Florida context · interviews · local color · original story angles
A Florida Writer for Travel Journalists, Bloggers and Creators
Florida rarely needs help becoming interesting. It occasionally needs help being explained.
I write about the state that exists between the attractions: the Publix lines, storm conversations, old towns, wildlife, family rituals, roadside surprises, local legends and people who make Florida worth defending even while we are making fun of it.
When the brochure version is not enough
Travel stories become useful when a place feels inhabited rather than assembled. Readers can find the operating hours. What they remember is the sentence that explains why people care, the local habit nobody thought to mention or the detail that makes a town different from the next exit.
I can help travel journalists, bloggers, newsletter writers, podcasters and destination creators understand that layer of Florida. Sometimes that means a quote. Sometimes it means background, a local introduction or an observation that sends the story in a better direction.
Podcasters and interviewers may also find these better questions for interviewing a humor writer useful before we talk.
I am not interested in replacing reporting with tourism-brochure language. The good material is usually more specific, more affectionate and considerably stranger.
I wrote more about that difference in What Travel Writers Miss When They Write About Florida.
Subjects I know from the inside
- DeLand, Volusia County and Central Florida
- Florida humor and regional identity
- Publix, food rituals and ordinary local culture
- Storms, wildlife and the confidence Florida gives people
- Independent businesses, bookstores, artists and community life
- Family travel and the stories people bring home
Ways I can contribute
- Interview commentary and attributable quotes
- Original Florida angles and cultural context
- Local introductions when permission and fit allow
- Background for podcasts, newsletters and reported features
- Guest essays or conversations with a clear editorial purpose
- Humor that adds character without turning people into props
Florida is more than a list of things to do
A good Florida story can begin at a major attraction, a small museum, a family restaurant, a wildlife center, a Main Street or a bookstore with six chairs and forty opinions. What matters is whether the writer stays long enough to notice how the place fits into the lives around it.
My Florida Stories and Humor collection is where I write about those connections. My new book, As Florida As It Gets, carries the same instinct through 55 pieces about the state and the people trying to live normally inside it.
Journalism is journalism. Consulting is consulting.
If you need an interview source, local context or a story conversation, say that. If you are a destination, attraction or hospitality business looking for marketing advice, say that instead. I do both kinds of work, but I do not blur them together and call it authenticity.
Travel writers do not need a hidden sales pitch. Businesses do not need to wonder whether an editorial conversation is quietly becoming a proposal. Clear purpose makes better work and fewer awkward follow-up emails.
One question worth asking
When did Florida become Florida for you?
Almost everyone who has spent real time here has an answer. It may involve weather, wildlife, a parking lot, a neighbor, a meal, a small act of generosity or a sentence no reasonable person could have prepared for. I am collecting those stories in The Moment Florida Became Florida.
If that question belongs in your article, podcast, video or newsletter, use it. If you want me in the conversation, I would be glad to hear what you are working on.
Tell me about the story
Send the publication or channel, the angle, the deadline and what you think I may be able to contribute. If I am not the right source, I will tell you plainly.