Why, oh why, are the pet stories the worst?

If you'll recall, my most detested story from last summer's internship was my story about the dog wedding. You know, the wedding that made absolutely no sense except to serve as an excuse to spend Millville's money and bring a bunch of animals together. You know, the story where I wasn't allowed to print that Hannah and Rusty were actually mother and son. I still feel like a story whore for that one.

And apparently, I'm still a story whore, because last week, I got to do this delightful story.

Millville's Annual Pet Show

Okay, let me set the tone for you. This was one of those stories that needed to be in the paper the following day because of the time element involved. It took place on a Wednesday night, and immediately after it finished, I had to phone in my story so that my features editor could type it up and have it in Thursday's paper.

Usually, everybody likes to be done everything by 8:00 pm. This pet show started at 5:00 pm, and judging began at 6:00 pm.

Apparently, The Daily Journal had sent a photographer every year to take pictures of the animals (since many of the poor creatures were dressed in costumes), but many Millville residents were upset because the paper didn't print a list of winners. So that was my job, and it was easier said than done.

There were SEVENTEEN different categories, each with a first, second, and third place prize. My editor said that since there were so many categories, I only needed to get the names of the first place winners, much to the chagrin of the second and third place winners.

Each contestant wore a number. I think I saw numbers as high as the 70's, so there were a lot of contestants. When the winners were announced, they called out numbers, not names, which means after the trophies were presented, I needed to run over and get the name of the contestant (and make sure it was spelled correctly). It soon occurred to me that I not only needed the name of the owner of the pet, but I also needed the pet's name (again, spelled correctly).

Then, the organizers of this pageant went another step further in annoying me. They decided with so many contestants that there would be two or three winners for each prize in each category. That's right: for most categories, I had to get the names of the pets and their owners THREE TIMES.

This is all happening outdoors in a fairly open facility, and there were A LOT of contestants and A LOT of pets, and there were times where I almost went crazy looking for certain numbered contestants (sometimes, the kids would hand off the trophies to their parents and then run elsewhere, or they would change out of their costumes, making it even more difficult for me).

Desperate for some easier way, I went up to the organizers to see if they had the names of the winners. No dice. They only announced numbers and didn't record any information whatsoever. I was on my own as far as getting the winners' names.

My features editor Lori was actually very happy with how the story turned out (I only messed up one winner out of the forty-some names that had to go to print, but it was a sibling of the real winner, so I was very close, especially since they were co-owners of the dog). I was very relieved when it was all over.

There's something magical about writing for small town newspapers...and then there's also something that smells awfully close to the excrement produced by the critters that were the focus of this story.

Time for a reassessment

It's been quite a long time since I've written a post chronicling my life as a writer. I think it's time for such an update.

Writing for The Daily Journal remains satisfying, even though I'm not churning out stories as frequently as I was allowed last summer. It's really been an incredible opportunity to write professional health stories. I still get a tremendous satisfaction out of interviewing doctors and communicating scientific ideas to a wide audience.

However, NYU's current Science, Health, and Environmental Reporting Program class (SHERP 24, as opposed to my class, SHERP 25) recently launched their own website.

Check out Scienceline!

There's some very exciting things in there that may not be immediately noticeable to you, but as a budding science journalist, I've caught them immediately.

Perhaps the most exciting thing that I saw were interviews with people from the National Institute of Health. There have been many times where I would have LOVED to have done interviews outside of Cumberland County for some of my health stories. In fact, some story ideas that have been thrown at me (like child-onset aphasia) simply cannot be done within the confines of Cumberland County.

However, there are some things that serve as a harsh reminder of my reality...I'm still a student, and a few of the articles focus on NYU faculty. This reminds me of when I couldn't get any interviews for my feature story about Airborne that was published in Unbound.

My Airborne story

This was an attempt by me to achieve something big, something that no one else had really covered...and when I tried to get interviews, I had to tell the truth and admit I was nothing more than a college student. However, since I now write for Gannett, I may have an easier time securing interviews.

But what excites me more than anything about something like Scienceline is that the NYU SHERP students have bonded and collaborated on a project dedicated to science journalism. I really felt like I was on my own as far as generating story ideas and double- and triple-checking my stories for the Science and Health column of The Signal. Now, I will be with a class filled with people as dedicated to this sort of thing as I am.

So the prospect of doing SHERP is extremely exciting. But what about all the other writing that I do?

I'll have probably THE most important thing I've done for Lee's Toy Review published in a couple of weeks. Wait...scratch that. Celebration III was the most important thing I've done for Lee's because that was a phenomenal way for me to feel like a press correspondent. But what I have coming in August is important for it's content. I'm the only one who's going to have this kind of review to my writing credits. AND there's talk that I may get to cover Celebration IV...except that's going to require some advance payment to cover the plane and hotel. We'll see. My fingers are crossed.

Then there's the playwriting thing. I really want to do this again. When I had the opportunity to do it for college, I had a play written in three hours. I'm not sure that NYU will allow me the time to do something like that. There's some secret desire for me to write a "Thundercats" script. Yes, it's extremely ambitious. Yes, it stands no chance of ever becoming a movie or anything. But damn it, I have an idea racing through my head, and I keep seeing it working out! I can see the teaser...a perfect live-action recreation of the beginning of each Thundercats cartoon episode. I can see the plot...a combination of "Exodus," which explains the origin of the Thundercats, and the Anoitment Trials, where Lion-O truly earned the title of Lord of the Thundercats. I'd make the mutants actually pose a threat, and I'd play around with more species than just Monkey, Jackal, Vulture, Rat, and whatever the heck S-S-Slithe was supposed to be. Mumm-Ra would be crazy cool. Panthro would HAVE to be played by Michael Clarke Duncan. Of course, I'd sneak a Lynx-O, Ben Gali, and Pumyra cameo...which would definitely foreshadow the sequel.

This is all just talk. I may make it my escape for when stuff at NYU gets too overwhelming, and I have to prepare myself for that.

I'm pretty happy with where things are right now...as long as I know they are leading to something bigger, I'll be happy.

You can't tell me I'm always ready to write!

Last week, I was in Vermont for my one and only vacation of the year (whereas last year, I had miniature vacations to Indianapolis and Providence and a big one in California). I got back on Friday night. On Saturday, I covered two stories.

The first was the usual frustrating Health Hotline...frustrating because we only got two phone calls, and only one of the callers had any decent questions for me to write about.

The second was a little more exciting. I covered the Chili Cook-Off that was a part of Millville's Summerfest this year. If you'll recall from last year, I did the advance story about Summerfest, which included mention of the chili cook-off.

Summerfest 2005

This year's Chili Cook-Off Coverage

So everything kind of came full circle. Not only that, I actually tried what little chili was left, a BIG step from last year when I wouldn't have tried chili even if you had forced me! Well...maybe if you forced me...

Medical related stuff is going to put me out of commission for the next couple of days, but MAYBE I can get another story written by the end of the week.

It's been a decent week story wise

Usually, I have to wait a week, or two, or four...or longer in some cases...but THIS week was different! I got the assignments this week, I did the interviews, and I had stories published on both Thursday and Friday! First, here's one I wrote about sunglasses and what you need to know about UV protection:

Sunglasses Story

This next one is about the garden of the month winner. I loved the fact that the guy had a mid-century modern house and I was able to talk to him about it (my sister is a REALLY big fan of mid-century modern right now).

Garden of the Month for June

Now I gotta hope this trend continues for the rest of the summer!

The next step...

My profile has been posted on NYU's SHERP's website.

See what kind of students get into this program!

Seriously, being among such a distinguished group of students REALLY makes me feel special. I hope I can live up and possibly exceed their expectations.

All the more reason for me to get off of here and start writing this health story about sunglasses! I'm going to have two stories published this week. You know I won't forget the links!

Sometimes I can be proud of others

My friend Kristina Fiore, who has been a BIG help in making this decision to go to NYU for Science, Health, and Environmental Reporting, just had her first by-lined article published in Newsday this past week.

Greenpeace Breezes In

What I'm REALLY glad to see is that she is actually getting to write an ENVIRONMENTAL story, which excites me about the kinds of internship opportunities I may have available through SHERP. While it's been a phenomenal opportunity writing health stories for The Daily Journal, I always want to expand my horizons and get more people reading my stories.

Friday's Buy One Ben Leach Story, Get One Free Sale!

Here's a story about an upcoming Plein Air festival:

Competition draws on beauty of nature

And here's my monthly Health Hotline story:

Callers get help with arthritis questions

For that hotline story, even though there were enough calls to get material for the story, the doctor didn't have a whole lot of information, at least not enough to get a full-length story from (I always run into the problem where the introductory story the previous week covers a lot of what the doctor does). Thank goodness for the National Institute of Health. Not only did it give me some excellent background on arthritis and other rheumatic conditions, it was able to confirm why the caller who suffered from gout complained about pain in their big toe (read the story to find out why that's important).

Once SJ Healthcare puts me in touch with a neurologist, I'll be doing a story about aphasia. I'm very excited to see where that goes.