I'm stoked to have another one of my travel humor stories in the newest Travelers' Tales book, More Sand In My Bra. "Oh, The Places She Will Go," will be appearing along with stories by comedian Ellen Degeneres and chic-lit author Suzanne Schlosberg (The Curse of the Single Table). If you've ever been amused and frustrated by the stereotypical Yankee ignorance of world geography, then you'll get a kick out of "Oh, The Places She Will Go." Word has it that Ellen Degeneres' story is almost as witty as mine and that her agent is fast on my heels. ;-)

Edited by Jennifer Leo and Julia Weiler, More Sand In My Bra is another satirical collection of Ms.Adventures from the road (a follow-up to their last anthologies, What Color Is Your Jockstrap?...I'm not even kidding about the title). It you're not familiar with Travelers Tales, they're one of the largest travel anthology book publishers in the U.S.A. Their humor series, written largely by women, has become a bread and butter, best-selling series. You can find many of their titles in the narrative travel section of your local bookstore. More Sand In My Bra makes for quick, entertaining reading on your holiday trip home. And at $14.95 it's also the perfect birthday gift for your free-spirited, wandering friends and paramours...or at least, those of your loved ones dreaming of mai tais and bad sex with strangers in far away lands...

If you order it (of course, try to buy at your locally-owned bookstore first), please remember to post a review on Amazon.com. Thanks again and happy October reading!

Order More Sand In My Bra on Amazon

Latest News: American Media-Magnate Schmoozing with Chinese Government
Interesting tidbit on the direction that American media is going in China. Rupert Murdoch, mega-media magnate and owner of Fox News, is schmoozing with the Chinese government and communist officials (who are notorious for oppressing the media) in hopes of building an advantageous business relationship. Many Chinese journalists are concerned this bodes poorly for the future of journalism if Murdoch continues to put personal financial interests over his responsibility to uphold the highest ethics in journalism.
Check out the article which appeared today:

New York Times Article

"War Dance"
Review of Documentary
Wide Theatrical Release in the fall of 2007

Go see this film! This is one of the best documentaries I've seen in the past five years. "War Dance" follows the stories of three children, two girls and a boy, who have suffered unthinkable violence and loss to the hands of the rebels in the hotspot of civil war, northern Uganda. Without becoming melodramatic or cliche, directors Sean Fine and Andrea Nixe manage to tow a perfect balance between sharing the upsetting stories of the children's losses with the lightness of spirit that they can only feel when they are dancing, singing, and playing music.

Perfect on every level. Well balanced between the hardship and tough stories of children who have seen their parents die at the hands of rebels and the lightness and healing that they find through the music and dance of their tribe. "War Dance" is truly a seamless movie that will be an Oscar contender for 2007.

It won the best documentary award at "Sundance" and the Audience award at the Flagstaff Film Festival where Mama Chihuahua and I both caught it. Directed by Sean Fine and Andrea Nix, "War Dance" has already won best directing for a documentary at Sundance and best film at the Flagstaff Film Festival.

Best directors for a documentary.
Just watch the trailer:

www.fine-films.com

Getting High on Travel Adventure at the Flagstaff Mountain Film Festival

For six years, I've attended the Banff Mountain Film Festival (which does an annual tour through Santa Barbara) with a borderline, religious-like zeal. I've made friends with other obsessive Banff movie-goers who also congregate hours early just to get seats in the first row at Campbell Hall (UCSB). The greatest drawback is that this festival comes through Santa Barbara but for only two nights a year.

Fortunately my mother has discovered an event even more precious, four days of all the most extreme cultural, environmental, and adventure travel related documentaries from around the world. You pay $45 for a festival pass and you can watch your fill of movies for four days in a row!



Welcome to the Flagstaff Mountain Film Festival! This thing rocks. Featuring
43 feature and short films, a slideshow presentation by David Edwards, a National Geographic photographer, and several appearances by filmmakers. All of the films are screened at the Orpheum Theatre, a charismatic little historic theatre in downtown Flagstaff. You can munch on fresh popcorn, drink hot chocolate or sip from beer in this cool little theatre filled with outdoorsy bohemians. (The only thing missing for me was tequila...but I probably wouldn't have enjoyed the movies quite as much with a blue agave buzz.)

From a humorous short on how to roast a Mongolian marmot to a two-hour documentary feature titled "War Dance," which highlights child refugees in Northern Uganda as they compete to perform in a national music and dance festival to a feature on the Kazakh eagle hunters of northwestern Mongolia, the film festival astounded me with its strong selection of films. Out of over ten films I saw, only one was weak. These odds, as many film festival goers recognize, aren't so bad. (I've been to other film festivals where I saw one good film out of ten and I paid four times more for each movie!)

My only regret is that I didn't discover this festival earlier. Mark your calendars! Check out their website for details:

Flagstaff Mountain Film Festival

I'll see you at The Orpheum next year...front and center!

Rachel's Croatia article and photography to appear in the Los Angeles Times Travel Section on 4/23/06

I'm super stoked to announce that one of my stories about traveling to the Mediterranean-like island of Hvar in southern Croatia will be published in the travel section of the Los Angeles Times this coming Sunday, April 23rd.
If you don't have a subscription, pick up a copy of the paper at your local bookstore—it's sure to be a collector's edition :)—or go to www.latimes.com/travel on Sunday to see an online version of the article.
The great thing about getting a hardcopy of the article (nudge, nudge!) is that a few of my photos will be published along with the feature article.

Thanks to twenty years of travel, five years of typing until my fingers bleed, three years of writers' conferences, two years of graduate school, and boundless persistence that runs like a blessed curse through my family, some of my hard work is starting to finally pay-off!

Stay tuned for more exciting news: One of my humorous travel stories, "Mama Chihuahua: World's Fiercest Traveling Partner," will be featured in the May 2006 book, "What Color Is Your Jockstrap?" (writers...I know this should be italicized but I'm having formatting issues with blogger this morning) along with other short stories by Susan Orlean (author of "The Orchid Thief" and inspiration for the Nicolas Cage movie "Adaptation") and Tim Cahill ("Jaguars Ripped My Flesh").

Other upcoming news: My official website will be officially launched on May 1, 2006.