I've been writing a travel column for 15 years. Called "Now, Where Was I?," the column is an entertaining (or at least I hope it is) look at my travels around the globe. I've been to all seven continents and have written about everything from bungy jumping in New Zealand to carpet buying in Morocco to picking coffee in Nicaragua. I've also sold many travel articles to big magazines including Outside, Travel & Leisure, Travel Holiday, Mountain Sports and Living, Home and Away, Midwest Living, most of the inflights and blue. I've also sold travel pieces to newspapers such as the Washington Post, the Detroit Free Press and, of course, my hometown, Kansas City Star.

I've also written chapters in Michelin travel guides and have written three travel books for Globe Pequot. The first, Kansas Curiosities, about oddities and oddballs in my home state of Kansas, is, I'm sure I don't need to mention, right up my alley. Girlfriends Getaways is about this hot new travel trend where girlfriends leave their significant others at home and travel with friends. And You Know You're in Kansas When has 101 quintessential Kansas traditions, places and people.

People always ask me, "What is your favorite country? Or island? Or best suggestion for my honeymoon?" And I really can't answer that because I fall in love with every place I go. I always come home, wondering if maybe I shouldn't move where I just visited.

I guess you could say I fell into travel writing. Although I've always traveled and usually kept a journal of some sort, I didn't consider myself a travel writer until an editor from Ladies' Home Journal called one day about a query I'd written. I had mentioned in the query that I'd been to Nicaragua and had lived in Australia for a year. She wanted to know if I did any travel writing. Well, being no fool, I avidly nodded (although I'm sure she couldn't see that being as she was talking to me on the phone) and said, "of course." She asked where I was going next and I blurted out Tampa since a guy I was sorta dating was going there the following week with his family. "Good," she said, "I'd like 1000 words." I hung up, called my sorta boyfriend and begged him to take me along. I've been diligently writing about travel ever since. <\p>

I've won many travel writing awards. I'm a member of the Society of American Travel writers and before I moved out of the midwest for a spell (I'm back now), I was a member of the Midwest Travel Writers Association. As I tell people, I must really like to travel because normally I don't join groups at all. <\p>

Some of my travel articles:


Let Llama Lead the Way, Honolulu Star-Bulletin

Riff Rapt: Going to Kansas City for the Sound, Washington Post

Dudes and dudettes, don't try this at home, Wednesday  Magazine

Reality Vacations: A Hot Ticket in Tourism, Mountain Living

I left my heart in Morocco

Now, Where Was I?--Providencia

Now, Where Was I?--Cayman Islands

Escape from Adversity in Bermuda

The Nebraska Cranes, Set your alarm: they're worth it

Now, Where Was I? Eureka Springs

Rafting down a serpent of white water

Now, Where Was I? Quebec

Acting naturally a natural, Galapagos Islands

A bicycle with a view, Austria