I’ve been busy buzzing around Myrtle Beach for nearly a week now as part of my Society of American Travel Writers Freelance Council Meeting. Tomorrow’s the last day of exploration. Our workshops earlier this week were what brought me up here, including an excellent day-long session on podcasting by podcasting guru Dave Slusher. After being one of the first to start podcasting years ago, he’s just debuted a new podcast, Reality Break, drawing on interviews he did a decade and more ago with serious sci-fi and comic greats. Episode one is one of my husband’s favorite storytellers, Will Eisner. Tune in!

Today was the first day I spent any significant time on or near the beach, some of which was at Myrtle Beach State Park, pictured here with its popular pier. It’s a lovely slice of nature amid a sea of waterfront condos, hotels, and homes, the beach shown here backed up by a dense maritime forest with plenty of salt-spray sculpted sand live oaks and wax myrtle. 

And now from another part of the country … I’m on the road again on a trip to Arkansas but have been suffering with a bad sinus infection since leaving New Orleans, so I’ve been in bed and offline, even while traveling. This trip is for my SATW Atlantic-Caribbean Chapter meeting, and it kicked off with several days in Eureka Springs. While I’ll have plenty to share about the area soon, here’s a teaser.

This tiny cub (and its sibling) were born at Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge, an incredible labor of love by a family that wraps their life around the rescue and permanent care of big cats raised (and abandoned) by humans. They neuter incoming cats, but these cubs were already in their mamma’s belly when they arrived at the refuge.  We were privileged to see them; they are being hand-fed by the family. However, the refuge cares for a broad variety of big cats (as well as a few bears, monkeys, and other wild non-native creatures).  If you love tigers and lions, you will fall in love with this unique refuge. It’s just outside Eureka Springs … more details at www.turpentinecreek.org, and you’ll soon see a story from me about their incredible effort!

…training writers to use Wordpress! How cool is that?