It has been almost a year since I have posted anything here? Whoa...
Well, it was a year that contained another trip to Greece, albeit a rugged one. Within a few days of arriving, I took a pretty hard fall on the ferry coming back from Corfu - making sure I stayed in one spot for a while. That would have been great if the spot had been 'hot' - that is, with net access.
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| Beware of tripping gryphons. (Corfu castle) |
Thus I discovered that I am fully addicted to the exoBrain we call the Internet. There were withdrawals, I tell you: mood-swings, appetite surges and suppressions, phantom keyboards, and worst of all - sudden spelling amnesias. Epic fail.
Meanwhile, I walked --okay, hobbled-- around Patras and noted its charms, which included making the acquaintance of a nine-foot reticulated python in a pet shop a few blocks from my burrow. I jumped (so to speak) into the writing side of this journey, sketching a half a dozen article-essay ideas. In a few days I had finished a 900 word piece with a handful of local images. Or almost. The summary --a good, bouncy title-- had not made itself known. I had a body, but no face.
At the bottom of the third draft, I took an evening walk through the holiday crowds to clear my head... aaaaaand here comes the first in a series of Very Unsettling Texts from a close friend. He's in emergency ICU at the same hospital where we spent so much time together last year. Now his daughter is flying in to take care of him. Now he has a preliminary finding of cancer. Now he is having surgery without a precise diagnosis. Now he has a diagnosis ~ but it ain't pretty. Now there will be more surgery. And chemo. No wait, chemo and radiation, because what good is poison without some fire to go with it?
My concentration? Nil. Where am I again? Oh, yeah, Greece. Netlessly.
The next six weeks were fog. Mid-January I moved to an apartment across the bay for the wifi it promised - which tadaaa! disappeared the day after I arrived, and wasn't restored until the week before I left. This time I was five kilometers from the nearest village, so there was no stepping out to a nearby cafe. At least in this place I was above ground and could get cell service, which allowed me to hotspot the computer (another sizable budget and hardware burn).
The little piece I had written in December? It went out to a half-dozen websites, but without a strong lede, it didn't find publication.
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Now back in the States, my old friend is halfway through his treatment protocols, and I am working out my haphazard day-path again. The Darling Companion dropped in to watch me toil over the keyboard a few days ago. "I might have a new title for this piece," I muttered. He had heard the previous nicktitles and politely declined to comment. "How about this," I said, "'Ten More Things to Love About Greece'." He affirmed it good enough to pitch, so the listicle (with its new chapeau) is now making the travel mag rounds.
The convergence of listicle and travel format takes us to a subspecies other readers/writers may find of use:
Listverse - the gargantuan list site, which does pay $100 for lists that include travel topics. But um, 1500 word minimum? Wordy-rappinghood, y'all. http://listverse.com/write-get-paid/
Expeditioner - http://www.theexpeditioner.com/submissions/ pays about $30, with a 1200 word minimum. Suddenly Listverse seems reasonable.
Fund Your Life Overseas newsletter is open to shorter listicles, and pays 75$ for an epistolary-style conversation about living abroad. https://internationalliving.com/about-il/write-for-il/write-for-fund-your-life-overseas-and-incomes-abroad/
Big Grey Horse is for writers living (traveling, visiting, escaping from) Texas and pays $125-$200 for your take on this irascible place. http://biggreyhorse.com/texas-writers-wanted/
Hidden Compass pays a little better ($200-300) than most, publishes quarterly and has a 'photo-essay' story form that starts at 500 words (listiclesque, in my book). http://hiddencompass.net/contributors-guidelines/
is NOT accepting unsolicited subs. )
Kala Tyche, fellow scriveners.
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