Travel That Inspires Your Writing

As I read through blog posts on a daily basis, I see many that are inspired by travel. Some of you live in exotic places. Others record memories from wonderful trips that you’ve taken.  The photographs and descriptive narrative are fascinating.

As you may or may not know, my job requires me to travel an average of 45 weeks per year. That sounds glamorous, perhaps, but the reality is I spend most of my time in office buildings and hotels in some great cities with little time to venture out.

Occasionally, however, a cancelled flight or a project deadline will cause me to spend a weekend in a place. It it those opportunities that allow me to venture out and soak in the culture.

One such setting that I’ve used in my writing is Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Albuquerque is a picturesque city. It’s in a high desert area surrounded by the Sandia Mountains.

I was stuck there for a weekend and took the opportunity to drive around and even went up to Santa Fe which is only an hour away to soak in some of the artistic culture and architecture.

I made New Mexico the backdrop for my story, No Pain, No Gain, that has been published in parts each week on Saturdays. The surroundings are not an essential part of the story, but they do provide an accurate setting.

I’ve also done this with other locations like Philadelphia and, of course, Florida. My hometown of Syracuse, New York has also appeared in a few of my books.

Life Changing Trip

When I was a junior in high school, I had the opportunity to travel to Italy. Even though this trip was nearly 40 years ago, it is one that I’ll never forget.

Here are some faded pictures of that trip:

Although the trip was memorable, I haven’t set a book in Italy…yet. The great news is, this coming June my wife, daughter and I will be traveling to Italy. We wanted to give our daughter a memorable trip and the opportunity to spend 10 days in the country of my family’s origin came along. We couldn’t pass it up.

Look for a future book set in Italy. I can’t wait to start taking notes.

So, how about you? Does your travel inspire you to write about a new location?