Okay, so I used to be a feature writer for the Kansas City Star, the same newspaper, as I like to point out, that launched the careers of Walt Disney and Ernest Hemingway. But then I decided I’d rather spread my words far and wide, so I became a freelancer.
As a freelancer, I’ve done it all. I’ve written brochures for seminar companies. I’ve written scripts for training videos. I’ve even written press releases that were sent back to the same newspaper that used to write my paycheck.
At the same time I was doing what we freelancers called “corporate PR work,” I was also madly sending out queries, landing assignments with a vast array of publications. My first biggie, the one that made me call everyone I know and gloat, was a piece on “Exercise for Couples” that ran in Modern Bride.
For awhile, I wrote a column for Amtrak Express. It was called “Made in America” and I wrote about all sorts of fun American products such as yo-yo’s, donuts, Frisbees and Steinway pianos. Another time, I had a gig with First For Women where I wrote their “Mind and Body” column. And for Ingram’s magazine, a long-time business publication in Kansas City, I wrote two columns: “After Hours” and “Word of Mouth.” “After Hours,” of course, offered things to do after work and “Word of Mouth” was about the food scene in K.C.
One of my main gigs now is People magazine. I’m one of their many stringers and I write about all sorts of people from the Midwest. Not many celebrities in my neck of the woods (although I did write about one of the Backstreet Boys wedding because he married a girl from Shawnee, KS, Willie Aames from Eight is Enough lives in Olathe and Eminem’s mom used to live up the road in St. Joe), but there are thousands of interesting people who open hair museums and make films starring guinea pigs and start restaurants that serve nothing but mashed potatoes.
I also write for many magazines from American Profile to Travel+Leisure to Arizona Highways.
Click below to see samples of my work:
- All I really need to know I learned from traveling
- 12 months, 12 trips, 12 ways to make your friends jealous: CNN
- A trip to India proves life is sneaky, mysterious and filled with wonder, Evolving Magazine
- Best African Safaris: Men’s Journal
- Flying Fruitcake: American Profile
- Ticking off the Big Five in South Africa: Huffington Post
- Alligator Wrestling Academy: Men’s Journal
- Six extraordinary teas: The Daily Meal
- The Unmillionaire: Huffington Post
- Extreme Castle Makeover: Chateau Trebesice: Huffington Post
- Best Volunteer Vacations: National Geographic Traveler
- Cooking Vacations: Cooking Light
- Breaking Bad Fans Get Additional Fix in Albuquerque: People magazine
- Volunteer Vacations: Cooking Light
- Denver Rocks the Culinary Casbah: The Daily Meal
- Alpine Ambassador: American Profile
