Hallelujah on San Francisco’s Ocean Beach

January 16th, 2009 | By Larry Habegger | No Comments »

Brad Newsham, author of the superb Take Me With You, has an irrepressible streak of peaceful activism, and if you’re in San Francisco on Monday, Jan. 19, Martin Luther King Day, you’ll want to be at Ocean Beach before sunset to help Brad spell out Hallelujah in the sand to celebrate the next day’s inauguration of Barack Obama.

Brad produced a half dozen or more “Beach Impeach” events in the San Francisco Bay Area in a tireless effort to move Congress to impeach President Bush and Vice President Cheney, and all of them that I attended were tremendous fun.

The gathering on the beach Jan. 19 will be a celebration, not a protest, and the weather is forecast to be positively balmy. If you want to come, show up at the beach across from the Beach Chalet near Fulton and the Great Highway about 4:30, and plunk yourself down inside your chosen letter.

Here’s the message Brad sent that lays out the details.

Friday evening, four days until a new president…

Dear Everyone,

I am so sorry. It’s a crying shame that I can’t invite all of you to join me down at Ocean Beach in San Francisco on Monday, Martin Luther King Day, the day before the Inauguration-of-a-lifetime. At 1 pm that afternoon I’m going to start outlining “HALLELUJAH!” (or maybe the shorter “ALLELUJIA!”) in the sand in 100-foot letters. When the photographer’s helicopter arrives overhead at 4:50 pm I may feel kind of odd standing there all alone, but if that’s the way it turns out, I’ll live with it.

Here’s the story: (more…)

Best Moments at the Book Passage Travel Writers & Photographers Conference

August 24th, 2008 | By Larry Habegger | 1 Comment »

The Book Passage Travel Writers & Photographers Conference has come and gone and now that I’ve just about recovered from all the fun, here are my highlights. It was quite a time.

1. Alison Wright on her horrific accident in Laos and amazing recovery. Read her new book, Learning to Breathe. 2. Simon Winchester meeting his mentor, James Morris, for the first time, discovering a woman, soon to be Jan. 3. Isabel Allende on following her instincts. Did she really say that?! Only those present will know what I mean…sorry! 4. How do you spell karaoke? Battle between the “Wail of the Tormented” and Pauline Frommer’s exquisite voice. Who knew? And she says her kids don’t like her to sing!!?? 5. Don George’s moving eulogy and moment of silence to honor Linnea Larson, Tim Cahill’s wife, killed in a recent car crash. 6. Tim Cahill’s talk about founding Outside magazine, and why he left. Management mistreated his co-workers, the women. 7. My morning sessions on the Personal Essay. Lots of talent, lots of laughs, rewarding for me and for others (I trust). 8. Seeing fine old friends like the plump and expecting Jen Leo, “the other Larry” Larry Bleiberg, John Flinn, Don George, Tim Cahill, Tom Swick, Georgia Hesse, Catharine Hamm, Amanda Jones, Jim Benning, Bob Holmes, Simon Winchester, Isabel Allende, Phil Cousineau, George Olson, Linda Watanabe McFerrin, Michael Shapiro, Janis Cooke Newman, Pauline Frommer, Alison Wright…the list goes on and on. Don’t miss it next year!

Writers’ Workshop Sailing off the Turkish Coast

February 7th, 2008 | By Larry Habegger | No Comments »

Learn How to Craft a Travel Article, Write a Memoir and Publish Your Book

I’ll be leading a seven-day writers workshop on the personal travel narrative aboard a traditional 82-foot gulet (a Turkish yacht) September 20-27, 2008. Come join me!

On this seven-day intensive workshop sailing on the Aegean Sea you’ll learn the ins and outs of crafting a superb story and how to bring your work to print, whether it’s a short essay or a book-length memoir. I’ll help you develop powerful stories with simple tools and plot the course to successful publication.

For information about sailing along the ancient shores of Turkey with me, contact Robin Sparks at robin@robinsparks.com.

In this workshop you will learn how to:
• Unearth kernels of inspiration
• Find the right way in
• Create the ideal structure to give a story maximum substance and meaning
• Access memory to add depth and texture
• Use techniques of fiction to add drama and suspense
• Craft the perfect ending
• Edit to make the story a page-turner
• Develop the kind of book proposal publishers are eager to see
• Create the perfect marketing plan so your book will sell
• Write like a poet but think like a publicist

Daily writing exercises will help you find the focus of your story, and discussions will provide guidance for shaping and polishing. Participants will gain confidence about what makes a story work and how to make it shine in the marketplace. (more…)

The Nieman Conference on Narrative Journalism

February 7th, 2008 | By Larry Habegger | No Comments »

I’ll be a speaker on various topics at the Nieman Conference on Narrative Journalism in Boston March 14-16, 2008. The conference is produced by the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard. I’ll be part of a panel discussion on editing titled “Behind the ‘Blue Pencil’: Editors talk about the long form” with Vanessa Mobley, Jon Marcus, and Peter Davis. I’ll also teach in the “Craft Round Robin: Small group sessions led by writers and editors” helping participants craft their work. Check out the schedule.

A Travelers’ Tales TeleWebcast

December 7th, 2007 | By Larry Habegger | No Comments »

Travelers’ Tales is doing something fun for its book, Antarctica: Life on the Ice. Working with Cheryl McLaughlin at 360 Book Buzz we’re producing a Virtual Book Tour with the cornerstone being a LIVE FROM ANTARCTICA TeleWebcast with writer and editor Susan Fox Rogers and contributors penguinologist David Ainley, IT expert Karen Joyce, and researcher Katy Jensen, who will be joining in LIVE FROM ANTARCTICA. This free TeleWebcast will happen Dec. 13 at 5 p.m. PST. Take this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to put your questions about this fascinating, forbidden place to these Antarctica experts. Register now to be a part of this free TeleWebcast (you can participate through the web or through any phone). Click here http://www.SusanFoxRogersBookTour.com.