Big News
The new BCATW blogsite is up and running. Check it out at www.bcatw.org
Here is an introduction to the site from our resident WordPress expert, Mari Kane:
I hope you like the new site. My goal in designing it was to promote the association using the members’ own words and pictures, two things travel writers have the most of. Built in WordPress, this is also an efficient communication management system to spread news and information among the members.
And it is yours to use.
Each member will be signed up as an Editor and given a password and login to allow them access. Members access their own personal page to update as often as they like.
The monthly Buzz will be posted here and members will receive automatic email alerts each time it is updated. But the Buzz will be merely a compilation of the News blogs posted by the membership.
Members are invited to post in the News, How-To, and Tips categories and email alerts go out for those, too.
Members can submit their stunning photos and captions to post on the front page slider. Please send them to the site’s co-administrator, Karoline Cullen, to post.
Before starting work on your page, please read “This Blog’s For You”
https://bcatw.org/this-blogs-for-you/
When you have questions about using WordPress, please don’t email me directly. Use the comments at the end of these posts to ask your question. That way everyone can benefit from my answers.
If you are unfamiliar with WordPress, I invite you to attend one of my WordPress Workshops, held every Tuesday evening at 7pm at Blenz Coffee on Broadway at Heather, 2 blocks from the Canada Line station.
I coach groups of 3 bloggers for 90 minutes, which I have found is enough time to get the Dashboard Tour. The normal fee is $20 per person but I will offer BCATW members a 25% discount.
Please RSVP at Meetup.com, http://www.meetup.com/Wordpress-Workshop/ which requires a free sign up.
I have workshops every Tuesday this month, so please jump on them soon. No sessions in August when I’ll be, well – traveling.
Thanks and happy blogging!
Very soon, co-administrator Karoline Cullen will be sending you your user name and password, which will allow you to build and maintain your own page on the site.
Message from the President
Happy Canada Day and, for you soccer fans, Euro 2012 final day.
You will receive your ID and password for the new bcatw.org site shortly. https://bcatw.org/wp-admin/ – a good page to bookmark. Thank you Mari and Karoline and all others connected with contributing to the fabulous site. It really brings BCATW into the 21st century. I’ve already jumped on Mari’s first WordPress meetup this month on July 3.
Mark your calendars for October 20, 2012, for our BCATW Gala. We’ll start meeting for brainstorming ideas over the summer, with the first one planned for Sunday, July 15, 4pm at JJ Bean on Commercial/6th. (2206 Commercial Dr.) We’ll start with one and see how the response is, with the possibility of having it approximately every two weeks at different times/days so people can make it. If you have a suggestion on where/when to have one, please let me know. baila@nullshaw.ca, and, of course, start thinking of and sending ideas for speakers for the session.
Randi Winter is in the midst of planning a FAM trip to Cedarbrook Lodge in Seattle. Stay tuned for more info on that. And I’m in the midst of planning a FAM trip to northern B.C. (Prince George – Smithers – Terrace – Prince Rupert). If you’ve always wanted to spot a bear in the wilds of BC, let me know.
Thought for the day: There are no foreign lands. It is the traveler only who is foreign. – Robert Louis Stevenson
Baila Lazarus
News from Members
Robert Scheer is inviting BCATW members to submit short (300 to 500 words long) articles to his new website, http://daytripstravelguide.com/. Robert says the website offers four benefits to travel writers:
1) Online exposure for your work,
2) Paybacks to suppliers who donate goods & services for your press trips,
3) Search Engine Optimization for your website through backlinks, and
4) Monthly payments from Google.
For details please see the Writers’ Guidelines at http://daytripstravelguide.com/travel-writers-guidelines, and if you have any questions, please email: robert@nullcedarcottage.com.
Jett & Kathryn Britnell were away diving in the Philippines throughout much of June. Northwest Dive News Magazine published Jett’s story, “Kelp-Aholics Anonymous” in their June 2012 issue! An editorial piece about the joys of diving in Kelp Forests. Jett also snagged the magazine’s cover shot!
SportDiving in Australia magazine published two of our stories in their latest issue. The main story is “Liquid Rush!”, which is about diving British Columbia’s infamous Nakwakto Rapids. The second story is a sidebar article about British Columbia’s First Nation’s burial sites.
The Britnell’s also had a “Full House” for their “Shoot Like A Pro – Tips & Tricks to Improve Your Underwater Photography” at the Ocean Quest Dive Centre in May. The owner, Greg McCracken said afterwards, “Jett, you got moves like Jagger!”
Joei Carlton Hossack is just finishing up a really busy month. In between working on her new Mini Read, arranging a lecture series and creating her unique bookmarks she volunteered at Write On the Beach June 10th. From the 22nd to the 25th of June Joei attended the RV Owner’s Lifestyle Conference at Okanagan College in Kelowna. She taught RVing as a Solo and Travel Writing and on Sunday night, after a wonderful banquet, she did an entertaining travel lecture on Morocco. She arrived home on Tuesday – a day before welcoming her brothers from Montreal and her sister from California. As they say, there’s no rest for the wicked.
Although Joei has been a member of Access Canada as a “writer” for several years about two weeks ago her application was accepted as a “visual artist” for her photography. Joei at www.joeicarlton.com
Darlene Foster was short listed for the West End Writers Workshop 2012 Writing Contest and invited to read her submission, “Ghosts in the Attic” during the awards ceremony at Barclay Manor June 20. Her third travel adventure book for children, “Amanda in England – The Missing Novel” is slated to be released later this summer.
http://www.centralavenuepublishing.com/Books/styled-2/Amanda%20in%20England.html She is delighted with the new BCATW website!
Irene Butler’s articles on Indonesia have just been published by “What Travel Writers Say”. She would greatly appreciate it if everyone would scroll down on the right side of each article and click on videos mentioned below.
http://www.whattravelwriterssay.com/beautifulbali.html Beautiful Blissful Bali (video)
http://www.whattravelwriterssay.com/jakartaindo.html Downtown Jakarta (video)
Her article on New Zealand’s North Island will appear in Impowerage.com – On-Line Senior’s Magazine in July.
Rick and Irene are counting the days until they leave for Russia, Mongolia and South Korea in early August.
Cherie Thiessen has had a great month of sailing, and is lucky enough to call it ‘being on assignment’ seeing as she had four assignments for boating magazines. Now the work begins, however.
Her story on great places to cruise and dine is in the July issue of Pacific Yachting (Cruising for Cuisine, part 2), and her story on Cortes Island (Festivals and Family Fun) ran in a June issue of Kamloops This Week as well as the Delta Optimist and is currently posted on the www.travelwriterstales.com website.
Liz Clark is happy to tell folks about her golfing and touring news at www.golfingnewzealand.ca
She is very excited about her new eBook at Smashwords http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/lemony2 and her previous book
http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/168189
Ruth Kozak will be instructing a class in Blog Around the World, Sharing your Travel Experiences at John Oliver High School for two nights (3 hrs each) July 19 & 26. Please register on-line or by phone at the VSB Continuing Education. Ruth will also be lecturing at the Surrey Museum on Saturday July 21 from 1- 2 pm on history/travel in Greece: Gods, Myths, Heroes, Scholars and the Byzantine/Venetian sites in Greece as well as some of the Islands. www.ruthkozak.com
Happy Canada Day!
Karoline and Darlene
Your BUZZ Co-Editors
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