Saphhous

We're off.

Morehead-bound till Saturday afternoon — we're going to win us some Kentucky Intercollegiate Press Association awards.

Confessions of an uncurable potty-mouth.

What can I say? He's damn good.

Updates to the Published Pieces blog have been made. Check 'em out and comment, damnit.

In memoriam.

Of course I have to make this post ...

"I'd blown my mind, couldn't work," he told Playboy. "So finally I just started jerking pages out of my notebook and numbering them and sending them to the printer. I was sure it was the last article I was ever going to do for anybody."

Instead, he said, the story drew raves and he was inundated with letters and phone calls from people calling it "a breakthrough in journalism," an experience he likened to "falling down an elevator shaft and landing in a pool of mermaids."

From the NYT

Damn.

I'm dating a smart, funny guy who wants to write for a living. He listens to good music and is a great cook. He buys corn liquor in a Bell jar.

We just got done snapping beans for our dinner party, for which he's also making jumbalaya and cornbread.

Yes, my internal Southern girl is alive and well, thankya.

Integrity First. We Are Not For Sale. Classifieds, Page F10.

In the 1990s, The Washington Post began running little witticisms in an ear in the Style section. If you know what an ear is, you'll think it's funny. If you don't, well, just ignore this post. You're probably one of my family members; in which case, our forum is in the post two below. See you there.

Read this.

You can, of course, find all my stories on the Published Pieces blog. However, there's someone else's story in The Cardinal this week that I'd like to recommend. It's a great news feature about the steam plant, and I probably never expressed how much I liked the piece during the writing process, but I really do like it. It's most excellent. Read it now.

New stories!

The Published Pieces blog will be updated shortly, whenever Dylan finishes the Cardinal site.

I got approved on two stories for LEO, longer pieces, one for late March and one for late April. I also got assigned a story that will probably run March 1 or so. Yay!

Something I scribbled down last week.

February might be the shortest month of the year, but it seems to be dragging on forever. As a tease, it was spring-warm out last weekend (which was fantatstic) but this week has been gray and snow and rain and cold.

Today, on my way to class, the frigid winds whipped my nose Rudolph-red and stiffened my fingers. But as I walked down the sidewalk, I heard the unseasonal buzz of a weedeater. I strolled along a freshly cropped edge. I inhaled. Even in below-freezing weather, fresh cut grass smells like fresh cut grass.

It gave me hope. Hope that spring is right around the corner of this short month. And it's supposed to be warm again this weekend.

the farm.

After growing up surrounded by fields with one-lane roads leading to cities 15-30 minutes away, I had mentally vowed to never live that far from the hustle and bustle of my every day life. I was more like my first editor, who lived in the apartment above the newspaper office for a long time, then moved a block away.

But, after yesterday, I'm beginning to reconsider plunking down a nice little house out there, surrounded by grass and trees and quiet.

What's on my plate.

I think it's more of a platter, really. And I really don't have time to be making this entry, but I'm hoping it'll help me stay sane.

Today: two more interviews and 1,400 words of copy, comprised of two stories. Upcoming: I pitched a piece to LEO about a tobacco tax increase opposition hotline that I saw advertised at a cigarette store, so I need to call them about that, and about the other five or six stories I have lined up for them through Sept. I have a 1,500 worder for Snitch, Lexington and Louisville, that I'm trying to schedule interviews for. That'll run as soon as I can get it done. I have a story for The Magnet that is under payment negotiations and will then be done in a week or so. What else?

I need to call The Sentinel about my interview there — the interview I didn't tell many people I had. Yes, I interviewed for a reporter spot at the paper in Shelbyville. The editor said he loves my work and wants me there, but he needs someone about 45 hours a week. However, he was going to try to work me in somehow. So I need to check on that. I need to call Velocity about my story queries that I sent, and about the layout/copy editing spot I applied for. (I also need to call my aunt and get some copies of the C-J insert.) I need to call The Oldham Era and check on my application there.

Then my hands will fall off and my brain explode. But, prepare for my total infiltration of the Louisville-area print media market.

Updates

I've updated the published pieces blog and the froogle wish list, if anyone's interested. Secret admirers are welcome to buy me stuff off the list, too. Also, anyone (i.e., my family) who couldn't comment on the published pieces blog, you should be able to now. And you had better.

An update to the updates

I just landed a 1,500 word story for Snitch, to be published in Louisville and Lexington. Most excellent.

Lightbulb

I want to write a story about crossing guards. Don't let me forget.

So far, no dice.

I got hung up on by an employee at a place where I was trying to schedule an interview; the C-J isn't sure they ever received my packet; I'm still missing a $110 check ...
I think I'm losing my mind. Breakdown eta: apx. 24 hours from now.