Michael Boyink is an award-winning writer and photographer who works as Managing Editor for a global software consulting and implementation company.

Michael, his wife Crissa (aka MsBoyink), and their two children spent eight years traveling the USA in an RV while continuing to work and homeschool.

Their story was covered by the Huffington Post, the Seattle Times, the Las Vegas Guardian, the Art of Nonconformity, Tiny House Magazine, and many other travel-related blogs and podcasts.

Since getting off the road, Michael and Crissa have continued to seek new experiences. After a few years running a local newspaper and fixing up a house in rural Missouri, the couple recently moved to downtown Tulsa, Oklahoma as part of the Tulsa Remote program.

• Title                   Driven to Wonder
• Subtitle:           Eight Years in an RV with Two Kids: a       
                             Memoir
  
• Publisher: ‎       Show Me Your Words, LLC 
• Published:       May 28, 2022
• Language: ‎      English
• Paperback: ‎    333 pages
• ISBN-10: ‎         0578294141
• ISBN-13: ‎         978-0578294148
• Weight: ‎          1.65 pounds
• Dimensions:   ‎8.5 x 0.79 x 8.5 inches
• To Buy:             Amazon.com

Google says 1.7 million books are self-published each year. Why should your readers care about this one?

RVing is hotter than ever, ya'll.  

According to the RV Industry Association (RVIA) there were 62% more RV owners in 2021 than 2001. RV owners are creating a $140 billion per-year industry. And it's not for just the newly-retired. Millennials and Gen Xers represent 69% of new buyers. 

There are new RV TV shows. New RV magazines. New RV books. New peer to peer RV rental services. More RV trip planning apps than you can shake a GPS at.

Social media channels are filled with new RV influencers. The RV industry is partnering with them. RV manufacturers are also posting directly on social media. Forest River has gained 611.9K followers and 7.8M likes on TikTok from just doing RV tours. 

Your readers are now RV owners. They are hungry for RV-related content. 

Driven to Wonder  satisfies that hunger with a unique offering and perspective. It tells a complete full-time RVing story with the clarity that only hindsight and reflection can bring. 

Readers learn:

• Why we got on the road
• What happened to us while we were traveling
• Why we got off the road
• What it's like to be stationary after years of full-time travel
• What our now-adult kids think about the experience

Help your readers by introducing them to Driven to Wonder!

Feel free to use any of these questions and answers in your article. I'm happy to expound on any of them or answer additional questions.

We spent eight years traveling full-time in an RV with two kids. Driven to Wonder is a book sandwich about that experience. It begins with why we started traveling and ends with the reasons we stopped. In between is a collection of stories from our travels. They run the gamut - fears we overcame, weird things that happened to us, the people we met, or how our Christian faith was both challenged and encouraged.

There are countless "how to" resources for wanna-be RVers. But when we were considering full-time travel, I had bigger questions than how to use a dump station or hitch up a fifth wheel.

Questions like:

• Was it safe out on the road? 
• Was travel a better experience than the suburban life we were giving up?
• Would a long period of full-time travel ruin my kids' chances at college? 
  
• How did traveling teens age out? 
• Why do families stop full-time RVing? 
• How would traveling change us?

Back then, I couldn't easily find books or blogs that answered these questions. Now that we've had the experiences and can answer those questions I put the answers in Driven to Wonder for new families with the same questions.

Nope. Wonder has two meanings - curiosity and amazed admiration. We started traveling because we were curious. We kept traveling because we found so much to admire. Driven also has two meanings, so the title becomes a fun little Rubik's cube that works no matter which way you read it.

Do you enjoy reading John Steinbeck, Mark Twain, William Least Heat Moon, Charles Kuralt, or Lee Child? Those are the authors and styles I aspired to while writing Driven to Wonder.

A couple of reasons. We had a great experience self-publishing a tech book several years ago. Mainly I wanted to do the book the way I wanted to do it, without having to convince a publisher of the format, content, length, etc. I've also had a long career as a writer and content producer. I saw this book as a way to learn more about book design and publishing. If it doesn't sell at least I end up with a nice portfolio piece...;)

It's taken roughly three years to write the book. For two years, I wrote a chapter a week. Pulling those chapters together, designing and formatting the pages, editing and placing the photos, copy-editing the text, and getting all the necessary permissions took another year. It's a "passion project" that I worked on during the times most people watch TV.

No, this is a book of stories. It's not a "loss leader" with a hidden goal of getting readers to buy a more expensive RV master class, membership program, etc. If you buy it through Amazon I never even see a lick of your personal data.

One set of grandparents were all in - they had traveled a lot by RV. The other grandparents were initially a bit upset that we were "taking their grandchildren away," but were able to meet us at several points during our travels (eventually they also became full-time RVers.) Other family members were mostly disinterested or mildly curious. No one got upset over the idea.

There's more about this in the book, but deciding the next destination depended on a number of factors including the location of friends or family, attractions we wanted to visit, weather, distance, campground availability, and (when we remembered it) holidays.

We had three RVs total. The first two were bunkhouse fifth wheels. The third was a Class B campervan for when the kids were both out.

Yes. For the better. For more details you'll have to buy the book. ;)

Nope. We made it to 42. Our missing states are the eastern seaboard plus Alaska and Hawaii.

All of them. ;) The USA is a vast and beautiful country. And it's beautiful in such different ways. How do you compare a Niagara Falls to a Yosemite? A Grand Canyon to a Texan wildflower bloom? 

The experience we most often talk about repeating was driving the Great River Road (GRR) that follows the Mississippi River from its source at Lake Itasca, Minnesota to its end at Venice, Louisiana. The GRR slices through the heart of America with connections to Lewis and Clark, blues music, the Trail of Tears, Mark Twain, and so much more. We'd like to do the trip again, but bottom-to-top instead and a little earlier in the year.

Summarize or quote from these chapters in your article:

Click a thumbnail to get a full-size version, then right-click to download. Please credit Michael Boyink.

"This is going to be the book of the year in the RV industry."

"This book will become a classic in the RV world."

"A beautiful read, part travel guide, part a story of the growth of a man and his family after they stepped off the well-trodden path."

"An amazing peek into what it was like traveling and working in an RV full-time for 8 years with his wife AND two kids."

"WOW. So well written. It flows beautifully. And I cracked up out loud at the toad story."

"This book was so much more than what I would have expected."

"The perfect RV book for the industry today."

• RVing in New England
• RV Entrepreneur podcast
• Happy Camper Radio
• The Camper Report
• E3 Camping November Magazine
• Digital Nomad Stories podcast

• Nomadtopia Podcast
• I♥RVing Summer '22 issue
• StressLess Camping podcast
• Badass Digital Nomad podcast
• Rootless Living May 2023

I'm available for to interview for your print piece, blog post, podcast, or YouTube channel. I'm happy to provide copies of the book to give away as prizes to your readers.