Eighteen months!

I returned to the U.S. in September of 2007 and, in light of extreme travel-induced broke-ness, I got back to work at The Office Job right away. In retrospect, I think I went through more of a "culture shock" in returning to the States than I did in flying to Vietnam with a one-way ticket and a blank notebook. No more were the days of waking and sleeping with the cycle of the moon, or exploring foreign countries by foot, bus, and rail. No more were the days absent of schedules, save for those defined by transportation and tourist visas. And no more were the days of writing for hours on end, with no distractions or responsibilities and, most notably of all, no lack of inspiration or motivation. Culture shock, indeed!

In returning to my old job and a routine defined by that job, I struggled with my writing. I could carve out time to write easily enough, but I quickly discovered that having a few hours set aside at the end of the day does not guarantee that the inspiration will come, especially with residual worries and stresses of the day. An obvious solution might be to work on my writing in the morning, but A.M. creativity just isn't programmed into my DNA.

Over the past 18 months, I have slowly worked on fusing my hundreds of travel stories into one coherent narrative that someone (besides me!) might actually take interest in reading. I'm still working, but I'm getting close now. Eighteen months is a hell of a long time - much longer, in fact, than the months I spent traveling, which are now the subject of my inspiration.

I didn't start blogging about my travels or the progress of my book before now because I felt like all of my efforts should be going towards finishing my book, not maintaining a website. But for some reason, this 1 1/2-year anniversary of the end of my epic adventures and the beginning of my return to The Office Job feels particularly significant. Much more time has passed than I ever expected would before I had a real manuscript ready for publishing. Now I've come to terms with the idea that that's okay. This is just how long my process is.

I'm blogging now because I don't want to lose sight of my travels. My book isn't published (or finished) yet, and I need to keep my travels alive by sending them out into cyberspace. I'm not sure yet about which verion(s) of the stories I'll share in cyberspace, in terms of whether I'll post the raw emails I sent out from the road, or the more refined and edited-down stories now included in my manuscript, or even the stream-of-consciousness thoughts scrawled into the notepad I kept in my hip pocket for eleven months and thousands of miles. Maybe I'll post a combination of everything...who knows.

What I do know for certain is that I'm blogging now as one step closer to finishing my book. This is going to happen. It just has to. I am going to finish my book and it is going to be published and someday, I am going to make a living as a writer, hopefully while continuing to travel around the world. This HAS to happen because there is nothing I have ever felt so passionate about or driven by than I do about my travel stories.

Am I being delusional, or self-indulgent? Maybe. But I'm okay with that too. :)

And so, my friends in cyberspace, welcome to my brand new blog, "Just a Girl with a Backpack"! I hope you enjoy, and I welcome your feedback!

Stories coming soon.....