Why yes, this is a full-tilt, vanity listicle, shamelessly basking in personal achievement in the Lonely Planet universe. You wanna make something of it? All right, then. I’ve already forgotten how this got started, but for some reason I was cataloging all the Lonely Planet articles I’d written from late-2010…

(This is an amendment to the “So you want to be a Lonely Planet author” piece that I originally posted here in April of 2006. Whereas that piece was filled with personal details of my first, grueling LP guidebook gig, this one focuses on the mechanics and general pros and…

Tim Cahill once said “In good travel writing, something on the trip always has to go wrong.” If this is true, then after my most recent Lonely Planet research trip in Romania and Moldova, I should have a book deal landing on my desk any second. At least I hope…

Welcome back to Tuscany Month, featuring another chunk of the Lost Tuscany Text, this time about Pope Pius II, that didn’t make it into the totally redesigned 2010 Lonely Planet Tuscany & Umbria. This text is from a pop-up box I wrote about Pius for the previous Tuscany & Umbria…

I’m off to Romania tomorrow for four weeks and two days of beautiful, summertime, LP research. That’s right, seven days a week, 14 hours a day of pure driving adrenalin, no meaningful conversations and going to bed at 9:45pm. Dude, I am going to have so much… ibuprofen. I know…

It’s finally done. I know this is incredibly delayed (I finished my Tuscany research trip over a month ago), but I felt I needed to review and carefully consider my notes before posting this authoritative, yet decidedly subjective list. Caveats: Of course there are caveats. Chiefly, I’m not taking into…

Using my very limited skills and resources, I have slapped together a montage of photos from my recently completed Lonely Planet Tuscany research trip. As a general nod to posterity (and those considering my internship offer), I’ve chosen to irresponsibly romanticize the trip by leaving out pictures of me limping,…

I think by now that I’ve managed to drive home the point that, while totally awesome at times, on most days travel writing is about as sexy as answering phones and data entry at the National Center for Statistical Reporting of Barley Yields. There is copious unsexy downtime and tedium…

Whew! Now that my Unemployment Anxiety resting heart rate has dropped below 120, I feel comfortable speaking authoritatively about travel writing again and ditching the blog post I was preparing on how to break down the sandwich prep station at closing time at Jimmy John’s (as if they’d have me)….

Last week, I got into a “Twitter Tiff” (copyright me 2008) with long-haul traveler and photography phenom Gary Arndt over the following tweet, which I sent out while gripped in jabbering frustration over a spate of recent blog posts ripping people that carry a guidebook when they travel: I declare…