By JB Bissell

One Sentence at a Time

The Writing

When people ask what I do, I tell them I’m a writer. If you’re a writer, too, you know the next question. This space provides an incomplete answer. Because, like every writer, I also have an unedited novel manuscript hidden in a desk drawer … and three or four short stories germinating in my gray matter … and a screenplay that, I swear, only needs a couple tweaks … and a couple articles to research.

Until all that’s taken care of, though, enjoy this stuff. Some of it is more than a few years old at this point, and this certainly isn’t everything, but I think it provides a good look at what I do.

St. Maarten

Yep, this is the place where the big planes fly right over the beach and scatter onlookers like a sudden gust of wind ruins your freshly-raked pile of leaves every fall. More importantly, though, it’s the only place I’ve ever been where you can score beachside shrimp doughnuts. And trust me, you want to be beachside on St. Maarten, and you want a plate of shrimp doughnuts.

St Maarten

Breckenridge, Colorado

From Tom’s Baby (the gold one, not the ski run) to the Devil’s Crotch (the ski run, not the other one), Breckenridge is a fascinating, fun time no matter how you approach it. I’ve written about the town and its surroundings a few times. Here’s the latest.

Breckenridge Gold

(Hint: Yes, the Mohawk Lakes Trail is magnificent, but it’s not my absolute favorite nearby hike. That one is a secret, and you’ll have to ply it out of me with some Breckenridge Bourbon.)

The Colorado Trail

I have a bottomless well of stories from my adventures — and, probably more entertaining, my misadventures — along The Colorado Trail. Here’s a quick introduction.

Get Started on The Colorado Trail

London Pub Crawl

Until I started maintaining this website, with this collection of my favorite articles, I didn’t realize how many stories in this vein I was actually responsible for. Not a bad gig, I guess. Anyway, check this one out. I’m blown away by the fact that a pub where people had a pint of ale before they boarded the fucking Mayflower still exists in London. Seriously.

London Pubs

Maui

Maui is gorgeous and unique. Haleakala is cool. The Road to Hana is epic. The jungle is lush, and the beaches are lazy. But if you really want to know how I feel about Maui, try to say that shave ice is the same as a snow cone. Just try.

Maui Fantasy

Craft Brewing

I had a chance to speak with a handful of Colorado’s craft brewers to learn a bit about how and why they got started, and what it takes to keep going.

Craft Sector Blueprint

Cartagena, Colombia

A trip to Colombia had always been on my list. I’m not exactly sure why. I’d like to say it was all because I studied Gabriel García Márquez in grad school. But it probably had just as much to do with watching Scarface at an early and impressionable age. Whatever. It doesn’t really matter. What does is that the place made an impression all its own on me.

Cartagena

Downslope Distilling

Want to write about booze again? Yes, I do.

Downslope Distilling

Park City, Utah

A youth lacrosse tournament in a cool mountain town? You bet.

Park City

Azure Furniture

If you live in Colorado, you know all about pine beetles. If you’ve visited Colorado recently, you probably noticed big swaths of dead pine trees mucking up our otherwise beautiful mountainsides. That’s thanks to the pine beetles. All that dead wood has to go somewhere, so the Azure Furniture Company started making it into cool, unique furniture.

Azure Furniture

Women’s Bean Project

CompanyWeek is a solid local website that focuses on businesses around Colorado. How are they doing? What are their issues? What do they need? A while back I got to cover the Women’s Bean Project for them.

Bacon? Yes, Please.

Right after the spirits story appeared on Confluence Denver, the editor asked if I’d like to cover Tender Belly, a local high-end bacon (and other pork products) distributer. And that was pretty much the best back-to-back freelance stretch of my professional career.

Tender Belly

Spirits — The Drinking Kind

Confluence Denver is a cool, weekly e-pub that highlights the people and organizations around town who are helping the city move forward and continue to be the only place in the world I want to live.

When the Confluence folks asked me if I wanted to write about some local spirit makers … well, I almost dropped my cocktail.

Denver Distillers

Cancun

Honestly, I wasn’t all that excited to go to Cancun. Everybody goes there. But you know what, there’s a reason everybody goes. It really is gorgeous. And it really is a good time.

Cancun

New Orleans

This is a story I did 18 months or so after Katrina, when it was time to get people going back to the Big Easy to have some fun.

New Orleans

© 2024 By JB Bissell

Theme by Anders NorenUp ↑

Close Bitnami banner
Bitnami