I surprised my mother in the Dominican Republic last month. My co-conspirator/cousin drove me to her home. At first, my mother didn’t recognize me when I stepped into her house. But my facemask and sunglasses couldn’t fool her for long.

Nothing in this world makes me happier than seeing her happy, especially after the rough 18 months we’ve had. But the trip was bittersweet—I brought her my brother’s ashes in an urn. My brother was born in the Dominican Republic, and so he returned home one last time.

Last month we created

※ The Art of the Self-Publisher in the Age of Mass Production on my website
※ A podcast interview with Nick Hunt on Travel Writing World
※ A podcast interview with Charles Nicholl on Travel Writing World
※ An author profile of Bill Arnott on Travel Writing World
※ A list of Travel Writing Awards Competitions on Travel Writing World

👨‍🍳 Anthony Bourdain fans will be happy to know that Roadrunner , a documentary about the late chef, is coming on July 16.

📝 As I begin working on a new project, and after seeing William Dalrymple post a picture of his workstation on Instagram , I’m looking into the Zettelkasten Method of note-taking. Does anyone have any note-taking strategies?

🗺 Stanfords in London have an interactive world map , which you can use to browse a country-by-country selection of travel books, guidebooks, and map.

📚 Michael Kerr of Deskbound Traveller reports that the U.K. publisher John Murray will publish a new imprint of classic travel books called “Journeys” beginning in July.

👋 American Way , the in-flight magazine of American Airlines, is closing down with the June issue being its last.

🧳 Tim Hannigan speaks about his book The Travel Writing Tribe here (fast forward to around 2 hours, 47 minutes). He also came on my podcast last month, wrote about in The Irish Times , and appeared on the Monocle podcast.

🎧 Barnaby Rogerson of Eland Books speaks with Ryan Murdock about travel literature on the latter’s new podcast.

🇬🇧 Jess Vincent is accepting submissions for the inaugural The Best British Travel Writing anthology.