Can't ski? Another murderous press trip in Colorado provides other options

If you didn't read my previous book review about Cynthia Baxter's travel-writing sleuth Mallory Marlowe, you might think I've just returned from a horrible fam tour from the Rocky Mountain state.

Despite what the cover depicts,
this is not a
'Pooch of the Powderhorn' story

That's not the case, though, as you've probably surmised by now.

No, this is another mystery story revolving around the adventures of New York-based travel writer Mallory Marlowe, who just happens to have the ability to stumble into a murder-mystery on every assignment.

This time, in Too Rich and Too Dead, she's off to a Colorado ski resort to write an article about the kinds of activities and adventures that visitors can enjoy when they prefer not to ski down the mountains. (While that may sound far-fetched, it's not; I've sold paddling stories to Ski Canada magazine, and that sometimes surprises people.)

Oh, and by the way - this was published before pot became legal in the state, so if you read it, keep that in mind.

Part of Marlowe's assignment involves interviewing celebrity health-guru and spa owner Carly Cassidy Berman, a former high school classmate. Before she can complete her assignment though, the celeb turns up dead in a mud bath at the spa.

Then the fun begins.

Mallory is sucked into trying to solve the mystery while trying to still complete the research for her travel article. Along the way, she gets entangled in not one, but two potential romances - one with a suspect, and the other with Trevor Pierce, her boss and editor of The Good Life magazine.

He shows up worried about her when news of the murder reaches New York, and given her previous adventures in Florida, he wants to make sure nothing happens to her. Or that's his story.

There are plenty of red herrings, and Baxter does a good job of conveying what a travel writer on assignment often has to go through to get a story completed.

Again, the depiction of a travel writer's life is a bit idealized; personally, I'd love to have her gig, myself: one guaranteed week-long trip each month, a spot in the magazine guaranteed, all expenses paid, and a good chunk of coin when the story is published.

Travel writers' Heaven, in other words.

The protagonist does manage to solve it and gets her magazine piece completed, as well.

Like the previous novel, there is also a section at the back with "travel articles" that contain information about the destinations and activities mentioned in the story, a nice added extra.

Since writing and publishing this second book in the series (2009), Cynthia Baxter has not written any more. The last book published by Bantam Books in her other series, Reigning Cats and Dogs, hit the markets in 2010. Her Facebook page has not posted anything in a few years, so it looks like she's not writing any more.

It's a pity; I would loved to have read more Murder Packs a Suitcase stories from her.



See? There's plenty to do in Colorado besides ski.

Hi-Diddle-Dee-Dee, a travel writers' life for me...

Sooner or later, friends, family, casual acquaintances, just about anyone I meet actually, all get around to asking me one question when they find out I'm a travel writer.

"How did you get to be a travel writer?"

It sometimes takes the form of, "What school did you attend to learn journalism?" Other times, it takes the form of, "Boy, I'd sure like to find out how you got that job!" Sometimes it even comes disguised as a not-so-subtly-veiled hint, "Do you ever need anyone to come along with you on one of your trips?" (the latter because travel writers are often hosted on press tours where the expenses are minimal.)

First of all, I don't think anyone ever sets out to become a travel writer. A writer, yes; a travel and tourism industry professional, of course; a travel agent, maybe. But I don't remember anyone I ever knew in high school or university who set out with the career goal of becoming a travel writer upon graduation. Most of us just fall into it.

And as far as "tagging along" with a travel writer on assignment goes...it's not all pina coladas on the beach and free massages at the spa (although there is a bit of that). A working travel writer often has a tough schedule in order to get to all the destinations, see all the sights that need to be seen in order to meet the demands of the trip itinerary/assignment.

Ready to launch our kayaks and paddle to the cays in Belize.

A travel writer is usually up early, going all day long, and even after the schedule is done for the day, there is often work to do at night - especially these days with social media becoming more and more a part of the picture. That means that not only do you stay up late, going over the days' notes, organizing photos and preparing equipment for the next day's activities, and perhaps journalling about the day's events...now, a writer may also end up writing a blogpost or posting photos and videos on social media.

Opting out of scheduled events is NOT really an option, as it is on a family vacation. If you're on the trip, you have to attend everything. The schedules can be very demanding.

That being said, I cannot imagine myself enjoying any other career as much as this one.

So ... How did I become a travel writer?

First you have to understand how I became a writer. I went to the University of New Brunswick enrolled in a Bachelor of Science-Forestry program. Ever since I was 12, I'd wanted to help conserve our natural resources - forests, lakes, wildlife - and made up my mind to go into forestry. While working as a junior forest ranger in Gogama, Ontario in the summer of 1973, the head foreman told me about UNB. I decided to go there rather than one of the Ontario universities because I wanted to see another part of the country - I wanted an adventure.

The first week at UNB, I made very good friends with Dan Arsenault...he had joined CHSR 700, the on-campus AM student radio station and eventually convinced me to join, too.

I might as well have said good-bye to a forestry career right then, but I tried to combine the two for another two years, eventually giving in to my passion for radio and switching to a degree program that would allow more leisure time for my broadcast interests. Eventually, I worked my way up through the station as program director, then station manager before moving into my true broadcasting love: sports. After leading the station's sports department into the era of FM broadcasting, I got work as a professional freelance sports reporter first at CFNB then CBC Radio in Fredericton while finishing my business degree.

I also began writing sports for the student newspaper, which led to my first full-time in Barrhead, Alberta, after graduating. For the next 15 years, I bounced back and forth between broadcasting and newspaper jobs in Alberta and B.C.

While still working as sports editor for the Alaska Highway News, I took my first international vacation, an ecotour in Belize. It involved paddling sea kayaks for a week, then touring around the jungle in caves, on horseback and at Mayan temples for a week, swimming in underground rivers, seeing wild parrots, finding scorpions in one's shirt --- I loved it!

I went back and wrote up two articles about it for the paper, and I was hooked. This was even more fun than sports-writing.

Fast-forward to 1999: my SO and erstwhile companion the Divine Ms. K. got a killer job in Calgary, and I began my freelance career. Not focused strictly on travel, but a mix of the outdoors, conservation, adventure, food and travel.

Looking at parrots on Grand Cayman Island.

In essence, I'd come full-circle. In many of my articles, I was informing people about the importance of protecting the environment and by sharing many of my travel adventures, I hoped to connect them to nature.

Kind of a convoluted path, but a path none-the-less. And I've travelled on it now for 15 years.

It's helped me enjoy some incredible experiences... seen places in the world I might never have seen, otherwise... I've met some wonderful people that I am still friends with - and I've even made a few bucks along the way.

And it's something I intend to do until they pull the camera and keyboard from my cold, dead fingers.

Your takeaway from this?

No matter what path you're on, no matter what background you come from, no matter what your education background is, if you can write well, or take good photos (better if you can do both) you can be a travel writer.

And remember what T.S. Eliot said: "The journey, not the arrival, matters."

Enjoy your journey.

On assignment: Playing with sharks and rays at the Maui Ocean Centre

Itching to be a travel writer? Read these books first

When talking to people about what I do for a living, I often get asked, "Gee, what would it take for me to become a travel writer?"

(This usually comes right after, "Boy, I'd sure love to have your job!" when you've regaled the person with tales of your latest adventures.

Before you can travel, you have to be able to write; 

before you start writing, you should read the books below.

It's not easy being a travel writer, although many people do find they have a knack for creating good travel prose. Perhaps I should re-phrase that: it's not easy to be a successful travel writer.

However, if you are set in trying it out, you will need to invest in a bit of study, first.

To help, here are “Five Books Every Travel Writer Should Have.” 

Some of these books are very basic, and if you’re already an experienced freelance writer, they will seem rudimentary. Some of them do not deal with "travel-writing" at all. But if you're a newbie, you have to walk before you run. And if you're already running, even the best pros experience “slumps” from time to time - and like a slumping hockey player trying to get his game back on track, it sometimes helps to go back to the basics and remind ourselves about how we got there.

You may notice one thing that is absent from my list: any book dealing specifically with travel writing online or travel writing in social media. I don’t know of any that hard-copy books that deal specifically with travel writing, although there are several books about social media and blogging in general. Because these types of media change so quickly, you're probably better off borrowing e-books from your local library or digging up info online about writing for websites or social media platforms.

Once you've mastered freelance basics and
queries, you can move on to this book.

So here are the books:

1. Beginning Writer’s Answer Book, edited by Kirk Polking. This is one of several books published by Writer’s Digest Books. It’s the first book I read about freelancing, and if you’re new to freelance writing, you really need to read it. It outlines how to get started, important terms to know, some of the really important “do’s” and “don’t’s” about working with editors and publishers. Even if you have been freelancing for a while, it’s not a bad book to have for reference.

2. The Renegade Writer by Linda Formichelli and Diana Burrell. This is the second-most important book a freelance writer needs. Once you’ve learned the rules about freelancing from the book above, this one teaches you how to break them all – successfully. There are times and situations where it’s okay – in some instances it may even be imperative – to break the rules. This book helps you figure out when and where those are. It covers topics like simultaneous submissions and/or queries, calling editors on the telephone, etc. It’s written in a very entertaining style, as well.

3. How to Writer Attention-Grabbing Query and Cover Letters by John Wood. This is another Writer’s Digest book. When it comes right down to it, there are two essential aspects of successful freelance writing: A) The ability to deliver good quality writing, on time and on target for an editor; and, B) The ability to get an assignment in the first place so you can deliver great articles. This book helps with the second item. It deals with soliciting work from periodical publications as well as books. In addition to query and cover letters, it also provides advice about how to handle other forms of correspondence with editors. As I mentioned in the intro, it’s not a bad idea every now and then to re-read some of this stuff and eliminate any less-than-desirable habits we may have picked up without even being aware.

4. Writing Travel Books and Articles by Richard Cropp, Barbara Braidwood and Susan M. Boyce. Okay. The first three books I’ve listed here are not travel-specific; however, if you’re not a good freelance writer to begin with, these last two – or any book dealing with just travel writing - won’t help you at all. (Besides, how many “how to be a travel writer” books do you really need?) This book was my bible when I became interested in concentrating more on freelance travel writing. It covers some of the same basics as the books above, but without as much detail. Then it goes on to provide many more details about all the different aspects of travel writing, including the importance of images. Which leads us to …

   

   Basic photography skills are
   a must for any travel writer.

5. Digital Travel Photography – Digital Field Guide by David D. Busch. If you want to be a successful freelance travel writer, you have to be able to take good photographs. Not great - but good. This book briefly covers the basics that are essential to any kind of good digital photography, and then spends most of its pages focusing on how to produce successful digital travel photos. It goes into a great deal of detail about the different elements as well as the different types of travel photography. It also offers a list of online resources at the back. Best of all, it’s really small enough to travel with, in the event you need to refresh your memory with some forgotten detail, while on the road. It does not really delve into getting your travel photos published, but if you’ve read the first four books listed here, you’re good to go.

If those five are not enough …

Five more books you, as a travel writer, may want to read, or have for reference or inspiration (in no particular order): 

• The 10 Best of Everything, by Nathaniel and Andrew Lande
• Travel Yoga, by Darrin Zeer
• 1000 Places to See Before You Die, by Patricia Schultz
• A Sense of Place, by Michael Shapiro
• Writing to Change the World by Mary Pipher. 

Travel Yoga is not about writing - but if you do pursue the life of a travel writer, it may come in handy. And while the last book is not about travel or travel writing, as travel writers, each one of us has the power to change the world - something we should always bear in mind when we put words to paper or into cyberspace.

Murderous press trip full of tourism twists and turns

No, this is not a review of a recent press trip that turned out badly (I can hear some travel industry people going, “Whew!”). 

Mind you, I could write about those, as I have been on a few - but maybe after I retire...

Rather, this is about a book titled Murder Packs a Suitcase – the first book in a mystery series featuring a travel writer as a protagonist.

Author Cynthia Baxter stepped into a new genre with this book, after publishing several mystery novels about veterinarian-turned-sleuth Jessica Popper, a.k.a., the “Reigning Cats and Dogs” series.

Recently widowed Mallory Marlowe is looking to get back into living her life following the death of her husband, and while applying for a part-time job as a typesetter at the New York-based Good Life magazine, she ends up getting a gig as their regular travel writer, responsible for taking one all-expenses paid trip a month to produce a 2,000-word piece for the high-end glossy – and getting paid well, to boot. (You know this really is fiction - how many gigs like that really exist, and how many of us wouldn’t want something like that to fall in our lap? Drool-drool!)

Her first assignment takes her to Orlando, Florida where she’s part of a press trip consisting of several travel writers, each covering a different beat or publication genre. 

Many of the travel writer stereotypes are covered: Mallory, of course, covers the more expensive beat. There is also the budget travel magazine writer, the seniors’ travel writer, and the online website travel writer. 

Each writer has his or her own characteristics: the budget writer is always looking to cut corners, get everything as cheap as possible; the senior just “wants to have fun;” and the online writer is actually one of those types that sometimes appear on real press trips – he’s obnoxious, condescending, rude – and (unlike any press trips I’ve been on) he ends up getting killed four chapters into the book.

That last point is an important one for me: my rule is, there better be a murder in the first four chapters of any mystery, or it will most likely be a dud!

In this story, there is also a perky tourism board rep and a harried hotel manager.

Of course, Mallory ends up becoming one of the chief murder suspects, so in addition to trying to get to all the tourist attractions so she can meet her assignment requirements, she’s trying to solve the case.

There are the usual suspects (everybody!) and the twists, turns and red herrings that make the “cozy” mystery sub-genre so enjoyable.

The author does a pretty good job of capturing what it’s like to be on a press trip. However, one thing that struck me as a bit odd is the fact even though all these writers are on the same “trip” with the same flight schedules, hotel, etc., they all have completely individual itineraries that they plan themselves, with absolutely no input from the tourism board, other than to supply some free passes to local attractions. The tourism board is credited with organizing it, however. (Not much to organize, really – the writers even book their own flights.)

I’ve been on individual press trips as well as group trips, and while I have no doubt there may be some group trips organized where every writer is completely on their own 100 per cent of the time, it did seem a bit odd, since it’s outside my realm of experience. Usually with a group press trip, there are some group activities, but other than an opening and closing dinner, there are none organized on this one. Certainly, it did provide a different perspective.

One of the unique aspects of this book I liked is the actual “travel story” at the end. Apart from the actual narrative, the author has written a 2,000-word magazine piece, complete with contact info and website links to all the places the fictional writer Mallory visits in the novel. Yes, they are all real destinations, and that lends a nice “realistic” feel to the fiction. It reminded me of the recipes included at the back of so many of the “gourmet/cooking-sleuth” mysteries that are so popular these days.

I really enjoyed it, although admittedly, I am a big mystery buff; by combining two of my favourite topics - murder-mystery fiction, with travel non-fiction - there is a better than average chance I’ll like the end result (provided it’s written well.) In a future post, look for a review of the second book in this series, Too Rich and Too Dead, a story which sees Mallory head to a Colorado ski resort.

Murder Packs a Suitcase, paperback, 304 pp. ISBN: 978-0-553-59036-4 (0-553-59036-7). Cost: $8.99 (in Canada)

Visiting Florida? This video might help with the planning.