What was your first job as a journalist?
Intern at Cincinnati Enquirer out of Miami University, then cops beat reporter at the Huntington Herald-Dispatch in West Virginia.
Have you ever used a typewriter?
IBM Selectric back in the day as a Miami U. student journalist. Also own a 1930s Royal typewriter heavy as an anvil, but now a decoration.
How is social media changing news?
Training folks to be impatient
Who's your favorite fictional journalist?
Paparazzo, from Federico Fellini's film 'La Dolce Vita.'
What does it mean to be a journalist?
To research and listen, listen and research. Compare, contrast and weed out. To find what of the iceberg of the work should be above water.
How do you prefer to be pitched on stories?
Not taking pitches these days. Me, I am pitching—usually literary essays, poems and book manuscripts. Ask me about my space opera.
What tools and software do you use to do your job?
Final Cut Pro X for video
What's your favorite social network?
Joined BlueSky after reaching Maximum Exasperation with the decline
Who do you wish followed you?
Neil Gaiman | David Byrne | W.H. Auden (but he's dead) | Anne Lamont | Rachel Maddow
Why did you become a journalist?
It was the only job I could find that would pay me to write stories. And the Cincinnati Reds already had a second baseman—named Joe Morgan.
Did you work for your high school newspaper? If so, what did you do there?
Co-editor my senior year for the Forest Park High School newspaper north of Cincinnati. Tried to turn it into a magazine.
What story are you most proud of writing or working on?
3-part series on a street person, Elizabeth, who was a rising New Wave musician named George whose gender swap in the '80 overturned her life
What advice can you offer to aspiring journalists?
Learn to listen deeply without waiting to interrupt or running your next question in your head. Read widely
When's the best time to pitch you?
Never, right now.
What's the worst pitch you ever got?
'You want to an interview with the producer of Housewives of New Jersey to talk about the issues that unite us all ...'
What's your favorite drink?
Negroni | Mango kumbucha | ice-cold spring water
When you're not at a computer, where are you most likely to be?
In the Appalachian wildlands. Playing guitar. Smoking a cigar far from my wife who hates them. Hoisting a fuzzy cat.
Aside from your own, what's your favorite publication to read?
TalkingPointsMemo.com | AEON magazine | Slate | DailyBeast | New York Review of Books
What's the most common misperception about your beat?
My beat nowadays is long-form essays, sorta memoirs
