Here’s a link to an article I knocked out real fast for Present Magazine this week. In all, this piece about the Kansas City Public Library and KCPT’s Meet the Past living history performance series took me about two hours to compile. There were some great interviews involved (at least, I thought so), though it is really a summary piece intended to give audiences a taste of what they might expect should they go to the live show or sit in the audience. These are the facts, as I saw them, and for the first time in about three years, I actually end an article with a quotation. I thought it worked in this case. Thanks to editors Pete Dulin and Pam Taylor for the opportunity and the wonderful layout.
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Tags: Present Mag.
As promised, here’s a link to the story about Hope House I wrote for Present. About the beginning: last week, I saw the storm roll up out the back windows and this quaint Thomas Kinkade scene came to me with Hope House’s Lee’s Summit facility in its midst, only in my vision the sky was threatening. Nothing about the setting was serene or would make you want to buy a calendar or a jig-saw puzzle. I thought about the house standing firm – not just the house, but the purpose it stands for, and I thought it might be a decent description to set the tone. So I did some free writing about the storm pressing down on the building and the rain on its way. The night happened to be coming on at the time I started writing. With the storm front, the air thickened suddenly. You could feel it filling space around you. The clouds kept billowing, turning darker and darker gray, and it seemed like the night was heavy. I think I use the phrase “real weight.” There was definitely some weight on the nine o’clock air.
I couldn’t shake the feeling that no matter how much hope it might create, the Hope House deals with dark issues. The sky, say like today, might be blue, but there’s something hanging over the cottage-like setting in Lee’s Summit. The picture of a happy house is a false one. Things are so much better for the women inside and their children, in some cases, but it would be wrong to paint a sunny picture. I took the opposite approach from the outside. (more…)
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Tags: Present Mag.
Pete Dulin might be the most patient editor I have worked with – almost comically patient. About a month ago, he assigned me a story for Present involving Hope House, the battered women’s shelters in Lee’s Summit and Independence, Mo. I agreed to the write the article knowing that there would probably be some upheaval in my personal life. But I thought I could throw myself into my work and let all the distractions fade away. So a call was scheduled with the organization’s CEO and another high-ranking staff member immediately after I talked with Pete. I conducted the interview on my lunch hour a few days later. I came back to my desk, set the tape recorder down and thought I’d eventually get to it. Then, a couple of weeks ago, Pete checked in with a brief e-mail: Just want to check in and see how things are going with the Hope House story. Let me know if you need anything. (more…)
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Tags: Present Mag.
Seldom do I go back and read my own work after it’s been printed. Once I am finished with a piece, I leave it behind for good. Any mistakes made by editors and designers, or worse, anything overlooked by the writer that makes it through proofing can ruin a feeling about a story a for me. Yesterday’s post mentioned a story that I reworked for Present Magazine. The link to Power of One was posted today. The page was barely loaded before I clicked to another. The first words in the first paragraph seemed sound – as I intended them, and that was reason enough to assume the rest was flawless. Writing should be about the act; the finished product an afterthought – a coincidence that results from the work and is evidence time was invested. (more…)
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Tags: Present Mag.
The following is an introduction I wrote for a story submitted last week to Present Magazine. These opening paragraphs were trimmed by the editors, and rightfully so. I’d indulged a little too much in my subject matter and what I had hoped was an accurate portrayal of the setting. I’ll post the piece as soon as it is published online. For now, though, you’ll have to take my word for it that this piece was originally about homelessness, in one capacity. What I’d done was render this neighborhood, where the article source lived, and contrast it to the worlds of the homeless she’d encounter. I wasn’t confident it worked. I’ve written about sunsets before and it gets more and more difficult to use different words in describing them, but it’s a good exercise for the mind and the page – to look out on the same scene and try to find something different in it. I think that some married people who are able to live that way successfully are able to do it. They look at their spouses and find something new in them. I am not in love with sunsets, but I am in love with words, and sometimes they drive me almost to the brink, as would any passionate relationship (I think this is the second post in a row where I’ve refereed to writing as a lover. Read into that what you like.) Here’s the abandoned intro.: (more…)
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Tags: Present Mag.
