Yesterday I made the short walk from my Prospect Heights apartment in Brooklyn to the small work studio I rent as I do most days. It looked the same as always -- crammed with four white boards, two fans (no AC allowed), a world map, and various knick-knacks I've picked up while writing two dozen guidebooks: a relief map of Bulgaria, a children's educational poster from Colombia, a jaguar whittled by Lacandon villagers in Chiapas. Oh, and also an autographed photo of Connie Chung.
My office was identical to the day before, except that it had transformed into LP NEW YORK.
Yesterday I became Lonely Planet's US Travel Editor for the Western Hemisphere. Meaning, I'll be the spokesperson on issues from swine-flu scares to 'great train trips' on TV, the radio and other media (beginning by talking about Colombia with Peter Greenberg tomorrow night). Even more importantly, I see my role as a sort of 'travel enabler' for many American travelers, who -- I think -- want more out of their trips than they're getting. Some don't have the time, but some don't know how to do it. I hope to help.
I've been working with Lonely Planet the past 11 years. Before that I was a fan. Working at House Beautiful magazine in New York after college (don't ask), I'd fill lunches at nearby Coliseum Books thumbing through LP guides for places I didn't know you could really visit: Botswana, Vietnam, Cambodia. I bought a couple, just for dreaming, and eventually moved to Vietnam with the LP guide in hand.
When I moved back to the US a year-and-a-half later, I took a cross-country roadtrip on a gamble: just to see if I could get a job at LP's Oakland office. On my first day in my furniture-free studio apartment, I sat on the hard floors and stuffed an envelope with clippings and a plea for work. No response. So I took a temp job at a bank. A couple months later, the bank offered me a full, (high-paying) job supporting a VP who stood at his desk. The same day, LP called me -- saving me from bankdom, or at least standing at my desk.
In-house at LP, I edited books, commissioned authors, planned books like South America, became the publishing manager for shoestring and multi-country titles, then moved to the London office, where I started the LP Sandwich Club. Six years ago, I left LP to write full-time. When picking places to go, I frequently tried to fill the gaps of places in flux or overlooked: Bulgaria, Siberia, Szekely Land (Romania), Colombia, Nebraska, Myanmar. But also spent memorable recent vacations in the Delaware Gap, Vermont, Chicago, Mexico, Vietnam and Turkey.
More to come soon from the LP website. Work beckons!
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