Off on another writing retreat in Tangier

I'm headed back to Tangier today for two weeks of writing and avoiding holiday craziness. I'll be back in time for Los Reyes, the gift-giving day here in Spain, also known as Epiphany. No father can avoid that! In the meantime I'm getting back to my Tangier novel. It's contemporary fiction set in the city.

The last time I was in Morocco I wrote 26,000 words. I've been looking over what I've written and see that I have a lot of work ahead of me. While I have a theme and a general mood, plus lots of local color, the nature of my protagonist and the full plot haven't gelled in my mind. That will come in time. The American Legation has been kind enough to let me set up in their library, where I'll be distracted by their excellent collection of books on Morocco.

I probably won't be blogging much for the next two weeks. The blogosphere tends to get pretty quiet at this time of year anyway!

Photo of the Tangier medina courtesy Julian Henderson. I don't bring a camera along on these trips.

Wild West Photo Friday: Hotel in Contention, Arizona Territory, 1880

When I started working for Gadling, the editor interviewed me as a way of introducing me to the readers. One of his questions was what was my worst hotel experience. I answered, "Oooo, tough one. The Peruvian hotel with sand in the halls and no working bathrooms? The British bed and breakfast where the owner walked into our room without knocking? The Pakistani flophouse with the junkie staggering around the courtyard at all hours? I really can't decide."

At least I didn't have to stay in this place. This was the one hotel in the dusty mining town of Contention, Arizona Territory, which sprang to life in 1879 when silver was discovered there. It became one of the Wild West's many boomtowns until an earthquake a few years later made the mines flood. Now all that's left of Contention are a few weathered foundations and an overgrown cemetery.

During those few years of life, Contention had its share of shootouts and craziness. I wonder what it was like to stay in this little adobe hotel, hearing the drunken miners carousing outside your window after a long day underground? Did you have to contend with fleas and bedbugs, or just the usual Arizona problems such a cockroaches, scorpions, black widow spiders, and rattlesnakes?

Ah, the good old days, when going to Arizona was still considered adventure travel!

A Civil War veteran in Tangier

While I was in Tangier I learned of an interesting connection between the American Legation, pictured here, and the Civil War.

In December of 1777, Morocco became the first country to recognize the United States. Diplomatic relations soon began and the American Legation, now a museum, was built in 1821.

One early consul was Felix Mathews. Mathews was living in California when the war broke out and organized a Union cavalry force in the California militia to patrol the area. He rose to the rank of colonel.

His service had started earlier than that, however. He had been in the navy and served with Admiral Farragut, who later commanded the Union navy during the Civil War. He spent time sailing the seas and suppressing the slave trade off the coast of Africa. Once he left the navy he went hunting silver in Utah and got into several skirmishes with the Indians.

His real name was Felix Mateo. He was born in Spain and immigrated when he was young. Like many immigrants, he Anglicized his name. Mateo/Mathews was appointed consul by President Ulysses S. Grant, another Union veteran, in 1869. His connections with Admiral Farragut probably played a big part in getting the job.

More on writing in Tangier

As I mentioned in my last post, I just got back from a writing retreat in Tangier. Not only was it hugely productive but it shifted my thinking about my career.

I originally got into writing with the dream of having a successful career writing both fiction and nonfiction. Well, the nonfiction part happened and the fiction didn't. Oh, sure, I've had several short stories published and a novel that has received good reviews and poor sales, but the vast majority of my effort has gone into developing my careers as a history and travel writer.

I need to change that. No, I'm not quitting my day job unless one of you happens to be rich and wants to be a literary patron, I'm just shifting emphasis. You see, I was really happy for those ten days on Tangier. I was doing nothing but writing a novel and getting into random situations that informed my novel. Like meeting Arabs, Berbers, and Saharawis. Like meeting French millionaires and children addicted to sniffing glue. Like wandering through the market at night and discovering that it smells of popcorn.

I'd spend long hours in cafes and in the courtyard of my pension writing it all down and working some of these details into the developing story. I delved into my protagonist's head. I immersed myself in the story.

I haven't been doing enough of that. Over my 13 year writing career I've squished my fiction writing time in between my nonfiction research and writing. It's always been secondary; now it's going to be a priority.

So I've changed my habits. Now the first thing I do in the morning is fiction, not email or blog posts or the thousands of other things that demand my attention. The email is being drastically cut down. When I returned after ten days offline I found more than 500 new messages in my inbox. In half an hour I was done looking at them. I read and responded to all the important one and the ones from friends and deleted the rest. Yes, it's really that simple.

Have you had a shift in your writing career? What prompted it?

Back from my writing retreat in Tangier

I'm baaaack!

After ten amazing days in Tangier, I'm back in Spain. I went there on a writing retreat to work on my next book, a novel set in contemporary Tangier.

I cut myself off from the internet, music, video, and all those other distractions that are only important when we have them around. I wrote 21,000 words in longhand and outlined the whole novel. It's amazing the progress you can make when you have nothing else to do.

It was nice to fully reconnect with my fiction, something I haven't been able to do for far too long thanks to all the other writing responsibilities that demand my time. Writing longhand was wonderful too. It made me write more slowly and focus on each word and phrase.

Of course I didn't spend all my time hunched over a notebook, although I did carry it everywhere. I explored the city more than I had time for on my previous visit and met lots of interesting folks who I'm looking forward to seeing again.

Yep, I'm already planning my next trip. This time I'm going to rent a cheap room in the medina and stay for a whole month, probably in November. The kind folks at the American Legation have given me access to their excellent library, complete with a desk and wifi. If I'm going for a month, I'll have to take my computer. I don't think my editors would take kindly to me disappearing for that long!

Going on a writer's retreat in Tangier

I'm heading out, folks! I will be spending ten days in Tangier working on my next novel, which not surprisingly is set in Tangier. While I'm there I'll be focusing exclusively on fiction and will not be getting online and will only be answering calls from family. I'll be completely out of circulation from June 21-July 2.

To avoid distractions I won't be bringing a computer, camera, or music. I'll have some reading, of course, and a couple of notebooks to write in longhand. All I'll be doing is writing and getting into all those random weird situations that fuel my writing. While I'm still working on the sequel to A Fine Likeness I feel I need a break before finishing the final 20,000 words on that one.

The genre of this new project is a departure for me. It's contemporary fiction (or "literary fiction" if you want to get snooty). No Chaos demons, gun battles, or sword fights in this one! A new genre and ascetic surroundings will make for an exiting experiment.

See you at the other end of the rabbit hole!

Photo by Almudena Alonso-Herrero of yours truly at the Tomb of Ibn Battuta, the greatest traveler of all time.

Done with the A to Z Blogfest

This April I participated in the A to Z Challenge, in which more than a thousand bloggers wrote posts related to every letter in the alphabet. I kept to my usual themes of the Civil War, Wild West, and adventure travel, with a bit of high strangeness thrown in for kicks.

I did every letter except X. My excuse? I went on this caving expedition and I couldn't think of anything anyway.

Of course, the point of the blogfest isn't really to do all the letters, it's to meet other bloggers and have fun. Mission accomplished. Check out my blogger profile if you want to see some of the blogs I like to read. While many are related to the subjects I write about, some are completely different, and that's fun too.

Underground Exploration: why I'm hooked on caving

I've always liked to explore. That thrill of discovery has taken me to 33 countries, up to 34 next month when I go to Slovenia. But you don't have to go to some faraway land to see something new. One of my hobbies is caving. Anytime I've lived in a region where there were good caves I hurried to get underground. I've traveled beneath New Mexico, Missouri, and now Cantabria in northern Spain where I'm living now.

Caving is physically challenging and emotionally rewarding. The hidden natural beauty of the world beneath our feet is something only a tiny fraction of us ever get to see. Hit that link in the previous paragraph to see some of my caving articles. There are more on the way!

A is for Adventure Travel

Welcome to the A to Z blogfest, where I and more than a thousand other bloggers run through the alphabet this month. I'll be focusing on the regular subjects of this blog: the Civil War, Wild West, and travel.

A is, of course, for adventure travel. I've been a dedicated traveler for more than 20 years and one of my jobs is as a writer for the Gadling travel blog. I've written several series, including a road trip around Ethiopia, visiting Somaliland, and most recently visiting Iraq. Here you can see me hanging out with some Iraqi cops. I'm the younger guy with no firepower. My travel companion is an accomplished sailor from Norway whose hobby is sailing in small boats far north of the Arctic Circle. Not really my thing, but certainly cool!

Check out the map at the bottom of this blog to see where else I've been. Later this year I'll be doing a solo writer's retreat in Tangier and hopefully a long trip to the Sudan. When I'm not traveling I split my time between Santander, Spain (great caving) and Oxford, England (awesome pubs and libraries).

Where do you like to travel? Tell me about it in the comments section!

Caving in Spain

I've recently gotten back into caving. I did a bit of caving a couple of decades ago in New Mexico and Missouri and now that I'm living in Cantabria, one of the best regions in the world for caves, I've joined the local federation and am getting back underground. Here's me squeezing through a little hole that slopes down to a ledge over a cliff, hence the rope. Below is a shot from the same cave of some of the great formations you can see.

Being a travel blogger for Gadling, anytime I do anything even remotely interesting it gets turned into an article. You can read about my adventures in Cañuela Cave and Coventosa Cave at these links.

Moroccan battles in miniature

Here's one for my wargamer readers. I've just done two guest blogs for Black Gate about a pair of fascinating dioramas I discovered in the American Legation museum in Tangier. Built by master modeller Edward Suren of London, these battle scenes are incredibly detailed. They include the Battle of the Three Kings (1578) and the Battle of Tondibi (1591). I've included lots of pictures and background about both battles.

Guest blogging about my time in Iraq

Yesterday I was over at the Post Modern Pulp blog talking about my time with the various armed forces during my trip to Iraq. I also have a post on the Osprey Publishing blog today about some curious Ottoman artillery I saw in Baghdad. There are plenty of interesting photos in both of these posts.

So check them out, or my buddy here will level his machine gun at you. Also check out my Iraq travel series on Gadling.

Military history of Tangier, Morocco

So much has been going on this past week I forgot to mention that I did a guest post over at the Black Gate blog about Exploring the Defenses of Tangier. You'll see lots of pictures and info that didn't make it into my Tangier travel series I did for Gadling. Head on over and check it out!

Tangier was an inspiring place with a lot going on. I'm thinking of taking a solo trip there later this year to work on a writing project. See you back here tomorrow with Wild West Photo Friday!

Indie Life: Free photos for your book cover!

Welcome to the second month of the Indie Life bloghop, where we indie authors talk about the trials and rewards of going independent in the tough world of publishing.

As I mentioned in my previous post asking How can I help you? I want to do what I can to help my fellow indies. I just realized that in addition to hosting guest posts and announcing reader news, there's another thing I can do.

As many of you know, I travel a lot. In fact, one of my day jobs is as a travel blogger for Gadling. I've accumulated thousands of photos from more than two dozen countries and while I've published many of them, many more are just sitting on my hard drive. Let's put them to work.


Some subjects include:

Castles
Medieval weapons and armor
Medieval manuscripts
African markets
Mosques
Churches
Hyenas
Scottish countryside
Old English buildings
military hardware
graveyards
graffiti art
Rome
Iraq
Ghost towns
The Orkney Islands
. . .and much more

I've even done some rather silly experiments with horror photography and haunted graveyards.  

If you're looking for a photo for your book, I'd be happy to help. All photos were taken in the highest resolution and can be used for print as well as ebooks. All I ask in return is credit and a copy of the book.

I'm in Estonia this week adding to my photo collection so I may be a bit slow in replying to email at the moment.

Guest blogging and headed to Estonia

Yesterday I was over at Alex Cavanaugh's blog doing a guest post about that greatest of challenges for the adventure traveler--the squat toilet. Head on over and learn how to handle this tricky device.

I should have posted about this yesterday but I was crazy busy. One thing I had to do was arrange my next trip, and next series for Gadling. In mid February I'm headed to Estonia. That's right, I'm hanging out for five days in one of the Baltic States to cover their annual ice sculpture festival. It will be my first trip to the region. Should be fun!

Photo of Tallinn courtesy Wikimedia Commons. My own photos coming next month!

Finishing up my Tangier series on Gadling

I'm pretty much done with my Tangier series on Gadling. As I mentioned before, my wife and I took a five-day break from the Christmas holidays for a romantic getaway in Tangier, Morocco. I wrote it up for Gadling, of course. Hit the link to see all the posts.

I'll probably do one more this week on visiting the tomb of Ibn Battuta, the great Arab traveler. My friends think I'm well traveled for having visited 33 countries. Ibn Battuta visited 44, more than 500 years ago! It was an honor to see where this great traveler was laid to rest.

Most of the photos are by my lovely wife, a Spanish astronomer who is responsible for getting me to move from Missouri to Europe. She even got this shot of me after I had become part of the Sultan's harem. She's very understanding.

Spotted in Tangier: Creative use of English

Never underestimate the flexibility of language! My series on Tangier has started on Gadling. Check out all our posts on this wonderful city here. Mine is at the top and titled Avoiding Christmas in Tangier. More from my trip will go live this week.

My Writing Year: A Look Back and a Look Forward

It's a new year, the traditional time to take stock of what you've done and what you're planning on doing. Yes, it's completely arbitrary, but it's good to do these things every now and then.

The year 2012 was so-so for me. I only had one nonfiction book come out: The Last Ride of the James-Younger Gang, Jesse James & The Northfield Raid 1876. I also came out with the print version of my Civil War novel A Fine Likeness. Both have gotten good reviews, although I wouldn't mind better sales on the novel. I did get some nice attention when the city of Madrid paid me to give a reading at their annual Noche del Libro festival. Considering the state of the Spanish economy, I doubt I'll get to do that again!

Another milestone was seeing my fantasy novella The Quintessence of Absence come out in Black Gate Magazine. It's free online, so click that link!

For my travel writing, check out this Gadling post about my year in adventure travel and what to expect from me in 2013. I'm much more satisfied with that part of my career, with popular series on Iraq and the Orkney Islands. Lebanon won the "where to send Sean next" poll, so it looks like I'm going there, editor willing!

So what's up for 2013? I'm making fiction a priority. My dream has always been to divide my time evenly between fiction and nonfiction. My history and travel writing careers are humming along nicely, while fiction still lags behind. I wanted to finish the sequal to A Fine Likeness in 2012 but didn't. I'm also way behind on a story I promised A.J. Walker for an anthology we're doing. Several other fiction projects got nowhere fast.

It's time to get cracking. My goal this year is to write 200,000 words of fiction. While that sounds like a lot, it's actually only 550 words a day. Quite doable. Some days I'll write more, and some days I'll write none because I'll be traveling. When I'm on the road I need to focus on what I'm seeing and how I'm going to communicate that to my readers.

To keep myself honest I've put a word count bar at the bottom of this blog. I'll be updating it once a week or so. Light a fire under my ass if I'm not writing enough.

I'll also be ramping up this blog, reaching out to other bloggers for guest posts and to guest post on their own blogs. You'll see me participating in more blogfests too. This blog started the year with only 100 hits a day and finished with almost 300 daily hits. I'm going to see how much I can raise that.

It's going to be a fun and challenging year!

Off to Tangier, see you later!

Today my wife and I are heading south to Tangier, Morocco, for five days. I've already scheduled a Wild West Photo Friday post for tomorrow, but that's the last you'll hear from me until later next week. This is a total vacation with just me and the honey. The kid is staying with his grandmother. No responsibilities, no work, and no computer. A total vacation!

Well, almost. I'll be taking notes and pictures for a Gadling miniseries. A travel writer never travels without a bit of work involved!

Happy New Year!


Photo courtesy Trent Strohm. My photos coming soon!

Choose my next adventure!

Now that my Iraq travel series is done, I'm thinking about where to go in 2013. Since I write up all my big trips for the travel blog Gadling, I've decided to ask my readers to pick my next destination! I've put up a poll. The main choices are Sudan, Lebanon, and Iran. You can also name your own location. So far Sudan has a slight lead, so you might be sending me to see the pyramids at Meroe.

What do you think? The poll closes December 31!


Image courtesy Sven-steffenarndt via Wikimedia Commons