Vivian Swift, author Q & A

I was so taken with my recent read, When Wanderers Cease to Roam, that not only did I post a review of it the other day, I also sent an email to the author, Vivian Swift, asking her some questions.

She wrote back, and this is what she had to say:

A lot of people seem to think that traveling and staying home are the opposite of each other. What do you think?

Traveling and staying home are actually the same activity, they are just two different points on the Being Alive Continuum.

Anyone can use time-tested travel tips in their own backyard. For instance, think of all the places in the world that are famous for their sun sets: The Pyramids, the Taj Mahal, Bali, Key West...

The sun that glows with such romance in those exotic locales is the same sun that sets in your own home town.

So go find it: go find the best place in your neighborhood to see a good sun set. Your search, I bet, will take you down streets and into corners of your town that you never would otherwise have explored.

And when you find your very own sun set place, and you take in the way your familiar ground is transformed by this wonderful time of day, part of you will be watching and experiencing the sun set in the Taj Mahal, the Pyramids, or Bali.

In Mark Twain's day, Sweden had the reputation for having the best sun sets in the world. And Mark Twain, himself quite a world traveler, said that Swedish sun sets, like happiness, are every where; but most people are looking the other way.

Don't miss out on the Swedish sun set in your own little world.

Have you gone out and found your very own sun set spot close to home?

I've discovered that the best place to see a sun set is in the parking lot of my local grocery store.

As I'm standing there in the glorious sun-downer display, part of me is breathing the salty air of my own special foreign sun set place . . . on the sea wall in the town of Saint Malo in Brittany, France, for example.

This is the closest I have come to having a transcendental experience.

Travelers have itchy feet. Have you really "ceased to roam" ?

Oh certainly. These days, I never leave home for more than three weeks at a time, maybe once or twice a year. I'm much more interested in processing the data I've collected from having lived on Earth for 53 years.


The traveling I do now if to pursue lines of inquiry I have about "unfinished business": personal and family history and mythology.

In the past five years I've been to Scotland and New Orleans repeatedly. I am always inspired and exhilarated, but I'm always glad to get home.

Is there another book in you?

I'm working on another one. I call it "Travel Tips for Staying Put." It's an illustrated guide for adventuresome homebodies.

Consider this: Emily Dickinson never left her house. Traveling your soul. Now that's the value of staying home.


Images (c) Vivian Swift from the book When Wanderers Cease to Roam.

When Wanderers Cease to Roam

It's been a dreary February here in Minnesota. Unusual rain has washed away the snow leaving everything ugly and gray. I've taken to curling up with hot tea and a book to pass the gloomy hours.

The book I've been reading fits my mood exactly. It's called When Wanderers Cease to Roam: A Traveler's Journal of Staying Put.

It's a travel memoir. It's coffee table book. It's like nothing I've ever seen.

The entire book, all 197 pages, was hand written by the author, Vivian Swift.

Not only did she hand write every single word in the book, she also illustrated it extensively with watercolors and pen.

After 20 years traveling the world as a backpacker, a Peace Corp volunteer and a professional, she decided to find a small spot in a small town and make herself a home.

This book is basically a scrap book her travel memories. It becomes apparent that Swift is a fantastic hoarder of stories, trinkets and travel scraps as she fills pages upon pages with intricate drawings of the places she's been and the things she's collected.

I especially liked a reoccurring series in the book. Swift picks a theme -- say tea -- and then writes five one-paragraph stories involving tea that happened to her in five different countries. It was a writing idea I think I'm going to try.

Once I'd finished the book, there was a page in particular that stuck out at me: page 21. It probably rang such a bell as it talked about the dullness of February, which it now is, and the desire to plan a trip, which I currently feel.

Anyway, this is the passage that stuck out at me:

"February used to be the month I paid the least attention to,
except as inspiration to plan a long road trip as far away as
possible. Now that I've acquired the habit of staying put,
February is the month that keeps me closest to home, feasting
on the memories of travel . . . "

Photos - close up shots of inside pages from When Wanderers Cease to Roam by Vivian Swift