I've won several journalism awards, and my writing on travel has appeared in The Los Angeles Times, American Way, Southwest Airlines Spirit, Successful Meetings and United Hemispheres. At home in the middle seat, I've got a fistful of travel reward credit cards, have spent more than six months of my life in Las Vegas hotels and I've traveled extensively across the world. Yet one of my favorite travel destinations is Independence, KS, a great American small town, where my work as a playwright was performed at the William Inge Festival.