Hands down, my best blog find of the year is the lovely, the awe-inspiring, the tremendously moving – Matador Network.  I don’t even remember how I stumbled up on it but my life is forever changed because of it.

While browsing their site for the first time I noticed that they were about to launch an online writing course, Matador U.  After looking at the course syllabus, I excitedly signed up and delved right into the course materials.  Through the assignments and forums I connected with so many like-minded individuals living these amazing lives all over the world.  Now I have this incredible support network of writers right at my fingertips.

Matador was one of the first places to publish my work  – A Dirtbagger’s Guide to the American West and How Far Would You Go to Curb Climate Change.  I was also very honored when Julie interviewed me about landing a gig with NileGuide on Matador Pulse.

Not only is Matador a great support network for writers and travelers but it is the best and biggest independent travel magazine in the world.  Matador is the best place for trip ideas, creative lifestyle ideas, and witty and amusing news.

If you are looking for trip ideas visit these that I recently added to my wish list:

• Santiago Sidetrip: Cajón del Maipo
• The Best, Strangest, and Most Dangerous Roads in the World
• Roadtrip Australia: Melbourne to Sydney Along the Sapphire Coast

Or ideas and inspiration on living the crazy travel life:

• Dumpster Diving: The Easiest Way to Find Free Food
• A Life Well Lived: Developing a Personal Manifesto
• How To Travel The World For Free (Seriously)

“What you’ve done becomes the judge of what you’re going to do – especially in other people’s minds. When you’re traveling, you are what you are right there and then. People don’t have your past to hold against you. No yesterdays on the road.” – William Least Heat Moon

I am not sure pink goes with my blog, but I’ll take it!  Fellow Matador U student Abbie presented me with this lovely Kreativ Blogger Award, because she apparently finds me Kreativ.  Abbie’s a climbing, running, yoga girl after my own heart.  Check out her blog at Miles and Miles of Abbie and also make sure to visit her pages at Planet Eye – she has recently been made the local expert for Orange County.

I have to say that I am overwhelmed with the support I am getting from the Matador U community.  If you are on the fence about joining the course – I would say give it a try!

Now I get to share 7 random facts about me:

1. I got injured in a fake airplane crash.
2. I have a cockatiel named Frank that my friend found flying around her neighborhood.  I got suckered into taking care of her until we found her owners and now I am stuck with her and weirdly attached to the bird.  And now my BF is stuck taking care of her while I am gallivanting around the West – that’s love.
3. I once went without a bed for 16 months.
4. One of my front teeth got almost knocked out (hanging by a thread) in a 4^th grade jump roping accident and it’s just now starting to die.
5. I can still do the splits.
6. I can’t leave a concert until it is over and if someone makes me leave I will pout like a three-year-old all the way home.
7. I would be a vegan if it weren’t for cheese (I am from Wisconson) and the only thing I miss about being a vegetarian is beef jerky.

Now I get to pass the award to 3 other stellar bloggers:

1. Trish at Travel Writers Exchange – Trisha is a seasoned travel writer and offers great advice for newbies at the Travel Writers Exchange.  Trisha has been giving lots of support and and inspiration to us new writers at Matador U.
2. Rob at AdventureRob – Rob quit his job last Christmas and has been traveling the world ever since – an inspiration for all of us.  Plus anyone with ‘adventure’ in his name deserves this award.
3. Katie Hammel – Another fellow Matador U student, Katie has a sweet blog at Gadling and some excellent trip inspiring articles at BootsnALL.

As I look back at my goals for the first 3-months of my full-time freelance writing career, I wonder what I have accomplished during this whirlwind first month.  I am going to use these occasional check-ins as a way to monitor my progress, keep the motivation strong, and basically hold myself accountable so I don’t get completely swept away by my new found freedom.

Sure in the past few months I have had innumerable freak-outs. I feel less secure without good health insurance, a paycheck I can count on, and the certainty of where my life is headed. But all I need to do is take a look outside and look at the incredible mountains of Colorado that surround me and everything comes into focus.

For the first time in a long time, I feel truly happy. I have the freedom to literally do whatever the hell I want – read what I want, travel where and when I want, sleep when I want, run when I want, work when I want, drink wine whenever I want… Freedom is such a beautiful thing, yet totally overwhelming. It will take some time before I learn to focus my efforts, but for right now I will just let it be. Everything is only up to me from here on out.

(1) Moving/Housing Situation

After two weeks battling marble-sized hail, the occasional snowstorm, sketchy US hostels, and inconsistent Internet connections – I moved things inside.  Dirtbagging is so much more simple and pleasant in the summer months, but can be quite nerve frazzling with unpredictable fall weather. I found a reasonably priced room for a month or so in lovely Basalt, CO.  I feel like I am on some amazing writer’s retreat high in the Colorado Mountains. I am definitely going to have to do something about my apartment back in Salt Lake City – it is amazing how much an idealistic setting (i.e. back deck with mountain and lake views) can inspire.

(2) Matador U

So far I have been thrilled with Matador U and highly recommend it for any aspiring travel writer.  I have made some amazing connections, got valuable feedback on my writing, and been introduced to this entire new world of online publishing.  The course is also benefiting me by forcing me to tackle some writing styles that I tend to steer clear of.

(3) The Blogs

I haven’t exactly held up to my goal of contributing to my blogs 3-4 times a week.  I am going to let this goal slide this month because I think my time was better well spent querying publications and getting out an exploring the area before the snow starts.

(4) Query Query Query

I blew my goal of one query letter a week out of the water – even receiving nice rejection letters from many of them.  I also set up a pretty little submission log to track my progress.

(5) Financials and Other Not So Pleasant Stuff

Let’s just say I haven’t blown my entire savings yet, but I have only made about 7% of what I spent.  I did receive my final paycheck and vacation payout from work – so the month doesn’t look as ugly as it should.  Next month is already looking better.

(6) Other Notable Highlights

• Scored a gig as NileGuide’s Salt Lake City Local Expert – check out my profile here.
• Got assigned my first magazine piece at the mag I am interning at.
• Successfully queried a local sports magazine.
• Finally purchased an external drive – back-up your work peeps!

I wake slowly with my feet dangling out of the back of the car.  It takes me a few moments to recall where I am after digging myself out of the stack of pillows and blankets I had piled over my head to hide from the rising high altitude sun.  I reach for my glasses and see that I had parked the car at a perfect angle last night.  Sweeping views of the distant Wind River Range are framed perfectly in my open-aired bedroom window – my Subaru hatch.

I rise and take in the incredibly fresh air, a welcome relief since California fires have yet again made the air in Salt Lake totally suffocating.  Another layer is a must this morning as the wind whips wildly across the Wyoming plains.  I make lunch and stuff my climbing pack full for the days adventure.

I simply reheat my leftover coffee from the night before like I so often do as my thoughts drift back a few years to my first morning waking up in Ruby and to frozen solid coffee. It was Christmas Eve morning and a whim the night before had sent me packing up the new Subaru and heading south to the red rock desert of Southern Utah.  Just days old I had already affectionately coined her Ruby and was trying not to obsess over the fact that I simply could not afford such an impulse adoption.

Uncertainties with school and relationships had left me longing for the calming comfort of the red rock desert. Having never traveled to or camped in the desert alone – I was scared yet determined.  I wanted a different life.

Tired and weary from too many thoughts, I found a campsite along the Colorado River and crawled into the back of my new wagon.  I put on my hat and gloves and crawled into my not-made-for-winter sleeping bag.  As the heat dissipated from the car, I wedged a few extra blankets around the bag and looked forward to morning.  Amazingly, I slept better than I had in months.

The sun didn’t rise over the tall sandstone cliffs until late morning.  I crawled to the front seat, turned the key, and watched the thermostat read a chilly 17 degrees.  I craved a sip of my coffee from the night before but it was frozen solid.  I started the car and headed off towards town in search of a warm brew.

I was not one to have a car define me but Ruby propelled me into something new.  I spent that day hiking and discovering the Needles, now my most favorite place on Earth. I grieved my past and recent losses while wandering through the most beautiful landscape I had ever seen.  Although my new life was not yet apparent I was curious and couldn’t wait to see what was in store.

Now just two yeas later me and Rubes have already shared a lifetime of experiences together. I shed my pack, crack open a Pabst, and hop on her back to watch the late sun cast all sorts of colors on the Winds.  The ice-cold beer soothes my fingers that have been shred to pieces by the sharp limestone of Wild Iris and then the full moon rises and soothes something deep inside me.  I retreat to the tent tonight and whisper goodnight to Ruby and thank her quietly for all the adventures and bravery she has inspired in me.

I like beginnings and today is a very special one.  Not only is today the first day of September but it is my first day off of someone else’s payroll and my first day as a full-time writer.  Surprisingly I woke at 7 am eager to get to work.  For the last year I would work my 9 to 5, come home and maybe get some exercise or chill time, eat dinner, and then get back to work writing, reading about writing, and trying to find writing work.  Now today – I get to work and then actually have an evening to I don’t know – maybe experience some life so I have something to write about.  

I am really excited to give my plan a try, but I am a little curious as to how people stay motivated with all of this unstructured time on their hands. I know for a fact that morning is my best time to write – so I am reserving the morning for actual writing. I also know that from about 3-5 pm I am completely worthless – so that might be a good time for looking for work, social networking, marketing, or simply taking a nap. I also need some serious help with creating a work space but I guess the floor-couch-bed will have to work until I return from my 3-month stint in Colorado.  

In order to hold my self accountable for creating my new career I will often share the details of my day. Hopefully over time we will see an increase in the percentage of time writing and a decrease in time cruising the web looking for work and lusting over the lives of successful travel writers.  

Day 1

The Morning Pages – 7-7:30am

The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity is a book for aspiring writers and artists organized as a 12-week course designed to get you in touch with your creative self. A friend of mine gave me this book 10 years ago and I have picked it up several times over the years and never made it past the third week. 

One of the basic tools of the Artist’s Way is to religiously complete the morning pages. The morning pages are three pages of stream-of-consciousness writing that you complete each morning before you do anything else. You are not suppose to reread the pages or judge your writing. I think the purpose of the pages is to spew out all the crap in your head so that you have room to think more freely the rest of the day. I am hoping that eventually my novel will flow effortlessly through the pages but for now I like the meditative aspect of the pages and they serve me well in organizing my day or venting and clearing my head.  

I highly recommend any aspiring (or successful) writer to pick up The Artist’s Way and try out some of the featured tasks and tools.

Editing First Assignment for Matador U – 7:30-8:30am

I recently enrolled in Matador U, an online travel course, and spent the early morning editing my first assignment and posting the links in the forum. I also spent a bit of time browsing the forums to see what I missed out on during my long weekend away from internet service. 

I only signed up for the course last week, but I am already thrilled about what I am going to get out of this program.

Writing Articles for Demand Studios – 9am – Noon

I currently write articles for a content distributor called Demand Studios.  So far my experience here has been good – you get paid weekly and consistently via Paypal and the feedback from the editors and community has been helpful   I do make about $20-30/hour writing for the site but can only realistically write these types of articles for 2-3 hours a day.  I do realize I am only making around $.02/word (YIKES) but I see this as a way to prolong draining my savings and get a lot of practice refining my voice and gathering research efficiently.  

Shower, Lunch, Etc – Noon – 1pm

Wow – I never expected my apartment to be this quiet during the day.  Oh how wonderful it is tackle the dishes when I need a break from my computer screen and to shower in the middle of the day.  I bet the novelty of all of this will soon wear off but I will revel in the newness for as long as it lasts.  I haven’t been too tempted by my heaps of laundry, piles of camping gear needing to be put away from the weekend, or the time wasting allure of facebook yet.  

Dinking with Blogs and Stuff – 1-2pm

I am not really sure how this whole monetizing the blog thing works.  I guess you have to first get traffic and then figure out some way to make some money.  A while back I inserted an Amazon.com link in Dirtbagger and kind of forgot about it.  Today I decided to log into the account and to my surprise 9 people have actually clicked on the link and one person actually bought the book earning me a certain amount of cents.  I figured since Dirtbagger has been seeing quite an increase in traffic these days that maybe I could benefit from a few added links.  I also spent sometime working on this blog post.

Reading and a Bit of Social Networking – 2-3pm

Lazed away the afternoon reading fellow Matador U students assignments and browsed the web for job leads.

Calling It a Day – 3pm

Off to take a well-deserved nap and then heading to the farmer’s market, followed by the rock climbing gym, and then a live listening of Bonnie Rait and Taj Mahal viewed from a top the knoll.