The Writing Coach Podcast 8: Backstory of a New York Times travel feature with Sarah Khan
08: Backstory of a New York Times travel feature with Sarah Khan Sarah Khan is a freelance travel writer for the Wall Street Journal, Condé Nast Traveler, and Travel + Leisure. Today Sarah shares the backstory of her award-winning feature for the New York Times, “A Muslim American’s Homecoming: Cowboys, Country Music, Chapatis.” Subscribe to The […]
The Writing Coach Podcast 7: Procrastinate later
http://writingcoachpodcast.libsyn.com/07-procrastinate-later Subscribe to The Writing Coach Podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, Android, or RSS. What does a wild animal have to do with procrastination? Your brain wants to protect you from danger–be it a baboon in the bedroom or the anxiety of writing your first draft. Oh, wait, writing that draft isn’t a threat to your survival? […]
The Writing Coach Podcast 3/Travel writing: Pitching stories before or after the trip?
03: Travel writing: Pitching stories before or after the trip This episode addresses two of the most requested topics my readers told me they wanted to hear about: travel writing and pitching. Should you pitch your travel story ideas before or after you have a notebook full of notes? In theory, you can do it […]
Freelance Writer Retreat near Cape Town, South Africa
Registration for the Freelance Writer RETREAT near Cape Town, South Africa, is now open. Two days of workshops focused on boosting your confidence, skills, and bottom line as a freelance writer. Plus, penguins. Imagine if you could easily generate freelance article ideas that delighted you, your editors (or the editors you want to write for), […]
That thing you want to write
Early bird registration is now open for the Freelance Writer Retreat near Cape Town, South Africa. Visit www.rebeccalweber.com/retreat to register. In my own small way, I’ve taken the advice of Toni Morrison to heart: “If there’s a book that you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it.” A […]
On my bookshelf: Solrevolution
“My” new book has been published! I wrote the South African sections of Solrevolution, which has finally arrived from Sweden thanks to the South African postal strike ending. If Monocle were to create a coffee table book in Swedish about solar energy, this is what it would look like. Another post soon to come on […]
Ebola as a geography teaching tool
On a nonstop flight from London Heathrow to Cape Town last week, I had to sign a compulsory new form stating that I didn’t have any ebola-like symptoms, and that I would notify … er, somebody, possibly the Department of Home Affairs, though they didn’t provide any sort of literature for me to take with, […]
A story killed and resurrected
Throughout my years of freelance writing, there is one recurring situation that is genuinely tricky to prevent: the story that gets killed because the assigning editor leaves the publication. You might think that the new editor would be so busy trying to get up to speed that the last thing they’d do is kill a […]
Chicken stalker
For a forthcoming feature about food in Cape Town, I stalked this rooster for the better part of an hour.
Braai baby braai
With no fewer than five public holidays over the next three weeks (yep, that is one entire work week), South Africans are sure to be getting their braai (barbecue) on in a big way. It’s a distinctly local culinary tradition, and unique that it cuts across race and income groups. At my first braai invitation […]
It’s a sign
Hand-lettered signs were once ubiquitous in Cape Town, but are rapidly being replaced by printed plastic-y signs. Here are a few from Brooklyn, Cape Town.