Rory Nugent is a writer and an explorer. His work examines the deep shadows cast by traditions gone missing, or about to go missing. His findings have appeared in newspapers and magazines around the world, and in his three books: Down at the Docks; Drums Along the Congo: On the Trail of Mokele-Mbembe, the Last Living Dinosaur; and The Search for the Pink-Headed Duck: A Journey into the Himalayas and Down the Brahmaputra.
How did you get started traveling?
I’m a sucker for water. Big bodies. Small ones. Fresh. Salty. Narrow. Wide. They all draw out the poisons and focus attention on important stuff: wind, sky, nature’s bounty. The relationship, I’m told, began at age three months, when I went on my first voyage, stowed in a picnic basket tied to a sailboat mast, my Dad at the helm. He said I gurgled the entire time. Later, after college, I shipped out aboard freighters and sailboats.
How did you get started writing?
Like most hacks, I began writing in college. That’s also when I started editing copy. My first paying gigs were for newspapers published by labor unions.
What do you consider your first “break” as a writer?
To me, a break somehow involves luck, and all I recall is a slog involving lots of work and dues-paying. But, boy-oh-boy, let me tell-ya, I sure remember the rush that accompanied a phone call from a book editor wanting to buy my first book.
As a traveler and fact/story gatherer, what is your biggest challenge on the road?
Being a big, dopey white male and unloading all the freight that comes with being a big, dopey white male. Plus, I’m bald.
What is your biggest challenge in the research and writing process?
In a word, money. It’s a good chunk of the reason why I ended up writing so much for rock-n-roll magazines. They paid top dollar, which, in turn, allowed for more of pretty much everything useful to a foreign correspondent. More time in the library and better research opportunities. More time in the field. More notes and observations. More stuff to use in the scribbling process.
What is your biggest challenge from a business standpoint?
Finding an agent that engenders a love-love relationship and doing what it takes to maintain the affair. Many magazine editors and almost all book editors will only read pitches sent their way from agents. Rarely, and for good reason, does any editor wade through the stuff coming in over the transom
Have you ever done other work to make ends meet?
You bet. In fact, for most years of my life as a scribbler, I’ve been able to eat and pay the rent only because of additional income from wielding a hammer and nails, or by borrowing dough from my girlfriend. If you’re a freelancer, dry spells come with the territory and it’s best to be a rainmaker in some other biz.
What travel authors or books might you recommend and/or have influenced you?
Conrad blew me away as a teacher of tone and how to go deep, the art of reflection. And, I should say, the author he considered his teacher, James Fenimore Cooper, also knocked me out as a storyteller; as well, Cooper offered tips in crafting a narrative that is uniquely American. Joe Mitchell also taught me plenty, specifically how to ratchet up travel writing so it also qualifies as sociology. And the list goes on and on, though special mention goes out to works by Mary Kingsley, Alexandra David Neel, Thesiger, Homer, Gide, and Camus.
What advice and/or warnings would you give to someone who is considering going into travel writing?
If you’re not on staff somewhere, you’re going to have to accept being broke a lot of the time. Meanwhile, rely on some other skill to keep at least vapor in the tank. Eventually, one hopes, you hit big and get to do something that eludes most writers: maintain a savings account.
What is the biggest reward of life as a travel writer?
Big-shots and small fries in the scribbling business all share the rush of endorphins that comes out of seeing someone on a bus or on the subway or somewhere public with their eyes pegged to work you authored. Seamus Heaney once told me that something magical happened to him the day he was in a library and overheard a young woman talking to the librarian at the desk:
Young woman: “I’m desperate to find a book by this guy Seamus Heaney. A friend quoted me something he wrote and I really want more of it.”
Librarian: “He published numerous books. We have them all.”
Young woman: “Great. I’ll take them all. Or as many as you’ll let me take home.”
Afterward, Seamus said, he walked home on air.
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