Wild Writing Women: Stories of World Travel

by Lisa Alpine, Jacqueline Butler, Pamela Michael

Wild Writing Women: Stories of World Travel is an anthology from a remarkable writers' group. The WWW - a gathering of twelve women - travel the globe, returning as often as they can to share their tales of adventure. Through these pages you will journey alongside each author, traveling through China on a motorcycle, playing with fire at a volcano's edge in Hawaii, experiencing the supernatural in Scotland, or falling in love in Moscow. Life's adventures are expressed here with sensitivity and verve, providing a terrific read that is sure to become a favorite of book groups, armchair travelers, and wild women everywhere. (5 1/2 x 8 1/2, 224 pages)

Genres: Travel, Nonfiction, Memoir, Short Stories, Essays

224 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

Foreword Reviews' INDIEFAB Book of the Year Award Gold Winner for Travel

I’ve just published #3 in the Life Series: "Dance Life: Movin’ and Groovin’ Around the Globe". Albanian salsa stories grace its pages as well as stories weaving my dance and travel experiences in Cuba, Georgia, Armenia, Paris, Spain and other exotic locals where I’ve recently voyaged. Dance usually plays an important or whimsical role in my travels—hence the title.

#2 in the Life Series is " Wild Life: Travel Adventures of a Worldly Woman" (INDIEFAB Book of the Year Award and 1st Place winner Travel Book 2014 North American Book Awards).

"1 in the Life Series: "Exotic Life: Travel Tales of an Adventurous Woman" (1st place winner Memoir 2014 North American Book Awards & Best Women's Adventure Memoir BAIPA Book Awards).

I'm the winner of many awards including the Solas Award silver medal for Best Travel Story of the Year for her story "Fish Trader Ray." —included in "Wild Life" and Travelers’ Tales "Best Travel Writing Vol. #10".

I've curated and hosted "Titillating Adventure Travel Tales Told by an All-Star Cast" literary series held at the Mill Valley Library and at Book Passage in California.

My stories appear in numerous anthologies, including Mambo Poa, Travelers’ Tales Best Travel Writing, BATW’s Travel Stories From Around the Globe, Lonely Planet Tales From Nowhere,I Should Have Stayed Home, I Should Have Gone Home, and Hyenas Laughed at Me and Now I Know Why. I'm the winner of the 2013 bronze medal under "Animal Encounter" for Trumpets of Warning; and the 2012 gold medal for Most Unforgettable Character in "Rada's Bloom". These stories are included in "Wild Life: Travel Adventures of a Worldly Woman".

I'm also an accomplished teacher leading workshops on Poetry in Motion, The Writer's Toolbox, and travel writing at The Writing Salon. I teach dance as a healing art form at retreat centers around the world.

I'm a member of Bay Area Travel Writers and Women's National Book Association, and on the board of the arts and cultural center Kalani on the Big Island of Hawai'i.

Extended Bio:
The day she turned eighteen, Lisa Alpine moved to Paris. Over the next decade, she waitressed in Switzerland and picked olives in Greece, paddled the Amazon River, and created Dream Weaver Imports, a South American import company with two retail stores and a wholesale business in San Francisco.

In 1983, she gave birth to Galen Marc Alpine. That same year, she founded and published "The Fax" newspaper in Marin County, California. She then went on to be the Pacific Sun’s Getaway columnist for more than a decade. During this period she also freelanced for Frommers’ America on Wheels, Common Ground, San Francisco Examiner, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Mothering Magazine, Paddler Magazine, Physicians’ Travel & Meeting Guide, Specialty Travel Index, and many other publications. You can still read about her exotic escapes to Albania, Morocco, Fiji, Italy, Ireland—even Medford—in her Global Getaways column in Examiner.com.

With her writing group, the Wild Writing Women, she co-authored "Wild Writing Women: Stories of World Travel" published by Globe Pequot Press.

In 2009 Lisa started Good to Go Media with Carla King, a venture that helped authors get their books out of their head and into the marketplace. They offered workshops and co-authored the "Self-Publishing Boot Camp Workbook: Ten Steps to Self-Publishing Success", which they, of course, self-published.

She teaches travel writing at The Writing Salon in San Francisco and Berkeley and at Kalani Resort on the Big Island of Hawai'i. For the last two decades, she has also led a plethora of writing and dance workshops in Hawai’i, New Mexico, Italy, Mexico, and France.

She is currently working on several new titles to be published by Dancing Words Press. Upcoming titles include an embellished historical nonfiction, "Wild Blood: Horse Thieves and Whores", about her renegad

Reviews

[Ayelet Waldman]

These tales of intrepid women travelers braving remarkable dangers were so much fun! They made me want to head back out to Nepal or Ladakh.

[Dona · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received this book as a gift a few years ago (from Dena) and I had read a couple of the stories. Don't really know why I stopped reading--probably just misplaced it. I was missing out. I especially liked "Learning to Breathe" by photographer Alison Wright, who was severly injured in a bus crash while on assignment in Laos. After the accident, she was transported via a flat bed truck with no anesthesia--and had to survive for days before getting medical attention. All of Wrights' organs had been "torn out and smashed up into [her] left shoulder. She kept herself from losing consciousness by breathing in and breathing out.
The "Art of Darkness" by Christi Phillips was also fun to read while vacationing in New Orleans. It tells of her experience at a voo doo ceremony in the Lower Ninth Ward during pre-Katrina days.

[Bev · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating collection of essays by women living on the wild side, everything from watching lava on the Big Island in Hawaii to climbing high peaks to see wild tortoises, to traveling across the deserted parts of China, alone, on a motorcycle, to confronting ghosts in Scottish castles. Twenty-four essays, each interesting and each making me glad I am only an armchair traveler.

[Maureen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enjoyed peering into the adventurous moments of so many traveling writers.