Ken Price, historian of Chicago's Legendary Palmer House hotel,  joins Paul and Elizabeth in the hotel museum and chats about the remarkable history. With 145 years of history the hotel remains one of the legendary hotels in America. Ken talks about the famous and infamous and even tells how the hotel had the first vertical transportation system. 

Avoid clichés like the plague. Here’s a 60-Second Travel Writer Tip from LA Times Travel Editor Catharine Hamm: Cliches are easy to latch onto because they grow from kernels of truth but become so shopworn that they lose their punch. Worse, they can weigh down your otherwise crisp prose. They also can date you. The expression “hotter than a two-dollar pistol” originated in the 1800s. It stuck around long enough to become a lyric in a 1963 George Jones song. It’s probably time to put that cliche out of its misery, along with “hot enough to fry an egg.” Whenever you’re tempted to use a cliché—think of a more creative way to say what you want to say. Here’s a word to the wise: Most editors have an ax to grind when it comes to clichés. Really, it drives them to drink and they won’t beat around the bush in telling you that such prose bores them to tears and is as dull as dishwater. Let’s let those little phrases fall by the wayside, shall we?  For SATW professional development, I’m Westways Travel Editor Elizabeth Harryman. SaveSave

In your writing, watch out for redundancies. Here’s a 60-Second Travel Writer Tip from LA Times Travel Editor Catharine Hamm:

All bullies are mean, all jinxes are bad luck, and all redundancies are repetitive. We’ve all done it, and it’s embarrassing when we don’t catch it. Sometimes these creep into our writing because they’re part of the vernacular and they don’t sound wrong. Here are some to watch out for: Past history, Small village, Tiny berg, My own personal experience, The reason is because, General public, Advance planning, Exact replica, Still remains, Serious heart attack, About half a mile or so, Close proximity, Song lyrics  Make every word count by scrutinizing your sentences and plucking out those phrases that take too many words to say one thing. Otherwise, you may look like a foolish half-wit.

For SATW Professional Development, I’m Westways Travel Editor Elizabeth Harryman. SaveSave SaveSave SaveSave

Like what we wear, the way we write and talk changes. Certain things go in and out of fashion. But lately, we’ve noticed a bad fashion choice – the use of the word “so.”         Here’s a 60-Second Travel Writer Tip from LA Times Travel Editor Catharine Hamm:

The word “so” we’re talking about is not the “so” that means therefore: “It rained so I took my umbrella.” Or the “so” that intensifies something. “That movie was so long.” We’re talking about the word “so” that’s become a space filler. In interviews, you’ll often hear an exchange that goes something like this: “When did you become a travel writer?” “So, after I graduated from college, I took a gap year.” In writing, you may encounter: “So despite a 10-run lead, the Dodgers never let up.” The sentence can stand without the “so.” It becomes a space filler in the vein of “like” or “you know.”

Think of your writing this way: You have a word budget, say, a story of 500 words. How you spend your writing capital is up to you, but using fillers like “so” is a waste. Best make expenditures on strong nouns and verbs that get right to the heart of the matter. So…for SATW professional development, I’m Westways Travel Editor Elizabeth Harryman.   SaveSave SaveSave

Active voice makes for vibrant prose. Here’s a 60-Second Travel Writer Tip from LA Times Travel Editor Catharine Hamm.

When we write, “The lumberjack chopped down the tree" or “Serena Williams crushed the shot over the net,” you can picture the action. But sometimes, we paint word pictures in the passive voice. That means that what should be the strong subject of the sentence becomes the object of the action. In the lumberjack example, the sentence becomes “The tree was chopped down by the lumberjack.” Not as strong. Passive voice can be a useful tool. You might say, “The window was left open.” – if you don’t want to accuse someone or start a fight (or, if you’re writing a murder mystery and you don’t want to reveal a spoiler).

If you’re not sure whether passive voice works, try the sentence both ways. The right choice will be made by you. Or, you’ll make the right choice. For SATW professional development, I’m Westways Travel Editor Elizabeth Harryman. SaveSave SaveSave SaveSave

Being a talented writer is just the beginning. To be successful, you also have to be great to work with. I’m Westways Travel Editor Elizabeth Harryman, and here’s a 60-Second Travel Writer Tip.          Be professional. That means turning your story in on deadline, on word count, and make sure the copy is as clean as you can make it—grammatically correct, with proper spellings. And don’t trust spellcheck or auto-correct. If your editor asks for a rewrite, rewrite cheerfully. It doesn’t mean you’ve failed. It just means the story can be even better. We editors have to rewrite, too. How you handle the rewrite can make or break your relationship with an editor you haven’t worked with—consider it your literary audition. Follow directions. An editor’s job is to make your story better. If the editor is good, you’ll be glad you had the chance to rewrite. It’s teamwork. Be great to work with, and you’ll get that next assignment. For SATW professional development, I’m Westways Travel Editor Elizabeth Harryman. SaveSave SaveSave SaveSave SaveSave

It seems like, increasingly, publications want shorter and shorter articles. Don’t let that throw you. I’m Westways Travel Editor Elizabeth Harryman, and here’s a 60-Second Travel Writer Tip.          You can write tight and bright by following a few rules:

• Use Active Voice: Don’t say, “My story was ruined by an editor.” Say: “An editor ruined my story.”
• Use Action Verbs: Not: “The story is an illustration.” Say: “The story illustrates.”
• Use Simple Tenses. Not: “I’m planning to write.” Say: “I plan to write.”
• Beware of Prepositions. Instead of: “The heart of the city.” Say “The city’s heart.”
• Use Adjectives and Adverbs Sparingly. Use strong nouns and verbs instead.
• Be Specific. Just because you have a tight word count doesn’t mean you can’t use detail. Go in greater detail about fewer things. Be selective, not inclusive – choose one or two things to illustrate your point.

Think of your article as a kind of haiku. Short, but sweet. For SATW professional development, I’m Westways Travel Editor Elizabeth Harryman. SaveSave SaveSave SaveSave

Quotations are one of a writer’s most useful tools. I’m Westways Travel Editor Elizabeth Harryman, and here’s a 60-Second Travel Writer Tip.          Which of these two bits of text is more compelling: In Chesky Krumlov, a local guide in period dress gave us a tour of the town and explained that in the 18^th century, this was the crossroads of Europe. Or: In Cesky Krumlov, a man wearing a black frock coat and white ruffled collar approached us from across the cobblestone town square and introduced himself. “My name is Joseph Anton; we’re in the 18th century, and I am the town scribe,” he explained as he led us up a narrow street lined by baroque and Renaissance houses. “We are at the crossroads of Europe.” Quotations and dialogue enliven your text and propel the narrative. Not sure when to use them? If it’s just a statement of fact, put it in your own words. If the person you’re interviewing says it better than you can, use the quote. For SATW Professional Development, I’m Westways Travel Editor Elizabeth Harryman. SaveSave SaveSave SaveSave SaveSave SaveSave SaveSave

Paul and Elizabeth chat with the new President and CEO of Fantasy Fest, Nadine Grossman Orr. She talks about taking Fantasy Fest to new artistic and creative levels. This year's Fantasy Fest will feature such great events as the Zombie Bike Ride and a Pet Masquerade. Of course, there will always be the amazing costumes seen everywhere in Key West.      

Pat Foley, CEO of Lufthansa Technik Puerto Rico, joins Paul to talk about the remarkable aid effort that Lufthansa has made following Hurricane Maria. He discusses Lufthansa's role in Puerto Rico and the fact that their base there does skilled technical maintenance on planes. Since their hangar stood up to Maria, they were able to use it as an aid base for many of their people, some of whom have lost everything. Foley also talks about the close working relationship with the University of Puerto Rico.

In your writing, use all the senses. I’m Westways Travel Editor Elizabeth Harryman, and here’s a 60-Second Travel Writer Tip.

         Most writers are pretty good at describing what they see. But they often neglect to use the other senses. Describing how things taste, feel, sound, and smell can fill in the portrait you paint of a place. Listen to these excerpts from Lisa See’s captivating novel Shanghai Girls:          A bracelet carved from a single piece of good jade hangs from her wrist. The thump of it when it hits the table edge is comforting and familiar. And:          We cross a bridge over Soochow Creek and then turn right, away from the Whangpoo River and its dank odors of oil, seaweed, coal, and sewage.          Hear how See’s use of the senses of sound and smell draws you in and paints a fuller picture than if the descriptions stopped at the visual. When you’re visiting place, look carefully, to be sure. But close your eyes for few minutes and let your other senses speak to you.

For SATW Professional Development, I’m Westways Travel Editor Elizabeth Harryman. SaveSave SaveSave SaveSave

What are “reliable sources?” I’m Westways Travel Editor Elizabeth Harryman, and here’s a 60-Second Travel Writer Tip:

When you research a topic, use accurate, trustworthy sources. If the tobacco industry funds a report on smoking, for example, the results might not be as reliable as a report done, say, by the American Medical Association.          When you submit an article for publication, you’ll often be asked to provide contact information for the sources you used so that researchers can fact-check the story. A primary source is the person you interviewed or wrote about. A secondary source could be a person affiliated with the person or company—could be a Public Relations representative. They’re great for checking things like the number of rooms in a hotel—but if they say the chef is fabulous—well, you might want to get the opinion of a food expert. Be careful about websites. If you’re writing about national parks, for example, NPS.gov is a good source, but beware of commercial sites masquerading as the real thing. And while Wikipedia can be a place to start, don’t rely on it; make sure you have a second source.

For SATW professional development, I’m Westways Travel Editor Elizabeth Harryman. SaveSave SaveSave

Be your own editor. You can save yourself trouble and ingratiate yourself with your editor by taking some precautions before submitting your story. Here’s a 60-Second Travel Writer Tip from LA Times Travel Editor Catharine Hamm:

--After you’ve finished your story, walk away for a couple of hours; then come back when you can look at it with fresh eyes. --Print out your story and read it aloud. You may find sentences that are too long or nouns and verbs that don’t agree. You may hear a word that “clunks. And don’t discount intuition; it’s experience at work. --Highlight your facts and recheck your sources. Are e-cigarettes allowed in carry-on bags or checked bags? An error caught in a recent LATimes blog post—but not before it made it online. When you’re pitching an editor, your credibility counts heavily in the decision. Think of self-editing as money in the bank.

In the next installment, we’ll talk about reliable sources. For SATW professional development, I’m Westways Travel Editor Elizabeth Harryman. SaveSave

The English language has millions of words - a veritable buffet. But like a buffet, sometimes we overindulge. Here’s a 60-Second Travel Writer Tip from LA Times Travel Editor Catharine Hamm:

Strong verbs and nouns are keys to great prose. Adjectives and adverbs are not always your friends. If you’re writing about a jungle, there’s probably no need to describe it as a “lush, green jungle,” unless it isn’t. Same with describing a nuclear explosion as powerful - or winter in the Artic Circle as frigid—unless it isn’t. Which evokes the livelier image:  traffic that moved very slowly or traffic that crawled? A vendor that loudly called out his prices or a vendor who shouted them? A sun that reflects brightly off the snow or snow that glistens? By choosing a strong noun or verb, you also save words, which makes you a hero to an editor and, more important to a busy reader.

In the next installment, we’ll talk about being your own editor. For SATW professional development, I’m Westways Travel Editor Elizabeth Harryman. SaveSave

At an SATW professional development session some years ago, University of Missouri professor Don Ranly gave us this gem: Something compared to nothing doesn’t mean anything. Here’s a 60-Second Travel Writer Tip from LA Times Travel Editor Catharine Hamm:

Dr. Ranley was talking about using numbers effectively to paint the kind of word picture that helps reader see what you’re saying. Maybe you’re writing about San Bernardino County, California, the largest county in the lower 48 states. It’s 22,000 square miles. But how big is that? You can say that it’s about the size of Delaware. Or you depending your audience, you could say it’s about the size of 165,000 Disneylands. It takes a little extra reporting, but the delight of a story often is in the description that lets the read see through the written.

What are some other ways to make descriptions come alive? We’ll talk about some pitfalls of descriptors our next installment of The 60-Second Travel Writer. For SATW professional development, I’m Westways Travel Editor Elizabeth Harryman. SaveSave SaveSave

The old joke among journalists is that we chose our profession because we can’t do numbers. Here’s a 60-Second Travel Writer Tip from LA Times Travel Editor Catharine Hamm:

You don’t have to be a mathematician to use numbers in stories, and that’s good because they lend gravitas. The number of square feet in a hotel room. How far a place is from the airport. How much it cost to build something. But sometimes we end up with sentences like this: The hotel, built at a cost of $7 billion and opened in 2013, has 204 rooms, each about 650 square feet in its eight stories that loom above downtown 22 miles from the airport. Rates begin at $225 a night for two people, excluding taxes and the $20-a-night resort fee. All of that information could be important, but stick to this rule of thumb: About three numbers is the maximum a reader can absorb in any sentence and, some editors say, any paragraph. Choose the two or three most important figures in what we’ll call a gravitas graf. If there are other stats that could help, sprinkle them in unobtrusively.

Up next: how to use numbers more effectively. For SATW professional development, I’m Westways Travel Editor Elizabeth Harryman. SaveSave SaveSave

Good writing begins with good reporting. Here’s an SATW 60-Second Travel Writer Tip from LA Times Travel Editor Catharine Hamm:  

A well-known travel writer used to insist, “I’m NOT a reporter. I’m a writer.” Yet her stories brimmed with facts, figures, and imagery collected by carefully questioning sources and recording observations. Think about the reporting it took for the New York Times’ Timothy Egan to write this paragraph in his book The Worst Hard Time, which chronicles the Dust Bowl years. “They had been on the road for six days, a clan of five bouncing along in a tired wagon, when Bam White woke to some bad news. One of his horses was dead. It was the nineteenth-century equivalent of a flat tire, except this was the winter of 1926. The Whites had no money. They were moving from the high desert chill of Las Animas, Colorado, to Littlefield, Texas, south of Amarillo to start anew.” Reporting details—and skillfully incorporating them into a story—paints a picture for your reader.

Using facts also helps writers avoid another deadly sin of writing: telling, not showing. We’ll talk about that in the next edition of The 60-Second Travel Writer. For SATW professional development, I’m Westways Travel Editor Elizabeth Harryman. SaveSave SaveSave SaveSave SaveSave SaveSave SaveSave

Show me, don’t tell me. Here’s an SATW 60-Second Travel Writer Tip from LA Times Travel Editor Catharine Hamm:

Missouri is the Show Me State. It’s a good reminder for travel writers that our craft requires showing, not telling, readers about what they’re seeing. The best travel writing gives the reader an unseen narrator, to explain things. It also lets readers reach their own conclusions. Listen to the differences in the word pictures these two sentences paint: “The enormous chandelier overwhelms the tiny lobby in the new Chinese-themed hotel.” versus this “The chandelier, made in Croatia, not China, contains 72,000 crystal prisms that illuminate a lobby that’s about the same size as the hotel’s 380-square-foot guest rooms.” To write this, you’ve asked where the chandelier was made, how many prisms it has, and the dimensions of the lobby and of a standard guest room. You don’t have to say it overwhelms the space. The reader can imagine a chandelier of that size in their room. You’ve led the reader to that conclusion, but you haven’t made it for him.

Are there too many numbers in that sentence? We’ll talk about numbers in our next edition of The 60-Second Travel Writer. For SATW professional development, I’m Westways Travel Editor Elizabeth Harryman.   SaveSave SaveSave SaveSave SaveSaveSaveSave SaveSave SaveSave

Travel Camel Shane Dallas returns to talk about a life-changing trip he led to Tajikistan.      SaveSave SaveSave

Key West Mayor Craig Cates chats with Paul and Elizabeth about why Key West is the world famous destination it is. They talk about ocean racing and the Cuban connection. Mayor Cates assures us that Key West is ready for visitors.    

With a glass conservatory dome designed for intense storms the Key West Butterfly Conservancy is back undamaged and and provides not only great beauty but a real learning experience for visitors to Upper Duvall Street. SaveSave SaveSave SaveSave

Jennifer Dombrowski checks in from Bordeaux, France to tell of her trip with husband Tim to Coastal Wales. They drove part of the way and discovered some fun inns, great scenery, and some neat attractions. And bad weather in Snowdonia keep them out of the mountain hikes they were looking forward to.    SaveSave

Andy Newman who has been spokesman for the Florida Keys for 37 years, is a Florida native and has a home in the Keys. He talks with Paul and Elizabeth about how Key West and all of the Keys are coming back after Hurricane Maria. Andy shares the details of how hurricanes can both effect a place and spare it. He also reveals that Hemingway's six-toed cat descendants are just fine.        

Emily Gallagher talks with Paul about how Hostelling International is changing with the enlarged expectations of young travelers today. However she also stress that all age groups use hostels in order to not only experience the comraderie of other travelers that hostels pride but to stretch travel dollars. She also shares with Paul that hostels are also accomodating those who want more privacy with hotel-style rooms. She provides some great advice for those  wanting to find good reliable hostels around the world. 

John Poimiroo joins Paul to kickoff another Fall Color Season in California. John tells how a unique climate and changes in altitude  make the fall color season last for months in the Golden State.