How to Make Travel Writing Work for You

If you missed my mini-travel writing workshop at the Mystic Journey Bookstore can still get my handbook HOW TO MAKE TRAVEL WRITING WORK FOR YOU for just .99 on kindle

I teach you the renegade way to get great trips around the globe. I have enjoyed adventures from Africa to Alaska using this approach!

Happy travels,

Adventure-travel writer Linda Ballou’s ultimate destination piece, Wai-nani, a New Voice from old Hawai’i, takes you to the wild heart of Old Hawai’i. Her travel memoir Lost Angel Walkabout-One Traveler’s Tales is an armchair traveler’s delight filled with adventure to whet your wander lust. Her latest release The Cowgirl Jumped Over the Moon shares the thrill of the show jumping arena and the tender beauty of the John Muir Wilderness. All of her books are available at www.LindaBallouAuthor.com  and major online distribution sites in print and kindle format.

Kudos for Cowgirl at the L.A. Equus Film Fest

I couldn’t make it to New York in November for the 2017 Equus Film Fest, so I was thrilled to learn that the show is making the rounds and landed here in Los Angeles in June 2018. It was quite a treat to meet all the horse loving authors and film makers. They each had a different spin on why the horse world is important to them.

The event founder, Lisa Diersen, selected my novel The Cowgirl Jumped Over the Moon as her favorite literary entrant. I shared a table with Robin Hutton who has had tremendous success with her story Sgt.Reckless about a mare who became famous for her courage in the Korean War. 

 Naomi, the L.A. organizer, presented a heartwarming film about how her horse gave her the courage to become an authentic person. She quit a lucrative job that was killing her soul and began supporting a riding program for inner city kids.

It was a fun, inspiring event that opened up some doors for me I hadn’t thought about. I sold some books and made some new friends. All good.

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

 Subscribe to my blogwww.LindaBallouTalkingtoyou.com to receive updates on books, and travel destinations and events.

Riding Lessons Review

Riding Lessons by Sara Gruen
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Let me start by saying I basically enjoyed this book even though it hit a raw nerve for me. I know conflict is what keeps a story alive, but it seemed that many of the plot twists were contrived for this purpose. The protagonist’s clever and witty interior monologue often made me smile, but her actions were often frustrating. I am not being a spoiler by letting you know the character’s father was suffering form ALS. This is revealed in the first three chapters that set up the rest of the story. My own father endured this dreadful condition. The way this character responded to that circumstance felt cowardly to me. Still, there are many life lessons to be learned in what is essentially a very fine effort my Sara Gruen



View all my reviews

Author  The Cowgirl Jumped Over the Moon. Winner at the Equus Film Fest 2017

Cowgirl Brings Collateral Goodness

My BFF Daphne- Don't know what happened to my arm

Publishing   The CowgirlJumped over the Moon has brought me many things I had not considered. .  It has re-connected me to the horse world I love in many different ways. Thanks to Alice Champlin, the editor of EquineAddiction.net, I have a new best friend named Daphne.  She is a sweet mare who still has a spring in her step that makes her a perfect ride for me.

Alice and Hadley

Reviewing the books of other authors who love the horse world has broaden my appreciation for the animals that serve us in so many ways.  Horses have a healing power that transcends anything modern medicine can supply. It is a spiritual gift that so many have experienced, I believe it must be true. I know it was true for me that when I was recovering from an injury that grooming my mare took my mind off my pain. I could feel my molecules settling into place and the anxiety I was feeling slip away.

The Cowgirl story is one of self-discovery for my protagonist Gemcie, but her journey has also brought personal growth for me as well.  Writing it served as closure on so many emotional levels and allowed me to move forward in my own life. My story Irish Mist appears in the anthology Why We Ride. This collection of essays shares all the different ways we humans connect with a 1,000 pound animal that stays with us all our lives. I am so happy to be back in that world strolling along singing a song.

Nothing pleases adventure-travel writer, Linda Ballou, more than seeing gorgeous country from the back of a good horse.  Her articles have appeared in Equus, Horse Illustrated, California Riding Magazine and numerous travel publications.  Learn more about her novel The Cowgirl Jumped Over the Moon at www.LindaBallouAuthor.com