Turkish Muse

Telling a Different Story

In the past year, I've travelled to Istanbul countless times, cooked and baked some amazing food, drank Guiness in Ireland with my in-laws, spent a raucuous weekend in Bodrum with friends, visited London for the first time with my best friend, celebrated my 30th birthday in Paris, and on and on.

I wanted to tell you about it, all of it, and yet I didn't. I wasn't on hiatus from writing exactly, but on a long -- okay, very long -- hiatus from this blog, from this space, which I had been feeling for a long time no longer reflected the life I was leading.

The second reason I didn't write on the blog very much was because the last year has not been the easiest of my life, and I wasn't sure how much of myself I wanted to put out here. I wanted to hole up inside, bake brownies and pretend that nothing was wrong. But I couldn't bring myself to pretend that nothing was wrong here, to all of you, because I knew it wasn't true and somehow that didn't seem fair.

The problem was that I didn't know how to say what I wanted to say. A lot of what I wanted to say didn't seem to fit here, didn't fit in with previous stories and posts, and I was stymied by what I thought you all came here for and what you wanted to read. And so I didn't say anything.

To be honest, for a long time, that was liberating. To not consider every meal, every event, a story or a post or something I had to share. And since I figured you all came here for restaurant reviews and pithy stories about street cats, I figured I couldn't write about the pubs in Galway or birthday cocktails at Harry's New York Bar because....that's not what this space is supposed to be about.

But this morning I woke up and realized that in not writing anything, anything at all, that I am wasting this space as a forum for writing and thinking and musing and that I was throwing away five years of online living just because I didn't know what I wanted to say right here and right now.

And honestly, I still don't exactly know what I'm going to say here. This space I'm in now is fluid and flexible and a little bit confusing, but part of me is hoping that I'll figure a few things out here, on this blog, where I'll just write what I feel and what I want and the rest be damned.

 

Turkish Muse is on Facebook!

Yes, yes, I am slowly getting the hang of this "social media" thing. I joined Twitter the other day; did you know that? (My updates are on the sidebar to the right.) See, I'm getting there! I just have a hard time figuring all this stuff out, a harder time than most people, I think. If you haven't noticed, I am constantly -- sometimes several times in one day -- changing things on my blog's sidebar or updating pages, adding or deleting a picture here or there. (By the way, many of you will be happy to know, I put the archives back!)

But I finally did something I've been meaning to do. A few days ago I started a Turkish Muse Facebook group. The group provides a platform for members to post discussion threads, pictures, video, wall posts and links. I think it's a great way to grow the Turkish Muse community and allow you all to interact in other ways than the comments section below each post.

In fact, one group member, Jeffrey Bernard Wessel from Florida, has posted a question about his upcoming move to Tarsus. Isn't that an amazing opportunity?! If you have any advice for him, check out the group and let him know your thoughts!

Also, Marien Parsons has asked what the commonalities are between Turkey and Pennsylvania, so if you have any thoughts there, be sure to let us know! (Full disclosure: Marien is my step-mother.)

And, if you've always wanted to contribute to Turkish Muse -- and let's be honest, who hasn't?! -- (cough cough), send me your ideas for a guest post!

"3 Days in Istanbul" Published!

Whoo hoo! My article for Askmen.com, the online men's magazine, about how to spend 3 days in Istanbul was published today. Sweeeet!

 

The magazine is geared towards men, so I had to imagine myself a 24-year-old single male with lots of time and cash on his hands. As it is, I am a 26-year old married female with very little time and cash on my hands. It was kind of a stretch.

You can read the whole article here. (Yes, I know that the tagline on a Google search says "Turkey's gorgeous capital city is a favorite destination for world travelers in-the-know." I have emailed my editor to ask her to delete "capital city.")

This gives me LOTS of ideas for other "3 Days in Istanbul" type pieces for all different kinds of audiences, such as....

Single women
Couples
Families and child-friendly
Gay/lesbian
Architecture buffs
Historians
Backpackers on the cheap

The opportunities are endless, really. And thus her freelance career was under way!

Published!

Issue 2 of Everywhere Magazine just came out online and should be on newstands in a few weeks. It features none other than yours truly with a, may I say?, fabulous article on the Fatih Cami in Turkey. (I'm on page 86). You can check out the full pdf or wait until it hits your area bookstore.

If you've ever been to Copehagen or Miami and have some cool stories or photos to share, deadline is March 13!