52 European Wildlife Weekends

SAVING LUCY: A Girl, A Bike, A Street Dog - Ishbel Holmes

Ishbel Holmes http://worldbikegirl.com/ is currently writing SAVING LUCY, the story of the street dog that befriended her when she was cycling through Turkey. Rescuing Lucy from attacking dogs, she cycled with her to the Syrian border.

The book will be published later in 2018 by Velo Press in North America and Bradt Travel Guides in the UK. Fran Gilhooley is writing the film script of the story. Translation rights are held by Velo.

Scottish-Iranian author Ishbel has cycled 20 countries solo and rescues street animals as she pedals. She started writing the book in Brazil.

Ishbel, who had difficult experiences as a teenager in foster care, is an ambassador for women and young people.

Follow her adventures across social media at World Bike Girl and read more in Saving Lucy.

Turning a Blog of Your Incredible Journey into a Book? Some Tips...

I was recently approached by an author who had done an amazing trip with a friend, and was in the process of turning his blogs about the experience into a book. He wanted some advice - and it occurred to me some tips might be useful to others:

It’s sometimes difficult to know how to develop diaries and blog entries into a full-length book. First, read a few books of adventurous journeys and think  about what appeals to you. 

Bear in mind is that the world of publishing moves slowly; we have to ‘sell in’ a book to the trade six months before publication, and the book retailers don’t like to take travel books during the 'Christmas' period between September and February. And you want that book to stay on the shelves for a good few years too. So avoid too many dates and events that will make the book feel dated. Try to make it a timeless story – one that will still inspire 5 years from now. That means you don’t have to rush it, although obviously it would be good to get the book out there before your followers have forgotten what you did… Think about whether a traditional publisher is right for you, if you need to get the book out quickly.

Make sure it’s a great story. You’ve probably got loads of material. Trim the stuff we don’t really need to know. An ideal length for a book like this is 80,000 words. Develop your best anecdotes into scenes with dialogue and description, so we feel we are there with you on the road. Let us feel we are on the journey with you. But a real journey has plenty of boring bits, and they don’t make for good reading (do we really need to go through the experience of visa applications with you?). Get us on the road with you as soon as you can, then tell the bits about setting up the journey in flashback perhaps. Though do include some of the difficult times – the highs and the lows – and if one of the lows is boredom, it’s fine to show that.

 Good characters are essential – the main characters are you and whoever you went on the journey with (if anyone), so make sure we get a good sense of you. If you did the trip with someone else, we'll need to know if that other person is thinking of writing a competing book - not a good idea! Ideally, if you're both interested in writing a book, you'll want to be working together to maximise potential.

Adventure stories are great, but we also want to understand why you’re doing this journey. It's an interesting measure of our times that people are doing extraordinary journeys all the time. We get dozens of proposals from people who've cycled the world, or walked around Britain. So there has to be a reason why people will want to read your story, what makes it special and inspiring – and you have to tell it in a compelling way. 

No pressure, eh?!

If you're thinking of sending to Summersdale, I'd like to see a proposal and two sample chapters, ideally the first two. Let me know what plans you have for the future. 

And good luck with it. 

Travel Writing Workshop

I'm a travel writer and editor, and I live on an idyllic Greek island. I'm thinking of running a travel writing workshop in 2013, if there is interest.

This would involve coaching new authors on developing your travel notes or manuscript into a narrative travel book or travel memoir (not articles for newspapers or magazines).

I've been publishing this kind of book for more than seven years at Summersdale, and have recently started working for Bradt also on their travel literature list.

I also work directly with authors - feel free to contact me for details.

If we succeed in setting up a workshop on Tilos, participants would need to make their way to Rhodes, and we'd organise transfers, accommodation and meals for the duration.