I am back after 9 days in Georgia and a wonderful escape to the Blue Ridge Mountains in the northern region of the State. Thanks, Joshua Walker, for making it all so special and informative.
For someone who normally flies one million miles a year , and who has done that for decades now, this was a first: life in a rustic cabin, with splendid views of those Blue Ridge Mountains, breathing enviable pure air, admiring the tallest trees, hearing the singing of birds and watching the speedometer on Mario’s dashboard drop to its lowest levels in decades. Or, do I dare say, ever?
Joshua Walker was the perfect host to show me an area he knows well. Josh took great pride in explaining every detail that he knew my journalist’s eyes were capturing. We drove for miles, up and down the hills, sometimes hearing jazz, often admiring a creek that seemed to appear to say hello to a stranger like me. Soon, the creeks and springs that snake around the mountains were no longer strangers. Instead of the sound of sirens that I am so used to in New York City, I was amazed by the chin chin of chimes dancing in the wind. I saw wild flowers in their natural habitat. At one point, I told Josh that the world we had left behind seemed distant or non existent. Yes, I know. But it was a good, genuine thought and the feeling was as if the air we were breathing made it all seem amazingly special.
This photo below with Josh shows the smiles of mountain bliss.
I saw many Trump signs, and two of them with the name Pence crossed over and blacked out, the Veep who fell out of grace with some of these mountaineers.
I experienced peace that diplomats dream about and fight for during entire careers.
We enjoyed a bottle of Phelp’s Ovation champagne by the cabin’s fireplace while looking at the mountains. We talked about life, and I thought that perhaps a cabin in the mountain would have been the ideal set up when I was writing my new book, The Story.
Better yet, I told Josh that perhaps I would like to spend more time in a cabin in the mountain. Or, get one of my own?
Mountain Mario?
Friends in social media who know me in Armani and Boss suits were quite amused with my mountain image. I loved it. Flannel shirt, Eddie Bauer vest, hiking boots. Far from the skyscrapers, the airport lounges, the conference rooms and the busy streets of a hundred cities, but not missing any of it, enraptured by that tall pine tree reaching for the sky, or a bird flying freely from one branch to another, not a care in the world. Each cabin in this region has its own personality. Some have names like Maddie’s Heaven, and I have no doubt that this could be Maddie’s or anyone’s Nirvana.
I could write a book…..
So inspiring are these Blue Ridge Mountains that I kept telling Josh that this is the ideal setting for me to concentrate and to write an article or a book.
Thoughts kept coming into my head. No place is too isolated in the era of ZOOM and distant everything, making a sojourn in the mountains a real possibility.
What would I write about? The theme that resonates with me, perhaps because I spend each day discussing it in my workshops, is a thorough analysis of the major differences between the way we practice our craft for mobile consumption as opposed to print.
The mountain air clears the mind, works its way through channels that may be blocked and allows us to think in a more focused way.
Who knows? I may return to the mountains to give mobile and print more thought, while looking in the distance or admiring flowers in a variety of colors and birds for whom life is not anymore complicated today that it was at another time.
We saw a huge bird nest near the road where our cabin is. The life cycle continuing. For me, at 74, that happy feeling of knowing that discovery can take place at any age. Just magical.
Of interest
The local newspaper around the Blue Ridge Mountain region of Georgia is The News Observer, which can be found outside restaurants and at some corners of Main Street, a quaint bit of Americana, a salute to Norman Rockwell, full of interesting gift shops, art galleries, and a store, Three Sisters, where I stopped to buy homemade fudge to take my daughters for Easter. Take a look at the front page of the very local News Observer:
The News & Observer;
https://www.thenewsobserver.com/
Inquire about our mobile storytelling workshops!
Every week I bring my mobile storytelling workshop to a different newsroom around the world. I begin with a 90-minute presentation about the essentials of crafting/editing/designing stories for mobile consumption. Then I break the participants into groups and for two hours they produce a mobile story which they then present to the entire group for evaluation. It works all the time.
Another type of Garcia Media program is when we sign up for mobile storytelling coaching after completion of the first workshop. Once a week, or as planned, I work virtually with a team of reporters, editors, designers on actual stories that will be published as linear mobile stories. Let me know if you are interested in more information: mario@garciamedia.com
Professors: get your review version of The Story on time for fall classes
As an academic, I know the importance of having the right tools to advance our students, especially on the important subject of mobile storytelling. Please drop me an email if you would like to sample The Story in its digital edition: mario@garciamedia.com
Start writing or type / to choose a block
The full trilogy of The Story now available–3 books to guide you through a mobile first strategy. Whether you’re a reporter, editor, designer, publisher, corporate communicator, The Story is for you! https://amazon
TheMarioBlog post # 3292