Amusement parks, plane rides, cruises—oh my! August (a.k.a the last four weeks of summer) is usually the time when people skip town and go on an adventure. Traveling takes a lot of guts, whether it’s to another state or another country. It expands our horizons and really opens up our minds to new ways of experiencing life. Here at Xulon Press we decided to blog on that this month, just to give our funnest and most compelling experiences even more reach. (Yes, I am an editor—I can make up words like “funnest”.) This month we’ll be focusing on personal memoirs, whether they are about travel for leisure, missionary work in exotic lands or even firsthand fighting on foreign shores.
My own favorite type of traveling is trips that benefit others. That’s where Christian publishing comes in. Our authors love and enjoy every moment of their amazing experiences, including writing them out into a book to share with the whole world! We have a lot of travel books come through our offices and our authors truly do pass on the blessings of everything they have learned and experienced while taking those trips. I once lived in a foreign country myself, for three years at that, so it’s hard to know where to begin…
Well, I’ll start with the beginning, I guess. I landed in South Korea – you guessed it – August of 2006. Adventure of a lifetime. I spoke no Korean, didn’t know a single person in the country, but I had God by my side and in my heart. I lived in the capital city of Seoul, which moves fast even for me, a native New Yorker. I believe an angel came to my aid when I couldn’t find the company employee who was supposed to pick me up… but I think that story needs an entire blog post of its own, so I’ll save that for next week.
As for right now, while taking care of my work projects from day to day here at Xulon, it’s so easy for me to envision and imagine the amazing stories I read. There are so many encounters in Mongolia, Singapore, various countries in Africa and even new, amazing experiences people can have here in the states. We invite you to interact with us as we spend this month reflecting on personal experiences related to travel. Check back in each Tuesday for a blog post on the topic and leave a comment with your favorite travel book or travel experience. We’d love to hear from you!
Hi Vanessa.
Have recently subscribed to the Xulon Press blog and this was the first post to hit the inbox. It’s nice to see what you do, and learn your background, goals, and vision for the future.
My wife and I just returned from our favorite place in the whole world, Glacier National Park. What was really exciting was having our Son (12) see it for the first time.
What a cool experience you must have had living abroad.
Looking forward to reading more about your adventures, Xulon Press, Christian authors, as well as becoming part of the Christian self-publishing community.
PS. Just became a Xulon Press customer (and soon-to-be Xulon Press author) August 8th. 🙂
Hi Jeff! So excited to read your comment and welcome you to the Xulon family! Would you believe I have never even heard of Glacier National Park? All my traveling has been done outside of U.S. borders and I feel quite remiss. Thanks for the inspiration—I’m going to plan my next vacation in the states!
God bless you on your publishing journey.
Thanks for your well wishes Vanessa. It took 30 years to write the first sentence. Two years to write the book. And two more years (being afraid the story wasn’t good enough) to get to Xulon.
Wow, you have so many choices for American vacations. Mind boggling. But how exciting.
Have an awesome week.
PS. Looking forward to your next installment. 🙂