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Community corresponding is where I got my professional-writing start [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2024-11-24  

Publishing as a “community diarist” at The Daily Kos; where that’s concerned, this isn’t my first rodeo.

Come Jan. 20, 2025 I will celebrate my silver anniversary as a published writer. For me, that’s quite a milestone since I wasn’t formally trained in the field. I was, however, mentored and given good advice along the way.

My first submission to actually appear in ink on a published newspaper page had to do with upcoming railroad-crossing closures in Fresno, California, ahead of what was referred to as a maintenance “blitz”. The article was more or less a heads-up piece alerting residents of the work that was coming up. The article was contributed to by then Neighbors newspaper editor Tim Sheehan. The report: “Rail ‘blitz’ will close crossings in Fresno,” was published in the newspaper’s “Northwest Edition.” Come to think of it, I haven’t seen an issue of Neighbors — outside of the Jan. 20, 2000 copy I have before me now, that is — in years.

Just three weeks later, as a matter of fact, my first published “commentary” appeared. It, too, came out in the same Fresno Bee “Community” publication, just a different issue is all, this one dated Feb. 10, 2000. It’s title being: “Rebirth or requiem for the old Santa Fe train depot,”

a “Your Turn” contribution. I thought my position supporting a depot restoration and rededication was pretty compelling. And that’s what was done it turns out. If I recall correctly, the station was reopened for public use as a multimodal transportation hub located in Fresno’s downtown in 2004.

By that time no longer a fledgling to the field of community corresponding, I continued in the community correspondent role, from that time forward contributing monthly to the NorthView newspaper, which was also Fresno-based. In one edition I had two articles published, in fact, one being a “personal-profile” story, the other being an historical sketch. Sadly, NorthView was pulled from circulation. Its intended audience had been North Fresno residents.

I exited that writing genre moving onto bigger and better things. Included among those were assignments as Associate Editor of Fresno, a lifestyle magazine, as well as my serving in that very same capacity (as I remember it) for both the Home & Garden and Bride & Groom magazines, from the same publisher also.

My career as a paid writer ended on a high note with contributions to two Coastal-California-based publications: Central Coast Magazine (Oct. 2007) and Ventana Monthly magazine (the date of the issue that my contribution was published in I do not recall at this time).

That being said, I feel right at home as a Community diarist at The Daily Kos. Emphasis on “Community.”

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/11/24/2288480/-Community-corresponding-is-where-I-got-my-professional-writing-start?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web

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