Armchair Traveler's Delight

James Dorsey & Linda Ballou

Armchair Traveler's Delight That was how Bank of Books described my afternoon with James Dorsey, world explorer, and author of Vanishing Tales from Ancient Trails. It was quite an honor to share the podium with one of our finest living travel writers. I’m glad James made treks to places I would never go. From Timbuktu to the jungles of Peru, into the dark heart of Africa he makes friends and is embraced by primitive tribes. He writes with compassion and partakes of ceremonies and entertains beliefs alien to his own, or what moderns might find acceptable. I especially enjoyed his tale of smoking from a pipe handed to him by a woman in the Amazon and being transported into an altered state for a day or two. He is experimental, not judgmental, and sincerely wants to be accepted by the primitive tribes he seeks out and respects their wisdom.

I was very flattered when James said this about my book:

Lost Angel Walkabout takes the reader out of their armchair and into the vast world as few travel writers can. Her eye for detail combined with intimate knowledge of her surroundings sets Ms. Ballou heads above most of the travel writing pack. In this age when everyone with a back pack proclaims him or herself a travel writer it takes a book like this one to re-define the genre. The stories are personal and inviting, giving the reader not only a feeling of participation but leaving them with a memory of where they have just visited. This is just plain great travel writing.

It was fun to hear him read a story about slipping  unspeakable edibles to a cat beneath the table in China. I chose to read an excerpt from No Exit from Auckland about driving on the "wrong side of road" in rush hour traffic. This ended

a good year of travel and writing with the hope that we would leave them laughing!

Images compliments of Suzy Demeter

Adventure-travel writer, Linda Ballou, shares Great Outdoor days in L.A, as well as a host of travel articles on her site, along with information about her travel memoir, Lost Angel Walkabout-One Traveler’s Tales, her historical novel Wai-nani, A Voice from Old Hawai’i and her latest action-adventure novel The Cowgirl Jumped over the Moon at-www.LindaBallouAuthor.com.