Autumn Years Winter 2023/24

In short order, Barbara established herself as a travel writer and is now the storyteller she always aspired to become. This post retirement career was all about fun; Barbara and Manos had no desire to build another business, hire staff and accountants or bother with sales and advertising.

Barbara and Manos in front of Stonehenge, England, 1991.

Barbara and Manos have also had their writings published by the New York Jew ish Guide, The Jewish Link, Nordic Reach, Epicurean Charlotte Food & Wine, Holi day, Vision Times , which targets the Asian community, The Epoch Times and Epoch Taste . “We’ve been blessed with a great life,” says Barbara. When you ask Barbara about her favorite travel destination, she quickly responds, “All of them! And I hope to go back.” And Manos? “As long as there is good food and good wine, I’m in!” Australia . . . here we come! a

Over the past ten years, Barbara has developed an impressive portfolio of Jewish heritage stories from press trips to Morocco, Malta, Hungary, Switzerland and Turkey among other locations. Barbara and Manos often travel with other journalists. On a recent Jewish heritage press trip, a much younger journalist told Barbara, “When I get to be your age, I want to do what you’re doing!” Barbara considers this “a wonderful compliment.” In addition to travel stories, Barbara has also written human interest stories,

outlines for about three to four stories. When she returns home, she does days and days of research to ensure everything she noted during the trip is accurate. Then she starts writing, enjoying the process of rewriting and revising or “tickling” her text as she says until she is satisfied or the deadline is reached, whichever comes first. Having learned a great deal from her photographer husband, she also takes her own photos when traveling without Manos. Manos has a different, visually oriented writing approach. He does his research before a trip and takes thousands of pictures during the trip, typically about 1,000 to 1,500 frames. When he returns home, he selects the best photos and contemplates the visuals stored in his memory. After he finds a hook for a story, he uses his photographs to guide his writing. When Manos took over LuxuryWeb Magazine , it had a substantial following of affluent, mature, well-traveled readers. As time passed, Barbara and Manos found many of their readers had retired or passed away, making sending them both on press trips less desirable to funding sources. So, they reached out to other publications that would additionally publish their stories to help maintain their credibility in the marketplace.

including a fascinating story about a Jewish Afghan woman who restored a Jewish cemetery in Herat, Afghanistan. Bar bara’s Jewish heritage stories have been published by the L.A. Jewish News and recently by the Jerusalem Post —the larg est publication in Israel—along with other prominent Jewish and non-Jewish publications. Barbara was honored as the first American journalist to receive the prestigious MTA Malta Tourism Press Award for her coverage of the island of Gozo, and she was the re cipient of the Writer of the Year award from the Tanza nian Tourist Board for her ex tensive coverage of Tanzania.

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WINTER 2023/24 I AUTUMN YEARS