Thanks for joining me at the redesigned byellen.com site. This site is the central repository of my writing, photography, and travel adventures, and thanks to this new design and software I'll be able to keep it updated throughout the year. I'll be starting regular updates in November, once I return from my impending trip to Tibet and China (I'm leaving this morning!).
In the meantime, a few words about me. For those of you who are visiting byellen.com for the first time, I'm a travel writer, photographer, and adventurer living in New York City. A bit about each of those:
My Writing
I'm the author of four books: Relocating to New York City and Surrounding Areas, Writer's & Illustrator's Guide to Children's Book Publishers and Agents (2nd Edition), New York City with Kids (2nd Edition), and Shopping the North Carolina Furniture Outlets. You may click on the book images to your right for more information about or to purchase any of them. I also write magazine, newspaper, and online articles about destinations near and far.
A travel fanatic since childhood, when I saved my babysitting money for my first overseas trips, I've journeyed to the four corners of the globe in search of unusual destinations and unique travel experiences. I've written for major national travel publications about, among other things, wineries in South Africa, New Zealand, and British Columbia; trekking in the Nepal Himalayas; Michelin three-star dining in Europe; climbing Mount Kilimanjaro; SCUBA diving all over the world; journeying overland through Africa; archaeological digs in the Middle East; Southeast Asian cuisine and culture; cooperative camping in Alaska; and solo dining and travel for women.
My original career was in book publishing, as a marketing manager. In 1997, no longer satisfied with selling other people's writing, I took the plunge and began my own career as a travel writer, slogging it out from home, sending query after query and receiving rejection after rejection. Somewhere along the way I submitted an article about my travels in Africa to Arthur Frommer, Editor in Chief of the then fledgling magazine Arthur Frommer's Budget Travel. In one fell swoop my piece was accepted and I was hired as an Editor.
By the time I left Frommer's I had gained the title of Senior Editor and had lived the ups and downs of the magazine industry and endured the grueling hours of working at a startup publication. After interviewing around a bit, I decided I was ready to give the freelance life a shot. My husband (litigation attorney cum freelance food writer) and I packed up our car and spent the next two months and 11,000 miles driving around and exploring the United States, he writing and updating his Web site from Motel 6 dialup connections and I writing and e-mailing newsletter updates.
It wasn't long after our return that I received a fateful e-mail from the Publisher and owner of Prima Publishing. We began a correspondence and I was hired to write my first book: Relocating to New York City and Surrounding Areas. Two other books with Prima followed: Writer's & Illustrator's Guide to Children's Book Publishers and Agents (my other passion, in addition to travel, is children's books) and New York City with Kids, and the two respective second editions followed. My fourth book, Shopping the North Carolina Furniture Outlets, was published by a Random House imprint, Three Rivers Press. During this time I also wrote "Off the Beaten Path," a weekly column for Condé Nast's Concierge.com, hosted the travel discussion forums for the New York Times on the Web, and wrote travel articles for Frommer's.
I am currently the host of the Adventures in Eating discussion forums at eGullet.org and continue to write books and articles about all things travel.
My Photography and Exhibits
I began my photography career as a teen shooting parties. Currently, I concentrate on cultural portraiture, mostly in Nepal and elsewhere in Asia (Mongolia, Tibet, China). My passion is photographing people in their local environments and capturing them as they go about their daily lives. I also photograph nature and natural environments ranging from Mt. Everest and some of her siblings to flowers in bloom and yaks bearing their burdens. I also enjoy food photojournalism: chefs and kitchens in action, plated food/still life, artisinal farmers/cheesemakers/bakers, street food and vendors familiar and foreign, etc.
In addition to being the photographer for all three of my travel books, my photographs have appeared in, amongst others, full spreads in Arthur Frommer's Budget Travel, the publications of the CanWest Global media conglomerate in Canada (my photographs have been published in as many as 10 newspapers at once -- including the Montreal Gazette and the Vancouver Sun -- weekly for a seven week series), and photo essays on eGullet.org (accompanying my articles and Weblogs) where I'm also the general site photographer and provide stock photography for the organization.
I've given talks and slide shows around New York City and the United States, in both commercial and educational settings. My most recent slide presentation and photo exhibit was at the Telluride MountainFilm festival on tour in Northwest Florida. I've spoken at several schools as well as for the American Youth Hostel organization. I do accept requests for slide presentations and photo exhibit displays about Nepal and the Himalayas, as well as about being a travel writer and photographer. I'm located in New York City but can travel with sufficient advance notice.
My "Faces of Nepal" photo collection is available via the link at the right-hand side of this page. I'll be adding more of my photo collections over time.
My Adventures
I lead a 10 to 18-day trek in the Nepal Himalayas most every October. This trip is open to enthusiastic, low-maintenance, independent-minded, physically fit travelers with a maximum of 12 participants (and often fewer). I do not advertise these trips: they are strictly a word-of-mouth endeavor, so if you know of people who might be interested feel free to direct them to my Web site. I prefer to lead groups this way, so that only those who are truly interested in experiencing Nepal up close and personal make their way to me. This makes for enthusiastic, well prepared trekkers, small cohesive groups, and the experience of a lifetime. Early booking is encouraged in order to secure airline reservations (flights to Nepal for October are regularly sold out by the end of March), so please inquire early if you're interested in doing a trek.
I also regularly co-lead, in May, a Sierra Club trip in the Rogue River Valley in Oregon with my long-time hiking buddy Jim Jackson, who is a senior Sierra Club trip organizer and leader. It's a lodge-to-lodge hiking trip over relatively easy terrain and, for a hiking trip, is relatively luxurious and user-friendly. You can visit the Sierra Club's information page on this trip for more details. The food at the various lodges is quite enjoyable as well, and has been the subject of one of my photo essays on eGullet.
I can also, upon request, accommodate small groups on trips in Mongolia, China, and Tibet. These are more informal arrangements and subject to a number of variables.
In addition to being an avid trekker, I run in the occasional marathon (I've done New York three times as well as Vancouver). A former NCAA swimmer who still swims almost every day when I'm not traveling, I feel almost more at home in water than on land and am a PADI SCUBA Divemaster.
