If you are new here, this is going to be a great intro to what my blog will bring you. If we’re old friends, stick around. There’s something I want you to know.

I’m happy to announce that the kind and patient editors at Filler Magazine have decided to add my blog to their roster. I’m incredibly humbled they are taking a chance on a little blog all about love and life. On top of that, I’m blushing to be in the good company of the likes of Gracie Carroll, one of the best goddamned fashion bloggers on the planet.

Filler is a quarterly “fashion magazine for culture junkies”, with a bagillion more readers than I get a month. It’s the perfect combo of beauty, wit and style which I can never hope to live up to – but I hope will fit nicely with my modern take on the travel-slash-life-slash-gonzo blog genre I’ve been working on so hard over here. 

So, What the Hell is Love Drive? 

My blog, Love Drive, is a mash up of travel stories that don’t feel like travel stories, short fiction and experiments on living a great life. I write often, posting love and adventure stories from my travels, as well as talking about my current project, a love story between a great writer and his young wife in Paris, which I think you will like, too. Love Drive is on Tumblr and Twitter. I also send out a regular newsletter, which is the best way to follow along. And now it’s over at Filler!

This blog started a few months ago, after a difficult, and dark life-changing event. More of slow, long, blind falling apart than an event, really. I won’t get too detailed – to spare the innocent – but it involves losing the love of my life. And it involves picking up the pieces to start living my life the way I really should have been doing all along.

So, after leaving behind my old life in Canada, I am here in Paris, writing every day, searching every day, getting into trouble … sometimes. It still sucks, sometimes, and it’s still hard. And in a few months, I could just as easily be back in Canada, minding the Starbucks pumps and frothing away my failed attempt at happiness. Which is why you’ll have to read on to find out how it all goes for me.

Best of Love Drive (So far…)

So, let’s forget about the explanations. Here’s some of the stuff I’ve done already I think you would have liked.

Escape from Paris: Picture this. You’re about to embark on the most important road trip of your life. But as you pick up your rental car, you realize it’s got a manual transmission. And you definitely don’t drive stick. What the hell do you do? (Read it now)

The Count of Lamarck: A different kind of travel story about the hip Paris neighborhood of Montmartre, and what dark, vampiric secrets lie beneath.  (Read it now)

On Dragons and Submarines: An ode to a cute little VW camper van, and the impact he had on the two lovers in my film. Also, an ode to my own beautiful little baby. (Read now) 

The Police and Princesses of Avignon: Running from cops and wooing beauty queens in the ancient walled city. Trademark Tobin adventure and love story, with guns. (Read now)

If you want to say hi or get to know me, I’m here! And here. And email me at tobydalrymple AT gmail - you know the rest.

Thanks Filler and thanks to you for reading!