Hackpacker

We're about to take off to Japan with our daughter. Before we went we wanted to get her excited about the trip so here's a few things that worked for us. Culture vulturing Getting ready with some research (into Astroboy) To get set for our trip we tried to see as much Japanese culture before we left. With kids sometimes being fussy eaters we kicked off a program of Adventurous Eating. This meant trying something new (ideally from Japan) once a week. To make this easier we went to a Japanese restaurant that had a good range. In Japan a lot of places specialise in one type of food (like sushi trains or okonomiyaki ) so we looked for a place that offered a good range. Sure our kiddo went with her favoured sushi (avocado with not much else) but with a bit of nudging we got into tempura, plus you can move mountains with the promise of fried ice cream after the mountain has shifted. Our kid has always enjoyed the films of  Hayao Miyazaki ,  but if you've never seen them

Seconds after telling anyone you're a Lonely Planet author, they'll ask how you got the job. Sometimes it's just polite curiousity other times it's because they think it sounds like a dream job, but mostly it's because they believe there's an arcane ritual that you have to pass through be annointed by guidebook brahmins. If there was a ritual then I missed it and the truth is it requires an odd collection of skills. If you're looking to get a job as a guidebook author the first place to check is the Lonely Planet's own instructions on becoming an author . For the last year there's been a hiring freeze, but word is that this will soon be thawing as they begin refreshing the pool of around 300 authors. There's no secret to the recruitment process. As well as normal material like a CV and examples of previous work, new authors can be asked to write a sample chapter to show how you'd write a guidebook. You'll get some instructions on how

Melbourne will be inundated with travel writers this week as Lonely Planet HQ hosts its annual author workshop. The company has a unique approach in gathering together authors to outline strategy, provide training and listen to opinions. While much of the week is top secret, you can get a look inside the building thanks to this short film written by a former student of mine, Paul Callaghan , that was shot on location in the Melbourne office. Ironically it also looks at another sort of conference between a group of hitmen. Let's hope this week's event has a few less violent outbursts.

There used to be a disclaimer in the front of Lonely Planet books that read: Things change - prices go up, schedules change, good places go bad and bad places go bankrupt - nothing stays the same. On returning to Helsinki after researching the guidebook just six months earlier, I could see just how true that was. Things move pretty fast in the Finnish capital and there were closings and places that had fallen off in quality. It's maddening to see all your work change and imagine all those readers letters that will come pouring in telling you how wrong you got it. But new places have opened. Of course, they also drove me equally insane on one level, but also made me feel like people would be able to discover new things of their own in the city, rather than slavishly following the guidebook. The first new discovery was Salakauppa (secret shop) just near the post office a nd Kiasma . It's a tiny little shop that appeared in the summer of 2008 in a nook that had previously been

Today at Lonely Planet, they announced 50 job cuts. It's been a horrible day in the Melbourne office with friends and colleagues made redundant as guidebook sales fall in the economic downturn. It's hard to say too much about this at the moment as people are still feeling the impact, but like many authors I'm sad to hear the news.

Brian Thacker recently had a hilarious post about the things writers do to earn a buck when they're not scribbling. I guess I should come clean on this as well. Sometimes it's advertising copy, sometimes it's proofing a government site and sometimes it's doing video: Actually it's really good to re-use some of the material you've researched and present it for another media, just as you might write an article for a magazine based on research you've done for a guidebook. With the above video the good folks at LPTV did all the filming and found a lot of great additional footage. Sure, when you're re-using content there's the obvious issue of overlap and once something's on the web it's international (rather than national or local is you published in a magazine or newspaper), but hopefully writers can find new places to 'publish', which could mean video, podcasting or even blogging. It beats writing advertising copy. Perhaps I'm be

This week Google began Streetview which offered a peek at almost every home in Australia and scared the beejesus out of hundreds of homeowners. It was a massive mapping project that made the world feel even smaller. But some places got forgotten by Googlemaps, which is where the good folks at Strangemaps step in. They specialise in the cartographically kooky - maps that might not appear in an atlas but are worth hanging on to. My personal favourite is Absaroka . This small US state-that-almost-was carved out chunks of Wyoming, South Dakota and Montana that nobody would notice were missing and declared itself independent in 1939. It's a great tale of cowboy state-rustling that would have disappeared had it not been for the Federal Writers Project which recorded details about Absaroka number plates and a Miss Absaroka beauty contest. One local even propsed a guidebook of sorts. It would have made good fodder for Slate magazine's top 10 weirdest guidebooks , which gives the Mi

Is Beijing's famous art district Factory 798 overexposed or a shining light? A feature I did for Lonely Planet wanders through the art district puzzling over what happens when art goes mainstream. Plus one of my all-time favourite taxi drivers.

Big news and she'll be much missed.

Seems like a few of my fellow authors have been blogging on this same topic. The New Zealand Herald also published a few of my thoughts in an article , after not being able to get hold of me in person. Seems like the kerfuffle will continue for a while yet...

There's been a lot of kerfuffle about the release of a book called Do Traveller Writer's Go To Hell? I've received an advance copy of the book to review (where I'll look at how readable the book is for a general audience), but as a travel writer myself I've got a few thoughts. In case you haven't heard the author Thomas Kohnstamm purports to have been so badly paid by Lonely Planet while updating a guidebook for Brazil that he has to sell drugs to make ends meet. This is after spending the first couple of days partying in Rio to acclimatise. Ohhhhhkay, so you're strapped for cash but you spend the first couple of days partying? I've never had this kind of luxury on a job I've done for Lonely Planet. I think anyone who accepts a job where they the money isn't going to work out probably doesn't deserve the tag professional. If you've got a problem with the pay rate: don't do the job. It's amatuerish to take a gig, waste time and

The good folks at Lonely Planet have added this page with some of the digital stuff I did for them. Aren't they the sweetest? Will update other links later... While I'm talking up LP, the latest Australia guide has just come out. I was lucky enough to write the Around Melbourne chapter which involved a lot of sun-burnt elbow as I drove around Victoria. It's a great looking book - particularly the spooky pub shot which reminds me a little of Wolf Creek with its spooky locals prowling round inside the pub (actually they're the same person in a montage of several shots, but you'd have to look really closely to know).