I’ve always been an avid traveler (64 countries and counting) and a pretty decent writer. It never even crossed my mind to put the two together until a magical epiphany about two months ago. Travel writer. I will become a professional travel writer.
I had my epiphany while working on my book, Fortune, Folly, And A Thousand Fates. It’s a travel memoir from when my wife and I went on a comically absurd and impromptu honeymoon through Africa. I won’t spoil anything, but it went, let’s say, not smoothly. You should give it a read, really. It will give you a window into who we are and how we travel that will shed a brighter light on all that we write here on the blog.
I actually wrote this book right after our trip, over four years ago. However, I never could decide what to do with it. I was perfectly new to the whole world of publishing (including the jargon, which confounded me more than a few times), and couldn’t decide if I wanted to self-publish or try to find a publisher. Because of my indecisiveness, the project got put on the back burner, and other projects took precedent.
I had a tiny house building company for a while after I wrote the book. Yes, I built those closet-sized fancy shacks on wheels that are all the rage on HGTV these days. Long story short, the company went nowhere. Turning a profit building those things proved to be much more difficult than it seems, and I sold both houses I built at a loss. Mistakes were made and lessons were learned, and I became a better person for it all, once the sullenness wrought by a failed business wore off.
I wandered through the metaphorical wilderness for a while (although I wouldn’t have minded a literal wilderness), when the stars finally aligned and everything seemed to be coming up roses. We were having dinner one night with one of Trish’s friends, who had just published a book. She talked about the whole process, and we discussed my unpublished tome. One thing led to another, and there I found myself finally getting the thing published. While working on part of it, I sat there and realized that this is what I want to do more of. Maybe not writing books specifically, but writing. Writing about traveling. Whatever I end up doing in life, I’m not going to stop traveling, so I might as well try and find a way to profit from it. It just seemed so obvious in hindsight, so clear. Am I capable? Yes. Do I love it? Yes. Will it make money? If I’m good enough and dedicated. Do I have a merry band of willing travel participants? No question about it. I threw together a brief concept for this website (big h/t to Hilary Stoddard of hilarystoddard.com for building a fantastic site!) and began making plans.
So here we are. The Outbound Clan, all four of us, will soon be outbound, and I, as chief blogger, will soon be your guide. I do hope you will join us as we fly the finest airlines, sample gourmet cuisines, stay in the poshest hotels, and lounge in air conditioned luxury as we await the arrival of our tour guide.
Totally kidding. You’re much more likely to find us eating street food outside of the cheapest Airbnb that would take us, while we Google “what to do in (blank)”, because we don’t know what to do once we finish our street meal.
It will be fun, that I can guarantee. Fun, informative, unique, and dynamic. We look forward to sharing our experiences with you, to show you just how beneficial for the soul traveling can be, for you and your family. Thanks for stopping by and do come again! Don’t be strangers!
(You’re supposed to read those last two sentences in a deep, folksy Southern accent, by the way.)
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