So in my other life, it seems I am morphing into a celebrity blogger.
I may be interviewing Cuba Gooding Jr. next week, and for certain I am interviewing the stars of the TLC reality series, “Little People, Big World.”
This is all part of my gig over at PD, which has been very, very good to me so far. It is a lot of work (think volume) and it could easily threaten to take over my entire writing life, but …
I mean, famous people!
It’s a far cry from the days when I would write about anything, everything, for the small suburban newspaper where I started my career. I once wrote a story about a dude who hunted turtles and made soup out of them, just because he wandered into our office (where I had to clean the toilet once a week, yo), and there was a hole on page 3 that needed to be filled.
I moved up at that organization fast—I was hungry and willing to write about literally ANYTHING—and the stories got bigger and better. I still went to the high-school prom every May, and I still covered the first day of Kindergarten, but I also covered stories like the two teenage lovers who were killed on a train trestle.
They’d been hanging out on the bridge, fooling around like kids do, when a train came. The girl’s foot got stuck in the tracks and her boyfriend went back for her.
They both died.
I was an editor by then, and held my sobbing reporter when she came back from the funeral.
“They spit at me!” she cried. “They called me a vulture!”
I covered the story about the woman who’d been in a coma for years and then suddently turned up pregnant. The baby came out a beautiful mocha color, and that was the final clue police needed to solve the case. A worker in her nursing home had raped her.
The baby helped the woman’s parents move on; they took the child home and finally turned off the machines keeping their daughter alive.
I covered a case of three teenage hooligans who locked one of their mothers in a closet, put a bag over her head, and beat her with a hammer.
She survived.
I covered the story of a local man who was killed during a millitary test flight that crashed. I had to call his mother the very morning she’d gotten the news of her son’s death.
And that was the hardest, saddest phone call I ever had to make.
Why am I telling you all this? I’m not sure. Sometimes I think back on those days and I can’t believe the audacity I had, to just pick up the phone, put on my big-girl voice and ask the hard questions. The paper may have been small, but the stories—the very human, very meaningful stories—never were.
All this to say that when I first got wind that I would have to interview (gasp!) real live TV stars, I got nervous.
Then I remembered the woman whose son died, and the courage it took to one 24-year-old girl reporter to ask her how she felt about it, when the news was still fresh for them both.
{ 22 comments… read them below or add one }
Jeez! From the looks of it, you have been BUSY over there. Just remember, you probably can’t write about dildos on your garbage can on that site.
That is really great Amy. They know great writing when they see it.
This is so poignant. Cuba Gooding, Jr. has nothing on a mother who’s just lost her son.
I have a journalism degree although I haven’t done much reporting. I did a lot of fact-checking though, and it was not celebrity fact checking that was hard, it was the people with the real stories, like the father whose daughter was killed by a mob in Apartheid South Africa. And I talked to him years later.
I wish you so much luck. You are going to do great!!
Wow, congratulations! See, you have talent, the world will notice!
And yeah, I can’t imagine having to do all the hard stories.
I have to say I was thankful when no reporters came snooping around after my dad died. None of them called but there was a camera crew at his house when the emt’s wheeled a body bag out. I saw the footage and I remember thinking, “That could be my dad.”
And at the coroner’s inquest there were reporters from 2 local TV stations not 5 feet away from me. “How old did they say he was?” asked one reporter of his colleague. “Um, 57 or something.” she replied. I leaned over to them and told them my father was 59. They didn’t say another word to me other than “thank you.”
I respect the sometimes difficult job of a reporter. Good to hear that you’re getting some “happy” assignments.
Enjoy the upcoming interviews! Yes, enjoy. I know the hard ones were not enjoyable for you or the victims.
Just don’t forget about us little people when you make it to the big time! : )
Congratulation! You deserve it.
You are amazing, don’t you know?
Ask Mr Gooding Junior how much they paid him to appear in Snow Dogs.
That is awesome Amy! I am so excited for you!
That’s the thing about journalism — you’re getting paid to peek into someone else’s life everyday. Sometimes it’s so hard, and sometimes I wonder if we really are all vultures. Other times it’s fun. But it’s always something different.
What great news! I am happy for you and your achievements. I am still new at blogging, and you are such an inspiration. Wish you all the best.
Your life sounds a lot like mine … but without the celebrity interviews (unless you count talking about art with Frank Serpico, which I don’t).
I remember covering a feel-good story about two boys — best friends — one had saved the other from a bee-sting attack by staying level headed and calling 9-1-1. Then having to cover it all over again the next week when the hero shot and killed the boy accidentally.
I’ve been called a vulture and spit at; I’ve been sent booze in the mail for colorful stories I’d written about colorful folks. I’ve had photographs I’d taken saved in scrapbooks and pulled out, yellowed and dogeared, when the people meet me at parties are realize I was that girl in the credit line.
There’s nothing like small-town news. No celebrity will ever really compete.
Amy — awesome. One of my favorite quotes: “One writer’s success is every writer’s success.” You rock.
Journalism is as important to our democracy as any of the three branches of government. It’s valuable in all its incarnations.
Congrats on your latest foray into the fun stuff!
Yay for you! I am so proud of you and you know, even without those “celebs” to interview, you were already famous in my book.
Yayyyyy Amy! I am so proud. I think it’s awesome, amazing and about damn time! Have fun sweetie! You have more than earned it.
You’ll be amazing.
oh my. Some of those stories… good luck with the interviews! You’ll be great I am positive of that.
That is crazy! You have had a wild and interesting career, girl! Whatever you do, you always produce spectacular results. No wonder they want to give you all the fancy celebs! Good luck!
Covering those kinds of stories and making those kinds of phone calls are the reasons why I never made it past small-town newspaper reporter.
Wow wow and good luck. You know you’re talented. We all think you are!