'Do Travel Writers Go to Hell?'

That's the title of a forthcoming book by Seattleite Thomas Kohmstann (pictured here), a former travel writer for Lonely Planet guidebooks. The book is said to reveal the "truth about the trade." In it, he details his experiences cutting corners to save time and money, reportedly even dealing drugs, romancing waitresses and accepting freebies. He writes: "This book is not a polite evaluation of the job or the lifestyle and probably won't do me any favors in the industry." He was right about that. Comments he made to newspapers in recent weeks have snowballed into a controversy that has Lonely Planet up in arms. The news reports say Thomas admitted to making up portions of the guide books and letting freebies influence coverage. This quote in particular caused a firestorm: "They didn't pay me enough to go to Colombia ... I wrote the book in San Francisco. I got the information from a chick I was dating who was an intern in the Colombian consulate."

But Kohmstann says many of the comments that have ended up in the press were taken out of context. He is interviewed about the situation here. Whatever happens, this is probably some good publicity for his new book.