Writing demands research—learning from people, much reading, first-hand observation and the Internet. Here are some of my favorite things:

Tomes on Travel

Laurence Durell and Patrick Leigh Fermor are among my favorite writers of books on travel. I highly recommend Bitter Lemons and Greek Islands by Durell, and Mani: Travels Through the Southern Peloponnese and The Traveler's Tree by Fermor. 

You can order these and other travel books from my Amazon bookstore.

Favorite Places

As soon as people hear that I travel a lot, they want to know what was my favorite place. The more I travel, the harder the selection gets, but I know that my favorite Arizona place is Canyon de Chelley. It edges out Sedona because it is not as crowded, and the Grand Canyon because it has a human scale more easily absorbed.

Favorite big city in the United States— Chicago beats out NYC by a hair. And for smaller places, I like those that have a distinctive flavor— New Orleans, Santa Fe or San Francisco come to mind.

Over the sea—well, I have been to Greece four times. Is that a clue? Although my mother swore that there was no Greek peddler who sneaked into town in a past generation and started a strain of Mediterranean longing in my blood, I feel totally at home in Greece and miss it mightily when I am gone.

A trip to Italy in 2006 felt like cheating on my old love, because Italy is another warm, emotional, scenic place dotted with reminders of ancient history.

And for exotic, nothing I have yet seen beats Angkor Wat in Siem Riep, Cambodia.

I saw Jackie Kennedy climbing over the ruins in a Life magazine photograph in the 1960s and longed to see it for myself. My vision, like most people’s, was of one magnificent temple. But then you learn that the one most famous temple was only a small part of a huge complex, and in all there are 75 separate temple complexes in the northern part of Cambodia.

And finally, New Zealand has something for everyone. Where else can you walk from a glacier into a rain forest?

Additional links:

ArizonaHighways.com

Fodors.com - the wonderful people on the bulletin boards can answer any travel question

GreeceTravel.com - Matt Barrett's Guides to Greece and the Greek Islands, an outstanding and exhaustive source of information.

ItsATrip.com - visit Albuquerque

Le-Marche.com - the Marche Voyager: everything you need to know about the Le Marche region of Italy, one of my favorite places.

LeTorricelle.com - there are millions of hotel sites on the Internet, I’m sure, and I have looked at thousands of them. But this one stole my heart because they introduce their Italian agritourism with poetry. Look closely at the tiles in the home page mosaic—some will enlarge into pictures when you click on them. Yes, I stayed there.

OneBag.com - the art and science of traveling light.

Tahoma.info - the site for the book on Navajo artist Quincy Tahoma that Charnell Havens and I are writing.

VisitTucson.org

Writers' Tools of the Trade

The Elements of Style, William Strunk and E. B. White
The shortest and most necessary book for writers.

The Writers’ Art, James J. Kilpatrick
Style, word choice, grammar fundamentals by a master.

On Writing Well , William Zinsser
Non fiction writing

The Art of Writing Non Fiction, Andre Fontaine and William A. Glavin, Jr.
About the much debated and much understood concept of literary non-fiction.

Writing for Story, Jon Franklin, another guru of literary non-fiction.

Any of the many books on language by William Safire.

Online tools:

FreelanceSuccess.com - for all professional writers of books or articles. Another bulletin board with amazingly generous help for fellow writers.

Snopes.com - helps correct the gullible who believe and pass on urban legends in lengthy mass e-mails

TravelWriters.com - a fine collection of travel writers who help each other on their bulletin board.

Acknowledgements

Books have acknowledgements—why not web sites?

In the early 1990’s a bulletin board on the old Prodigy called Aspiring Writers brought together experienced and inexperienced writers. I was just beginning and thrived with the encouragement I received. A small handful of people from that board still stay in touch. We have become good friends.

In Tucson the Society of Southwestern Authors attracts about 800 members—possibly the largest local writing group in the country. Their yearly conference gave me a chance to meet Bob Early, then editor of Arizona Highways and helped me get my first assignment there.

Individual writers, Arizona Press Women and a small group called Tucson Women Writers continue to give advice and consolation and pats on the back. Thanks to you all.