Reigniting My Travel Blog

It’s been a long time since I’ve written about travel. Far too long, actually. More than two years. Actually, based on today’s date, it’s closer to three years now than two. My wife noticed that. And I’m guessing it’s something she’s been sitting on for a while, the way she brought it up when we started discussing plans for a road trip.

There wasn’t much to it, just a simple request for me to consider writing about my travels again, but it was the way she said it, the tone of her voice, that gave me pause.

For all this time, while neglecting my travel blog, I’ve been focused on writing a young adult science fiction novel. In truth, I probably could’ve done that and my travel blog. Maybe it would’ve helped, too. My thought, though, was that the book was my primary focus and I shouldn’t stray from that to write about my travels.

Well, fast forward all this time, I’m finally done with a first draft of the novel.

To get to this point, I went through a lot of false starts, did a lot of dreamstorming, and did a whole lot of honest-to-goodness writing even when I didn’t feel like it, sticking to a schedule of a certain number of words each day until it was done by a date I had in mind; ahead of the annual Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators conference in Los Angeles.

So, even though the draft is done, there’s a whole lot of work still to be done on the book.

For one, currently, I’m working on some background pieces that may or may not end up in the story. Just bits and bobs that are caught in my head after writing certain points that made me ask myself why my main character is doing this or that or why the world is a certain way. As such, I’m writing those things out.

Then I’ll let the story sit. And sit. And sit some more. For probably a good two months, to be honest, so I have enough separation to look at it with fresh eyes before I get into the next part…

All of the editing. I’ll have a few good and thorough edits before I even consider sending it off to my critique group to read in total. Then, after they send me back their suggestions, I’ll have more edits.

Anyway, a long story short, those edits will go on and on for a while, through my critique group, any possible agent, an editor, and beyond. We’ll see what happens. One step at a time, though, which brings me back to the travel blog.

As I near the point of letting the novel sit, I want to fill my time writing about something else. I have another fictional story in mind, which I’ll work on over those two months, but I really like my wife’s suggestion of getting back to my travel blog. So, yeah, here it is: me getting back to my travel blog.

I’ll be posting not only about the trip we’re set to head out on, but also some past travels. For instance, since last I’ve written, I got married. Thus me and my wife. And so, what does a wedding mean?

Honeymoon travels!

We headed over to the beautiful Hawaiian island of Kauai. It was the last of the islands I had to visit. And it certainly didn’t disappoint.

Selfie fun with a seal at Kauai’s Poipu Beach. (Don’t worry, an area was roped off by wildlife officials!)

I’ll tell tale of those adventures, as well as our move east from Denver to Buffalo, New York, our new hometown to be nearer the in-laws. Adding to that, we’ve already gone off and seen some things in the region here, which is definitely under represented in terms of travel hype. There are a lot of amazing things to experience in western New York – especially the food.

Oh, the food!

I’ll be talking more about all of that soon, but, before I do, I just wanted to type out a quick note – yes, this is it – of return and explanation for the absence. I suppose I should also point out that my URL has changed. The previous address had been a .com. That lapsed, picked up by some spam site, and has now been replaced by .blog.

Welcome to the .blog, if you’re new here, or welcome back if you’re an ol’ .commer. Either way, welcome and thanks for visiting!