Results tagged “Jerry Camarillo Dunn” from Intelligent Travel Blog

To compile his new book, My Favorite Place on Earth, Jerry Camarillo Dunn Jr., interviewed dozens of famous people -- from Natalie Portman to the Dalai Lama -- about the places they loved most. He's been guest-blogging about his experiences here on Intelligent Travel. Click here for recent posts.

What makes a place memorable? Often it's the people who live there, or did long ago: Think of Egypt, Mesa Verde, or Angkor Wat. It may even be a single person, as mind-body medicine pioneer Deepak Chopra discovered in Jerusalem. Here's part of his story from My Favorite Place on Earth:

"One day I walked down the Via Dolorosa, the street in the Old City where Jesus carried the cross. The stations of the cross are marked out, and I began my walk where he was sentenced, at Pontius Pilate's court. The second station is where Jesus was flagellated, the third where he fell and was helped up. And I ended at Calvary, the hill where he was crucified.

To compile his new book, My Favorite Place on Earth, Jerry Camarillo Dunn Jr., interviewed dozens of famous people -- from Natalie Portman to the Dalai Lama -- about the places they loved most. He'll be guest blogging about his experiences here for the next few weeks. Click here for recent posts.

A reader on this blog emailed me (jerry@myfavoriteplacenatgeo.com), saying he plans a celebrity-oriented project and asked what I'd learned from writing My Favorite Place on Earth. So here are some tips on how to recruit famous people to work with you

1) Don't send stock letters that are obviously going out to dozens of other celebrities: "Dear (your name goes here), I love your movies. Please take part in my book. Or please send me an autographed picture/your Academy Award statue/your first-born." For My Favorite Place on Earth I researched everyone I invited, so that in my request letter I could mention places they'd traveled, charities they support, activities they enjoy, and so on. I hoped this personalized approach showed my serious intent and my sincere interest in them- especially compared to a dashed-off, "Hey Generic Famous Person!" approach.

2) Have a worthwhile core question, and pose it in a way that will spark the person's interest and inspire him or her to get involved in your project.

3) Flattery is okay, as long as you really mean it. I'm sure celebrities (and their publicists) can smell insincerity and opportunism from ten miles away.

Today marks the release of the new National Geographic book My Favorite Place on Earth: Celebrated People Share Their Travel Discoveries, by Jerry Camarillo Dunn Jr., who also happens to have written for us here at National Geographic Traveler. Jerry had to pull a lot of strings to compile the book (see below) so we pulled some of our own to get the inside details about putting it all together. He'll be guest blogging about his experiences here for the next few weeks.

For My Favorite Place on Earth, I asked 75 famous people, ranging from the Dalai Lama to Will Ferrell, to talk about the one place they love more than anywhere else on the planet. Hearing the concept, my friends said, "Great idea!" Then they'd add, "I can't believe nobody's done it before!"

My (admittedly simple) idea grew out of a question people ask me when they find out I'm a travel writer: "You must have been everywhere. So what's your favorite place?" I decided to ask the same question of highly accomplished people, so readers could see some fascinating spots through their eyes.

But how exactly could I get famous folks to talk with me?

I sent out hundreds of letters to people I admire, explaining the book and asking them to be part of it. Sometimes success was sublimely easy. The phone would ring and a voice would say, "Natalie Portman would love to talk with you," or "Jerry, this is Jeff Foxworthy."