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About Tom Bentley

http://www.tombentley.com

I'm a published journalist and essayist (hundreds of articles), and the author of a short story collection, Flowering and Other Stories, published last spring by AuthorMike Ink. My 1999 short story, "All That Glitters," won the National Steinbeck Center’s short story contest. I have won many other nonfiction and fiction awards and contests.

My new book, "Think Like a Writer: How to Write the Stories You See" helps to discover and develop your writing voice.

I live in Watsonville, California and love to write. Except when I hate to write.

Hands-on Ecuadorian Artisans Are Hands-Down Amazing

August 18, 2020 by Tom Bentley2 Comments

Photo by Alice Bourget [Note: this piece was written in pre-pandemic days, first accepted by the LA Times, but had a couple of long publication delays. And then the pandemic arrived. Ecuador was hit hard. Milton’s tours, listed at the end, are suspended. Here’s to travel to come!] When I was around 10, I tagged along to my brother’s Boy Scout meeting, where one activity was making art projects. Given instruction, I sprayed a clothespin with … [Read more...]

Filed Under: South America · Tagged: America, Andes, Art, Bus Travel, Coffee, Drinking, Ecuador, Fashion, Festival, Japan, Music, Palm Trees, Seafood, Shopping Mall, South America, Spain, Taxi, Village, Walking tour, Wildlife

The Things You Carry, the Things You Leave Behind

July 7, 2019 by Tom Bentley7 Comments

When I was 16, I hitchhiked with my older brother from Los Angeles to Vancouver. Being lean and hungry types, we knew we needed fortification for the long journey. So it made perfect sense that we’d load our backpacks—already substantial, with their sturdy wood and metal frames—with canned foods of every type. Chili, fruit cocktail, soup. That one of the laden backpacks now weighed about as much as a sports car wasn’t that daunting until a day or … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Other · Tagged: Airport, America, Andes, Bahamas, Drinking, Ecuador, Fashion, Food and Wine, Journey, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Shopping Mall, Singapore, Sports, Vancouver

MGM Springfield: The Fresh—and Fun—Face of History

November 4, 2018 by Tom BentleyLeave a Comment

Ahh, NOW I see why those Old Fashioneds were appearing on our table like multiplying rabbits. Those canny mixmasters at the MGM Springfield’s Commonwealth bar were thinking if I had a snootful, I’d likely order their $25,000 “Indian Sidecar” drink, which is made with a 1901 Croizet cognac. Oh, I guess I should mention: if you do buy the drink, it also comes with a new Indian motorcycle. Why a 1901 cognac and why an Indian bike to go along with … [Read more...]

Filed Under: North America · Tagged: Antiques, Bicycle, Casino, Celebrity, Dessert, Drinking, Food and Wine, Golf, History, Museum, Pizza, Resort, Restaurants, Seafood, Shopping Mall, Spa, Sports, Whitewater Rafting, Wine Tasting

Wining and Dining My Way Through the Mandalay Bay

March 24, 2018 by Tom Bentley2 Comments

Like many of the luxury resorts of Las Vegas, the Mandalay Bay has a wealth of ways to entertain and amuse its guests. Naturally there's an expansive casino, where rollers high and low can thrill to the spin of the wheel and the flip of the cards. There's the Shark Reef Aquarium, which has plenty of teeth (piranha tank, anyone?) to sink your sights into, plus stages plumb-filled with stars, like Nashville Unplugged, where stories mix with songs … [Read more...]

Filed Under: North America · Tagged: Aquarium, Art, Beach, Beer, Casino, Chicago, Chile, Chocolate, Coffee, Drinking, Food and Wine, Gun, Massage, Monaco, Music, Restaurants, Shopping Mall, Wine Tasting

Cirque du Soleil’s “O” – A Wondrous Water World

February 16, 2018 by Tom BentleyLeave a Comment

I have to release the joke from the top: Cirque du Soleil’s “O” is a wholly immersive experience. Yes, “O,” (a phonetic rendering of the French eau for “water,”) is a water world: water is the flowing stage—often the literal stage—of the mesmerizing theatrics and flourishes of acrobats and dancers, trapeze artists and contortionists, clowns and lovers, all jumping into, out of, on top of and below the enormous pool, in which water is the most … [Read more...]

Filed Under: North America · Tagged: Chocolate, Drinking, Music, Scuba Diving, Walking tour, Wine Tasting

Good Beer, Good Cheer: 200 Years of Stuttgart’s Cannstatter Volksfest

November 26, 2017 by Tom Bentley3 Comments

It’s a fine feeling to be a stranger at a big party and feel fully welcome. It’s an even better feeling when everybody at the party seems like they are having the time of their lives. And if the party goes on for 17 days straight, well, I guess that’s 17 days of good feelings—though you might want to nap now and then. In Stuttgart, Germany, they’ve been having a whale of a party for a mere 200 years or so. I was just at the 199th year, and … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Europe · Tagged: Animal Rescue, Beer, Dancing, Drinking, Festival, Food and Wine, Germany, Harvest, History, Mountain Climbing, Museum, Village, Vineyards, Walking tour, Wine Tasting

Design and Speed: Stuttgart’s Exquisite Mercedes and Porsche Museums

October 20, 2017 by Tom Bentley4 Comments

For a portion of the population, a car is just a utilitarian thing: go from Point A to Point B, hope you don’t run out of gas, and wash it every six months or so. But for some people, myself included, cars are an exuberant expression of ingenuity, excitement and progress. The automotive industry and its dynamic productions are colorful parts of the pageant of world history. And if you want to see some remarkably varied, thoughtful and outright … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Europe · Tagged: Art, Bus Travel, Celebrity, Cruising, Germany, History, Museum, Music, Restaurants, Shopping Mall, Technology, Walking tour

Where’s the Steering Wheel? Driving Off the Map

May 29, 2017 by Tom BentleyLeave a Comment

  Many years ago, I was a passenger in a ’57 Chevy driven by a maniacal friend. The steering wheel came off in his hands while he was making a turn—and he laughed. Though it seemed unlikely then (particularly because I thought survival was dubious), that wheelessness was a benchmark for unusual driving experiences to come, many of which produced the same sensation of bewilderment, shock and terror. Filter in the unsettling elements of … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Other · Tagged: Airport, Bahamas, Bus Travel, Japan, Mexico, Panama City, Restaurants, Seafood, Spain, Sports

MGM National Harbor—Local Flavors, International Appeal

February 2, 2017 by Tom BentleyLeave a Comment

  It may sound like a crock of balderdash to start out a review of a luxury resort with a statement about how happy the employees seem. Or that the property has transformed an area by emphasizing local hiring and local artists. But cross my heart, the service people weren’t smiling at Maryland’s MGM National Harbor resort because they were Westworld robots. And the place has such regional roots that the very clay from the property … [Read more...]

Filed Under: North America · Tagged: Animal Rescue, Art, Beer, Casino, Celebrity, Chocolate, Dessert, Drinking, Ethiopia, Food and Wine, France, Garden, Honeymoon, Maryland, Massage, Mexico, New York City, Oyster, Photography, Resort

Five Ways Travel Helps Your Writing

April 24, 2016 by Tom BentleyLeave a Comment

Shwedagon Pagoda, Myanmar There’s a plummy quote from Thoreau’s Walden that must open this discussion: “Not till we are lost ... not till we have lost the world, do we begin to find ourselves … Henry David was centering on getting lost in nature there, and thus freed of some of the day-to-day material constraints and pressures, but the message applies well to writers, and to the value of getting “lost” in travel. Value sometimes in getting … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Asia · Tagged: Animal Rescue, Bahamas, Bicycle, Burma, Canada, Caves, Chile, Culture, Flea Market, Flowers, Food and Wine, Hawaii, Lifestyle, Mexico, National Park, Spain, Wildlife

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