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tracing a mislaid reference

edited January 2008 in - WM and WN
I can't find certain Writing Mags from 2007 (tho' naturally can find every one I'm not searching for right now!) - I'm looking for the issue(s) with feature articles by a freelance travel writer. I think there are two, in the second half of 2007. One article had a photo of the writer sitting in a desert in China, tapping out his article on an Alphasmart Neo word processor.

If this rings a bell with anyone, please let me know the name of the writer and the edition of Writing Magazine. I need the reference to complete an article, so of course it is the back copy I can't find :-)

Thanks for any help from more organised WM/WN subscribers

Cecilia

Comments

  • Which months copies DON'T you have, Cecilia? It might help to narrow down the search.
  • Good thinking - I'm missing March and Sept, now I put them in order. I think it may be the Sept issue that has the article?

    Cecilia
  • I'm really sorry, Cecilia, but I don't see anything like that in those issues. Any other clues?
  • Oh Lord - hope I wasn't hallucinating articles! Suspect that is a bad sign!

    The article - as I recall it - was about the business of travel writing - weight of packing, what to take, how to back-up and send copy from inaccessible places and so on.

    Very good of you to think about it - thanks.

    Cecilia
  • edited January 2008
    You're not imagining it Cecilia (as a travel writer I read the article with great interest) - I've still to check my issues, but meantime I can tell you that his name is: Victor Paul Borg - www.victorborg.com
    He wrote an article for WM in the February issue - not the one you're talking about. I do know that the article wasn't in the September issue, because that's an issue I don't have.
    If I find it I'll post again, but it's rather late in my part of the world and I was just off to bed. If you don't mind waiting, I'll look again in the morning.
    :o)
  • Well there you go - tricked me. And here I was thinking I couldn't see the wood for the trees. Is that the one you meant, Cecilia?
  • Bringing this to the top so Cecilia sees it!
  • One more bounce ...
  • Morning Cecilia - second article with your boy typing in the desert (Sahara not China) in is in the November issue. Hope this helped.
  • Good morning, Island Girl, Claudia and Jenny - thanks so much for your kind assistance. (I'm in Australia so there's an 11 hour gap with UK at the moment.)

    Yes - that's exactly what I wanted, and I have found the November issue. I became so tired and frantic looking for the article that I must have overlooked it, even though I thought I'd searched each magazine thoroughly. Eventually I went to bed, convinced that by mistake I must have put the magazine in recycling.

    Hope that some day I can assist you, too. Thanks again. This is a nice friendly forum. I've subscribed to WM/WN for - oh maybe 10 years or more - but have only recently looked at the online facility.

    Cecilia
  • Welcome Cecilia - I think everyone else has gone to bed!
  • Hi again, Cecilia. There are a few fellow Aussies skulking about in the Talkback bushes and if you make a lot of noise you might get them to pop their heads up. You should also consider going into the 'categories' section at the top of the page and then introduce yourself to everyone in the Welcome Writers section. That way, you get to meet a lot of TBers all at once. Cheers.
  • Ha ha - and there was I telling you "it's rather late in my part of the world".... not realising that you're 'down here' too! (I'm in Fiji rather than Australia though).
    Is your article about travel journalism? Who's it for? Hope you don't mind me asking...
  • Hi, Claudia - I suspected we were in the same hemisphere when you mentioned its being late in your part of the world. How's life in Fiji? I used to live in PNG, and miss it still in many respects. Recently we had a wet humid day here and suddenly I felt for an odd moment that I was back in PNG. Tho' there was an absence of buai, of course, that gave the game away :-)

    My article wasn't for travel writing - in fact, it was just a practice piece that I may rework for some markets, but for the moment I have popped the present version onto my brand new blog, which is an IT experiment I have been putting off for a few years, being in principle dubious about blogs (http://cecilia-lenagh.blogspot.com/).

    I'm off to bed soon - catch you later, as they say here in Australia.
  • Thanks again to all who helped me find the lost reference from Nov 2007 WM. My article is now on on my own blog, and also on Oxford Prospect Magazine's website: www.oxfordprospect.co.uk/ - under the title 'Alphasmart Neo'.

    Couldn't have done it without your help :-)

    Cecilia
  • You're very welcome Cecilia - I'll go take a look at your article. Which part of Australia are you from? (it's a big place).
    What were you doing in PNG? The weather sounds similar - it's our hot, wet season now and it's driving me troppo...
  • Claudia, is that 'troppo' as in 'tropical' or the Italian 'troppo' meaning too much?
  • Jay: Both, I should think, from my recollection of the wet season! God above .... Ireland is wet but not humid.

    Claudia, I'm Irish - not from Australia originally, tho' have become a citizen and am very happy to be here. I live in NSW on the Mid North Coast, about halfway between Sydney and Brisbane. I spent 5-6 years in PNG with my family, 1990 - 1995, in Moresby and Lae. My husband's a librarian, and we went to Port Moresby for 3 years when the children were little, then to Unitech in Lae for another 2+, before coming to Australia. PNG is very beautiful - a life-changing experience, being there - but Lae, practically on the equator, is hot and wet at this time of year! A nice thing about Australia is the lack of malaria, at least for the moment. Are you in a malarial region?
  • Hi - just found this thread again.

    Jay - I was referring to the malady suffered in the tropical regions of Australia - particularly in the Northern Territory, or Top End. When the heat and humidity gets too much, the fellas up there turn a little crazy. The expression is 'going Troppo'.

    Cecilia, interesting life you've been leading! We were considering a trip to PNG next February, but unfortunately it worked out too expensive to reach from Fiji. (We're coming to Oz instead to do some diving.)
    No malaria issues in Fiji. In fact Fiji is incredibly benign. Some of the bugs are big, but we don't have anything like the range of venomous creatures you enjoy in Australia. :0)
  • Madang in PNG is a diving mecca, I think. I've snorkelled there, many years ago.

    And speaking of big bugs - they don't have to be venomous to be scary. A massive cockroach landed on my arm in the shower a day ago. I practically teleported into the dining room - so fortunate we had no visitors at the time. There are some events which place too great a burden on the average friendship :-)
  • 'I practically teleported into the dining room -'

    Wonderful image cecilia!

    Funnily enough the very evening I posted the above, my husband spotted a very large spider high up on the bedroom wall as he lay in bed. He kindly pointed it out to me as I came out of the bathroom and suggested 'since I was still up' that I deal with it. To cut a long story short, he ended up in fits of laughter while I pranced around the bedroom in my birthday suit trying to eject the beastie.
    I eventually won.
  • Arachnophobic, I am - a sad thing to be in the tropics!
  • Remind me never to visit the tropics then- spiders, eekkkkkkkkkkkkkk!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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