Writer, Terry Conway. After spending the past two decades in Wilmington, Delaware, my wife Jane, our Toller retriever Smarty and I have moved to Melbourne Beach, Fla. Located on a barrier island between the Atlantic Ocean and the Indian River, Melbourne Beach is at the southern end of Brevard County– Florida’s “Space Coast.”
Most mornings I sit at my mahogany writing table where I get to work researching and reporting stories on the art world, travel destinations, business entrepreneurs, historical pieces, museums, musicians, horse racing and the horse world, as well as the natural world and land and water preservation.
Through passion, care, and a touch of humor I craft my stories. As I write this profile, memories of the past fifteen years come flooding back — the intriguing characters, sensational destinations, spectacular events and marvelous adventures I have been blessed to have covered.
My work has appeared in national magazines such Acoustic Musician and Performing Songwriter, Blood-Horse and Equus, Book and Biblio and Travel; regional ones like Long Island Boating World, South Florida Waterfront, Pennsylvania Equestrian, The Skinnie, Main Line Today and The Hunt Magazine, and time-honored newspapers, such as the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Philadelphia Daily News and the Delaware County Times. For several years I have been an Arts & Culture correspondent for Newsworks, the website for WHYY-TV (PBS in Philadelphia/Wilmington). A correspondent to ESPN.com, America’s Best Racing, the Paulick Report and Thoroughbred Racing Commentary and I am a regular contributor to the a number of top-flight travel websites, including Gallagher’s Travels.
Our new home sits just off the famed coastal highway A1A that runs directly along the Atlantic. Melbourne Beach (pop. 3,500) offers the sparkling blue-green waters of the Atlantic, a series of secluded and undeveloped natural beaches that provide an excellent vantage point to catch glimpses of passing dolphins and manatees, loggerhead and leatherback sea turtles, as well as hundreds of beautiful seabirds and long-legged shorebirds. Head north from Melbourne Beach 25 miles up A1A and you arrive at Cape Canaveral– for decades our nation’s gateway to exploring and understanding our universe.
Today, it is a hub for many of the most exciting new private space projects such as Blue Origin (Amazon.com’s Jeff Bezos space exploration company) and SpaceX, the rocket and spacecraft company founded by Elon Musk who also manufactures Tesla vehicles. Upwards of 30 launches are planned in 2016 which we will be watching from our fourth floor balcony.
I look forward to writing about new adventures in Melbourne Beach, the “Space Coast” and other destinations throughout Florida and across the country.
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