Calling all travelers! I’ve joined the blogging ranks of The Diary of the Purple Passport, a travelogue devoted to the most fun, unique, and elegant spots around the world. It was started by gals-about-the-globe Emily Chang and Jennifer Garcia-Alonso, best friends and travel companions since high school. Their taste-making online travel guide The Purple Passport is debuting in Summer 2010 (I’m the Senior Writer for the site).  While the site will be a one-stop-shop for all your travel needs, The Diary expands upon the venues featured on the site – including the best hotels, restaurants, spas, shops, nightlife, and cultural venues in the world’s most exciting cities – and weaves entertaining (and informative!) travel tales.

Subscribe to the blog to get a taste of some truly fresh travel writing, glean travel tips, and follow my dispatches from Los Angeles and beyond!  So why purple?  Visit The Diary to find out!

You’re in a place where exotic smells waft from sidewalk cafes.  All around you, signs are scrawled in foreign scripts and people speak in unfamiliar languages.  Food-market bins are crammed with piquant spices and unusual produce.  Colorful curios line the shelves of neighborhood boutiques.  Surely, you’re very far from home.  Or, you’ve just stumbled into one of Southern California’s numerous ethnic enclaves, where a few quarters dropped in a parking meter will buy cultural immersion so complete you’ll feel as if you’ve fled the country.

Singular Magazine is running a four-part series I wrote on these transportive ethnic enclaves in Los Angeles.  First stop:  Little Ethiopia.

Summer is my favorite time of year. I love soaking up the warm sunshine, wearing strappy sundresses, dancing salsa during sultry nights, and losing myself in a good summer read. But most of all, I love the frame of mind…that sense of “school’s out for summer” (even though I’m no longer in school) when everything seems a little freer and anything feels possible. It’s the combination of summer’s sensory pleasures and laidback vibe that, for me, makes it the season ripest for great writing.

For the past several summers, I’ve taught a month-long summer writing “camp” for adults through the Los Angeles Writing Project at Cal State LA. We meet twice a week for 2 1/2 hours and immerse ourselves in the craft of fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, and memoir. The course is like a “toolbox” of writing techniques that can be applied to any genre: evoking a strong sense of place, describing people and characters vividly, crafting convincing dialogue, and understanding narrative structure. The course is open to anyone but is especially recommended for teachers of all levels looking to incorporate creative writing curricula into their classrooms and earn continuing education units. For more information about the Summer Creative Writing Intensive, visit the LAWP website.