Interview with Writer Jenn Miller

I first met fellow writer and travel aficionado Jenn Miller when we worked together at the Location Independent group of sites. Now, she’s written a book (with co-author Keri Wellman) about traveling with kids, titled Bottles to Backpacks: The Gypsy Mama’s Guide to Real Travel with Kids. I asked Jenn about the book and her writing.

Jenn, tell us a bit about yourself.

I was born into a nomadic family and have been traveling my whole life, but it wasn’t until four years ago that we sold our house and most of our stuff and hit the road full time. We’re on an open ended world tour with our kids for the purpose of combining education and adventure. I’m a freelance writer for the homeschool and travel markets and I enjoy inspiring and equipping others to live their dreams, with their kids.

What’s the book all about and why did you write it?

Bottles to Backpacks: The Gypsy Mama’s Guide to REAL Travel With Kids is a collaborative project with my friend, Keri Wellman. We’ve attempted to go beyond the usual “travel with kids” books that assume a short vacation, to a certain type of place, with a certain age group and answer the many “how” related questions about long term travel with kids. There’s a big difference between taking a two week resort vacation over spring break with two kids and setting off for a three month summer break adventure riding chicken buses in Central America, or seeing the great museums of Europe. Our book certainly applies to the first, but what we really aim to do is equip the families who dream of something bigger with their kids.

Whether you’re setting out with your first newborn on a two week trip to Grandma’s, or planning to take a year off to backpack with your school aged kids, or are preparing your teen for her first solo trip, this book will give you the “boots-on-the-ground” information you need to make that dream a reality.

Did you have any challenges when researching and writing this book? How did you overcome them?

There are always challenges with any collaborative project. Working between two continents across three time zones wasn’t always easy! Keri and I have the great benefit of having four children each as our “guinea pigs” and we’ve both traveled for a living for quite some time now. At the end of our book we’ve got a section in which lots of different parents weigh in on their travel secrets and experiences with their kids. One of the challenges was finding a diverse group of families and compiling their experiences in a way that we hope will be encouraging and helpful to other families of various sizes and travel backgrounds. The only real secret to overcoming the difficulties we encountered was taking our time. This book has been almost a year in the making. It was not a rush job. We didn’t want to just “get it out the door” to have done it. We have really worked at getting it right, making it thorough and providing the depth that is missing in so many of the travel guides on the market for families.

What’s your writing process?

That depends a lot on what I’m writing. In this case, we spent several months mapping the project and carefully working and reworking the contents of the book and the direction we wanted to take it. Keri and I write well together, so that part of the project was a lot of fun. We enjoyed waking up in the morning and seeing what the other person had uploaded during the night, since we were working on different continents! The editing, as always, was the hard part. We went through a very long editing process at the end, about three months worth, with several families acting as “the review board” for various drafts. The result is a very polished, thorough, easy to access compendium of information on all aspects of travel with babies through teenagers.

Who or what is your best source of inspiration or advice when writing?

There’s no one answer to that. I read widely and am continually studying the style and mechanics of the authors I admire (or those I don’t, particularly) to improve my own work. Most of the inspiration I find is in the world around me. I’m dedicated to living in each moment and absorbing the sensory experience of living, which I then attempt to translate into words. When I get stuck, I have several “editors” who will move me forward. They aren’t famous writers, they’re just folks who know me and who aren’t afraid to tell me the truth and get out the red pen when necessary. At least half of what I write is for no one but me. Writing is my therapy and a barometer of my mental health. When it ceases to be that, when I’m pushing to “produce” for someone or something else it ceases to be a living thing. The best advice I’ve been given about my writing is simply to keep writing. Sometimes pages and pages of “junk” has to be gotten through before the good stuff emerges.

Tell us one thing about yourself that you haven’t yet revealed in an interview.

Ha! Okay: I once jumped out of a cake at a bachelor party! It was a joke and our poor friend nearly died of relief when it was “just me”. That’s not something I’ve written about or something that has come up in an interview yet! I don’t know any other home schooling mothers of four who’ve done that. One of the things I like best about myself is that I’m often not what people expect I will be.

Have you started another book?

Not yet. I’ve got several ideas up my sleeve. We’d like to continue the Gypsy Mama concept and create a series of resources for families who want to travel together. I’ve got another idea that is completely outside the family and travel realms that is about how life is never what you expect and coming to grips with the reality that the fairytale doesn’t exist. I don’t know if I have the courage to write that one just yet. In the meantime, I’m writing for the blogs and magazines that I contribute to and working to balance the screen time which that requires with plenty of time in the real world with my four kids as we head to Asia this spring.

Anything to add?

Thanks so much for the opportunity to talk about my writing and the new book! I really appreciate you contributing to the compendium of travel advice from “real travelers” at the end of our book and sharing it with your readers.

To find out more about Bottles to Backpacks: The Gypsy Mama’s Guide to Real Travel with Kids, check out these product information pages.