While drinking my morning coffee here in Tainan, I stumbled across a piece about my book Stealing With the Eyes, calling it a "post-modern assault on anthropology," and saying I'm guilty of "a morbid and fantastic expression of liberal guilt."
Here's my response (there's a link to the original article in the piece as well).
Going minimal with work gear today as I have a business lunch then an exhibition launch to go to. Amazing how much you can get done with the iPad+keyboard combo. When I started freelancing in 2004 it wasn't as easy to switch between devices.
New at my Patreon... I love a good library. I don't just write in them, but also give travel writing talks to the public in them. This is how that works:
If you live in northern Victoria come along this week to a travel writing talk I'm giving at local libraries, about my 2019 trip through Germany, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, France and the UK...
Now free for all to read... When COVID-19 struck in 2020, many of my commissioned travel articles had to be put on ice. Then I rescued them all, one way or another:
I guess it's about time to mention one of the massive projects I'm working on this year. I'm updating Frommer's #Iceland guidebook for the publication of a 4th edition.
One of the most painful elements of travel writing is the sourcing of photos to accompany my stories. Can be painful.
Currently I'm trying to get a tour operator to send images to go with a piece I've written about his tour in Spain. It's a struggle. How difficult can it be to just lob a few images in a Dropbox/Google Drive folder? Very difficult, apparently.
That was interesting. I just wrote a Patreon post for next week, totting up all my travel articles that were put on ice by the pandemic then revived later - in one form or another. There were 15 in total! All of them survived to be published another day... one as late as 2024.
What a time that was. Glad to be in the future now.
Just dashed off my Monthly Report for February 2024, for the eyes only of the two highest levels of patrons at my Patreon.
These ever-lovely (and intellectual, good-looking etc) First Class and Sleeper Berth patrons receive, in addition to three new travel-related posts each week, a monthly report in which I discuss the ins and outs of my month of travel writing, and they enjoy a previously unshared photo from the month which has an interesting story attached.
They also get a personalised postcard in the mail each Christmas, created from one of my travel photos and with a message from me on the back.
If you'd like to join this exclusive gang of highly intelligent (and attractive, good-natured, sophisticated etc) patrons, please visit my Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/timrichards
I did my quarterly tax yesterday (yes I know, the glamorous travel writing life), and it reinforced my pleasant surprise at the outcome of the second half of last year.
I didn't travel at all overseas in that period, which is unusual for me, but as a result I had a very successful half-year financially – because I was here and available to accept work and to pitch for work (including working my way through all the potential stories from my big Europe trip earlier in the year).
That was an interesting result, and a bit unexpected. Makes me wonder if I should do less travel more often in the future – though obviously I have to travel at some point, or I have nothing to write about. Hmmm
It's twenty years this week since I became a freelance writer, so we marked the occasion today by having lunch at the Nepalese dumpling place down the street (Momo). Look - 20 dumplings!
Each year I send a special postcard to the patrons of my Patreon on the top two tiers. It always features a photo I've taken on my travels, with a descriptive message on the back.
This year's was of the Vestibule within the old town at Split, Croatia. The day I took this shot, the space was full of beautful music courtesy of an a cappella group singing klapa, traditional songs from Dalmatia.
A reminder that I have a Patreon in which I write about travel - with three exclusive posts released to patrons each week.
There are posts about rail travel, different parts of the world I've visited, eternal travel topics (such as turndown service being my mortal enemy!), and stories connected to photos taken on my travels.
Visit https://www.patreon.com/timrichards for more info or to sign up - subscription starts at $3 per month. Hope to be writing for you soon!
New at my Patreon... I recently reopened my Europe itinerary to check a detail. And I looked at that much-annotated Word doc and thought: "What a beautiful mess":
VIGNETTES…
Vignettes are brief snapshots of a place, a person, a moment and the thoughts that come to mind in that moment. Just captures in mind, word and image of the passing world.
These are vignettes of Tasmania captured when on the road.
New at my Patreon (especially for Doctor Who's 60th birthday today)... It's the 60th birthday of science fiction TV show Doctor Who, which has entertained me through my life. But did it also make me a traveller?
Today in Traveller, in print in The Sunday Age (Melbourne) and the Sun-Herald (Sydney) - myself and a bunch of colleagues write about our best travel moments of 2023.
(Mine involve food in Lisbon and Lyon, a fast train in Italy, and a scenic slow train in Queensland.)
OMG that was an exhausting week. Travelled around the bay, delivered a library talk, edited 6 articles for Lonely Planet, wrote and filed an article from my Canada trip, saw an eye doctor, met up with a friend, bought groceries, did admin, nearly melted down.
Tomorrow (Friday is the start of my weekend), I am ignoring my emails and relaxing. I intend to head to Carlton to see a movie and eat pasta. That is all. And no looking at my email till Monday.
Now free for all to read... Looking through my laptop, I found a short article I'd written about the reasons why I travel. They are varied, but often involve history:
This is what I'm up to this weekend: train + bus to Rosebud (where I'm delivering a library talk); bus + ferry to Queenscliff; bus to Geelong; and ferry home to Melbourne. It's a food trip by PT basically, eating at some good new restaurants along the way.
Right, I've just written a Doctor Who post for my Patreon for release on 23 November - otherwise known as Doctor Who Day! Thought I should do something to mark the show's 60th anniversary.
Accompanied it with these photos I took when visiting the Doctor Who experience in Cardiff in 2014. Nice shots, the first one was a re-creation of the original TARDIS console for a doco-drama made about how the show began: An Adventure in Space and Time.
My post - involving the Doctor's connection with my travels - will be exclusive to my patrons, so please join that merry band to read it. Details at https://www.patreon.com/timrichards