Speaking Spanish

By Larry Habegger | April 6th, 2008 | No Comments »

“Perrrrrrrrrrrrrrrro,” I stuttered, failing completely to roll the r’s as my seven-year-old daughter laughed with glee.

“No, it’s perro,” she said in a perfect Spanish accent. “Like this.” She twittered like a bird demonstrating how to do it. “You need to practice.”

“Do you think I can learn?”

“Yes. Practice all the way home.”

So I did, spewing spittle left and right as I tried to trill my r’s to my daughter’s delight. All the way home, which meant about a ten-minute walk, I was a blithering idiot cut loose from some overcrowded psych ward, but Érne loved it. She couldn’t wait to tell her sister and mama. Read the rest of this entry »

Writers’ Workshop Sailing off the Turkish Coast

By Larry Habegger | February 7th, 2008 | 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. Read the rest of this entry »

The Nieman Conference on Narrative Journalism

By Larry Habegger | February 7th, 2008 | 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

By Larry Habegger | December 7th, 2007 | 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.

Lit Crawl in San Francisco on Saturday Night, Oct. 13

By Larry Habegger | October 11th, 2007 | No Comments »

I’ll be MCing a powerhouse literary travel evening—Border Crossings: Travel Writers Share Stories of Adventure—on Saturday, Oct. 13 in San Francisco’s Mission District during Lit Crawl, part of the annual Litquake festival. Performers will include authors and TT contributors Richard Sterling, Tanya Shaffer, Ken Matusow, and Lucy Jane Bledsoe, and author Georgeanne Brennan. The show begins at 6 p.m. at Casanova Lounge, 527 Valencia Street (between 16th and 17th Streets). Other lively events will follow. This is the fourth year of the crawl and features more than 200 authors reading in 35 venues. For the full schedule, see the Litquake website.

Travelers’ Tales Wins Lowell Thomas Awards

By Larry Habegger | October 10th, 2007 | 1 Comment »

Two Travelers’ Tales books won honors in the prestigious Lowell Thomas Awards sponsored by the Society of American Travel Writers Foundation. 100 Places Every Woman Should Go by Stephanie Elizondo Griest took the Gold Award for Best Travel Book of the Year. The Best Travel Writing 2007 edited by James and Sean O’Reilly and me took the Bronze in the same category. Read what the judges said about these two fine books.

One Spot Open in Advanced Travel Writing Workshop in San Francisco

By Larry Habegger | October 10th, 2007 | No Comments »

I have one spot remaining in my advanced personal travel writing workshop that starts tonight in San Francisco. The class is a series of seven meetings, all but one on Wednesday nights, beginning Oct. 10. Instead of meeting on Halloween we’ll meet that week on Thursday, Nov. 1. We’ll also postpone our meeting on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving (Nov. 21) and instead have our final meeting on the following Wednesday, Nov. 28. All meetings run from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at 4th and Townsend Streets across the street from the Caltrain station, a short block away from the Muni Metro stop and several bus lines. For those who drive, there’s ample free parking. The group will be a minimum of six people and a maximum of ten. Cost will depend on group size.

In the first session we’ll get to know each other, talking about your experience, your goals, what you’d like to get out of this class, and, of course, the material you’re working on. We’ll also read and discuss some examples of superb writing. In the six subsequent sessions we’ll work on your stories in depth. Each week half the group will send a story to everyone for all to read in advance so we can be prepared for discussion in class. This way, each of you will get three of your stories worked on over the seven weeks, and you’ll have the benefit of critiquing everyone else’s pieces.

Once we’ve finished our seven weeks together this class could transform into a master class that meets monthly or twice-monthly indefinitely, but that will depend on interest. I have had two ongoing monthly classes and one ongoing twice-monthly class that began as weekly sessions like this. One is still running and it’s worked out nicely for all.

If you want to join me, or have questions, email me at larry@LarryHabegger.com

Who’s Aging?

By Larry Habegger | June 18th, 2007 | No Comments »

It seemed like just a short time ago that I threw a surprise 50th birthday party for a close friend. He wasn’t impressed because he never liked to celebrate birthdays, and turning 50 was more than he wanted to face. But he played along, a good sport, and when it was over got back to his normal life.

I thought of him the other day when I was sitting at my desk in a hotel in Stratford-upon-Avon. He loves England, was thrilled when he learned I’d be touring the country mostly by train for two weeks. He wanted to hear everything about my trip and I’d already called him a couple times to share experiences in London I knew he’d appreciate: having a drink in St. Stephen’s Tavern, Winston Churchill’s favorite bar; finding the Duke of Wellington’s former office in the Horse Guards Building in Whitehall; pausing outside Banqueting House where King Charles I was executed in 1649 when Oliver Cromwell seized power; climbing to the top of St. Paul’s Cathedral to look out over London from the heart of the old city.

I thought of him because I discovered something in my hotel room that told me he isn’t 50 anymore. In fact, he’ll be turning 65 in a couple of weeks. Where did those 15 years go?
Read the rest of this entry »

Crafting the Personal Travel Story with Larry at Book Passage

By Larry Habegger | May 31st, 2007 | No Comments »

One-Day Writers’ Workshop — Saturday, June 2, 2007
This Saturday I’ll be conducting my popular one-day workshop, Crafting the Personal Travel Story, at Book Passage in Corte Madera, CA from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Hundreds of writers have taken this course over the years and many have gone on to publishing success.

We’ll spend the day exploring techniques that help you unearth kernels of inspiration, find the right lead, create the ideal structure to give a story substance and meaning, access memory to add depth and texture, use techniques of fiction to add drama and suspense, and much more. In-class writing exercises help find the focus of the story and discussions provide guidance for shaping and polishing. You’ll gain confidence about what makes a story work and the value of your own stories, and you should come prepared with ideas you want to explore. I’ll also include advice on how and where to get your stories published. Join me at Book Passage for an inspiring day. There’s still time to sign up.

What Are the Chances?

By Larry Habegger | March 19th, 2007 | 1 Comment »

A friend flew from San Francisco to Panama last week and reported that his flight arrived late in LA, causing him to rush through the terminal and out to the shuttle at LAX worried he’d miss his connection. The shuttle bus took forever to circle the grounds and delivered him to the terminal for his flight on Copa Air to Panama City. It was the same terminal where his LA flight had landed! With just 20 minutes before departure he rushed to the Copa Air counter, got a hand-entered boarding pass, set off the buzzer at security with his pens and keys and coins, managed to get through, then rushed up the stairs to his gate to discover it was the very same one where his SF-LA flight had come in! If he’d simply sat and rested he could have checked in at the gate and read a book. Luckily, he made the flight with only moments to spare.

It reminded me of the time in Dublin, Ireland, in the days before easy wifi and DSL. I was visiting my in-laws and having trouble with my dialup connection from their home. I called the tech support line for my ISP, but because my in-laws have only one telephone line and there wasn’t a cell phone in the house, I couldn’t talk to the guy on one line and try to connect on the other. So, once I’d written down everything he told me to do to get online I hung up and gave it a try. Of course it didn’t work, and now it was past midnight and I was fuming. I called the number again, heard the same voice, and said, “I was on the phone with you just a few minutes ago and what you told me to do didn’t work.”

A gasp came across the wire. Then, “You talked to me a few minutes ago?”

“Yeah,” I said, then repeated my problem and his suggested solution.

“This has never happened to me before,” he said.

“What, that someone was able to call you back?”

“Yes. Do you know how many people work here? No one has ever got the same person twice!”

It must have been my good luck, because this time, knowing that his first solution didn’t work, he gave me another one, which I tried after we hung up. Happily, I didn’t have to call him back again!