So I go to London next week for yet another LP author workshop. I’ve known I was going for a few weeks, but I waited until now to make this information public, so as to not give my groupies and stalkers enough time to coordinate a Beatles-caliber reception rally at…

I know it’s considered bad form to be mentally indulging in future book proposals when I should very well be concentrating on the one that I already have in play, but I can’t help it. My mind is a relentless Perfect Storm of brilliant book ideas, wacky publicity stunts and…

I’m back in my Village of Solitude on the coast of western Sardinia – the place that timely bus service forgot – still shell-shocked and woozy from my trip to Umbria. As I reported previously, my Umbria research trip was gearing up to be an exhausting week of racing after…

It’s awards season again.  And this time I’m actually a finalist for one.   The 2007 Travvies are run by Upgrade: Travel Better and an as yet unrevealed series of events has landed me in the category of Best Single-Author Travel Blog. Regular readers know that I’m not opposed to popularity…

Dear gentle, devoted, morbidly curious readers (and everyone who’s reading this because they Googled ‘Paris Hilton’, ‘nubile students’, ‘Swedish virgins’ and/or ‘Caligula’ and found this post),  I’m writing to you from a bed the size of a trampoline, having just returned from soaking in a Jacuzzi, inspired by Caligula (or…

I’ve somehow managed to form a genial relationship with a group of folks that acquire material/reviews/articles for a series of high profile web sites. They are friendly, organized and they pay well and promptly. However, the people they acquire for – I’ll call them the “end-clients” – are scattered, indecisive…

Once again, I find myself gyrating through the Free Crap Dance and my moves, which have never been all that groovy, are looking especially graceless and unrhythmic. I’m leaving for a magazine assignment in less than two weeks to write about a region in a country that shall remain nameless,…

It’s finally happening.  I’m forgetting how to speak English.  Will the eccentricities never end? Has this ever happened to you?  You just wanna say something simple to the girl behind the gelato counter like “I want to put your lips on one of those cones and suck on them all…

I have a somewhat addictive personality.  This has manifested itself in a number of ways over the years:  juggling, girls, Jolt Cola, women, video games, babes, wine, Michelle Hunziker, travel and boobs.  Thankfully, somehow, I’ve avoided drugs or the only people reading my missives now would be abnormal psychology researchers,…

In our continuing coverage of dumbass blunders I’ve committed during my freelancing career, one of my budding gullibility lapses of all time is buying into the assumption that Italy has something approaching First-World internet service.  Now, I haven’t been to every corner of Italy, but judging from the parts I’ve seen,…