June 2012 Buzz

Oswego Hotel, Ruben Studdard, You Tube and Senior Living

Message from the President

I took advantage of my door prize from the BCATW symposium and headed to Victoria to overnight at the Oswego hotel last weekend. A lovely boutique hotel, just blocks from the central harbour, the hotel offers a “downtown urban” feel with the luxury of boutique amenities. Food was excellent, with a bright, young chef – Colin Davidson – from Toronto.

While I hadn’t planned anything but a relaxing walk around the harbour, I stumbled into the David Foster Foundation’s 25th anniversary gala, with a red (purple) carpet up the walkway to the Empress, and Michael Buble, Pamela Anderson and various others in attendance. It just goes to show, any trip can turn in a second. How great it is when we’re open to new experiences.

Coming up this summer, watch for notices for new meet ups, planning for our November Gala, Fam trips in the Lower Mainland and more.

See you in the sun.
Baila

News from Members

Rick Neal has an article on Alert Bay, B. C. in the upcoming June edition of Senior Living magazine. If you have time, please leave a comment.

Ruth Kozak has stories coming up in Travel by the Books in June. (One about Byron in Greece and the other about Greek poet Yannis Ritsos) and a story coming up early June in EuropeUpClose (Touring London with the Beatles).  Ruth just finished instructing a tiny but successful class at J.O. “Blog Around the World: Travel Writing” and was pleased to have Mari Kane as a guest instructor one night showing the class how to set up Word Press.  Ruth will be giving a lecture on Greece “Gods,Myths and Legends, Heroes and Warriors” as well as Byzantine/Venetian influence in Greece and touring the Islands, at the Surrey Museum on July 21. www.ruthkozak.com  (website)

Darlene Foster was guest speaker at the Tsawwassen Rotary Club this month were she spoke of how her love of travel and her love of writing took her on a journey to publication. Her books Amanda in Spain, The Girl in The Painting and Amanda in Arabia, The Perfume Flask are being translated into Spanish to reach a broader audience. www.darlenefoster.ca

June 2012A busy month is coming to a close for Joei Carlton Hossack. She spent 4 days working at the Cloverdale Rodeo and unfortunately was rained out for 2 of the 4 days.  Not a pretty site having to pack up in the rain but there is always next year. The author reading series at the George Mackie Library  was fun on March 30th and Joei will be ending the month with a reading of A Fine Bit of Madness at the Surrey Central Library in Whalley on May 31st.

June promises to be a busy month as well.  On June 1st her book mark titled “Pebbles” will be presented for judging at the Arts 2012 contest under the “photography” heading.  Joei has volunteered to set up and take down at Write on the Beach, Crescent Beach on June 10th and will once again hold classes for RVing as a Solo and Travel Writing at the RV Owners Lifestyle Conference at Okanagan College in Kelowna on June 22 – 25th.  As always she is the after-dinner entertainment on Sunday evening.

Joei has decided to expand her business to include the taking of credit cards by the end of June. www.joeicarlton.com

Irene Butler was surprised at how many people in their home community of Richmond noticed and sent comments on her story about Transylvania (written for Travel Writers Tales) in the May 9th issue of the Richmond News.

Wanted — YouTube Opinions!

1) To narrate or not to narrate — that is the YouTube question.

Irene and Rick have been doing videos and slide-shows on each country they visit.  She feels the slide-shows are fine with country-specific music and some headings. BUT the videos present a dilemma — should she continue (as in this Bali video  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhtL_709LK8 with only the natural sounds of the activity going on (the markets, water flowing, etc) with some headings as to the names of the places, OR would it have been preferable to narrate this video?  She would be grateful for your opinion — either for all members to tally opinions — or at raiv@nullshaw.ca

2) What draws viewers to a particular YouTube video/slideshow?

On another note, Irene has been puzzling over why some slideshow and videos on YouTube garner over 200,000 views and others almost none. She has compared both the more viewed and less viewed for the same country – and there is often no major difference in photo/video value or content, some are narrated and others not, and her comparisons were based on the length of time on YouTube.  She sometimes found tag words that lassoed views: one example – bikinis, but laughed at this clever but deceitful tag when the video had only one bikini clad lass surfing far off in the distance. What other factors could make the difference in number of YouTube viewers (social media, adding video link to blog site, website, etc).  Any ideas?  Or opinions? Please share with members that may be interested.Photos by Baila Lazarus

The Oswego Hotel in downtown Victoria and American Idol winner Ruben Studdard signs autographs on the purple carpet at the Empress

Cheers,
Karoline and Darlene

Y!r BUZZ Co-E”tors
www.bctravelw#ters.com