International Food Wine& Travel Writers Assoc. offers media trip to Mexico

Greetings fellow journalists. This is a pre-trip announcement for a fabulous trip to Copper Canyon in Mexico! Qualified IFWTWA journalists AND ONE GUEST will experience Topolobampo bay on the Gulf of Mexico, El Fuerte river rafting, train ride through the Sierra Madre Mountains, Tarahumara church in Urique, and a canyon said to be four times larger than the Grand Canyon. Rim walk tours are offered, arts and craft shopping, charming hotel pousadas and the intricacies and variations of local cuisine are additional highlights of this trip.
Visit www.ifwtwa.org after August 1st for more on the trip and the application. Take advantage of special discounts on IFWTWA membership and the trip package.

Writing for a living: how to handle rejection

I returned from my trip to the coast of Washington with some story ideas.

I looked at a recent copy of the Travel Section of the Oregonian newspaper and sent a query to the editor. He was interested and wanted to see the article. I followed the style of a writer in the paper; similar sentence length, the format for including addresses and contact info etc. . I sent in a piece about the same length and was rejected. He was kind enough when prodded to tell me why. It seems a staff writer had a similar article to be published that Sunday and the other reason was that "it was not compelling."

After the stinging sensation wears off you try to 1) rationalize by dissecting your article, 2) look immediately for another placement and 3) just decide that it wasn't the right timing or style.

I really learned that even though you are always told to review what the publication has done before, if it's not your style, its not your style!