This year's competition is certainly ending with a bang, not a whimper!!

With minutes to spare, author Matthew Dexter has entered what must be the last entry this year. It is a thought-provoking essay entitled My Feeble Cathedral. Many thanks for your support Matthew.

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Matthew Dexter is an American author living in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. His fiction has been published in hundreds of literary journals and dozens of anthologies. He writes abhorrent freelance pieces for exorbitant amounts of pesos to pay the bills while drinking cervezas in paradise with tourists. He is the author of the novel The Ritalin Orgy (Perpetual Motion Machine Publishing, 2013). His second novel, debut memoir, and story collection are forthcoming. 

And they thought it was all over .....

Here is a fabulous travel entry  from another newcomer to our competitions. This one has been submitted at the last minute by Sandra Walker and is entitled Boris and Me. Many thanks for getting involved Sandra. It's a great story.

Sandra Walker
 
Although born in the UK I spent most of my life in southern Africa – Rhodesia and Zimbabwe, with shorter stints in Malawi and South Africa. In 1984 my husband wanted to research his book set in ancient Greece, so off we went on bicycles bought in England and cycled to Greece and then, for good measure, carried on to Turkey to see ancient Troy. This story recounts part of that journey. We liked Greece so much that we eventually moved there, first as teachers of English, and then as writers for a Greek publisher of English course books. Now we are retired in England and trying to bring some kind of order to all the odd bits of writing I have done over the years.
 

Will this entry be the last of our 2017 Travel Story Competition?

It is fantastic to be able to welcome another newcomer to our travel writing contests, Rishita Dey from Kolkata in India. Thanks for taking part Rishita with your great story HOME COMING. 

Here is the second entry for today as our third annual travel story competition draws to a close.

This one is from a newcomer to our travel writing contests, Lisa Baker. This particular story is very close to my heart as it is set in Nepal and is entitled Another Everest. I hope you enjoy Lisa's entry as much as I have.

Lisa Baker

A lifelong avid traveler, Lisa Baker blew up her life about five years ago, intending to spend one year in Japan. Three more wandering years abroad were inadvertently tacked on, and somehow she went around the world twice, picking up a lovely husband along the way. She's settling back in to non-nomadic life as a psychologist in Florida, but can already feel the pull of life traveling abroad drawing her back.

Today is the last day for entries in the 2017 Travel Stories Competition and we already have three lined up for you.

The first one is from Patricia Steele. You may remember her March entry entitled Ambience of Paris. If you haven't read it then please catch up with that first before enjoying her latest travel story Flamenco Guitars and much, much more.

Patricia Steele

Patricia says, I'm a west coast girl that moved to the east coast and back again.  Twice. My imagination has always been etched in music, color and rose-colored glasses.  I've had crazy characters and stories banging and fluttering around in my head, dying to get out, since I was old enough to hold a pen.  I'm a fan of historical fiction filled with adventure and romance.  And I’m addicted to genealogy! My sense of humor runs a little rampant at times, I'm no stranger to laughter, and I love a good anticipation scene.  I am proud to state that The Girl Immigrant, the first novel in my Spanish Pearls Series, is being whisked off my shelves.   The second book in the series, Silván Leaves, is now available.  My next project is a memoir titled, Fairydust to Daffodils about my daughter and her fight with Cystic Fibrosis.

There is a lot more to find out about Patricia, so please check her author page:
www.patriciabbsteele.com

This is turning into an incredible closing month for entries in the 2017 Travel Stories Competition.  Our latest entrant is another newcomer to the travel writing contests, author Sue Clamp (aka Sue Navas). Her fabulous story is entitled The Reluctant Cyclist.

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Sue Clamp

Born in London to a Spanish mother and a father who was the son of Polish Jews, I was bound to be a traveller. All my life I have found myself visiting Europe, but only managed to cross the Atlantic to visit Brazil two years ago. At the age of 60, I re-purposed my life and retired. I had been a primary school teacher turned author of the Agnil's Worlds fantasy adventure book series for children. Just a little over two years ago, David bounced into my life, and we are now in the very privileged position of sharing our time between our home in a market town in Cambridgeshire, UK, and our other home in the heart of rural Andalucia, Spain.

With only two days remaining in the 2017 Travel Story Competition, it is fantastic to be able to welcome another newcomer, Debbie Patterson.

I hope you enjoy her entry OFF TO A GREAT START as much as I have.

With only 3 days to go in this year's travel story competition, we have another fantastic read for you. Jill Stoking treated us to THE HILLS ARE ALIVE WITH THE SOUND OF SCREAMING back in April (please check it out if you missed it). This time we travel back to her childhood with Jill's latest story A BRITISH SEASIDE HOLIDAY IN 1958.
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With only 4 days to go in this year's competition, it is great to be able to feature another travel story from Robyn Boswell. Back in March she entered her story entitled A Comedy of Errors in Kuranda (well worth catching up with if you haven't read it yet). Her latest contribution Corfu – Je t’Aime is another enchanting travel story that I am sure you will enjoy., 

Robyn Boswell 

I live in the beautiful far north of New Zealand surrounded by beaches and forests. My family have lived here since the earliest days of settlement in New Zealand.
 
I wanted to travel since I was six and my great aunt worked as a stewardess on cruise ships around the world. I’ve been lucky enough to spend 13 months travelling in Europe and the UK, 17 trips to the USA, 3 months camping in the Australian Outback and various trips through the South Pacific and Asia. A last I have time to travel again and am enjoying having the time to rediscover my own beautiful country and am looking forward to once again venturing further afield. I have chronicled my trips through scrapbooking and journal writing so my memories are always with me.
 
In 1975/76 three of my friends and I fulfilled a pact we had made at Teacher’s College and set out to explore the world. After several weeks sailing to Europe with a bunch of other young Kiwis and Aussies all off on the ‘Big OE” (Overseas experience) we set off for Europe with a busload of other young people to spend 9 weeks camping from London across Southern Europe to Turkey and back via Northern Europe.  Our adventures were many, our worries were few!
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As the 2017 Travel Story Competition slowly draws to a close, it is wonderful to be able to feature another newcomer to our travel writing contests. 

Sit back and enjoy this fabulous story from Cherie Magnus entitled CHRISTMAS MILAGRO IN MEXICO.

Cherie Magnus, born and raised in Los Angeles, was a dance research librarian in the L.A. Central Library and a dance critic for local newspapers before moving to France, Mexico, and finally Argentina in 2003. Many of her articles on dance, travel and international culture have been published in magazines, professional journals, and several anthologies. The author of two memoirs, The Church of Tango, and its prequel, Arabesque: Dancing on the Edge in Los Angeles, she returned to live in L.A. in 2014.