Posted on

Travel Writing Takes Center Stage at Left Coast Writers this Saturday night, June 8

Hear some great travel stories this Saturday night and perhaps win a prize for a piece of your own.

Left Coast Writers presents Our Favorite Travel Writers this Saturday, June 8, at 7 pm in the gallery at Book Passage Corte Madera store.

We’ll share stories and wine and the company of fellow traveling writers. There will even be a contest for the best travel story (1000 words or less), so bring your submissions. The winning story will receive a cash award and publication in the Left Coast Writer online column, Roadwork. But you must be present to win, so mark your calendars.

I’ll read a story from my memoir-in-progress, A Stroke of Bad Luck and the Potholed Road to Recovery.  It recounts my introduction to adventure travel. Hint: I didn’t have to travel far to find more adventure than I bargained for.

Other readers include Cheryl Armstrong, Unity Barry, Antoinette Constable, Kate Crawford, Laurie McAndish King, Diane LeBow, MJ Pramik, and Cindy Rasicot.

Hope to see you there.

Location: Book Passage Corte Madera Store.

51 Tamal Vista.
Phone: 415-927-0960

Posted on

Zombies – in a Bali Paradise?

Don’t miss  Linda Watanabe McFerrin’s new story “Bali Belly and the Zombie Apocalypse,” up today on World Hum, the best travel-zine in the Ethernet.

Linda spins a spooky tale that will make you rethink your travel medicine bag. She proves, once again, that old travel-writers’ saw: Anything that doesn’t kill you is  fodder for great story-telling.

 

Linda also organizes magical travel experiences that generate bewitching books-full of stories, as well as  memories to last a lifetime.

I was on Bali last year with her fabulous group of Wanderland Writers.  Her World Hum story brings back one of my own favorite memories:   a visit to master mask-maker Ida Bagus Anom Suryawan. In addition to carving masks–to international renown–Anom is  a wood carver,  mask dancer, and puppeteer. His workshop, Astina, is in the village of Mas near Ubud.

http://bit.ly/Kpw72x

 

These scenes from his shop make me think zombies aren’t far behind:

 

 

 

 

I couldn’t resist the allure of remembered adventure. The mask below now hangs on my porch.

Stay tuned for more stories from Bali in the forthcoming anthology Wandering in Bali: A Tropical Paradise Discovered.

Bali in 2011. Next up, Paris. I’ll be along for that mystery tour as well. Can we expect a zombie lurking in the basement of the opera house?

 

Photos by Anne Sigmon

Posted on

Don’t Miss This Nov. 14 Book Party Celebrating All Things Wild

Anne in Guatemala

 

It’s a jungle out there and I just can’t get enough of it!

Come help me celebrate publication of my story “Why I Still Travel to the Wild” at a book party sponsored by Left Coast Writers. It’s  on Monday evening, November 14, at 6 pm at Book Passage San Francisco store at the SF Ferry Building. (Just one block from Embarcadero BART.)

My story is a reflection on my (some might say stubborn)  determination to continue traveling to remote corners even after my health was compromised by a stroke and autoimmune disease. It’s just out in the  new anthology Chicken Soup for the Soul: Find Your Happiness. 

Join us for wine,  hors d’oeuvres and jungle-y treats plus, reading and a drawing for prizes.  Fellow author Nicole Guiltinan will join me.  It’s free and open to the public. Great opportunity to start your holiday shopping!

Address: Book Passage, 1 Ferry Building, San Francisco, CA 94111    Book Store phone: (415) 835-1020