My Holiday in Lesvos

At the end of May Jayne and I enjoyed a week's holiday on the Greek island of Lesvos (also known as Lesbos). I thought I'd tell you a little bit about it, and also share a few photographs.

It was the first time we had ever been to Lesvos, although regular readers will know that Jayne and I love Greece and go there as often as we can.

Lesvos is the third largest of the Greek islands, after Crete and Evia. It's in the north-eastern Aegean, very close to Turkey. We stayed in Anaxos, a quiet resort on the north of the island, at a place called the Anaxos Hotel (which I highly recommend, by the way). The nearest town to Anaxos is Petra, which we went to on the local bus one day.

It was sunny every day during our holiday, and it got steadily hotter. Consequently we didn't do anything too strenuous, though we did spend plenty of time swimming in the sea and in the hotel pool. The picture below was taken from the balcony of our room and shows the pool and the hotel entrance.


We spent a lot of time on the beach, making good use of the free sunbeds at a beach bar called Hippocampus ('Seahorse'), which quickly became our favourite. Here's Jayne taking it easy with a new friend...


As mentioned, one day we went to Petra on the local bus and enjoyed lunch at the Women's Co-operative, which we'd seen recommended on the Internet. Here's a photo of the outdoor dining terrace. As you'll see, we had the place pretty much to ourselves...


And here's the delicious mixed plate we shared that day. I can almost taste it now!


The sunsets at Anaxos were all beautiful, but the one on the last day was particularly stunning. Here's a photo I'm currently using as the desktop on my PC!


You can see more photographs I took, including some of the impressively preserved interior of an 18th century merchant's house in Petra, on this Picasaweb page.

We definitely plan to return to Anaxos before too long!

An Interview with Paul Kilduff

As previewed in this post a few weeks ago, I'm delighted to welcome Irish author Paul Kilduff to my blog today. Paul is visiting as part of a Virtual Book Tour (VBT) to launch his new book, Ruinair, a tongue-in-cheek account of his experiences travelling round Europe with low-cost airlines. Without further ado, let's get down to the questions and answers...

1) Is this your first book, Paul?

No, I have written four financial thrillers previously for Hodder Headline in London. Ruinair is my first work of non fiction and is published in Ireland.

2) How long have you been writing and what started you off?

I began writing in 1998 - what started me was when I read a financial thriller where the author got a large advance and I knew I could write a book at least as good as his.

3) How would you describe the writing that you're doing?

It's vaguely funny travel writing at present, full of informative content, fast paced, lots of variety, topical stuff, with amusing anecdotes and some insights.

4) Who is your target audience? Who influenced you?

Passengers of the Irish low fares airline Ruinair and its CEO, Mick O'Leary! And all those who love travel writing and having a go at large corporations.

I was influenced by Bill Bryson, Pete McCarthy, Tim Moore, Don George, Simon Calder, Alain de Botton and many good guide books and maps over the years.

5) Is your fiction writing autobiographical at all?

My fiction features the work environments, places, cities, people, scams and scandals I had encountered in real life when I lived and worked in the City of London.

6) What are your biggest challenges as a writer?

Converting from writing fiction to non fiction was a big challenge. Also balancing a writing career as well as holding down a day job in a US investment bank.

7) Do you write every day, and how do you begin and end the process?

No, I work every day until I can retire! I write on weekends, holidays, Christmas, Easter, time off, and on my sick days off work!

8) What aspects of your writing do you enjoy most?

I enjoy the creativity, of producing an end product and seeing it on book shelves in shops, such as being the No. 1 non-fiction bestseller in Ireland right now. I enjoy being taken for slap up meals by my agent and editor in Dublin's top restaurants, and I enjoy PR work where I meet some of Ireland top radio personalities!

9) What is your book about and what inspired it?

My book is about travelling around Europe on a cheap Irish low fares airline called Ruinair and seeing the good and bad of a most amazing continent - all for a 1 cent fare!

10) What sets this book apart from what you've written in the past?

I think this current work of fiction is much more populist than my former financial thrillers. also I think non fiction is easier to write than draining your imagination for fiction.

11) How long did the whole process take, beginning to end?

I was abandoned by Ruinair in Malaga, Spain for 10 hours in August 2004, I began the book in 2005, finished it in 2006, sold it in 2007, and it was published in Feb 2008.

12) Did you begin writing for the love of it, or did you always aim to become published?

It was always my aim to have my books published - I really believe that's the main aim of any writing - I want to share my half-decent writing with as many people as possible.

13) What's your most significant achievement so far?

I think seeing the book enter the Irish non fiction bestseller list at no 1 and stay there for the past 7 weeks since publication has been fantastic.

14) Where do you get your ideas? Do you build characters and events slowly or do they come to you in a flash?

My ideas for travel books come to me when I am on the road - I have to travel and fly frequently to get my observational and literary powers humming.

15) What's next for you?

Next up is the sequel to Ruinair - this will be a book about travelling on low fares airlines to the 12 countries of Eastern Europe - the book is called 'Ruinairski', due Feb 09.

16) Do you have any advice for other budding authors out there?

I would say read all the books you can in your chosen genre, write often, read books on 'how to write', attend writing classes and workshops, persevere, be realistic, enjoy...

17) Finally, as we're conducting this interview online, I wondered if you could tell me what are your three favourite websites, and why?

1. www.ryanair.com
A great site for low fares travel on a friendly flexible Irish airline run by a shy retiring chief executive named Michael O'Leary. 'I'm probably just an obnoxious little bollocks. Who cares? The purpose is not to be loved. The purpose is to have the passengers on board.'

2. www.airlinequality.com
An extensive site about airlines and airports. Before I travel anywhere on any airline, I can check out what other flyers experienced and advise.

3. www.paulkilduff.com
I built my own site myself, using FrontPage. It's basic but full of content and often updated, and readers of both my fiction and non-fiction like it.

Many thanks to Paul for visiting my blog on his VBT, and for taking the trouble to answer these questions in forthright and entertaining style! If you have any further questions or comments for Paul, please feel free to post them here.

If you're inspired to try to follow Paul's example, dare I mention it, my CD course Write Any Book in Under 28 Days will help you get a book of your own completed in the shortest possible time. And my publishers, WCCL, also produce an excellent introductory guide to travel writing, written by my colleague Mel McIntyre.

For more information about Ruinair, clicking through here will take you to the publisher's sales page. I have also included an image link to the book at Amazon.co.uk below. Note that if you are receiving this post by email, you will need to visit my blog to see this.

Writing Workshop in Italy

Who fancies going on a ten-day writing workshop in beautiful Bolsena, Italy? OK, I guess that's most of you then!

I've been contacted by one of the organisers of the workshop in question, the American author Teresa Cutler. You can see the details she provided below - and the best thing is, readers of this blog qualify for a special discount!

If you would like more information about the workshop and the discount for my blog readers, please email Teresa at the address at the foot of this post. Don't forget to tell her you read about this on Nick Daws' Writing Blog!

Scrivere in Italia!

Join Inkwell, Inc. & Life in Italy LLC for a ten-day writing retreat/workshop in beautiful Bolsena, Italy, October 10 - 19, 2008. Special offer for all Nick Daws writing blog readers.

This workshop has been designed for writers of all kinds - fiction, memoir, creative non-fiction, and especially travel - at early and intermediate stages of their writing careers who wish to expand their skills and enjoy Italy.

The workshop/retreat will offer talks by well-known authors including Dario Castagno and others, and professional photographers, and we will take a number of half-day tours for inspiration to towns many tourists never see, searching for the story no one else has written or the moment that sparks that story in you. Through the ancient history that gathers in every piazza, and in every voice speaking the beautiful Italian language, you will find a well-spring of ideas.

Short workshops will be offered daily and facilitated by Teresa Cutler.

Italy provides an extraordinary environment in which to create rich and vivid essays for travel writers, and the workshops will give you the tools to develop them. Additionally, Italy gives fiction characters depth, and the workshops will help move them toward their ultimate destiny.

You will have as much time to write as you need every day, and always have the choice to work instead of attend a workshop or go on a tour.

Our goal is to help participants not only develop their writing skills but to use Italy and its wonders as inspiration and as muse.

Accommodations will be at an elegant and historic hotel in Bolsena overlooking the lake, and daily workshops and seminars will be held at a centuries-old home right on Via Francigena, owned by Paolo Nascimbeni of Life in Italy. Paolo's house will be available every day, all day, for brainstorming or talking about your projects in the quaint kitchen, writing on the terrace, or discussing the day's inspirations in one of the sitting rooms. High-speed Internet is available as well.

The cost is approximately 2000 Euros. This includes all workshop fees plus nine nights of accommodation, and breakfasts from Friday through Sunday. ** Note that for 2008 we have been able to add lunch and dinners to most days of the retreat, to help offset the cost of the rising Euro for our American clients.

Airfare to Rome and transportation from Rome to Bolsena is not included. A train from Rome to nearby Orvieto or Montefiascone is quite inexpensive and we will provide transportation from either of those towns to your hotel!

For all Nick Daws writing blog readers, a discount will apply to the tuition. Please write to Teresa at inkwell.inc.tlc-at-gmail.com for more information (change the -at- for the usual @ sign). And to apply, please fill out these forms and email them soon.

Come with us to Italy, and explore its magic while learning how to write!

Review: Travel Writing Secrets

Travel Writing Secrets is the latest in WCCL's range of products and courses for writers, which also includes my courses Write Any Book in Under 28 Days and Quick Cash Writing.

The author of Travel Writing Secrets is Mel McIntyre, who has also written several other WCCL courses. It is provided as an instant download in the universal PDF format. It is therefore suitable for all computing platforms, Microsoft Windows, Macintosh and Linux. Travel Writing Secrets is password-protected, but that's only a minor inconvenience. Once you have opened it, you can print out all or any of the pages as you wish.

Like all WCCL products, Travel Writing Secrets is beautifully produced, and it has clearly been professionally written and edited. The main manual (I'll get to the bonus items later) is a substantial 220 pages long. It takes you through pretty much everything you need to know to get started as a travel writer. The content is well organised and crammed with useful, practical information. For example, in chapter two alone you will discover the three things travel articles MUST do, the seven types of travel article, and five secrets for gathering information for your articles.

Travel Writing Secrets also covers interviewing techniques, outlining and writing skills, and how to pitch ideas to editors. And it has in-depth advice on marketing your work, with details of large numbers of potential markets, mainly in the US and the UK. The market info, which is largely in a separate 'bonus' guide, includes website details (with links to contributors' guidelines where available) and unpublicised email addresses to which you can submit your queries. This is invaluable information; and obviously as the guide has just been published, it is currently bang up to date.

If I was to make one very small criticism, it is that Travel Writing Secrets is strongly orientated towards selling travel articles to newspapers and magazines. Nothing wrong with that, but I might like to have seen a little more about selling your work to travel companies, for their brochures and so on. This is referred to as a possibility in the manual, but no more. I'd also like to have seen more details about how you can get yourself invited on free press trips to exotic destinations by travel companies and their PR agencies. Well, I can dream, can't I?!

As well as the main manual, you get a range of bonuses. These include the markets guide I have already mentioned, a guide to writing query letters (the best way to get commissions), and a set of 'templates' that take you step by step through writing three different types of travel article. The latter would be great for beginners who are still feeling their way, though later on you might prefer to dispense with them or adapt them to your personal style.

Another bonus is a guide to taking travel photographs that sell. Obviously, your chances of selling a travel article will be much better if you can offer photos as well, and this bonus manual is packed with hints and tips on how to do this. It's all good stuff, although rather surprisingly it doesn't include any actual photographs!

Overall, Travel Writing Secrets gets my recommendation as a comprehensive introduction to the exciting world of travel writing. Just about everything you need to know is here, written in a chatty, entertaining style, with real-life examples to back up the points made. If travel writing appeals to you, I'd recommend ordering a copy today. Your first commission should cover the modest sale price several times over.

BONUS! Readers of this blog seem to like my special bonuses, so I'm offering one for Travel Writing Secrets as well. I've been able to source a half-hour downloadable video that explains how you can make money from your digital photos, even if - like me - you're far from being an expert photographer. The video reveals a range of websites that will let you make money from ANY photo (with a few obvious exceptions), as well as setting out some ingenious strategies for putting your photographic skills to profitable use.

The video has been produced to a high standard by an Internet marketer called Dr. C, and I have had to pay a fee to get the rights to it. However, it seemed to me an excellent match with Travel Writing Secrets, as it sets out a range of extra ways you can profit from your travel photos (and any others you take).

I'm giving away the video to anyone buying Travel Writing Secrets via a link in this review. It will play on your computer in the free Windows Media Player, and also includes a text file with URLs for all the sites referred to in the video (and other useful links). To claim this extra bonus from me, just forward a copy of your email receipt showing the purchase of Travel Writing Secrets to travel-at-nickdaws.co.uk (change the -at- to the usual @ sign). I will then get back to you with instructions for downloading your extra bonuses. Of course, these are in addition to the usual bonuses being offered at the Travel Writing Secrets website.

Good luck, and happy travel writing!

A Visit to Guernsey

At the end of March, Jayne and I enjoyed a short break in Guernsey. I thought perhaps you might like to hear a little bit about it, and see some of the photos I took.

For those who don't know, Guernsey is one of the Channel Islands, a small group of islands between Britain and France. Guernsey (like the other Channel Islands) is a British Crown dependency, though it's not part of the United Kingdom. Guernsey is the second largest Channel Island after Jersey, which we visited a couple of years ago (see this post).

We stayed at a hotel called the Bon Port, which is in the parish of St Martins, in the south-east of the island. Being so early in the season, it was very quiet. Indeed, on our first night we were the only guests in the hotel! It was a good break, though, and great to be out and about breathing the sea air rather than sitting in front of my computer as usual.

Although the weather could fairly be described as mixed (at one point we were caught in a hailstorm!), we didn't let it stop us seeing what the island had to offer. We had a day in St Peterport, the capital, where we spent some time exploring the historic Castle Cornet and its museums.

On another day, when the weather was bad, we took the rep's advice and hopped on a number 7 bus, which took us all around the island for just 60p (about $1). This was a great way of seeing the whole of the island's coastline. It illustrates how small Guernsey is that, even with regular stops and starts, the entire circuit took little over an hour.

Photos, then. Here's a picture of the two of us enjoying breakfast at the hotel. Note the freesias, for which Guernsey is famous.


Here's one of several tableaux in the museum at Castle Cornet, showing how the castle barracks might have looked in the 18th century (I think). And yes, we did ask if it was OK to take photos!


This is a tea-room which we discovered while walking along the cliff path from the hotel. Those mugs of hot chocolate were very welcome!


You can see more of the photos I took in Guernsey on my Picasa album page.

Finally, here's a video clip of the view from the balcony of our hotel room. It's not the most exciting video you'll ever see, and the quality isn't great, but it may give you some idea why we thought it was well worth paying the extra for a sea view!


If you are receiving this post by email, you will need to visit my blog to watch the video.

Incidentally, if anyone else is thinking of visiting Guernsey, I do recommend the Bon Port. Not only does it have a great location with spectacular views, the food is also first rate. It is a little bit remote, however, so if you're not keen on walking I'd recommend hiring a car, or else booking somewhere a little closer to the main bus routes!

My Christmas in Cyprus...

As some of you will already know, this year Jayne and I spent Christmas week in Cyprus. It was our first visit to the island, which for those who don't know is in the eastern Mediterranean. We stayed in Paphos, which is a quiet but popular resort. It's also a World Heritage Site because of the amazing Roman ruins and mosaics that are still being discovered there.

We had a great week, and I thought you might like to see a few of the photos I took. The first one is a view of our hotel - The Pioneer Beach - by evening.



Although the hotel we stayed at was for adults only, we had a visit from Father Christmas on Christmas morning. Here's Jayne standing beside him. I think he was the smallest Santa I'd ever seen!


The Roman mosaics at Paphos were truly astonishing. I thought there might be half a dozen or so, but there are literally hundreds, many of them incredibly well preserved considering their age. The photos I took don't really do them justice, but here's one showing close-up details, which reveals just how intricate they are.



We were lucky with the weather during our stay. Here's a typical sunset...



And here's one of the beautiful tapestries at the Kykkos Monastery, which we visited on a coach trip. Yes, that really is gold leaf!


I hope you like the photos. If you wish, you can see a lot more I took on this Picasa web page.

I'd definitely like to visit Cyprus again before too long!

A Trip to Venice

Yes, I've been on my travels again. Last week Jayne and I spent a few days in the beautiful Italian city of Venice. If you click on the link below, it will take you to an album of photos I took while I was there.

Venice07

We stayed at the Hotel Scandinavia, which for those of you who know Venice is about half-way between St Mark's and the Rialto Bridge. It proved to be a great location for exploring the city, about as central as you could wish. It was quiet and peaceful, however, helped considerably by the fact that no cars are allowed in the main part of the city.

We had a great few days exploring the narrow lanes and (of course) the many canals. According to Wikipedia, Venice consists of 118 islands formed by about 150 canals in a shallow lagoon. The islands are connected by about 400 bridges, and by the end of our break it felt as though we had crossed most of them!

I recommend Venice as a beautiful and fascinating place to visit. I would offer two pieces of advice to anyone thinking of going, however. First, get yourself a good, large-scale map: with the narrow streets and tall buildings, it's very easy to get lost. And second, pack some warm clothes. At the advice of a friend who had been before at this time of year I packed two woolly jumpers, and was very glad I had done so!

Incidentally, my online photo album was created using Picasa, the free photo organising (and editing) service from Google. Picasa automatically finds all the photos on your PC and lets you organise them into albums. And - as you can see - it also allows you to publish your albums to the Web for others to enjoy, again free of charge. If you'd like more info about Picasa, just click here and click on the banner that appears.