Brushing Off the Dust

I decided to start putting myself out there for traditional freelance journalism gigs again lately, and it's gone surprisingly well. This is a piece I wrote for Between the Lines in Ann Arbor - an interview with folk singer William Fitzsimmons, who is amazing.

I'd forgotten how much fun it can be to interview someone truly interesting, and about the little thrill of seeing my name in print. This publication actually still publishes on paper in addition to their site, so it's old school exciting, too. It was a great experience and I even made a little pocket change.

So while I was still feeling semi-confident and buoyed by my small success, I decided to reach out to a couple local publications and managed to get another article lined up that will come out in August. I have some lofty, secret goals for this new trajectory. It's nice to have goals that are frankly purely selfish. Not to get all martyr-y, because I love my life and greatly appreciate the everyday gifts among the chaos, but there are times when I feel a little lost, too. More often than not, I'm someone's wife, and two other someones' mommy, etc. I love those titles, but when I write for publication, it's the only time I still hyphenate my name. It's a ME thing.

I'll still be working on my Pile O'Stuff which includes all manner of writing when I can, but right now, this feels like a good direction to pursue once again. I may even dabble in a little citizen journalism right here on my blog in response to the ever-widening gap in community and neighborhood coverage around here. There are way too many fascinating stories going untold here in Cincinnati. I have a camera and a computer, and why not?

Sadly, the journalism field is pretty blighted at this point, and the printed word, especially, seems decreasingly less important to society on the whole. It's a bit like when I took a black-and-white film photography class a few years ago, the last year the college would offer it before they tore down the whole developing lab to make way for a digital studio. I hope we still have a few good years left where it's not hard to find interesting, printed short and long form journalism. I hope my contributions, however small, are good ones.