Fantasy Kingdom on the World Vision Report

You might remember my piece in the Christian Science Monitor titled “Frivolous gift or lifelong memory?” in which I take 20 kids and an old man into a Bangladeshi amusement park. If you were too lazy to read it, now all you have to do is sit back and listen to my hick %$#@ redneck accented voice (as a recent YouTube commenter called it) read it to you.

Listen to Fantasy Kingdom on the WVR

Enjoy. Ya’ll come back now…ya hear?

Look at me Ma, I’m on ABC news!

I was browsing around today and stumbled across my latest contribution to the CS Monitor on the ABC news website.

It’s a funny thing not knowing when and where something you write and sell is going to show up. The Monitor has 90-day rights to do whatever the heck they want to do with anything I contribute to them. I suppose if they wanted to turn the Fantasy Kingdom piece into a mini-series starring Ricky Schroeder they could.

It would be nice to be in the know about where and when my writing is going to show up, but I don’t have much of a problem not knowing. Really, I think it’s pretty cool that someone at ABC News liked my story, too. And it’s a nice bio booster to say that my work has appeared on ABC News.

For the record, I’m not going to hold my breath on the Rick Schroeder at Fantasy Kingdom mini-series.

A salute to all of my former, current, and future editors

It’s great having someone actually think about a story that you wrote and how it could be made more poignant, powerful, gooder, or more grammaticarularly written. I could always use a good editor or two.

When I first sent the piece on Fantasy Kingdom to Judy at the Christian Science Monitor, she liked it but thought it was missing something. Why would someone take 20 kids in Bangladesh to an amusement park? I didn’t have an answer. In my original piece, I wrote about the fun we had and about our imbalanced world, but I never answered the question that was the most obvious.

I added the bits about me being a roller coaster enthusiast (roller coasters rule in Ohio) and wrapped it up with an answer to Judy’s question. I sent it back to her that same day and she accepted it. This is one of the favorite things I’ve written in awhile and it wouldn’t be if it weren’t for Judy.

An interesting tidbit of editing: The CSM changed the tense of my story from present to past. I much prefer to write in the present tense and find it interesting that they changed it. I picture some editor’s assistant cussing me as he turns all my say’s into said’s. I don’t mind the changes. I just feel bad for the fella that had to make them. See if you think it makes a difference. Read the present tense version below the cut.

The first time I ever got paid for something I wrote, it was for this. I sent in my story unsolicited. They accepted it. Edited it and sent it back. And by editing here, they made it way worse. Trust me, it was no gem to begin with, but they were making things up that never happened and arranging them in a fashion that, if they had happened, still made no sense. My words aren’t precious, even less so now that I’ve written a lot more of them, and I don’t want anyone thinking I’m some kind of wordsmith lost in the glory of my craft, each stroke of the keyboard one of genius. I weighed my options and politely told them their edit was crap, putting in danger my first writing payday of…(wait for it)…$20. They were reasonable to work with and thankfully, we found some common ground.

I’m sure in publishing circles editors get credit and blame, but to the average reader they don’t. They are a name on a masthead or in the acknowledgments, toiling away behind the scenes, trying to make things not suck.

And really, is there anything more admirable than making things not suck?

(more…)

In the Christian Science Monitor: My story on Fantasy Kingdom

My latest contribution to the CSM is in today’s paper.

Read: Was it a frivolous gift or a lifelong dream?

So, was it a frivolous gift or a lifelong dream? Let me know.

Encore! Encore!

The World Vision Report included my Honduras soccer piece on an encore edition. I’m glad they liked it well enough to run it again. I think my On Air reading still has a lot of room for improvement.

Great news, but it would be even greater, if they paid twice!

Baseball Photos

My experience teaching baseball in Honduras just aired on the World Vision report a few weeks ago and I’ve had a request to post photos from our game of muddy baseball.

Seeing how the MLB playoffs just started yesterday, what better time is there to post photos of America’s pastime in Honduras?

None.

Go here to check them out.

My piece “Explaining Baseball” on the World Vision Report

The piece aired this past week on the nationally syndicated program. Hear what it’s like to be a non-baseball playing American who becomes an international ambassador of baseball for a day.

Listen to it now.

The theme of this particular show was “Helping Out.” You can listen to the full show here.

I highly recommend listening to this piece on Scott Neeson, a Hollywood big wig that turned his back on living the high life and is now giving hope to the children of Phnom Penh’s city dump in Cambodia. I featured the dump in Sundays “a thousand words” photo.

Thoughts on my WV interview

First off, if you haven’t listened to my interview, you stink.

Now that we have that out of the way…my thoughts on the interview:

The interview lasted about 40 minutes and they cut it to about six, which I’m fine with. It’s not like it’s the Kelsey Show or anything.

They did a great job making me not sound like an idiot.

I would believe anything that Peggy, the host, tells me – there’s just something about her voice. So, by association you should believe everything I tell you.

The interview was the most difficult one of the three because the connection was so bad. There was a major delay and it was hard to banter back and forth with Peggy. Editing took care of this awkwardness.

They had to cut parts on Fantasy Kingdom and my perceived interest in women’s panties.

The next one about my all-American Cambodian blue jeans should air in about a month.

Aboard the Pirate Master ship

Last year I went on the Picton Castle for a story for the short-lived Glucose Magazine. This summer the ship starred in the CBS-flop Pirate Master. It only aired for a few weeks. Don’t blame the PC’s crew or the PC because, for the most part, they rock. I expect if they show would have featured the crew instead of nut-case, attention-starved contestants producers find to be on reality shows, it would have been a success.

I viewed an episode online and at first I didn’t recognize her very much. She’s got a new, meaner looking Black-Pearl-like paint job and the decks been outfitted to appear more pirate-y.

Read the feature, Before & After the Mast, I wrote on a week on the Picton Castle in the Great Lakes or (warning cheesy pirate cliché) walk the PLANK!

World Vision Report interview - Part 1

My first interview (1 of 3) with the World Vision Report’s Peggy Wehmeyer airs this week. I discuss the origin of the quest, searching for the factory that made my t-shirt in Honduras and the one that made my underwear in Bangladesh.

Go here to find the time and date a station in your area airs the WV report

OR

Listen to it online now