I’ve invited bloggers to tell me about their fearful adventures. It could be something epic, like circling the globe on a rusty unicycle, or something creative, like starting work on a novel. There are only two conditions: 1. It inspires you, 2. It scares you. Follow the various adventures on Twitter with the hashtag: #myfearfuladventure.

Here are the submissions so far…

My most fearful adventure is a reality check

“If I were to go on a truly fearful adventure, it would be somewhere I would be forced to face the reality of how many less fortunate people live in the world. No sipping a copa de vino tinto on a sidewalk in Spain. Just me versus reality. To acknowledge is to act.” Read the post – By Domestiphobia

Our biggest physical challenge to date

“In October we’ll be walking 509 km (300 miles) along the coast of Turkey from Fethiye to Antalya. I’m an adventurer trapped inside the body of a middle-aged woman, and this year I’m breaking free.” Read the post – By Married with Luggage 

Quitting it all to move to Costa Rica

“When I got back from my trip, I called my mom and told her that I was quitting my job and moving to Costa Rica to work for a surfer. She laughed. I told her that I was serious.” Read the post – By Samba to the Sea

This is my declaration to fly

“I always try to picture myself up there, in the plane, looking out onto the sky, and just jumping. Going into it like a bird. Flying free. I have this feeling that if I want to fully embrace the freedom that I so crave, I absolutely must do this. I must be okay with soaring, and then plummeting from the sky.” Read the post – By Fel’s Got Swag. 

Leaping into a canyon

“As I peeked over the edge of the rock I was meant to launch myself off of, the soles of my feet and palms of my hands tingled, signifying a familiar and overwhelming terror reserved solely for those moments when I’m either about to deliver a speech or drop from an unfathomable height.” Read the post – By Turf to Surf

 From Athens to Hong Kong on a container ship

“Now it’s all booked and paid for, I am starting to feel just ever so nervous, maybe even fearful … I can’t keep thinking “What if I get kidnapped by a pirate?”" Read the post – By Leaving Cairo  

I may have to land the plane

“It’s hard being the wife of an adventurer and I’m so afraid that I won’t be able to keep up with the man I married. He’s already talking about a round-the-world trip with the plane at some point in his life and I’m not sure if my bladder will be able to take such a long journey.” Read the post – By Chicks Travel Flicks

Speaking in front of a crowd

“So, I’m going. I’m going to get on an airplane and fly all the way across the country. I will face my fear, and I will come home to a full-schedule of speaking engagements throughout the Fall that I’ve already set up – you know… just to make sure I don’t back out.” Read the post – By The Vagabond Studio

Moving for love

“The thought that I’m actually moving 10,000 miles for the sake of love scares me shitless. I mean, isn’t that a lot of hoop jumping for a man? But then I thought about the thought of not taking a chance. And that was the scariest thought of all. The idea of regretting something that I didn’t do.” Read the post – By Nancy Da Costa

A life of ridiculous adventure

“I had no idea where I was going and everything looked the same. I felt exposed. Alien. As a 19 year old kid with nothing but a backpack, a few thousand bucks, and a long history of severe social anxiety, I was paralyzed.” Read the post – By Republic of Freedom

 The boy who was scared of everything

“I made a clear conscious decision, I needed to lose the fear. I was sick of the complete and utter boredom I faced on a daily basis in my soul destroying job. Suddenly I realised there are so many opportunities out there and the only scary thing was ignoring them. Life on this planet is extremely short and it’s down to us as individuals to make the most of every second.” Read the post – By Hungry Escapades

 Driven

“It gradually occurred to me, that I didn’t have enough time. There was so much knowledge out there left unlearned, so many places gone unexplored… and I had already wasted ten years of my life.” Read the post – By Jane Oh

Do you have a fearful adventure? I want to hear about it. Find out how to submit for a chance to win a round-trip ticket worth up to $1,000!

Eight and a half years. That’s how long I’ve been working on my memoir, from living the story, to learning how to best write it, to editing, to pitching, to self-publishing, to getting picked up by publishers, to becoming a published author.

Eight and a half years. Sometimes I’m embarrassed to admit that I’ve spent that long on a single storyline.

Society values speedy production lines, assets, qualifications, awards, escalating graphs, exploding pie charts, quantity, turnover, more, faster, better, hurry up, you’re getting old, WHAT ARE YOU DOING? YOU’RE FALLING BEHIND!

Do you have enough to show for this time?

When you’re working on something unconventional, something creative and uncertain, it can be disheartening to feel like you’re not producing enough, not getting the numbers, not earning the money. And where is this thing that you’ve been spending all your time on, hmm? It doesn’t exist yet. Will anything tangible come of it?

Perhaps you’re wasting your time?

Art that’s a true expression of your soul comes from a quiet space within that exists in another realm to stats, sales, dates, publishing deals, accolades, or whatever anyone else thinks. It comes from the opposite place to your ego: that nasty little voice of insecurity and comparison; that nasty little voice of arrogance. When your ego is quiet, your honest, vulnerable self will be there in the stillness. And from that place, with heart and integrity, you create slowly over time, building it up brick by brick.

Is it any good? How will you know for sure?

It doesn’t matter.

The wealth, the awards, the assets—all of those things you might have if you’d refocused your efforts? They’re meaningless. But so is your art. It is nothing, it’s unimportant. You will live, you will die, and you’ll be forgotten. Nobody cares. If you do earn big money, it will come and it will go too. You may become popular, but then fans will move on to the next thing. Perhaps your art will change the world, but will it really matter? Or will it simply shift the way things are—good and bad—into a slightly remodelled form?

Does that worry you? Then you’re missing the point.

If your art changed nothing, would you still do it? If not, then why are you doing it to begin with? If the answer is yes, then don’t quit.

Forget the stats, the numbers, the wealth, the prestige, the popularity, the things you imagine to be waiting for you on the other side of ‘success.’ They’re not there, and if they are, they won’t stay long. Instead, work tirelessly to make your soul happy. Keep going until you’re standing before a big, glorious creation made by you, for you. Your baby—made of cells, or paper, or clay, or words. That’s yours.

Be proud. You did it for the simple joy of creating. There is nothing more to life than that.

So don’t quit.

After eight and a half years, my book launches today in the US and Canada. Here it is.

Guess what? I’m running a competition and I’m giving away a round-trip ticket to anywhere, worth up to $1000!

Next week my book launches in North America. Holy shit.

This crazy writing and publishing journey has brought on the lowest of lows and the highest of highs. Overall, it has perhaps been a little bit like putting my hand up for a temporary mood disorder. “Bipolar anyone?” / “Yes please, I’ll take it!”

Easy? No.

Worth it? Absolutely.

And now the fun part begins: Launch time!

I need you.

I’m putting together a team of people to participate in some book launch-related shenanigans to help with spreading the word. There will be fun. There will be prizes. There may even be cask wine hangovers. But first, there will be writing…

Here’s what’s involved:

Is there something scary that you want to do, but haven’t done because of fear? Do you want to, say, jump out of a plane? Start writing a novel? Quit your job? Run a marathon? Ask your boss for a raise? Sell all your stuff and set off traveling the world? Don women’s underwear on the outside of your pants? Hmm, okay…

Whatever it is, I want you to take one of your fears and stare it in the face and yell “I DENY YOU, YOU BASTARD”. You know which fear I’m talking about. That special one that keeps getting in the way of what you want to be doing. Yes, that one. Got that ugly thing in your sights? Holding it in your mind, kicking and struggling? Okay, good.

Tell me your story

Write a post on your blog outlining your fearful adventure. It could be something ridiculously ambitious, like an epic journey around the world on a unicycle, or something sweet and simple, like going to a nursing home to read books to the elderly. It can be anything at all. It’s your fearful adventure. Use as many or as few words as you like to express it. It can be a 1000-word outpouring, or one eloquent statement: “I want to fly around the world but I’m scared of airplane toilets.” Up to you.

There are only three conditions:

1. It inspires you.
2. It scares you.
3. On some level, big or small, it will change your world.

To help get you feeling a little more inspired to ‘fess up, there’s a reward involved:

The best story wins a round-trip ticket worth up to $1000! 

There’s nothing like a free round-trip ticket to help you give you a push. With a boarding ticket in hand, you’ll have no excuse not to do a running leap towards your adventure.

Where you go is up to you. Paris, New York, Hawaii? Palm trees, piña coladas, fromageries? How about a trip to Hooker, Oklahoma? (Hey—I’m not here to judge, I’m here to support you.) Pack whatever you like, but leave your fears behind.

I’ll also send the first 50 participants a paperback copy of Love with a Chance of Drowning, as well as a signed postcard from me to you featuring a reproduction of my illustration mapping out my very own fearful adventure of sailing across the Pacific (on a leaky boat) with a morbid fear of deep water.

To participate:

1. Share this post on your Facebook page. Tag my Facebook fanpage to let me know you’re participating.
2. Write a post about your fearful adventure. Once your piece is up, I’ll link to your post in my sidebar alongside all the other fearful adventures.
3. Mention the launch of Love with a Chance of Drowning by posting this code somewhere in your piece, and post the book trailer on your Facebook or Twitter page.
4. Publish it on your blog before May 31, 2013, and Tweet it with the hashtag #myfearfuladventure.

Optional: Since other people will be facing their fearful adventures at the same time as you, report into the group with the highs and lows of your journey by Tweeting with the hashtag: #myfearfuladventure

I’m going to have the fabulous Srinivas Rao of BlogcastFM pick a winner based on the entry that manages to move, shake, or inspire him, or make him laugh or cry. So make it good, people! 

A few more things…

The round-trip ticket (valued up to $1000), the postcards, and book prizes will go out to US addresses only. While I’d love to open it up to the whole world, we have to put limitations on location due to the cost of shipping and giveaway legalities. But feel free to participate anyway if you’d like—it should be fun.

If you don’t have a blog…

Don’t worry—you can still play. Take a picture or make a piece of artwork that captures your fearful adventure, and upload it to Instagram or Facebook. Hashtag your entry with #myfearfuladventure and post a Facebook post about my book (post the book trailer if you like). Don’t forget to tag my Fanpage so I know you’re playing.

If you’re not afraid of anything…

You’re my hero. Can I have some of what you’re on? Do you have some wisdom to share on how you cope with fear? A special technique you use to kick fear in the pants? A personal story of overcoming? Tell me. Follow the steps (1 – 4) above with your advice piece, and your entry will be considered for the giveaway.

So, fearful adventurers…

Let’s hold hands and do daring activities together, and then we can sit around the campfire and sing Kumbaya and form a hug circle, and then wake up the next day with a shocking cask wine hangover and an inability to look each other in the eye.

Or not.

How about we skip the whole regretful singing/hug circle scenario and just shoot rounds of ammo into the sky. That works for me too. Yee-haw!

My fearful adventure:

A city girl with a morbid fear of deep water, I’m not someone you would ordinarily find adrift in the middle of the stormy Pacific aboard a leaky sailboat – total crew of two – struggling to keep an old boat, a new relationship and my floundering sanity afloat.

But when I met Ivan, a handsome Argentinean man with a humble sailboat and a dream to set off exploring the world, I had to face a hard decision: watch the man I was in love with sail away forever, or head off on the watery journey with him. After much nail-chewing, I decided to give up my city life, face my fear of water (and tendency towards seasickness) and join him on a two-year-long voyage across the Pacific.

“Wow, what a book. Exciting. Dramatic. Honest. Torre DeRoche is an author to follow.” Australian Associated Press

“A funny, irresistibly offbeat tale about the risks and rewards of living, and loving, with an open heart.” —Kirkus Reviews

“In her debut, DeRoche has penned such a beautiful, thrilling story you’ll have to remind yourself it’s not fiction. Her language is effortless.” —Courier Mail

The trailer:

Having trouble seeing the video? View it on YouTube.

Here are the submissions so far:

The Middle-Aged Adventurer by Married with Luggage

Overcoming fear at Laguna Dudú by Turf to Surf

Travelling on a container ship, from Athens to Hong Kong by Leaving Cairo

My most fearful adventure is a reality check by Domestiphobia

This is my declaration of freedom by Fels Got Swag

I’m not scared of flying, but… by Chicks Travel Flicks

Relenquishing My Inner Chicken-Shit by The Vagabond Studio

Fear – Quitting it all to move to Costa Rica by Samba to the Sea

Why I’m leaving my life as I know it and moving 10,000 miles for love. by Nancy Da Costa

When I set off travelling, I imagined myself creating art while on the move.

With so much inspiration around me, I assumed that tapping into a creative headspace would be a piece-o-cake. On trains and planes, in the back of a campervan, in airport lounges, dingy diners, and pho restaurants, there I would be with my fingers curled over my laptop and a look of intense concentration on my face. My mind would be as crisp and fluid as a glacial river. Ideas would flow forth like… um… like… ummmmm…

Shit.

Turns out, creating and travelling clash. While both activities enrich each other, they cannot be performed simultaneously. At least, not by me.

I don’t know what it’s like for other people, but in order to create I need to go deeply inwards. This often means losing touch with my surroundings. The deeper I go into my imagination, the more my reality fades into non-existence. Time slips away and everything real becomes peripheral.  After an intensive day of writing or painting, I sometimes ‘wake’ to wonder where I am and where I’ve been all day.

In contrast with this, travel forces you to be on high alert to your surroundings. When you’re out of your comfort zone, this kind of heightened awareness is essential for survival. There are other pressing needs to take care of, like shelter, food, health and personal safety. Dreaming is an indulgence only for those who have their survival needs taken care of.

So while living as a nomad, I find it hard to draw my attention inwards; to let go, to lose touch with my physical self, to tap into a creative space. Drifting into the imagination is like falling into a dream—in order to do that, I need a safe and cosy bed to surrender to. Being creative while travelling is like trying to fall asleep on the shoulder of a busy highway.

I find myself continually pulled between wanting to stay put to create and wanting to travel.

What about you? Do you need a certain kind of space in order to be creative, or can you create from anywhere? 

The last few months have been a speedy blur of firsts for me: first time launching a book, first time on radio, first time on TV, first speaking engagement, first time creeping stealthily through the aisles of bookstores, eyeballing the shelves for my cover.

On the morning of launch day, I made a beeline for my one of my favourite city bookstores. In order to feel like a real published author, I needed to see my book on shelves. The Brunswick Street bookshop is a cosy little nest that I’d often visit for inspiration when I was writing my book nearby in Abbotsford. It’s my second home, my sanctuary, and I could think of no better place to make my debut as a lurking bookstore creep.

As I walked into the store, I covered my toothy smile behind an idiot’s smirk. I walked straight to the new-release section with my hands outstretched, ready to embrace my paperback. Ta-da! Here I am, baby! Your author! 

I searched the shelves. Where is it?

I searched some more. Seriously, where the hell is it?

It wasn’t there.

(First time having my idiot’s grin melt rapidly while standing in my favourite least favourite bookstore.)

On the plus side, things could only go up from there. And oh how they did…

Here are my top ten highlights from the last few months:

1. The airport billboards

Caz Makepeace from yTravel blog spotted my book cover in all its backlit glory at the Qantas terminal at Sydney airport.

2. Giving Grisham the cold shoulder

Talk to the spine ’cause the face ain’t listening.

3. The time I rubbed up against Ellen

And Katherine Book and Sheryl Sandberg.

4. The time I took over iTunes

5. The moment I thought: Hey—I’m speaking in public and I am not exploding into a ball of flames and dying a slow, painful death from shame. I’m alive and well and I’m doing just fine!

6. Sharing the stage at RMIT with Graeme Simsion, author of the The Rosie Project

7. Being clustered together with these folks

8. Browsing for reviews

“The story of how DeRoche overcame her fears, her self-deprecating humour and her way with words would have been enough to make this a great story. The fact her Argentinian boyfriend combines the passion of a Latin lover with the grit and spirit of a Scandinavian seafarer makes this book a Hollywood dream come true.” Sydney Morning Herald

“Love with a Chance of Drowning isn’t just the best book I have read this year, or even in the last few years. It is, hands down, the best book I have ever read.” Riley Banks of The Writer’s Shack

“Wow, what a book. Exciting. Dramatic. Honest. Torre DeRoche is an author to follow.” Australian Associated Press

“You’ll get a lot of things out of this book, I promise you. You will ask questions about your own life, your fears, your ambitions and your spirit. But at its heart this is a love story that will keep you turning the pages and leave you feeling bereft as you finish the last line.” The Modern Women’s Survival Guide

9. Being read by little people—my niece and nephew

10. The time that Summersdale Publishers baked Love with a Chance of Cake

This happened in the UK, so I didn’t get to taste it.

In other news…

We’re less than three weeks away from launching in North America! The cover is completely different. It looks like this:

My US publicist has a box of advance review copies ready to send out now. If you’re a blogger and you’d like an advance review copy, please submit your details here.

You can also preorder the book on Amazon to have it delivered as soon as it’s out.

Summer is ending in Melbourne and the weather is cooling down. But in this city, that transition is not a gradual twist of the thermostat, it’s an overnight snap between heatstroke and frostbite.

“It’s like Antarctica and the Australian desert are continually fighting it out over the top of Melbourne,” my partner remarked. Never have I heard a more accurate description of what it’s like to live in this city.

I left the house wearing shorts one lovely sunny day this week and for the longest time, I couldn’t figure out why I was so uncomfortable. My arms were breaking out in bumps, I was shivering, and all I could think about was hot chocolate, electric blankets, and comfort foods.

What is wrong here? I wondered. Am I getting sick?

No. The weather was just fucking cold. A day that had started out warm had turned icy without warning, yet my brain—having woken to a blue sky and a warm breeze—hadn’t caught up to that fact.

It’s a common mistake. Summertime doesn’t end gracefully here, it snaps fast enough to turn sweat droplets into icicles. After that, the sky spits chilly rain for what feels like a hundred years, and then springtime arrives with an explosion of green leaves, chirping birds, and unbridled optimism. But it’s just a tease. After a quick reminder of what habitable weather feels like, any hope of summer disappears leaving us cold and miserable for another fifty years. Then you wake up one day and it’s forty degrees Celsius and a fresh batch of old ladies have died from heatstroke.

Who can blame ‘em?

We have our coping mechanisms, though, such as complaining about it. Like, all the time. We pretend as though the psychotic weather is unexpected, and we act shocked and violated on a daily basis. This approach allows us to feel victimised, which is easier than acknowledging that we built our homes in an vile pocket between the cold fronts of the Southern Ocean and heat of the desert. We could be living elsewhere, but we stay. It’s easier to complain than to pack.

So every conversation that you’ll ever have in Melbourne will have a segment that goes like this:

“Oh. My. God. How cold is this weather?!”
“I know! Bloody hell! This is ridiculous!”
“It’s supposed to be summer!”
“Uh, I know! I just got a fake tan for nothing!”
“I just had my bikini waxed for nothing!”
“This is bullshit.”
“Let’s move to Queensland.”
“Um, no. Let’s not.”
“I was totally joking.”

However, the psychotic weather is what gives Melbourne it’s flavour. There is nothing practical about the climate. It’s harsh. It’s hardcore. But it keeps the wankers away.

To fight the winter blues, we turn to art for solace. Layers of graffiti transform chilly brick façades into a walls of hope. Delicious, lavish dishes and wines are served in restaurants, warming the bellies and minds of eaters for one glorious hour. Live music expresses the cold, harsh truths of humanity, and listeners sway in unison, connected through shared sorrows. Our suffering makes the joys richer. Our canvases are not dappled with Sydney harbour Cyan and Annoyingly Happy Yellow, but with Long-Suffering Beige and Kill Me Now Grey. We’re in this together.

Melbourne replaces sunshine with soul. Blue skies with blues. Heat with heart.

That’s what I tell myself anyway.

It warms me at night when I’m fighting off frostbite of the toes.

Travel, money, internet fame—does Nomadic Matt have it all? Matt Kepnes opens up on travel blogging, dealing with bad press, and whether or not he has it all…

Matt Kepnes’ story is fascinating. If you don’t yet know who he is, I’ll give you a brief introduction:

After finishing his MBA, Matt decided to spend some time seeing the world. Eighteen months later, after returning home to Boston, Matt found himself uninspired at the prospect of returning to his office job. Travel, or working in a nondescript office lit by flickering fluorescent lights and decorated with condescending inspirational posters of kittens overcoming challenge? Hmm. That’s a tough one.

Matt picked travel, and he started a blog to get into travel writing.

This was back in 2008, when dinosaurs roamed the internet and only a tiny number of bloggers had predicted that it would one day become possible to earn a living from this obscure hobby.

Matt was one of them.

Flash forward to 2013: Matt is now earning six figures from his self-made career, while thousands of other digital nomads are working overtime, hoping to mimic his success. While his ex-MBA-classmates sit in cubes and answer to The Man, Nomadic Matt is answering to nobody as he jets off to exotic destinations to roll around on Penthouse waterbeds blanketed with $100 bills.

(Okay, maybe I imagined that last part. I think he’s more likely to be found in cheap hostels, writing up budget-savvy travel advice for his massive readership of 200K per month.)

On top of this, Matt has just become a Penguin-published author with his book, How to Travel the World on $50 a Day.

It seems that this man has it all.

But is that the case? I harassed him over email to find out.

Okay, so you finish your M.B.A., but instead of getting a steady job, you take off traveling. Permanently. Your parents and friends must have thought you were throwing away your life? What did your MBA peers think of your plan? How did people react?

I didn’t know anyone in my program. It was a part time program. My parents didn’t want me to leave and tried to talk me out of it. My dad kept showing me job openings. Eventually, they sort of dropped the subject in hopes I would change my mind. I didn’t. My friends didn’t really react much. They were mostly like “oh that’s cool.” … I don’t really remember anyone trying to talk me out of it.

I talk a lot about naysayers on my blog (or ‘assholes,’ as I call them.) Did you get many naysayers? If so, how did you deal with that?

You develop a thick skin. There will always be trolls on the Internet. In some cases, I’ll take their hate and turn it into a good blog post that inspires others to ignore the haters. In many cases, I’ll reply back with a polite but backhanded attack. For the most part, I just ignore it. They are just a fact of life.

Can your achievements be repeated given that when you started, there was only about 10 people doing the same thing, and now there are several thousand?

Yes, they can. To say they can’t is to say that no one can ever open a new restaurant again because there are already so many that exist. If you have a good idea, you can make it work. You need a unique story or angle that hasn’t been done to death. Stand out from the crowd and it doesn’t matter how big the crowd is. People will notice you.

Can you take us though the early stages of inventing your career? When did you know you had something? Did you have a strong vision, or did it morph and take form once you began?

I’ve never really heard that I invented my career before. I like that phrasing. In the beginning, I had no idea what I was doing – I had no plan, no vision, no idea. I was just kind of rolling with what was given to me. I just reacted to events. It didn’t really morph into something with a plan until late 2009, early 2010. It was then I realized I could do something more with the site and started to develop a strategy on how to succeed.

Did you have moments of self-doubt?

All the time. Still do. I think every successful person does.

Did any other bloggers, writers, or entrepreneurs inspire you? Do you have mentors?

Lots. Folks like Tim Ferriss, Ramit Sethi, Chris Guillebeau among others all inspired me to get better at what I do. I get a lot of good feedback from the blogging community – Ramit, Chris, plus folks like Derek Halpern, Corbett Barr, among others. These guys are very good at what they do and very helpful in giving advice. We bat a lot of ideas around.

What’s the worst criticism you’ve ever received? How did you cope with it?

Ramit Sethi from I’ll teach you to be rich just laced into me one day over drinks about my lack of a plan, strategy, and more marketing. It was like 45 minutes of why I suck. It was the best experience ever. I learned a lot and was able to rethink how I planned everything. Too many times travel bloggers take criticism personally when really, most of the time it’s helpful advice. If someone is taking the time to tell you how to get better, even if it’s not in the nicest of tones, listen. They really do care.

You got a bunch of bad press from your piece about Vietnam. How did you feel about that? Do you think that exposure ultimately benefited you?

The world is a giant place and you can’t expect to like 100% of it. I didn’t like Vietnam. I had a bad trip there. It happens. My point was that with such a big world, why would I go back to a place I felt mistreated in when there is so many new places to see? With those kind of articles, people read what they want to read and for the naysayers, they read “I hate Vietnamese people.” When someone says “I didn’t like France” I don’t think “You racist French hater!”

In the end, I got a lot of buzz out of it and you know what they say, all press is good press.

What do you consider to be your greatest accomplishment?

Creating a website people actual read, respect, and use. It’s amazing knowing that people listen. Sometimes it’s hard to believe. You think to yourself “Really? You read my site?? You liked it?” It’s humbling.

Your book How to Travel the World on $50 a Day was originally a successful self-published e-book, but you decided to sell the rights to Penguin. Self-publishing is said to be the future of publishing, but your actions don’t align with this rumor. Take us through your decision to self-publish. 

Self-publishing is great. You get 100% of the profits and if you are a big name or are selling your books for 99 cents, you can be pretty successful at it. But eventually you hit a wall and since I wasn’t in the Amazon store, there was a limit to what I could do. A traditional publisher gives you access to media you can only dream about and a print book gives you credibility that can’t come with self-publishing and not every one wants to buy an ebook. Some people still like paper. I don’t regret the decision at all.

Do you have any thoughts on the future of publishing?

Not much. I don’t really think about it but if I had to think about it I would say more first time authors will come from blogs and ebooks are only going to get bigger.

Do you have any advice for the bloggers out there who wish to get a publishing deal?

Torre, you’ll likely agree that having a built-in audience is key. Publishers know that no matter what, you’re going to sell some books for them and there will be built-in word of mouth. If you want to pitch a deal, build up an audience. You’ll have an easier time convincing a publisher to take a chance on you.

A lot of people idealize the traveler’s lifestyle. From the outside, it could seem like you have it all. Is your life as glamorous as it seems? Is there anything you idealize? Is the grass greener elsewhere for you?

The grass is always greener somewhere. I wouldn’t say my life is glamorous. I wish I was around in one place more so I could have steady friendships and relationships, as well as get to a gym more. Even with moving to NYC, I’m only there about ½ the month. Yes, I get to travel a lot but a lot of the times I’m working. I’m not just hanging out at a bar relaxing.

Do you have any regrets? 

I never studied abroad. I was young and naïve and that was a mistake. More recently, I left a girl in Asia. I should have stayed. Leaving effectively ended our relationship. That’s a big regret.

If you could give one piece of advice to the whippersnapper who started nomadicmatt.com in 2008, what would it be?

Put a giant subscribe box on the front of your website for everyone to see so people actually follow your site. I lost thousands of readers by making it hard to find the button to subscribe to my site.

What happens when you’re done with being nomadic, Matt?

The rapture.

And lastly, because it’s the subject of my blog, what’s your greatest fear?

Heights. I hate heights. I’m always afraid I’m going to fall off something or come crashing down and hit the earth. God put us on the ground because our feet are supposed to be planted on the earth – not high in the sky! So yes, in case you were wondering, I am also a really nervous flier.

If you have any more questions for Matt, ask him in the comment section below. 

. . . . . . . . . . . .

Matt has turned his last seven years of backpacking and blogging into a resource packed with tips, called How to Travel the World on $50 a Day. According to Matt, you don’t have to be disgustingly rich to see the world.

If you’re plotting out your own grand adventure on a shoestring budget, buy it for yourself, or gift it to an intrepid pal here.

Bookstores! The smell of paper. The piles of stories. All the great authors pressed tightly together, spooning on the shelves.

These are some of the reasons that you’re more likely to find me in a bookstore than a bar on a Saturday night.

Before I left Melbourne, one of my top Saturday night hangouts was Readings in Carlton. Outside, on Lygon Street, people sipped at late night lattes and club-goers shuffled past in six-inch heels, tugging at miniskirts. Not me, though. I sat inside with everything I needed in one place: paperbacks, time to browse, money in my pocket for a new book, and Ivan (also, thankfully, a book geek).

When I was writing Love with a Chance of Drowning, I would sometimes walk into Readings and picture my book sitting among the new releases. It was a fantasy—nothing more than a silly game I played for fun.

With a goofy smile, I’d say to Ivan: “Imagine if our book was in here.”

“It will be,” he’d reply with conviction. “I promise.”

I’d arch an eyebrow at him and shake my head in disbelief. He’s always making crazy promises.

And he’s always right…

Love is on shelves right now, spooning with great authors, just as it was my fantasy. But I’ve imagined it so many times that seeing it on shelves is just plain confusing.

No. That can’t be real?

On Tuesday, we’ll head to our Saturday-night hangout—our second home—where I’ll be speaking as a guest author at Readings. I’ll talk a little about the journey and my book, and I’ll be doing a book signing.

If you’re in Melbourne, come along and pinch me. 

I’m going to be talking about travel, fear, and my publishing story.

I’m also appearing in an Ocean Grove bookstore, called Bookgrove. The owner, Stacey Moore, very kindly invited me to come and launch there. If you’re interested in joining us, come by at 6.45pm for some champagne cocktails. There will be a talk, a Q&A, and a book signing.

If you know someone in the Melbourne area who might be interested, it would be fantastic if you could pass this along.

Readings
Tuesday 12 March 2013 at 6:30pm
Readings Carlton: 309 Lygon St, Carlton, Victoria
Please book on 03 9347 6633 or at events@readings.com.au

Bookgrove
Wednesday 13 March 2013 at 6.45pm
Bookgrove Ocean Grove: 1/73 the terrace, Ocean Grove, Victoria
Please book on 03 5255 5973 or email stacey@bookgrove.com.au

For sixteen months, my own personal doomsday has been slowly approaching. With the launch of my book, I knew I was going to have to face up to something I’m terrified of.

I’m not talking about deep water or heights or snakes. I’m talking about something that has held me back from opportunities and shaped my life choices.

For 32 years, I’ve avoided public speaking.

At university, I immersed myself in my own personal study of Not Speaking in Public. When the time came to get up in front of the class and talk about our graphic design projects, I’d quietly slip out of the room, get in my car, and drive to the cinema. Watching a two-star romantic comedy alone in the dark was so much more appealing than standing before sixty sets of eyes.

I was always amazed that nobody noticed I was gone, and despite my Houdini act during public speaking occasions, I finished university with top marks.

I was smug that I’d gotten away with it. Bwah-ha-ha! I win! I thought.

From there, I became so good at side-stepping public speaking that I practically invented my own dance. Left, right, avoid! Right, left, avoid! I applied only for jobs that would allow me to hide behind computer screens all day, and I somehow even managed to avoid any obligations to answer the phone (my fear also extended to telecommunications).

I was smug that I got away with that too. Bwah-ha-ha! I win!

Avoidance is a funny thing. The more you do it, the more stubbornly you stick it out. A simple refusal—a one-time “No”—somehow turns into a lifetime of “No’s”. I accepted this limitation as a part of me, like a missing leg. “I’m scared” was my disability, and one that I believed to be legitimate.

Like any disability, it put limitations on my life.

Part of the appeal of self-publishing my book was avoidance. If I was the master of my own publication, then I wouldn’t have to do anything I didn’t want to do, like radio or talk shows or reading events. Instead, I could quietly promote my book from behind my laptop screen. I knew it was going to be a challenge to get the word out digitally, but my determination to avoid public speaking was so strong that I became a social media whiz to compensate.

And then (thanks to my superb social media skills) my book sold to five publishers. I told you all that I was excited because that seems like a fitting reaction, but the truth was, in between all the celebrating, I was filled with gut-clenching dread.

Publishers sent over proposals with words like, “Book store events,” and “Live radio” and I could hear the squeak of the spotlight turning on me, ready to flush me out from my dark hiding place with stark white light. I didn’t know how to talk about this, as I was afraid I’d get accused of looking a gift horse in the mouth. On the odd occasion that I would mention it out loud, I was told, “Psht! Puh-leez, Torre. You’ll be fine.”

First world problems, I know.

And yet the thought of the world ending in December 2012 felt genuinely comforting to me. Death—the ultimate way to avoid. Boom! We’re all dead! Game, score, match! I win! Bwah-ha-ha! 

But we didn’t die. The world kept turning, dammit, and the dreaded launch date approached. Just before returning home to Melbourne for my Australia/NZ launch, I got sick in Thailand with something that could’ve been a tropical bug or a flu, but was most likely nerves. I was shitting myself. Literally.

On Feb 27, I was scheduled in to appear on ABC RadioNational on a popular program called Life Matters. It was to be broadcast around the entire country. Live.

The game was up. I was about to lose.

But the results were shocking…

I woke up that morning in a state of perfect calm.

I drove to the ABC studio in a state of perfect calm.

I went into the recording studio in a state of perfect calm.

And all throughout the interview, I was calm—perfectly so.

If you’d like to listen to it, here’s the interview.

I didn’t embarrass myself and melt into a pile of my own goo. My throat didn’t close over and suffocate me. Nobody laughed and called me stupid. My insides did not spill out into the room. I was just me as I always am, but on radio, talking to a lot of people. No biggie.

Once I lost my option to avoid, it was easy.

In fact, it was a whole lot of fun.

Since then, I’ve done five radio interviews, and the experience was the same for each one: easy, exhilarating, fun. Last night, after a successful interview with ABC774, the presenter Lindy Burns said to me, “That was great. You’re a natural talker.”

Me? Really? A natural talker? Huh! Who would’ve guessed? I never would’ve known this if I hadn’t been forced into facing this fear.

For 32 years, I’ve been pointlessly avoiding public speaking. Why? In a way, it’s like playing a video game that scores points when I successfully escape the bad guy—the public speaking. Only it’s a fictional baddie in a make-believe game that I invented when I was a child. There is no way to win this game. What felt like a win was actually my own loss.

Is there anything that you’re avoiding?

Notice anything different?

Well yes, I gained a little weight from too much coconut milk soup in Thailand, but it’s not that. And yes, my frizzy, sun-damaged hair desperately needs professional help, but it’s not that either. Um, yes, I have aged a little (thanks for noticing) and, yes, some new wrinkles are spidering out from the corners of my—

Stop!

Okay, I’ll just tell you.

It’s my blog. I redesigned it. After two years of the same design, it was time for a change.

The redesign only took me about eleventy billion hours. Getting ready to launch a book wasn’t quite challenging enough for me, you see. And working eight hours a day was too tame, so I doubled my workload and decided to forgo sleep. Who needs sleep? It’s overrated.

(Psst: Why is Tupac sitting on my lap right now, gazing into my eyes, saying: “Reality is wrong, dreams are for real”?)

Enda at Flare Marketing has also been pulling late nights to get this happening. You should hire him. He has magical powers which he calls “Java” and “HTML” and “CSS.” Oooh! Abracadabra! Specialis Revelio! SEO Magnifique! 

So I hope you like my new website. If you don’t, then please be 100% honest with me inside your closed lips while you nod and smile on the outside, because we are currently closed for feedback. I’m too tired and too busy and Tupac is being really demanding.

However, if you see a glitch, do let me know. We’re still ironing a few things out.

What’s new

• A photo section. I’m so excited about this. I have a lot more photos to add, and I’ll be building this out when time permits.
• A book page. If you’re reading my book, Tweet about it with the hashtag #loveanddrowning and I’ll add your thoughts to my page.
• For bloggers and media folk, I’ve created a media kit. This will give you a quick way to access relevant information for writing reviews or interviews.
• A FAQ section about writing and self-publishing. I’ll add to this along the way.
• A FAQ about sailing and adventure.
• A list of My Favorite Things (because I’m narcissistic like that).
• A new about page and a new welcome page.
• An entire rolodex of options for getting in touch with me and my people. (I’ve always wanted to say “my people,” though I’m still waiting for my opportunity to say, “I’ll have my people call your people.” So go get some people, people.)

In other news

I’m back in Melbourne for the Australian launch of my book, which happens on Feb 27.

My dog Frida is fat, though my mum insists she’s “just big boned.” It seems she has developed a peculiar bone-expanding problem during the year I’ve been away. Good thing mum is feeding her all that food to make her feel better about herself.

My book made the Penguin homepage yesterday!

I celebrated by hanging around my parents house in my robe, and dressing my dog up in a Tupac hoodie. She’s really quite heavy on my lap, the lump.

The talented people over at Summersdale Publishing in the UK baked a Love with a Chance of Drowning Cake! The book is out in July in the UK, though I fear the cake will be a little furry by then.

Love with a Chance of Cake

I’m going to be at Readings in Carlton in Melbourne, Australia, to talk / sign books on March 12. More on that soon. Meanwhile, subscribe to my beautiful new site!

Thanks for stopping by.