Southeastern Literary Tourism Initiative

Interview With Patrick Brian Miller

What is Literary Tourism?
Tourism that grows up around the settings and inspirations of literature. This is a way for fans to "step into the story" and discover a physical connection to the work they love. The homes and haunts of famous writers, such as Faulkner and Fitzgerald, also tend to generate lots of tourism. Has it worked before? John Berendt's Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil has a sustained, significant impact on Savannah's tourism industry that is still felt today.

Who came up with the idea of the Southeastern Literary Tourism Initiative?
One of my short stories, "The Last Confession," was inspired by Cahawba, Alabama. That story was published in an anthology called Southern Gothic Shorts by PJM Publishing, which also included the non-tourism work of nine other short fiction writers. I wrote a travel guide for the story with internet links and suggested that the publisher put the tourism guide online at his website. He did, and it worked so well, I decided: why not keep doing this with lots of towns and stories? But the new version, SELTI, is entirely online so it can move faster.

What do you hope to accomplish through your short stories?
I hope to build a "team" of writers around the Southeast to introduce fans everywhere to unique and intriguing places to travel through the inspirations of literature. My partner, Patricia Neely-Dorsey, has worked to improve the site tremendously, and I couldn't do this without her help. SELTI is not a venue for just my stories; I want lots of submissions from different places and different writers. How much fun would it be for literary fans to actually go visit the places that they read about? This project will link together so many places and states, offering fans new inspirations every couple of weeks or so.

How would someone become involved in the Southeastern Literary Tourism Initiative?
Writers can submit short works through email at literarytourism@aol.com.
Fans can join SELTI simply by clicking on the Follow link in the top left. They will be prompted to create a username and password for a free Google account. The whole process takes about a minute at most. Then, whenever they log into Blogger, they can see updates on all their favorite blogs and post comments under their username. I follow many other Blogs myself in this way.

How and when did you begin writing?
Writing has always been a passion for me. I remember writing stories when I was seven, long before the internet. I also worked as an editor and writer for my college newspaper.

What advice do you give someone interested in becoming a writer?
Read the classics; there's a reason they're still in print. Do not write simply for your own entertainment; try to always keep in mind that you're writing for others (even if no one is reading your work). In other words, never assume that others see the story in their head just like you do. Don't allow the story to be much better in your head than it actually is on paper (or on the monitor). Listen to constructive advice, but know that you can never satisfy everyone.

Ohme, this lens is such a wonderful introduction to SELTI that I have put a link to it on SELTI's main page. With any luck, that will also lead more people to read the short story there "Ohme" and further promote your wonderful town of Pendleton, SC. Squidoo fans: you have a very active and interesting writing community. Ohme introduced me to Squidoo, and I have been a fan ever since.