Where I’m writing to

As years go, 2007 is shaping up to be a big one for me personally and professionally.

Personally

* I’m getting married. Does it get any bigger than that? Mark your calendars for 09/08/07 (It’s like a countdown, but a countdown to what. Blast off? Hugs? The Bomb? Self-Destruct? My doing the coffee grinder in the middle of a circle of adoring wedding goers chanting, “Go Kelsey, it’s your wedding. Go Kelsey, it’s your wedding.”?)

* Annie, my wife-to-be, and I just bought a house (more on that in future posts). Yeah, so I’m growing up, but that doesn’t mean the travel writing gig goes.

Professionally

* This blog sponsored by BootsnAll about my travels to Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, and other places in between.

* I hope to be an extra in a Bangladeshi movie. Honestly, how many blond hair blue-eyed extras do they have? ZERO, that’s how many. Enter ME.

* My first contribution to Radio aired in January on the World Vision Report. You can listen to it HERE. The WV has commissioned another story from me and I’ll also be calling into their program as a sort of roaming reporter.

* I’ve got loads of story pitching to do before I leave. Radio, magazines, newspapers. If you’re an editor, expect to hear from me in the near future.

* A book is in the works. I feel naughty.

* The Travelin’ Light column is currently on sabbatical. I’d much rather be writing my 800 word tales than reading books on globalization, but time dictates that I take a break from the column. I expect it’ll pop up somewhere before the year is over.

* I’ll continue to work 30 hrs a week with the family business, Timmerman Truss, until I get fired or land too many writing assignments to keep up.

In the past I’ve chalked up covering the expense of my trips to a sort of grad school – an investment in my future. But now after six years of traveling and writing, school is over. I’ve got my PhD in whatever it is that I do and it’s high time I start making PhD $$.

At first, I traveled for traveling’s sake. To experience the freedom of the open road and all that jazz. I was a bum. It was pure. It was beautiful. And then, the writing bug bit me and now travel plays second fiddle to writing. I can no longer bum. If I’m not working on a story, or what could become a story, I’ve got to move on to one or I’ll go nuts.

Damned writing anyhow. It had to go a screw with the bum gig. Annie is probably a little to blame for this too.