Ready for a Road Trip?

If you're looking for somewhere to go this summer, check out my story that ran in The Hill newspaper today on road trips. I've posted it on my new Web site at http://mindylong.com/road-tripping-with-congress/.  The Hill is published on Capitol Hill and the story features some senators' and representatives' favorite spots in their districts. You'll have to let me know if you visit anywhere I've written about!!! 

By the way--the Web site still has a few little things I'm tweaking here and there. I'll be posting to my new blog on the site tonight and plan to start posting at least 2-3 times a week. You can get there via www.mindylong.com or www.mindywrites.com so check back there soon! 

Whew...Time to Breathe

This past week was a crazy flurry of deadlines for me. I'm not sure how I managed to have so many pieces due all on the same day, but it meant that I have been writing like crazy.

I also had quite a few sleepless nights this week as I was trying to get an interview with Rep. Oberstar from Minnesota that I wasn't sure was going to come through. I had to turn the piece in on Thursday and I didn't get the interview until late Wednesday. WHEW! Rep. Oberstar is the chairman of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure and I was doing a general profile. I am really happy with the way the story turned out and I can't wait to see it once it is all designed.

I also finished a 1,500-word piece this week on automatic transmissions in heavy-duty trucks. Have you ever written about automatic transmissions??? Let me tell you--those 1,500 words were pretty difficult, not to mention the 800 words I did in sidebars. I love stories like that because I learn a lot, but it takes more time and I always end up doing more interviews and research than was probably needed, but I like to be careful. It will run in early December.

The "fun" piece I did this week was on a new flavored-water drink called SkinnyWater. It is zero calories and has some additives that are supposed to help you lose weight. I haven't tried it, but it sounds like something I could use after all those ice cream Snickers bars I've been eating!

After I hit send on that story, I had three 1,000-word pieces I was doing for another client. I had finished all my interviews last week, but I still had to get it all written. So, the blog posting was light, but I was doing lots of other writing!

The rest of the month looks pretty quiet so far. I guess that is the nature of freelancing!

I Made it in American Baby

One day I would like to get a full feature story in American Baby, but for now, I'll settle for the quote they ran on page 58 of this month's issue. I had to nearly wrestle Evan to get him to pose for that picture! The quote is in a call-out box "What Worked for You?" in the story about feeding your baby solid foods.


I said having a high chair that reclined helped put gravity on our side when we started cereal with Evan. It really helped and I would recommend it to any new mom! :-)