The Wandering Writer
essays about wandering, writing, and sometimes staying put, plus notes on the Paris years, by New York Times bestselling novelist Michelle Richmond
Welcome to The Wandering Writer. So much of my writing happens when I leave home. Something about walking unfamiliar streets, sleeping in an unfamiliar bed, seeing and tasting and smelling unfamiliar things, wakes me up, shakes me out of the creative slumber that too often accompanies routine. Wandering induces wondering, which is a beautiful state of being.
Because 2021 was a year of no travel, in the early posts I’ll be dipping into the past, particularly 2018 to early 2020, when my family traveled to 14 countries. (We were able to do this because we lived in Paris, a home base from which European travel is easy and inexpensive.) I’ll also be examining the way new places and experiences inform my writing and the work of writers I admire.
Years ago, I wrote a number of travel essays for Lonely Planet, the Travelers’ Tales anthologies, Telegraph, the Wall Street Journal, and other publications. Then I began concentrating on writing novels. As there was always a next book due to the publisher, I let my travel writing fall by the wayside, though I continued to keep journals when we traveled, just as a way to remember. When my family moved to Paris in 2018, I began blogging about expat life, with the intent of distilling daily life into short pieces that (I hope) convey the sometimes invigorating, often disorienting experience of being a stranger in a strange (and much romanticized) land.
I should mention that I’m not a digital nomad. I’m a home base kind of person! My husband and I moved to the Bay Area from New York City in 1999 and have been here ever since, with the exception of two and a half years in Paris. We live with our son in the house we bought 12 years ago, just before our son started Kindergarten. I love traveling, but I also love having a place to come home to.
I post an essay once a month, free to all subscribers.
I expect The Wandering Writer will evolve, just as we all evolve. It is a work-in-progress, an experiment, a deep dive into the places I’ve been and the places I still plan to go, an ode to the writing life. I hope it will also be an inspiration to you to write about where you’ve been and where you’re going, and to find a way to wander wherever you are.
If that sounds good to you, I hope you’ll subscribe.
Happy wandering!