…my first ever travel story was published in The Ottawa Citizen. Time flies, huh?
Archive for January, 2011
Five Years Ago This Week…
Posted in Tangents, tagged Writing on January 31, 2011| 2 Comments »
Reading David Foster Wallace
Posted in Tangents, tagged Consider the Lobster, David Foster Wallace, Writing on January 29, 2011| Leave a Comment »
Over the course of a few weeks last year, from mid-November to late December, I read my way through David Foster Wallace’s second essay collection, Consider the Lobster — and I’ve been trying to gather my thoughts and write something coherent about it ever since. Trouble is, I was so overwhelmingly impressed by the book that I can’t seem to get beyond an initial layer of breathless fangirlism to whatever more, er, thoughtful thoughts may lie underneath.
Wallace and his writing had initially passed me by entirely. My first clear recollection of his name coincides with his 2008 suicide: co-editor Jim Benning wrote a brief obit post for the World Hum blog, and over the next few days I followed a trail of links and wondered how I’d missed hearing about the writer whose death had lit up the internet.
Over the next couple of years, I continued to see Wallace’s name pop up here and there, on World Hum and beyond; I even wrote a couple of Wallace-related blog posts myself. But apart from a few excerpts, I still had yet to sit down and give any of his work a proper read.
With “Consider the Lobster,” I’ve finally remedied that. And boy, am I glad I did.
New Blog: Travelers North
Posted in Updates, tagged Travelers North on January 25, 2011| 6 Comments »
A quick (but pretty major) update on my end: I launched a new blog this morning, Travelers North.
The aim is to offer a mixture of photos, links, personal notes and practical guidebook-style information about travel in Alaska, the Yukon and (eventually) NWT, Nunavut and beyond. I’m pretty excited about it.
The accompanying Twitter feed is here: @travnorth. Check it out!
That’s What I Call a Roadside Attraction
Posted in Photos, tagged Alaska, Denali, Mt McKinley, Road Trips on January 22, 2011| Leave a Comment »
So instead of retracing our steps from Anchorage up the Glenn Highway and along the Tok Cut-off to the Alaska Highway, we took a last-minute detour up the Parks Highway to Fairbanks, then headed south to Tok along the Richardson Highway. It was worth the detour: We had clear views of Mt. McKinley for much of the day’s drive between Anchorage and Fairbanks.
Here’s a shot I took at our lunch stop in Talkeetna:
Off to Anchorage
Posted in Updates, tagged Alaska, Anchorage, Beer, Road Trips on January 11, 2011| 2 Comments »
I’m hitting the highway first thing tomorrow morning, headed for Alaska’s biggest city and something the good folks there like to call “Beer Week.” Yeah, story research is hard, right? Stay tuned.
Introducing Unwired Wednesdays
Posted in Tangents, tagged Internet, Unwired Wednesday on January 4, 2011| 2 Comments »
For a few months now — heck, for maybe a year or two — I’ve been feeling a little bit oppressed by my internet connection. Yes, it’s the way I make my living, and yes, it’s a weird and wonderful world in many ways, one that has connected me to a lot of great people. But it’s also basically a constant in my waking life. I live alone and I work from home and I don’t have a television, so a frightening percentage of my day — generally including meals and whatever down time I’ve allowed myself — takes place in front of my laptop.
I work on the internet. I do most of my recreational reading on the internet. I watch TV and movies on the internet. I look up recipes on the internet, I pay my bills on the internet. I do much of my communicating with friends and family, again, on the internet.
It’s time for a break.
So, starting tomorrow, and inspired in part by my friend Frank Bures, who instituted internet-free Mondays for himself last year, I will be going offline on Wednesdays. Not entirely, of course — at least, not right at first. I’ll allow myself a first-thing-in-the-morning and a mid-afternoon email check, on the off chance that an editor has dropped a fabulous assignment in my lap, conditional on a rapid reply. (Hey, it could happen.) But beyond that, I’ll be unplugging for the day.
Wednesdays will still be work days. I’ll read (actual books and magazines!) and write (yes, still on my laptop) and maybe head up to the archives if I’ve got any research on the go. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if Wednesday turns out to be my most productive day of the week. I’m looking forward to it.
Eva Holland 