Slaying the Beast

My second paid freelance gig from my new home was a monster. But after hundreds of miles, a long editing process and way too much time at my laptop, my first story finally aired on NPR's All Things Considered on Tuesday. Sadly, the final edit, which is done by sound engineers in D.C., came out botched and some quotes were transposed and one was even repeated! I was pretty disappointed when I first heard it on the air, but at least at was on the air, right? (I've decided to listen to the kind words of my fiance on this one and move on)

NPR has a reputation for having an awfully rigorous editorial process, but the nice thing is that once your first piece airs, you are off spec and you can be guaranteed at least a modest kill fee for all future pitches that are accepted.

Blah, blah. Here's a link to the story - on the growth of biodiesel fuel:

Popularity of Biodiesel Grows Amid High Gas Prices

So since I moved to Taos, my first paid freelance piece was published on a really great online magazine called New West. I'd used some of their articles for research at work and sent out an e-mail inquiring about freelancing.

After submitting a few blurbs and things free of charge, I pitched an idea and it was on the site two days later.

It's an analysis of a proposed change to federal mining law that was killed. I started following this because we had been looking into staking a mining claim around here as an experiment. Here's the link:
http://www.newwest.net/index.php/main/article/4893/

Also check out a few of my other stories on the site, especially this review of a 9/11 conspiracy documentary that brought in a flood of comments.

http://www.newwest.net/index.php/main/article/4574/

This is my third foray into blogging after two failed attempts that are now frozen in cyber-paralysis forever (or at least until Bloggers servers surrender to the apocalypse.) I seem to have lost the passwords and the e-mail accounts that were used to create my other blogs: ericmack.blogspot.com and burbboys.blogspot.com. Feel free to check them out if you'd like to see what a blog in permanent stasis looks like.

So this time I'm trying a blog that actually has a purpose: to document the life and struggles of an aspiring freelance writer / producer. Ok, my half-ass struggles since I'm keeping my day job at a small newspaper for the time being, so it's not exactly a starving artist thing here.

Here's the background:

Grew up in Denver burbs, j-school in Missouri, 4 years working in public radio stations in Alaska, 6 months wandering around Asia brings us up to the present in Taos, New Mexico where I'm commuting 6 hours and working 40 hours a week at a weekly paper. Leftover time goes to fiance, wedding planning, family and freelancing, and now this blog apparently (that I'm typing during waiting time at work. I'm naughty) So here goes nothing...