Jane Austen Made My Vacation: Beth Pattillo Tells All!

The Wayfarers visiting a church, Jane Austen Country

By Julie Johnson: Julie, a life-long Jane Austen fan, is The Wayfarers US Operations Manager and Alaska Walk Leader.

Q & A with Beth Pattillo, author of Jane Austen Ruined My Life has just returned from the Jane Austen walking vacation. Between research and deadlines, we caught up with Beth to chat about her love of Jane Austen, writing, travel and her next book....

In preparing for my trip next week to visit Jane Austen Country, I searched my library to see if there was anything related to her that I would like to read again – the first that came to mind was “Jane Austen Ruined My Life,” by Beth Pattillo. It’s a fun yet poignant story that leads the main character on a scavenger hunt designed by a “secret” Jane Austen Society. Turns out that the hunt takes our heroine, Emma (of course!) to many of the places I’d be visiting on our Wayfarers Jane Austen walk.

When I learned the author, Beth Pattillo, had been on the same walk earlier this season, I knew I wanted to chat with her!

Julie Johnson: How did you find out about the Wayfarers?

Beth Pattillo: I found the Wayfarers online when I was looking for Bronte-related tours. Sadly, I was too late to get a place in the Bronte tour last fall, but the wonderful folks at Wayfarers told me about the new Jane Austen tour. Since I'd written two Jane Austen-related novels and was contracted for a third, the trip was right up my alley.


JJ: Was this trip different from your other trips to England?

BP: Two years ago, I did a one day 'Jane Austen' tour through Hampshire with the help of a very kind guide. It whetted my appetite for a more in-depth experience. The walking tour allowed me to experience all the wonderful Jane Austen sites at a more leisurely pace. It also allowed me to get a taste of what Jane Austen's own 'walking' life must have been like. Walking the paths where she walked was truly inspiring!


JJ: Have you been able to put your finger on why Jane Austen's work inspires you? Why it seems to be so enduring through the generations?

BP: Jane Austen continues to inspire us and to endure because of her complex and relatable characters. We all know people like Fanny Dashwood (horrible and self-serving) or Anne Elliott (put-upon but patient despite all that). Austen's plots also hold up well not only in the novels themselves but as they are adapted to stage and screen. Truly a master of her craft!


JJ: Has this Wayfarer trip sparked your interest in writing another Jane Austen-inspired novel?

BP: I went on the Jane Austen Country tour to research my next novel, The Dashwood Sisters Tell All (Guideposts Books, Spring 2011). I wanted to write about sisters, and so my characters will follow in the footsteps of Jane and Cassandra Austen. They will also encounter handsome men who could be scoundrels or heroes, a secret diary that may lead to the biggest Jane Austen secret ever, and a mysterious woman who leads a secret Jane Austen society. It's a tough job, having to travel to Hampshire and London for research, but I'm happy to take one for the team. ; )

You can find Beth’s book, “Jane Austen Ruined My Life,” on the Wayfarers reading list.

The Power to Transform & The Lure of the Next Adventure - Perspectives on Photography

Q & A With Ellen Barone - Adventure Travel Photographer Extraordinaire

Ahead of welcoming Ellen as our guest host and photography expert on our September 12-17 New Mexico Walk, we caught up with her in between travels to ask a few searching questions:


The Wayfarers: How did you get into photography - and more specifically - travel photography?

Ellen Barone: My path to photography was born of time, experimentation, and observation. I’ve always spent much of my free time in solitary pursuits - reading, learning, exploring, playing, and experimenting. Photography was the tool I used to record those explorations. Whether in nature or immersed in civilization, with a camera I could spy on the world, sit there and record what happens, walk among it, eavesdrop on its conversations, engage its characters and notice the little things. Eventually travel, discovery, and photography became the underlying theme infusing all of my life - personally and professionally.

TW: What is the most unexpected thing you have learned on your travels?

EB: I’m embarrassed to admit it, but I’m guilty of taking for granted the privilege of travel. When I want to go somewhere, it becomes a matter of logistics – saving money, reading up on the place, booking the flight, finding a place to stay, learning language basics, filling out the paperwork, etc. But when I’m out there in the world and someone tells me they’d love to come to America, but can’t get a visa, or that no matter how hard they work they’ll never have the means to travel, it hits me hard how fortunate I am, every time.

TW: What is your favorite country or destination and why?

EB: I used to struggle to answer this question until photographer Bob Krist came up with the perfect reply: “My favorite place is always the next place – the place I haven’t been yet.” It’s so true!

TW: What is the most unusual experience you have had while traveling?

EB: Hank and I were traveling in a very remote region of Myanmar (Burma) on a riverboat voyage up the Chindwin River. At one point I was wandering alone with my camera in a village when a local woman approached and asked, in English, if she could walk with me.

Myanmar is ruled by a ruthless military junta known to imprison its people for plotting against the government with little more proof than that they’d been seen associating with Westerners. So it was with this on my mind that I walked along with my new friend. We exchanged vitals and I learned that we were the same age, that she was a high school math teacher (I am a former high school math teacher) and that due to her status as an educator she was afforded certain privileges, including that of learning English and talking with a Westerner, without fear of reprisal.

For several hours she took on the role of my guide, helping me shop for textiles, taking me to the school yard for panoramic views of the surrounding river valley, and introducing me to exotic fruits and delicious street food I’d never have sampled without her. It was a magical afternoon. I knew I’d been given a gift that day. As we walked back to the ship, hugging our goodbyes at the dock, she took both my hands in hers and said, “I will remember this day for all my life.”

TW: What makes a great travel photograph?

EB: Whether it’s a beautiful French landscape bathed in golden light, the blur of Tokyo commuter trains, or a friendly fishmonger working the morning crowd in a Turkish market, a great travel photograph transforms the ordinary into the extraordinary.

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Join Ellen Barone and her husband the author Hank Barone for a walking vacation with The Wayfarers in New Mexico, September 12-17, 2010.

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About Ellen: Whether she’s sailing across the Atlantic, crossing the Sahara on camel, surfing Maui’s swells, dog sledding the Alaskan tundra, cycling the Sicilian coastline, eating scorpion in Singapore or hanging out in the tango bars of Buenos Aires, freelance writer-photographer Ellen Barone strives for honest storytelling and vivid photography. Inspired by a Fulbright teaching exchange in the early nineties, the photojournalist has been covering adventure travel since 1998, traveling to more than 60 countries for travel-related assignments. In addition, she’s a popular radio host and author of several online practical advice consumer travel columns.