Chatting With Sharon Wingler


Sharon Wingler, author of Travel Alone & Love It: A Flight Attendant's Guide to Solo Travel, recently imparted her wisdom on travel writing, flying and living your dreams.

Hi Sharon! Thank you for taking the time to share with other writers the highs and lows of being a travel writer. Like many of us, you hold down a full time job as well as pursuing your dream of writing about travel. Tell us a bit about yourself.

I am blessed with two jobs that I love: flight attendant and travel writer.

I am a 30-year flight attendant for a major, world airline. I choose to fly domestic, but my vacations take me all over the world.

When I first started flying, I had plenty of friends to travel with; then I got married and my husband and I took two big trips each year. In 1985 I got divorced and suddenly had no travel companion. I began traveling alone and loved it.

How did Travel Alone & Love It: A Flight Attendant's Guide to Solo Travel come about?

In 1993 I began writing a book on how to travel alone when I realized that other people craved this information. I wrote my outline while on vacation in Crete. I began with an old typewriter but quickly realized I had to buy and learn to use a computer. For me, a low-tech person, that was a major undertaking, which required much instruction.

I was determined to complete my task, though discipline was a problem. My writing usually got shuffled to the bottom of my to-do list. I found myself performing hated chores like scrubbing the bathtub before I would sit down to write. My strong desire to be an author and my fear of being a quitter were what motivated me to finish.

I self-published in 1996 and had good distribution but knew nothing about publicizing the book. Slowly, with lots of help and hard work, I learned to develop a mailing list and write press releases. My ongoing publicity campaign keeps my book in the public eye, provides needed information on a regular basis, and results in my establishment as the nation's most quoted authority on solo travel.

What other writing have you done?

My press releases, which usually offer great travel tips, have been expanded into feature articles for Pathfinder Travel magazine and Tower Air magazine. I wrote an article on what it's like to be a flight attendant, which was published in Maiden Voyage magazine. My book has been excerpted in Divorce magazine.
The copyright of the article Chatting With Sharon Wingler in Travel Writing is owned by Kim Applegate. Permission to republish Chatting With Sharon Wingler in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

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