Bill Begalke

The journey began in high school, with a monthly column and cartoon in the school newspaper. I realized then that my life would end up being a media production. You name it, it all happened: radio, TV, newspapers, magazines, movies, and now the Internet.

Although I attended the same college as Charleston Heston, Northwestern University’s school of speech, I make no claim to fame there. Then followed a brief sojourn in the US Air Force, a journey that included facing down a revolution in Greece while wondering what to do with 28 nuclear weapons; and my patriotic finale, the war in Southeast Asia, full of spooks and unmarked airplanes. But I did return with all my digits intact, although my attitude about the world changed markedly.

It was then that I decided that it would be better to follow my creative muse, who took me into television, where I won a major award for a documentary.

What followed then was the usual career path-advertising and marketing including work with the major film studios. One day it all came to an end when I started to receive phone calls from Hollywood bosses hours into the night and realized that there must be a better life out there besides the rat race.

So I combined the three things I love most: travel, writing and photography, turning it all into a new career. I freelanced to over 50 major newspapers in the U.S. and Canada, from the LA Times and Boston Globe, to the Kansas City Star, Baltimore Sun, and the Seattle Times. Along the way, numerous magazines and in-flight publications were added to my publication list. I was also a contributing editor to Southwest Passages magazine during its brief but glorious history.

One of the articles I wrote during that time earned me the Lowell Thomas Gold medal award from the Society of American Travel Writers Foundation for writing and photography. During the course of my travels I happened upon San Miguel De Allende, Mexico and, as they say, the rest is history.

My partner of over 20 years and I built our home there, a work still in progress, and we reside there happily, along with our dog, Chumley. What follows now are more articles about Mexico, and my first novel, another work in progress.

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