What was your first job as a journalist?
I got a job writing feature stories about classical music for the Gainesville Sun in Gainesville, Florida.
Have you ever used a typewriter?
Yes. In fact, I always try to set aside one project per year that I do entirely on my old Royal.
Who's your favorite fictional journalist?
Probably Carl Bernstein as played by Dustin Hoffman.
What tools and software do you use to do your job?
I use One Note for all of my research notes and first drafts. It's free and can sync to many devices, so I can edit on the fly.
What's your favorite social network?
Twitter
Who do you wish followed you?
Anyone who's interested in off-beat characters and composers.
Why did you become a journalist?
I enjoy research and writing. But writing in a personal, more conversational style than what I learned to do in graduate school.
Did you work for your high school newspaper? If so, what did you do there?
No. I didn't get into journalism until graduate school.
What story are you most proud of writing or working on?
My John Powell piece. It proved to hit on a timely topic.
What advice can you offer to aspiring journalists?
Keep at it. I have no remarkable skills--only the inability to quit.
What's the best pitch you ever got?
I pitched a feature on composer John Powell, which was picked up by the BBC. It led to me being interviewed for a BBC Radio 3 documentary.
What's the worst pitch you ever got?
I had to bang out a feature after only interviewing Joshua Bell for only fifteen minutes. His publicist kept him on a tight timeline.
When you're not at a computer, where are you most likely to be?
Probably in the library--either my personal library or one of the many public ones in Boston--looking into new topics.
Aside from your own, what's your favorite publication to read?
I enjoy a lot of different sources. I'm drawn to the New York for obvious reasons, but I tend to scour the internet for out of the way blogs.
What's the most common misperception about your beat?
That music journalism is dead. It has certainly declined fatefully in newspapers. But I find online activity to be rather robust.
