Hello, everyone! Today we have another in our series of interviews with NFT authors taking part in a historic first drop. I'm excited to chat to Laurie, who seems to have a truly interesting (crazy? lol) life, as she reveals in An Elephant Ate My Arm: More true stories from a curious traveler, which is now available as an NFT collectible.
Laurie McAndish
King writes about encountering the Minotaur in Greece, coming eye-to-eye with 20-foot-long
Australian earthworms, and an Ivy League astrophysicist’s explanation of how
flying saucers are powered—not your typical travel writing. That’s probably why
Kirkus Reviews hails her as “an
author with an eye for the quirky.” Her stories—insightful, inspiring, and
often quite funny—are always entertaining.
Laurie’s award-winning essays and photography have appeared in Smithsonian magazine, the San Francisco Chronicle, Travelers’ Tales’ The Best Women’s Travel Writing, Lonely Planet’s The Kindness of Strangers, and other magazines and literary anthologies. Her work earned a Lowell Thomas Gold Award, the international travel industry’s highest literary award. Laurie’s first two books are Lost, Kidnapped, Eaten Alive: True stories from a curious traveler and Your Crocodile has Arrived: More true stories from a curious traveler.
As an author of
humorous travel books, why did you select An
Elephant Ate My Arm: More true stories from a curious traveler for this
historic NFT offer?
First, because it’s so timely: We’ve been starved for travel—and the fun and
adventure that come along with it—during the pandemic. This collection provides
welcome relief with twenty-one true stories from around the world: You can pass
through the portal to the Uncanny Valley, visit the room that served as the
inspiration for the magic shop where Harry Potter bought his sorcery supplies,
search for the world’s first labyrinth, learn to tell a counterfeit shrunken
head from a real one, and plenty more…
Also, I got excited about the opportunity to offer readers extra content—in this case, a slideshow of beautiful and exotic butterfly photos from when I visited a “butterfly farm” in Costa Rica. I love that NFTs let me deliver a multimedia experience for readers. And An Elephant Ate My Arm is a new release, so the timing to make it available for this offer worked perfectly.
NFTs are relatively new and many don’t yet understand how they work. Why, therefore, enter what is essentially uncharted territory?
I’m an adventurer—at
least in my own mind. (You can tell that as soon as you read these stories
about searching for a three-eyed cannibal, tracking down a witch who is
sequestered in a glass bottle, walking on a man-eating lake, and taking some
photos I really shouldn’t have taken in
Libya.)
So participating in NFT books was an easy “Why not?” for me—another adventure! After doing a little research—including learning that Italy is now using NFTs to manage copyrights—I’m convinced that blockchain-based platforms are the wave of the future. No one knows quite where this technology will lead, but I do know that I want to be along for the ride.
These offerings are among the very first book NFTs—they’re leading the way for the industry—and therefore have the potential to appreciate significantly in value. So they’re a win-win-win-win: Great stories, bonus content, ability to resell, and potential to appreciate.
What’s next for you?
I have a day job
in the book publishing industry; also, I’ve already started my next book, the
fourth in the “Curious Traveler” series. It includes stories about swimming
with crocodiles in Australia, an unfortunate encounter with Kobe beef in Japan,
and tracking down remnants of the mysterious Pictish civilization in Scotland.
EJD: By the way, here’s a 2-minute video of Laurie reading an excerpt from one of her stories, “The Curious Case of the Witch in a Bottle and Other Illuminating Oddities”: https://youtu.be/Hjgl4nNFFHE
Thanks, Laurie, and may you go from strength to strength!
Laurie McAndish
King’s links:
·
NFT link
