This story was included in 30 Days in Italy (Travelers’ Tales, 2006) and won an honorable mention in the 2006 Solas Awards Best Travel Writing competition.

Paris has la Tour Eiffel
Babylon had its tower as well
But neither has the power to seize ya
Like the Leaning Tower of Pisa

This was my father’s rhyme. When I was young, he bounced me on his knee, reciting the words in a hushed and tuneless monotone. Every time he got to seize ya, he grabbed my shoulders and squeezed, and I shrieked in a confusion of fear and delight.

My father taught high school physics and astronomy, and my bedtime stories often featured such heros as Copernicus, Borelli and daVinci. And Galileo. How bold Galileo seemed, overturning Aristotle and challenging the Inquisition! How brilliant his Continue Reading »

This story is included in the award-winning Lonely Planet anthology, The Kindness of Strangers, edited by Don George and with a preface by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. The book includes original stories by Jan Morris, Tim Cahill, Simon Winchester, Pico Iyer, and Dave Eggers, and won both a Lowell Thomas award and an Independent Publishers award. The story also aired on KUSF’s Traveling Music (now called Tales from Earth).

I didn’t know whether I was being kidnapped or rescued — that was what made my one big decision so difficult. That and the fact that I was young and foolish, and more than a little anxious about being stranded in the North African desert.

It all began quite innocently. Our bus had deposited Alan, my affable traveling companion, and myself at the door of a small, clean hotel in a dusty Tunisian village …
Continue Reading »

This article appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle Magazine on March 19, 2006. It won the national “Planet Earth” grand prize in the Bay Area Travel Writers 2008 Best Travel Writing contest.

I was in the outhouse, with my pants halfway down, when I heard an urgent whisper outside: “Bamboo lemur, behind the loo!” I made a judgment call. The greater bamboo lemur (Hapalemur simus) is one of the rarest primates in the world; researchers believe there are fewer than 1,000 left. In fact, this critically endangered species was believed to be extinct until it was rediscovered only a few years ago. Never mind the loo—I rushed out, hoping for a quick look.

The lemurs had teddybear-like faces, round chestnut-colored eyes, and fluffy, pale grey ear tufts that made them look like little Yodas. Continue Reading »

• Responsible for content development, acquisition, organization, management, and delivery for start-up division of Intuit/Quicken specializing in children’s financial literacy.
• Managing editor of two anthologies for Left Coast Writers.
• Produced monthly newsletter for Audubon Canyon Ranch for one year.

Independent Marketing Consultant — Novato, CA
Self-Employed 2006-present

High Country Passage — San Francisco, CA
Director of Marketing 2004-2006

Independent Marketing Consultant — Novato, CA
Self-Employed 1995-2004

EuroRSCG / Cohn & Wells (advertising agency) — San Francisco, CA
Sr. Vice President, Strategic Planner 1994-1995
Sr. Vice President, DMZ Studio Director 1993-1994

DirectWorks Pty. Ltd. (direct response marketing) — Melbourne, Australia
Chosen to open agency in Melbourne
Sr. Vice President, Group Director 1992-1993

Cohn & Wells (direct response marketing ) — San Francisco, CA
Sr. Vice President, Group Account Director 1992
Vice President, Account Director 1990-1991
Vice President, Project Director 1987-1990
Account Supervisor 1986-1987

PC World Communications, Inc. — San Francisco, CA
Circulation Promotions Manager 1983-1985
(for PC World and Macworld magazines)

• American Museum of Natural History Expeditions
• UC Berkeley’s Cal Discoveries
• California Academy of Sciences Travel Program
• California Commonwealth Club’s Travel Club
• Harvard Alumni Association Travel/Study
• High Country Passage
• MIT Alumni Travel Program
• National Trust for Historic Preservation - Tours
• National Geographic Expeditions
• Princeton Journeys
• Smithsonian Journeys
• Stanford Travel/Study
• Yale Educational Travel

I’ve produced customer acquisition and retention campaigns, renewals, upgrade mailings, and/or strategic planning recommendations for the following companies:

• Borland
• Intel
• Intuit (Quicken Kids & Money)
• Macworld
• Microsoft
• PC World
• Yahoo!

I have worked with the following financial institutions on acquisitions/conversions, new product launches, product sales, account activations, retention campaigns, and/or strategic planning. Products include IRAs, payroll processing services, home equity loans and lines of credit, I-shares, bank cards, small business products, and personal banker accounts.

• Bank of America
• Barclays Global Investments
• Charles Schwab
• Citibank
• Fleet/BankBoston Financial
• Wells Fargo Bank
• ANZ Bank (Australia)

• akaEuro/RSCG (San Francisco)
• Brann (San Francisco)
• Cohn & Wells (San Francisco and Toronto offices)
• DirectWorks (Melbourne, Australia)
• DMZ (San Francisco)
• Shubin Design Group (San Francisco and Novato, CA)
• The 360 Group (San Rafael, CA)
• True North/Wells Marketing (San Francisco)
• WNM (Melbourne, Australia)
• Yates Advertising (San Francisco, CA)

Have traveled to more than 30 countries (on every continent except Antarctica); published travel writer; invited speaker.

• See my published articles, stories, and broadcasts on my Portfolio page.
• Edit and publish Travel Writers News, a newsletter and calendar of events for San Francisco-based travel writers and photographers (ongoing since 2003).
• Guest faculty at Book Passage Travel Writers and Photographers Conference (2006).
• Invited reader at Jamaica’s annual Calabash International Literary Festival, where I read to an enthusiastic audience of 2,000 people (2004).
• Elected officer and board member (2007) of Bay Area Travel Writers, a “nonprofit, professional association of writers and photographers with outstanding achievements in travel journalism.” Reelected for 2008.
• Accepted as attendee at Travel Classics West conference — open only to professional travel writers — at Camelback in Scottsdale, AZ ( 2004).
• Invited reader at San Francisco Litquake’s Litcrawl: The Wide, Wide World of Travel Writing (2004).
• Invited reader at Adventure Travel Expo in San Mateo (2004).