Writing can be a lonely endeavor — though it need not be. Particularly in today’s social network-saturated age, everyone can stay in touch with everyone else, from every age group and specialty.

To that end I happened upon a writer’s group where I found Catherine Ryan Howard, another travel memoirist (and novel writer too, making her more adventurous than I in writing-land!). Her story had an interesting angle: It chronicled her year-plus living in Orlando, Florida and working for the Disney Corporation. An unabashed fan of their well-crafted theme park offerings, I found her story most compelling in recounting how things went from the other side of the desk.

She also managed to spin a terrific account of a twentysomething’s arrival into the U.S. of A. from another English-speaking country. In spite of the obvious similarities, the obstacles — from crummy apartments to the absolute need for a car for the most trivial of errands to the seemingly-endless wait for a Social Security Card… as a once-new arrival from Canada I could totally relate!

Catherine’s been kind enough to republish one of my blog posts — and during the process she gave me a good bit of advice on how to get this whole indie publishing enterprise up and running. Check out her site and her book — it’s a funny, engaging read about a place many people visit but seldom think about what goes on behind the scenes.

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