Travel Writing

Maxine’s award-winning travel essays have appeared in numerous publications including The San Francisco Chronicle, The Los Angeles Times, The Christian Science Monitor, Traveler’s Tales, Salon.com, Insight Guides Bradt Guides and World Nomads. A two-time winner of the prestigious Lowell Thomas Award, she has delighted readers for years with her entertaining, insightful essays. Now, all the tales of her unusual round-the-world honeymoon are gathered and revised in Places in Time in one newly-revised, illustrated volume.

Deeply human and culturally insightful, the narrative celebrates curiosity and the profound lessons learned when we step beyond the familiar.

Places in Time

An unusual and wild honeymoon camping in the center of Paris, dangling off a Panamanian tramp steamer, and hitchhiking across Australia, coupled with mid-life wisdom creates a delicious story of adventure, humor and tenderness.

Awards: Best Travel Book of the Year by the North American Travel Journalists Association
Best Travel Book of the Year by the Western Region of the Society of American Travel Writers
Finalist 2024 IAN Book of the Year Award
Legacy Book Press 2023
ISBN-13: 978-1737592679

Punch your ticket and enjoy the trip with Schur in the heartfelt and funny essays collected here, which tell the story of her journeys—both literal and figurative—through adulthood and around the world. Schur faces dangers, and continually make discoveries, with courage, luck, and an infectious zest for life. Throughout, Schur captures each new milieu in striking detail: Readers will marvel at the couple’s resourcefulness—whether securing passage on a ship or recruiting new friends to construct a home in their van—and ability to connect with key figures in every region of the globe.
— Publisher’s Weekly, Book Life

The author’s obsession with not merely observing but slipping into the fold of other cultures distinguishes the collection of essays based on her 18-month around-the-world honeymoon. She could have told a rollicking good story had she written about it immediately after returning home, but by steeping in real life for years, the tales take on a transformative power. She writes with so much humor, suspense and wisdom. This is what travel memoirs should be, and so seldom are.San Francisco Chronicle

Look for Maxine’s essays in these travel anthologies: 

Maxine in Lingshui, China
Clay whistle seller, Hoi An, Vietnam
Schoolgirl in Tonle Sap-Floating Village, Cambodia
View from Wicklow Mountains, Ireland
Chor Minor, Bukhara
Chorsu Bazaar, Tashkent
Cafe on Pierre-Loti Hill, Istanbul
Gothic quarter, Barcelona
The Registan, Samarkand, Uzbekistan
Sulemenye Mosque, Istanbul
Embroidering a suzani, Samarkand, Uzbekistan
Woman bringing offering for the New Moon, Tirta Empul, Bali
Tirta Empul, Bali
Le Train Bleu-Paris
Street in Roussillion, France
Bringing grandson to first day of Gamelan Class, Ubud, Bali
Geisha close up
Flower Seller, Hanoi Vietnam
Street in Guanajuato, Mexico
Glendalough Valley, Ireland
Life-size chocolate shoes in MIlan, Italy
St. Catherine statue, Verona, Italy
P:ainting the horses’ hooves, at the Heriatge, St. Petersbug, Russia
San Miguel, Mexico
Camel Driver in Eastern Iran
Warm persimmon cake, Muslim market, Xian, China
The sculptor, Benito Ortega, Todos Santos, Mexico
Halong Bay, Vietnam
Whirling Dervishes, Istanbul
Shofirkan village, Uzbekistan
Women on park bench, Tashkent, Uzbekistan
In Balat with Turkish friend
Balat neighborhood, Istanbul
Samani Mausoleum, Bukhara
Student, Ubud, Bali
Banana seller at Tirta Empul, Bali
Wedding couple, Khiva, Uzbekistan
Old synagogue, Bukara, Uzbekistan
Basket seller, Mexico City
Monk, Angkor Wat, Cambodia
Ubud, Bali
Ubud, Bali
\Women at Zuidersee, Holland
Shop in the Marais, Paris
Pingyao, China
Ca Tru singer, Hanoi, Vietnam
Dan Da player Hanoi, Vietnam
Street vendor, Guanajuato, Mexico
Marachis taking a break, Guanajuato
Legong Dancer in Peliatan, Bali
Silversmith’s Temple Ca Tru Concert-Hanoi, Vietnam
Family-Rajastan, India
Girl at Summer Palace, Beijing, China
The Last Supper, Muserum of Modern Art, St. Petersburg, Russia
Painting the horse’s hoove, The Hermitage, St. Petersburg, Russia
Dresses for sale at Chorsu Bazaar, Tashkent
City wall, Bukhara

Kaylon minaret, Bukhara
The Registan, Samarkand, Uzbekistan
Sulemenye Mosque, Istanbul
Paklahvan Mahmud Mausoleum, Khiva
Lantern shop, Taipei, Taiwan
Boutique in old bakery, the Marais, Paris
Guatemala
Flower seller, Hanoi
Cheese shop, Delft, The Netherlands
Maxine at Place Massena, Nice
Maxine with Torii Gate
Miyajama, Japan
Miyajama, Japan
Lake Tonal Sap, Cambodia
Lake Tonal Sap, Cambodia
In Lingshu
Banteay Srei, , Cambodia
The Kissing Alley, Guanajuato, Mexico

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