La Jolla-based real estate agent Michelle Serafini has a new addition to her resume: travel writer.
In “Getaway Home – Your Stories and Adventures from Your Home Away From Home,” Serafini has crafted an easy-to-understand travel journal that is perfect for people who own or rent vacation homes.
In “Getaway Home,” Serafini employs “prompts” encouraging readers to record special moments and places that can be shared and passed along. “Prompts are quotes and photographs for people to visualize,” she explained about her writing method offering these examples. “It might be something like, ‘Today the sunrise looked like X,’ or ‘My favorite food at this place was …’”
Combining vacation-themed photographs with inspirational quotes (some hers, some famous) to create a guided vacation journal, Serafini encourages readers to share their adventures and describe their experiences. Thus, she said, the writer/reader can become food critics of local restaurants, travel writers and area guides themselves.
“This journal, in a way, also becomes a story of the getaway home itself, almost as if the people who live and play in the space over the years create generational stories that will be passed down,” said Serafini adding, “Homes have stories when people enjoy them.”
From where did Serafini’s inspiration for travel writing come? “Travel has always been a driving force in my life,” she answered. “It began with my first overseas trip, as a high school student, to Bavaria, Germany, where I journaled each day, and my wanderlust has continued throughout my life, along with my passion for journaling.”
The travel writer believes there is value in documenting your memory-making moments and sharing your stories. In today’s fast-paced, digital world, she hopes this will encourage people to hold a pen, while relaxing at a home-away-from-home, reliving the moments, the laughter, the gatherings, the conversations, the food, and the journey.
Serafini said her travel guide journal is like others in that it encourages personal growth, but extends beyond that for people in “really capturing their memories” while helping them remember and think about things in a “more creative way” by more fully relating their experiences, not just “we got up and had breakfast. It’s a great way for people to document and enjoy and remember their adventures and the lifestyle they had while they were there.”
Serafini added she aims to help people remember “the nuances of things you see at that moment,” such as the name of that village pie and ice cream shop.
Her 20-plus-year career as a La Jolla coastal real estate agent, previously with Coldwell Banker and now with Compass Real Estate, has helped Serafini in her travel writing.
“It’s brought home to me the importance of capturing memories in homes,” she said. “A lot of the people out here have second and even third condos and houses. That gave me a reason to want to write this book.
“There is something very special about a property where people create memories,” Serafini continued. “Often, a second home is often a gathering home where people come for special occasions, or you go to get away. Being in real estate has helped me understand the value of stories that come from ‘getaway homes,’ and being able to pass those down, generationally, in a book.”
“Getaway Home – Your Stories and Adventures from Your Home Away From Home,” is available through Archway Publishing, and booksellers online.
Serafini has been writing professionally for over 30 years as a public relations professional, marketing executive, and real estate agent. To learn more, visit ANoteFromTheCoast.com or follow her @michelle_serafini or @anotefromthecoast.