Patrick Smith at RolfPotts.com

This month at the RolfPotts.com Travel Writers page, I interview Patrick Smith, author of Ask the Pilot: Everything You Need to Know About Air Travel. Here are some of the highlights from our Q&A:

• “I’d never have traipsed off to sixty countries if I hadn’t fallen in love with aviation first, and if I rely on a single relentless tenet, it’s appraisal of the airplane as intrinsic to the journey. That’s lost on most people nowadays, but I try to encourage them to rediscover flying as part and parcel of the experience, and not just a means to an end.”
• “There’s that rather pungent moment the first time an editor eviscerates one of your stories prior to running it, or gives it a title you can’t stand. But for me, the most heartbreaking experience was selling the manuscript of my book, only to have the publisher neither market nor promote it. Then the big chains got hold of it, and stashed it into dusty corners of their stores next to books about kite-making and 19th century ballooning. It was supposed to be a book for airline passengers and frequent travelers, not a “flying” book for hobbyists, but nobody would listen.”
• “This might sound heretical, but I avoid travel books because they have a terrible habit of making me desperately want to go somewhere, and that isn’t always practical.”

Full Patrick Smith interview online here.