The Travel Tastemaker
\nLesley Goldberg
\n1\/14\/2011<\/p>\n
Are you a fan of food? Wine? Theater? Nightlife? Obscure travel hideaways? Then meet Duane Wells, a writer whose new travel blog caters to urban, sophisticated readers with a penchant for the exotic and hip\u2014as well as those with a taste for luxury.<\/p>\n
Through his \u201cLiving Wells\u201d blog, Wells touches on all things fun and fantastic in the travel world. \u201c[Readers] want to know about the hot new hotels and bars in a destination and where to find fashion and accessories they won\u2019t see everyone wearing when they get back home,\u201d he says. \u201cThey also want to know what to avoid, what to try and what to order.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Duane](\"http:\/\/theduanewells.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/duanewells.jpg\" "\\"duanewells\\"")
Founded in 2009 by women who \u201chave many helpful \u2018gay best friends,\u2019\u201d MoxieQ co-founder and CEO Heidi Lehmann says Wells is the \u201cquintessential MoxieQ \u2018tastemaker\u2019 candidate: suave, sophisticated and a gifted writer,\u201d noting that the site\u2019s \u201ctastemaker\u201d categories are filled with \u201cexperts who can really blaze a trail in terms of providing our audience with real expertise and actionable recommendations about a certain topic.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDuane is our lead travel expert, and his blog is currently one of our most highly read and shared on the site, which speaks to his real experience not only as a writer but as a seasoned traveler … with a unique and compelling voice that really engages,\u201d Lehmann says, adding that the site has a growing audience of more than 250,000 users a month.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re only at the beginning stage of our audience-building for MoxieQ, but anticipate Duane is going to quickly build out a large following,\u201d she says, noting that MoxieQ is both a launch pad for the next wave of influential \u2018Queer Eye\u2019 tastemakers and \u201cinspiration for women around the globe who want the \u2018inside track\u2019 to all things entertainment and style.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wells says MoxieQ\u2019s \u201cLiving Wells: My Life in Luggage\u201d had been kicking around for a while and that the blog name perfectly suits him. \u201cI love my creature comforts, so \u2018Living Wells\u2019 being a play on \u2018living well\u2019 seemed like it perfectly captured my voice and what I wanted to write about,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy hope is always that if a reader identifies with me and my point of view, then he or she will enjoy seeing a destination through my eyes\u2014even if they\u2019ve visited the destination before or read about it somewhere else,\u201d Wells says. \u201cI believe that the one unique thing I have is my own voice, which also explains why I don\u2019t try to be all\u00a0things to all people in my travel writing, either. I like luxury, fashion, food, nightlife, culture and I really get into tapping into the rhythm of life in different destinations. I\u2019m not particularly into adventure or a host of things that I know are better left to other writers who enjoy that sort of thing, so I don\u2019t do them. I think it would read totally inauthentic if I did. I mean, who wants to read about how much I hate sleeping on wet grass in the middle of a campsite or how miserable I was on a hike through Yellowstone?\u201d<\/p>\n
Wells has covered such destinations as Turks and Caicos, Telluride, the Spanish island of Ibiza, finding the hip\u2014and gay\u2014destinations along the way. Going forward, Wells, whose career has also included entertainment journalism and two interviews with Lady Gaga, is planning to include more destination-specific blog posts that also include video from his travels.<\/p>\n
\u201cReaders can expect to read about everywhere from Brighton and Wales, the Costa del Sol, Stockholm and Geneva to Dallas, Santa Barbara and some very out of the way Caribbean islands,\u201d says Wells, who also is launching a new blog that will serialize Heaven or Hell, Darling?\u2014a book he\u2019s been working on about the romantic lives of five guys in their early 30s who have been friends since college.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been intrigued by the idea of serializing the book ever since I interviewed Armistead Maupin a few years back and he reminded me that Tales of the City began as a\u00a0serial in the San Francisco Chronicle,\u201d he says. Readers interested can follow along with the first chapter, which at press time was set to post at the end of January at heavenorhelldarling.blogspot.com.<\/p>\n
But Wells\u2019 adventures don\u2019t end there. The prolific writer, who has interviewed such notables as Jackie Collins, Jennifer Hudson and Patti LaBelle, is also developing a travel reality series with a noted film producer and toying with a blog focusing on the world of gay adult entertainment.<\/p>\n
But travel and MoxieQ\u2019s weekly blog will always be Wells\u2019 first priority.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve had some wild stories,\u201d he says of his adventures, which have included a broken kneecap in Madrid, evacuations from airports because of bomb scares, evacuations from resorts because of hurricanes and nearly drowning three times. \u201cIn retrospect, all the stories are hilarious now, even if they weren\u2019t so funny in the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n
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