Sunday, April 28, 2013

It All Started With A Tweet

So, guess what?

This month, I've had the most amazing development.

I have recently been published in The Guardian newspaper's travel section!!

Yep, that Guardian. 

The whole thing started when I read a tweet from The Guardian asking for people who were travel bloggers in the US.  I tweeted in response:
Less than four hours later, I had a tweet back from them:
In the morning when I woke up, just three hours after their tweet, I had an email from the Head of Travel asking me if I'd like to write an article for them.

Seriously?  Hell yeah, I want to write an article for you! 

Since I have readers from all over the world, I'm sure there are plenty of you who are familiar with The Guardian, but for those who are not, I am sharing the same little blurb with you that I sent to my mother.  She didn't know about The Guardian, and quite frankly, if it doesn't have to do with Criminal Minds, CSI: Miami, or The Walking Dead, she's probably not going to give it much attention. 

"The Guardian is a British daily newspaper founded in 1821. It is the second most popular newspaper site in the UK and the fifth most popular newspaper site in the WORLD.  It's won several awards from National Newspaper of the Year, to the Webby Award (beating out the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal and Variety), to awards for its journalism. And the 4 International Media & Newspapers site ranks it among the top 200 newspapers in the world at number TWO, right after the New York Times."

Needless to say, I'm very excited.  I was also told that the site has 70 million unique users per month, worldwide.  That's a whole lotta eyeballs!  Even though my stuff has been published before, to have a writing credit for a publication as respected as this newspaper, is pretty damn cool.

My piece came out yesterday. You can see it here.

They also said they would love to keep me as a regular in the series, which they will be running over six months, and would I be happy to do that?  Uh, yeah
.  So I said yes, and now will be contributing at least six articles in total.  My next deadline is this coming week.  Cue the trumpets!

On a side note, do you guys know who Andrew McCarthy is?  Most people will remember him from the movies Pretty in Pink, St. Elmo's Fire, Weekend at Bernie's, and Mannequin, among others.  What you might not know about him is, that in addition to his acting and directing, he is now an Award-winning travel writer.

And he has an article in The Guardian that came out the same day as mine. 

Well wouldn't you know, that in the print version of the newspaper, the one on paper, that you can buy at a newsstand?

In that version, our articles are ON THE SAME PAGE!

As my youngest nephew would say...

Oh, yeaaahh.


~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

2012: Waiting For Summer
2011: It Should Have Been Titled Boringpants
2010: Ed Blows A 750
2009: Another Reason I Love The Great Indoors
2008: We Think The Only Thing Worth Stealing From The House Would Have Been The Fresh Baked Apple Pie
2007: Not Nearly As Appealing As Gnocchi
2006: Working The Yard
2005: Sorry, no post on this day. The blog didn’t start until May 2005!

13 comments:

Jack McCallum said...

Congratulations! That is fabulous!!

healthy life said...

Great blog !!

MAE said...

Bravo!...I am so proud of you...so excited with you...

june in florida said...

Wtg Salena.Your such a talented writer.

Unknown said...

Salena, that is awesome! I saw your tweet abt the article and read it yesterday. The pictures are wonderful and your descriptions are delicious! Hubby and I are heading out in a truck next year and we have saved your article to add to our "places we have got to see" list.

Safe travels!

Ginnie and Mark

Belledog said...

So proud of you!!

The Guardian is one of the best news outlets out there. I think its quality surpasses that of most US papers, including The Washington Post (which I say sadly, as the Post is my local paper and I loved Kay Graham's and Ben Bradlee's fearless crusading).

It's got excellent world and US reporting, great features, an easy to use online interface, and now

YOU!!

3 cheers.

Hoping you get more readers, and more comments from folks all over who recognize quality.

Marlaina said...

And good on you for reaching out to the opportunity.

To have the quality of your blog confirmed from such a venerable source is, well, exciting.

And your blog is fantastic, in case you don't hear it enough. I am amazed that every day you find an interesting piece of news, an observation or even a comment to pass along. It's not easy to create constant content with context. Just ask the newspapers that floundering around the world.

Congratulations.

Scott said...

Congrats on the post! and let me know when you guys are headed this way...I might need you to deliver some of those pies from Indiana.

Dave Sanderson said...

Congradulations Salena!! Interesting places to stop is one of your blog's main things and now it has gone international in print. I hope you will let us know when the other articles come out. Just wait till they find out what else you can write about.:)

all things bradbury said...

congratulations!!...we are so excited for you!...this is awesome!

dixie g. said...

Good work, Salena. I'm not at all surprised someone latched onto you. I have always, as long as I've known you, enjoyed your flair for writing.

The Daily Rant said...

JACK: Thanks! I feel fabulous!

HEALTHY LIFE: Thank you! Hope to see you back here!

MAE: Grazie!

JUNE: Appreciate your readership, your effort to be a regular commenter and your praise! Thank you.

GINNIE TERRY: Thank you so much. Are you two becoming truck drivers? If so, I guess we’ll be seeing you on the road someday! Keep in touch.

BELLEDOG: Thank you, thank you, thank you. I’m pretty psyched that it’s The Guardian also. I have an internet friend (via FB) who lives in Wales and she said, “Wow. Being published in The Guardian is a BIG deal.” I felt really great hearing that!

MARLAINA: As always, thank you for your support and thank you for sharing my excitement. Coming up with stuff daily isn’t easy, as evidenced by pictures I take while I hang out the window (but hey, that’s how *I* see the country most of the time!). And of course, there’s my mom to write about – she’s always good for a few posts. LOL And if it weren’t for your journalistic roots, I wouldn’t even know exactly HOW big deal The Guardian is. Thanks again!

SCOTT: Oh man, those pies are something else. And I bought two loaves of bread this visit – talk about deeeeelicious!

DAVE: Dave! So good to see you here. And thank you. I will be posting about the other articles as they come out (on Facebook, Twitter and here), so keep your eyes peeled. See you soon!

BRADBURYS: I appreciate your words, but I think this calls for a proper “biscuits and gravy” thank you. I’ll let you know when I’m in the area! Xo

DIXIE: Thank you! Glad my writing flair has kept you entertained!

Stephanie K said...

Congratulations, and it's a great story, too!