My 9,000 word city guide to Santa Fe for AOL Travel covered Santa Fe hotels, restaurants, attractions, shopping, nightlife, history, neighborhoods, and transportation, plus recommended itineraries for stays from one day to a week.
Read sections at these links, from the July 2010 AOL Travel City Guide:
→ Best things to do in Santa Fe
→ Santa Fe: Getting there and transportation
Urban Farm Road Trip: Albuquerque
by Tania Casselle for Urban Farm magazine
This Southwestern city draws on its agricultural roots and pioneer spirit to create a sustainable oasis in the desert.
As the largest city in New Mexico, Albuquerque has its fair share of strip malls and high tech industries, but it also enjoys a long history of families farming to sustain themselves. New visitors to the high desert often expect a barren landscape studded with cacti, and are pleasantly surprised by Albuquerque’s lush green band of bosque cottonwood forest snaking along the banks of the Rio Grande river. But while there are definite challenges in the more-than-a-mile-high city’s arid climate, today’s urban farmers in the Duke City continue the tradition of self-sufficiency.
My feature for Urban Farm magazine (Jan/Feb 2012) describes a thriving culture of backyard growing, beekeeping, backyard chickens, and community gardening, and the many organizations, festivals, and events for locals to tap into for support with their urban farming efforts.
The Ice Cream Bar, San Francisco
A Boost for Botanicals
by Tania Casselle
A swallow of sassafras, a nibble of nettles, or a thirst for thistles? No, these aren’t requests on your doctor’s prescription, but some of the things you could be having in restaurants these days. Botanicals are hot on menus.
Chamomile crème brûlée and herbed ricotta dumplings with nettles have graced the menu daily at Poppy in Seattle. Chef Jerry Traunfeld, who’s also the author of books including The Herbal Kitchen, says he uses botanicals like these because they’re delicious. Health benefits are simply a plus.
→ Full Clip at Rmgt Restaurant Management and FSR Magazine
What’s New in Taos: Traditions with a Twist
by Tania Casselle for New Mexico Magazine
A small town with a big mountain—and a personality to match—Taos always offers something out of the ordinary. Let’s see what’s cookin’.
Read What’s New in Taos in full, online at New Mexico Magazine, March 2012.
Duke City Family Fun
Dinosaurs, snakes, sharks, amusement park thrills… this summer’s pick of kid-friendly Albuquerque destinations to help your family keep their cool, keep your bank account chilled out, and leave your brood thoroughly exhausted… I mean, entertained.
Read the full Duke City Family Fun feature on attractions and activities for kids at Local Flavor magazine, June 2010.
Moor Flavor
I’m sitting on the patio of the new El Meze restaurant in a historic hacienda under Taos Mountain. It’s sunset, the atmosphere is as mellow as my glass of Rioja. Waiters hush past carrying bowls of fried green olives stuffed with Spanish blue cheese, and steaming sopa verde piled high with mussels. Then chef Frederick Muller swings out of the kitchen, looking Matador sharp in his black chef coat, and shares a few words with each table. All I can say is: Welcome back Fred. It was worth waiting seven years for this.
Read the full PDF feature on El Meze and Chef Frederick Muller, formerly of Taos’ legendary Fred’s Place, and the Moorish influence on New Mexico’s cuisine. For Local Flavor magazine.
This article won the New Mexico Press Women’s Award 2009 for Food Writing.
What’s Around the Next Bend?
Fishing the Southwest with fly fisherman Taylor Streit, a Legendary Guide in the Fresh Water Fishing Hall of Fame.
“I always liked to fish, Streit says. “It’s a good way to get out of the house. The American male, at least in the generation I came from, is not licensed to go outside without some sort of instrument in your hands. You can’t just be a nature boy. You’ve gotta have a gun or a fishing rod.”
Full story at Local Flavor. This profile won the New Mexico Press Women’s 2011 Award for a Personality Profile.
Book Review by Tania Casselle of Best of the West 2009: New Stories from the Wide Side of the Missouri. Edited by James Thomas and D. Seth Horton
This impressive anthology showcases 18 stories from emerging writers and literary stars, selected from publications as diverse as The New Yorker and Hayden’s Ferry Review. Part of the pleasure in reading it arises from reflecting on what “The West” really means. What characterizes a Western story, beyond simply being set in the vast and varied lands west of the Missouri River?
Read the full book review at High Country News.
Smart Homes cover feature by Tania Casselle for Mix Future Interiors.
“Please pick up a pint of milk on your way home.” It’s not a text message from your partner, it’s from your fridge. As you step in the front door, your favorite music plays. The blinds sweep closed, the lights are low, except for the lights leading a path to the bedroom.
The house is at the temperature you like, and in the background you hear the bath filling. It’s still nothing to do with your partner; the romantic mood is set by your house, anticipating your every desire. The only thing your home can’t do is undress you and tuck you into bed. But give it time.
Smart homes, intelligent homes, digital homes, automated homes… there’s no single term for it yet, but we’re talking buildings with brains. Read the full feature in 628 KB PDF.
For Novel & Short Story Writer’s Market 2012 (Writer’s Digest Books) by Tania Casselle.
If you’re reading this book, you are no doubt all fired up to submit your fiction to the many great literary journals featured here, or to hit ‘send’ on queries for your novel. May the writing gods smile on you to receive an acceptance first time out, but if you’re in the writing game for any amount of time, sooner or later you’ll receive a heart-sinking “Sorry, this isn’t for us.”
As you rip up the letter and kick the nearest object that won’t kick back, THIS is the time to remember the real secret to publishing success: Only one thing differentiates between decent writers who are published, and decent writers who are not published, and that is perseverance. You can’t send one story to one journal and, if it’s rejected, throw your hands in the air and stop submitting. Well, you can of course, but then you’ll join the long line of other decent but unpublished writers who did the same thing. And to persevere on the writer’s path, you need to be able to handle rejection.
2,500 word chapter on how to deal with the dreaded rejection slip includes insights from an editor, a novelist, and a short fiction writer.
