Travel Log
Write Around the World 2017
January Sydney NSW Australia
February Margaret River Western Australia
March Dunsborough Western Australia
March Sydney NSW Australia
April New York
Massachusetts
The Solo Traveller, my latest WIP, is a novel about Laura who travels the world for a living but, finds her real life, her everyday life, isn’t working out as she’d hoped.
Laura’s life is a fairy tale in some ways. Her husband indulges her every material whim, she has two boys whom she adores and, even though one has a disability, they have worked through it and he’s developing well as he enters his pre-teen stage.
She’s had so many experiences on her travels and she always imagined that her home base would be her safe landing. Home would be where she branched out from, but her life would be connected and rooted in her family. She hadn’t wanted children, but she relented to her husband’s desire for them. Once she had the boys, she knew she would choose them again if she had the chance to relive her life. Her husband? He’s another story.
So often, we divide our lives into compartments: work and home, work and play, family and friends, home and away. But, our lives are the sum of all these parts. Our lived experiences speak into all of the parts and, even if we try and compartmentalise them, they cross over and integrate and become our lives.
My husband is on the other side of the country on an epic motorcycle ride and I’ve been at home for the last few weeks–getting organised for my trips, writing, catching up with people, spending time with family–normal life.
Very soon I’m heading to the Inspire Retreat and have the opportunity to speak to writers about their dreams and hopes, and hopefully, give them some advice.
The retreat will be my third trip for the year. So far, I haven’t gone too far around the world, but next month, I’ll be flying to New York and then travelling throughout the USA.
When I’m writing The Solo Traveller, I’m in a different world, Laura’s world. I’m living her experiences and writing them as if they’re my own. However, my lived experiences–relationships, friendships, work, family, reading, travel, spirituality and everything between–inform my writing.
Travel has become a part of the rhythm of my life and, while not it’s not my everyday, it’s certainly my every year. This year, I’ll be travelling more than I ever have in my life, and for longer periods, to places I’ve been to before and places I’ve only dreamed of.
Writing is also a part of my rhythm and to combine the two is a gift. Travel is a privilege I don’t take lightly. What is sown in my lived experiences this year will bear fruit in my writing, but also in my everyday.
A traveller I am, and a navigator,
and every day I discover
a new region within my soul.
Khalil Gibran
2 Comments