Some clever Traveling Writer help me out here!  How does the quotation go?  "Behind every successful man is a good woman!"   Or "Behind every good man is a successful woman!"   The problem with the genuine Traveling Writers is that they seldom quote anybody other than themselves.  Maybe it's ego!  Maybe it's experience?  Maybe it's illiteracy but seldom will a genuine Traveling Writer get a quote right.  I'll leave this one for now and press on.  

What can be stated with certainty is behind the success of the Traveling Writer venture is a very clever, hard working, creative woman!  Since I met Sarah Hayes in 1989 when she was bumping 5 years old it's a stretch for me to call her a woman.  But fast forward a few years to 2012 and we find RahRah managing the Whitehall Gallery in Bournemouth, Dorset, UK under the "I Do" name of Mrs. Faulkner.   

In spite of her day job at Whitewall Gallery Sarah found time to put together this fine website which enables us Traveling Writers to do business,  to tell lies, and to participate in something that is bigger than ourselves.   Her labors of love make it possible for us to exercise our right to bear pens,  fine writing relic pens like Traveling Writers.   

Let's just pause in our travels for a second and thank Mrs. Faulkner for her donated website.  Thank you, Mrs. Faulkner.  Behind the successful Traveling Writer there is a good woman.   If you are strolling the streets of Bournemouth, Dorset, UK then drop in on RahRah and tip your hat.   Take your large wallet 'cause Sarah will probably send you home with a piece of art far more costly than the fine writing relic Traveling Writer that you will use to write the check.  Good luck.   You will find Sarah to be the same as always....ever ready,  always steady, and never heady!   

Thank you, Mrs. Faulkner/Sarah/RahRah for making it possible for us Traveling Writers to do business, to tell our lies, and to acquire pens and membership into the Order of the Traveling Writer.    You make us proud!!!    

TW001/Out Of Africa

TW001 spent exactly one month between February 7 and March 11 spitting out words like a Jedi laser sword spitting out light.  The Book Lady Charmane issued the challenge over tea at Java's in Stellenbosch back in January.  She also put a "handle" on the slippery task of making a manuscript so the Traveling Writer could open that door.  The task commenced under thatched skies on Harrison Hope Wine Estate on February 7.  But the Traveling Writer ran up against the same stumbling block as always!!!!   Sitting in front of the MacBook Pro keyboard there was no inspiration, only the cold, lifeless glare of a blank screen.  

Enter TW001.   Once the Traveling Writer took relic to hand and felt the weight of all those stories, all those flights,  all those miles, and all those memories the pump got primed.  The first pages of the manuscript flowed from the pen like a love letter.   Within a few pages the mind was being carried forward by the stories and then the laptop was useful.  Throughout the month when new chapters were started the faithful writing relic would prime the pump, get the creative juices flowing, and give the words momentum.  Then the switch to the laptop where typing faster than a speeding bullet could pile up the words 1000, 2000, 4000 at a sitting.  Within the month the 56,360 word manuscript was "sorted, mate!"    

If you find the blank stare of the laptop screen and the static formation of the keyboard a deterrent to your writing then pick up the magic wand of the Traveling Writer and "write on."  I assure you once on the road jammed in solitary back seat of the Cessna 402 nothing but a Traveling Writer will function properly.   Congratulations to the Traveling Writer for completing the 56,360 words with a little help from his friends.   

Traveling Writers often appear out on a limb or on a ledge!   You know the maxim: "If you're not living on the edge you're taking up space!"   

TW001 got involved in the Harrison Hope Wine Estate 2012 chardonnay crush today!  Even though the harvest was nearly wiped out completely by a fine African hail storm in December a few grapes made it to maturity.  Harrison Hope figures the bottles may be scarce but the chardonnay could be their finest.  Check them out at www.harrisonhope.com.  Such are the destinations of Traveling Writers.

TW001 was not much use clipping the clusters from the vines but once the crate weights had to be recorded the TW took the lead.  The grapes will be chilled overnight down to 6C and then crushed, destemmed, pressed, and allowed to settle for 12 hours tomorrow before barrel fermentation begins on the HH 2012 Chardonnay.  The track of descending sugar readings and ascending temperature readings will all be recorded by TW001 over the next few days.  A good, cool, slow fermentation is the desired result but around the rough and untested terroir of Harrison Hope some fermentations have been known to charge off like runaway locomotives.  Once the chardonnay is sorted the pinotage follows next week and then the merlot.  A Traveling Writer has to be alert in the cellar but thrives on watching the miracle take place in the barrels and open fermentation tanks.

If you are in the neighborhood of TW001 (Whittlesea, Eastern Cape, South Africa) then drop in for a tasting or a tour or some dueling pens.   Chat later once the cellar work is done.  

TW001
South Africa