Jet Set: How Do You Pack For The Life You Lead?

Who even remembers September? We don't. In fact, seems we're rocketing past autumn like time itself is going out of style. We're refueling with a month of inspirational video bursts, automatic intel on the Istanbul scene, plus a new poll on the obstacles of global citizenship and a virtual conference about the future of storytelling.

Speaking of the jet set: how do you pack for the life you lead? Are hybrid types better attuned to our own personal style or do we experience even more fashion flux?

+++++ AT expat+HAREM

It's all a blur now: "Harem girls for sale" is a blow-by-blow from the archive. Expat writing duo bringing our idea to world -- 2 speedy years from critique workshop to little-bestseller-that-could.

For anyone who hasn't actually read the anthology (a show of hands!), how about making it a party with our book club study guide...sample question: "What's more suprising, Turkish social norms or how they were suspended for a lone Western woman?"

city+INTELLIGENCE is the final entry in our year-long Culture Capital webcarnival. From uppercrust opinions to hipster red ropes, this round up of local Istanbul intel can prep a savvy visitor 24/7/365.

Sometimes we sleep. Ever had that nightmare where everyone is staring at you -- because you're dressed like an American? (Insert any nationality.) Tackling the style idiosyncracies of Israel, Sarah Melamed wonders if fashion assimilation is a measure of cultural assimilation.

Spirit of the season(ing): With the holidays coming and citizens of my native state California calling for the legalization of marijuana in the midterm elections this month, we'd be remiss not to point out this spacey recipe for family harmony.

+++++ AROUND THE WORLD & AROUND THE WEB

Every day in November She's Next digital media series will feature one minute videos from inspirational women like Mediabistro founder Laurel Touby, moment-of-truth diva Danielle LaPorte -- and me, shown below -- talking to the 21st-century woman about cultivating happiness and leadership.

Discarding the superpower-centric model: We love the premise of Cultural Dimensions Press. This ebook publisher is committed to showing what North Americans "need to know about their own cultural values, beliefs and perspectives" in dealing with the rest of the world.

And among the trends under virtual discussion at this month's superfresh Reinvention Summit (affiliate): how storytelling is reinventing identity and how culture is reinventing culture. Any wonder host Michael Margolis is a Third Culture Kid? We identity adventurers are all about reinvention!

+++++ YOUR THOUGHTS

Way to extrapolate an experience, woman: In 2008 Texan Jessica W. visited Turkey reading the Expat Harem anthology "at night, while experiencing the areas, the sights, the sounds, the smells your writers described" during the day. Now she's chucking "a good job, a townhouse, a car" for soul-enrichment in Istanbul. "I will look to [expat+HAREM] for information, for encouragement, for inspiration.  At a time where so many people are angry and looking in I want to use the site to make my world larger and richer."

What's the biggest frustration in seeking your global niche?

Talking to She's Next

Happy to contribute a 60-second She'sNext interview for Hana Kamm's inaugural month. Here I'm talking about how multifaceted, 21st century women can find their global niche.

In this series of inspirational videos, I join other inspiring women around the web and the world in the fields of entrepreneurship, digital life, wellness, empowerment, and personal development, including Alexis Neely, Gloria Feldt, White Hot Truth's Danielle LaPorte, Ali Brown of the Millionaire Protege Club, Courtney Martin, Carol Roth of The Entrepreneur Equation, Aliza Sherman, The Flourishing Muse Hiro Boga, SOBCon's Liz Strauss, Tara Gentile, Laura Roeder, Chris Carr, Laurel Touby, the location independent Lea Woodward, The Suitcase Entrepreneur Natalie Sisson, Shama Kabani, Dusti Arab, Tara Sophia Mohr, Tamar Weinberg and Penelope Trunk.

Shifting From Writing For Others To Writing For Myself, With Mediabistro's First Journalism Bootcamp

My Mediabistro alumni interview with Claire Zulkey for Mediabistro Toolbox. I took Mediabistro's first media program given by creator of the series, Victoria Rowan, in 2005.  

What course did you take, how did you hear about the boot camp and why did you decide to take it?

I took Parris Island Journalism Boot Camp with Victoria Rowan, Fall 2001, eager to reinvigorate – and focus — my writing career after being laid off from a trade magazine editorship.

I wanted to make the shift from writing for others to writing for myself.

Also, like many writers who have not explicitly studied journalism or the business of writing, I knew I could benefit from a more professional approach to the craft.

Did it lead to any assignments, connections or jobs? What did you learn?

Yes. One week we interviewed newsworthy acquaintances and tried to sell the profiles. With that material I published a profile/book review/event announcement in the Village Voice — the managing editor’s hybrid idea when I emphasized the curating work my multimedia poet interviewee was doing at St. Mark’s Poetry Project, and an upcoming performance there of a new Brion Gysin book.

Thanks to Victoria’s pragmatic ‘so-what, why this audience, why now’ coaching, emphasizing these elements of my pitch set my subject at the helm of an upcoming event where avant garde artworld legends would be appearing. The right story for the right audience.

I also understood from Bootcamp that I had a time hook most appropriate for a weekly newspaper like the Voice. The editor’s suggestion entailed a lot more work but Bootcamp taught me that if an editor was gracious enough to tell me exactly what he could use all I needed to do was accept the challenge. As Victoria explained, “We’re here to eliminate the reasons an editor has to reject your work.”

MB’s Bootcamp offered operable information about writing and selling in seven genres (personal essays, travel, op-ed, business features, profiles and reviews and tone-dependent pieces like the New Yorker’s Talk of the Town).

The bootcamp also underscored the importance of astute portfolio building to get a writer where she wants to go.

I benefited most from Victoria’s deconstructive clarity about composing and selling nonfiction writing — and today it is appreciable how much I learned about piloting a writing career.