco, August 9-12, 2012.

Publishers, magazine editors, photographers, travel essayists, food writers, restauranteurs and guidebook writers will share invaluable insider advice on how to hone your craft, find an agent and get your work published.

There will be many opportunities for faculty and participants to talk, laugh, and exchange ideas in workshops, lunches, and at evening events. Participants and faculty will dine together outdoors in the glorious summer weather the first evening, while subsequent evenings will allow for optional excursions to an array of outstanding dining options for which the Bay Area is so well known.

Alumna, and now widely-published travel writer and photographer, April Orcutt says, "Don George, John Flinn, Larry Habegger, Linda Watanabe McFerrin, Lynn Ferrin, Robert Holmes and other instructors at the conference taught me skills I used in my stories and photographs which have been published in the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, San Francisco Chronicle Magazine, Denver Post, Montreal Gazette, other newspapers and three anthologies (including the cover photos of one book).”

The 2012 conference faculty will include agents: Kimberley Cameron (Kimberley Cameron and Associates), Amy Rennert (The Amy Rennert Agency), Andy Ross (Andy Ross Agency); photographers: Robert Holmes (three-time winner of Travel Photographer of the Year from the Society of American Travel Writers), Andrea Johnson (award-winning photographer and video producer), Jeff Pflueger (New York Times, National Geographic), Stuart Schwartz (photographer specializing in people photography for advertising and corporate clients); food and culinary pros: Dianne Jacob (judge for the James Beard Foundation and the International Association of Culinary Professionals), Shelley Lindgren (Wine Director/Owner for SPQR in San Francisco),  Jessie Poshepny (Trione Vineyards & Winery),  (Peter Schaf and John Troia (international absinthe experts); authors, journalists and editors: Jim Benning, Cara Black, Julia Cosgrove, Phil Cousineau, Andrew Evans, David Farley, Chris Gray Faust, Pauline Frommer,  Grace Fujimoto, Don George, Peter Greenberg, Larry Habegger, Georgia Hesse, Spud Hilton, Sarah Juckniess, Irvin Lin, Pam Mandel, Oksana Marafioti, Andrew McCarthy, Linda Watanabe McFerrin, Loren Mooney, Susan Orlean, Robert Reid, Michael Shapiro, Julia Flynn Siler

The cost of the four-day Conference is $635. Optional 30-minute private consultations are available for $95. For complete details, a full schedule, faculty list, accommodations, or to register, please visit the Conference homepage on the Web at http://www.bookpassage.com/travel-writers-photographers-conference. You may also contact Conference Coordinator, Kathryn Petrocelli, by phone at (415) 927-0960 ext. 239, or email bpconferences@bookpassage.com.

Elliott Hester, author of Plane Insanity and Adventures of a Continental Drifter, says, "Before signing up for the Book Passage Travel Writers and Photographers Conference, I had never published a travel article. After soaking up information from the conference faculty, I went home and applied what I'd learned. Thanks to Book Passage, I've written more than 100 articles and two travel memoirs, one of which became a bestseller."

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http://www.facebook.com/bookpassage.travel.conference

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http://twitter.com/bp_travel

Book Passage has served the Bay Area for more than 30 years, providing the community with an array of author events, writing and language classes, and highly-respected, annual conferences. A New York Times-reporting bookstore, Book Passage offers a wide variety of books ranging from children’s literature to travel guides, from top-selling fiction to mystery novels, and the business continues to work diligently with community and nonprofit organizations. Book Passage has two stores, one in Corte Madera and a second in the San Francisco Ferry Building.

The Schizophrenic Search For My Nutbar

Reflections from a Book Passage Travel and Food Writing & Photography Conference Newbie

by Diane Susan Petty

I used to be wealthy and successful—number one in my industry.

Now I sit on a bench contemplating a “No Barking” sign, the “P” graffitied over with a “B”. I observe the cars are indeed parked in front and the dogs are quiet. I notice a sign saying an 18-pound male cat named PhiPhi has run away and wonder if it was because the other kitties were teasing him about his name.

Diane (far right) with Don George

I recently became an unemployed, broke mortgage banker. After announcing my desire to make a major life change and become an unemployed, broke travel writer, a mutual friend introduced me to travel writing guru, Don George.

Don’s advice? “Come to the Book Passage Travel and Food Writing & Photography Conference. Meet Spud. It’ll be life changing.”

Down to our last $1000, my husband suggested we might want to use that money for groceries; why not wait and go next year? Groceries be damned; I could drop a few pounds anyway. I’m going to the conference.

One minute I’m excited and hopeful for the future; the former confident me has returned. The next I’m petrified about attending, convinced I’m grasping at straws out of pure desperation. What do I know about travel writing?

When you tell your family you’ve spent your last dime on a travel writer’s conference, their faces go blank and they ask why.

When you read The Paris Wife about Hemingway’s brilliant mind and tortured soul, you momentarily wish you had a drinking problem; it might help you become a better writer.

When a stranger in the airport asks where you are off to and you tell her a San Francisco writer’s conference, her face lights up. “Oh, you’re a writer!” she beams with yearning eyes. “You’re so lucky.” I don’t bother to correct her and spend the next hour strutting around the Toronto airport, imagining I am a writer waiting for my flight.

When I’m unexpectedly bumped to first class, I take it as a sign … even the United Airlines gods know I am destined to be a travel writer, jet-setting around the world with my laptop in a beat up leather bag. I wonder if duty-free sells beat up leather bags?

It’s the morning of Don’s pre-conference field trip to Point Reyes Station. Feeling exhilarated and freaked out, I focus my attention on the superficial, worrying about wearing the right clothes, trying to forget I have the wrong degree. Too dressed up and I’ll look uppity. Too casual and I’ll look like a slob who doesn’t care. I wish I knew what that Linda Watanabe McFerrin was wearing.

Guess what? Wear tattered jeans or a ball gown; it doesn’t matter.

At Cowgirl Creamery, we sit with Don and plot our day. Walk. Observe. Write. Eat. Repeat. Share what you wrote at the end of the day.

My confidence is back; I can walk and talk and gawk. And I love to eat.

I feel the need to be more brilliant, interesting, and observant than anyone else in our group. I want to stand out and be noticed.  I can’t possibly share my ideas or observations lest someone steals them; they are that brilliant.

Don tells us to put ourselves in the shoes of a travel writer. I sit on a bench and try hard to observe new, unique things. The only thing I observe is that I want another one of those new, unique cookies from Bovine Bakery across the street and that the dogs in Point Reyes Station seem to be able to read.

It’s the end of our field trip, time to share what we wrote.

Someone commented on the painful juxtaposition of signs about the future of Point Reyes Station posted on an abandoned red brick building.

Damn. I didn’t even see the building, let alone the juxtaposition.

Another mentions a dialogue about a 45 lb marlin, overheard between a pedestrian and someone in a car stopped in the middle of the road.

Damn. The only dialogue I heard was someone yelling, “We don’t want you travel writers here; we don’t want to become another Carmel.”

Don asks if anyone has written a piece.

Diane with "Gold Shoes"

She is a stunning journalist from Chile with an exotic Spanish accent and totally cool gold shoes. I hate her already. On two scrunched up yellow Post-It notes, she has managed to scribble a brilliant story, complete and ready for publication. She asks for criticism; there is none.

Blogger, Kylethevagabond volunteers to read his piece. When he pulls out his 32” flatscreen laptop, everyone ooohs and aaahs as if he has just invented the wheel.

Damn. Why didn’t I bring my laptop?

A silence hangs over the group after he reads his work. He apologizes; this was just a rough draft. He works for Gadling. He has published 45 articles. Someone says his lede is brilliant and natural. I think his nut bar is perfect until a colleague gently explains it is called a nutgraf.

I want to go eat a nut bar at Toby’s Feed Barn across the street.

The drive back to Book Passage is much less animated. Some of us are feeling we should not be here. Why didn’t I go to journalism school? Stupid, useless, law degree.

Back at the store, feeling completely inadequate, I look at all the courses I can take throughout the year to hone my craft. That’s what I need to do, despite the fact that I don’t yet have a craft and I have nothing to hone. I don’t even know what hone means. Take more courses, then write something. That’s my new plan.

Guess what? It is far easier to pay $350 for another course than it is to write something and risk rejection. Janis Cooke Newman tells us, “Your immediate goal should be ten rejection letters.” Genius.

At the intro dinner, I maneuver to sit with my idol from the San Francisco Chronicle, Spud Hilton. He actually buys articles. He tells our table of newbies exactly what he wants …  lede-nutgraf-scene-scene-scene-walkaway. That‘s it. This is what I came for. I have a roadmap. I’ve cracked the code. I already feel the conference was worth it, and it hasn’t even started. I don’t care if I have to live on nut bars for the rest of my life; I’m going to be a travel writer.

*****

Diane Susan Petty

Diane Susan Petty is a former mortgage banker and accepts full responsibility for the current state of the US economy. She recently attended her first Book Passage Travel and Food Writing & Photography Conference, and she is hooked. When not out seeking new adventures, she lives in the redwoods of Larkspur, California, with her husband, two children and their golden retriever, Buster.

Photos and story by Diane Susan Petty

Tim Cahill, Spud Hilton, Amanda Jones, Don George & Robert Holmes Talk About the Rewarding Experience of Book Passage Summer Conferences