Eric Weiner at RolfPotts.com

This month at the RolfPotts.com Travel Writers page, I interview Eric Weiner, author of The Geography of Bliss: One Grump’s Search for the Happiest Places in the World. Weiner has reported from more than 30 countries for National Public Radio, and his commentary has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Slate and The New Republic, among other publications.

Here are some outtakes from our interview:

• “As a travel writer, everything is material. So, for me, the challenge is to know when I can safely say, ‘I have enough raw material. It’s time to write.'”
• “Getting those first few words onto paper is always the hardest part, Once I get past that hurdle, everything flows. (Okay, “flow” is as overstatement, but you get the idea.)”
• “I followed that old adage — write about what you know. My first job out of college was with Flying magazine. It was a great chance to hone my writing skills and see a bit of the world, too. Of course, there were other gigs down the road, but it was that spunky aviation magazine that launched my career.”
• “Don’t listen to the naysayers! There’s a lot of negativity out there these days, with people predicting the demise of travel writing and even journalism. The field is definitely changing but I believe there will always be a need for people who write about places and write about them well.”

Full Eric Weiner interview online here.