September 20, 2007
SATW travel writing courses, welcome news for domestic air travelers, old news for air travelers
Thank you to Jill for the following tip: the Society of American Travel Writers Institute for Travel Writing and Photography will hold a conference in Orlando In January.
The SATW Institute offers a weekend class that promises to teach you how to become a travel writer. So, if you're free from January 25 to 27, 2008, and can make it to Orlando, Florida, I hope you let us know how well they do:
The one-weekend institute (Friday-Sunday) is for writers, travel writers and experienced travelers who want to learn travel writing for articles and guidebooks or who already are travel writers and want to improve their performance. This travel writing course teaches how to prepare article queries and book proposals, how to negotiate contracts, how to work with editors, how to organize your time, how to self-publish your own books, and how to publish your travel writing on the Internet.I guess I could contribute a thing or two to publishing your stuff online. I've learned a lot about web site development and maintenance from running this blog...
By the way, another item of interest to most people who fly in the US is this article on how airlines are trying to improve on the terrible service they provided this summer.
And while we're on the subject of US air travel, I may as well flirt with danger (meaning politics again) and share this article on how Clinton and Gore had a plan to overhaul the US air traffic control system. Like so many government projects, this one never materialized in any meaningful way. This issue should sound familiar...
And since the US system is so problematic, here's some advice on how to avoid a few of the hassles waiting for you:
Avoid connecting flights altogether
Build longer layovers
Shun chronically late flights
Call your airline, frequently
Book the first flight of the day
Scout alternate flights
Line up, but call too
Prepare for the worst
Know your rights
This previous entry on avoiding delays may also be helpful.
Posted by James Trotta at September 20, 2007 1:19 PM | TrackBack