When it comes to beats, writer Michael Cervin covers all the appealing angles: food, booze, travel, and, yes, even fine bottled water are the focus of his colorful reportage, which appears in numerous publications both regional and global. Santa Barbara Know-It-All: A Guide to Everything That Matters is his fifth travel book focused on Santa Barbara, and he recently answered a few questions about the humorous guide.
Why write yet another Santa Barbara travel book?
I was on a yacht on Morro Bay harbor years ago, and I had this idea of writing a travel book that was fun, entertaining, and funny. I always wanted to write a travel book where everything was personally vetted by the author, not merely a list of hotels, restaurants, and tedium. So I came up with this book, which includes recipes, poetry, pictures of my cats, snarky comment — it’s pretty unusual.
