Jeffrey Young visits with a magazine-writing class

SACRAMENTO, Calif. USA, CSU Sacramento campus - Jeffrey Young, the editor of Prosper magazine in Sacramento dropped by this semester's magazine writing class Tuesday night to dispense some wisdom - and crack a lot of jokes - in a guest-speaking gig.

Since taking over the helm of Prosper last year, he has been carefully reshaping the product and also turning the website into something much more lively.

Both the print and online Prosper products are works in progress, he told the students, and probably always will be given the way the business of publishing is changing.


Jeffrey Young

A journalism pro, Young has written for Forbes and dozens of other magazines. He started his journalism career at the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner - almost on a whim - while working as a screenwriter in Hollywood.

Since then his resume went wild with clips from magazines and he wrote two books about Steve Jobs.


Book about Steve Jobs

He threw out dozens of nuggets for the students in his short visit but stressed repeatedly that any writer who submitted a query - or whose story was up for consideration for being included in his magazine - had better capture his interest completely within a couple of paragraphs, or their future with him couldn't even be called dim.

If I went back into the news bizz it would be to write a column

NAKED COFFEESHOP, Sacramento, Calif. - If I had to go back to a real, fulltime writing job again, I would probaby try to land a column-writing gig.

Teaching column writing this fall - and doing some column-like writing myself in these postings and in other places - has shown me how much I still like to write commentary, mixed with news. Or is it news mixed with commentary?

Whatever...

Today I had tea with the Sacramento Bee newspaper's new three-dot columnist, a young reporter-turned columnist named Lisa Heyamoto who hails from Seattle, Spokane with a little of the state of Hawaii thrown in.

After two years of working as a reporter - doing bar reviews, among other things - she landed her current job, finding three or four odd tidbits about life in Sacramento for her three-times a week column. Three-times-a-week is keeping her moving pretty fast, but she is quickly making the transition from reporter to columnist.


Lisa Heyamoto

Lisa's column

And if her laughter is any indication, she is having a lot of fun.

As a relative newcomer to Sacramento, the three-dot items don't come as easy as they might for someone who has been here for 20 years. But then in her case, the fresh set of eyes is showing the city a new - and younger - light.

And she probably sees a lot of things other people miss, because her usual mode of transit around the downtown, mid-town areas of Sacramento is a sturdy-looking bicycle that brought her to the coffee shop this morning.

Unfortunately, as we finished up our respective cups of tea (Earl Grey for me, English Breakfast for Lisa), it started to rain, which meant a soggy ride for the six blocks Lisa had to go to get back to her mid-town digs.

"Don't worry about me," she said. "I used to live in Seattle."

Finding the time to write in a busy schedule

SACRAMENTO, Calif., USA - The semester has roared along like a freight train ready to fly off the tracks with what has seemed like no time to write any blog entries, either here for students or on my other active areas.

Captain's Blog

From Where I Sit

Considering that I was updating all three almost daily just a few months ago, I had to ponder what-the-hell happened.

Easy: students!

I have four writing classes this semester and in each of them students are starting to crank out stories and columns - not to mention an almost steady stream of emails with questions about how to write those stories and columns, each taking a few minutes to ponder and reply to.

The columns and stories are a joy, mostly, because I read about things the students are interested in and get their 20-30 year old perspectives. But every column I read, or story I critique, is time that I am not posting anything.

So it was so strange this afternoon to find that between now and 6 p.m. - my next class - I had virtually nothing critical (relating to classes) that I needed to accomplish.

Whew.

The class providing me with the most stimulation/work/anxiety is the one that focuses on column writing. I opted to go sans textbook, which saved the students probably $100 in book costs but which has meant some serious uncertainy on the part of at least a few of students, particularly those who don't read columns at all.

They're getting over that pretty fast.

The stimulation part for me is seeing all the columns that can be/need be written.

At our university in the last week, a semi-scandal arose in which the local newspaper published a story that the president of the university had written letters to help two local big game hunters go bag animals for a campus museum - a museum that will never be built. The real kicker is that these hunters were given credentials (based largely on the plea of the president) to hunt some animals that are now considered endangered species.

And the hunters did indeed go to Tanzania and do some serious shooting, prompting the latest outcry from the Humane Society of America, the spokesman for which says that going out and blasting animals - so they can be stuffed and put in museums - is an idea that is about 100 years out of date.

The campus pundits have been having a great time with jokes, from referring to the President as Ramar of University, to an clever twist on the university's unofficial motto (bestowed by the president): Leadership Begins Here.

Since the news about the hunting and the president's involvement, it's been suggested that the new unofficial motto should be Taxidermy Begins Here.

I think that last one is pretty funny, bwana.

My column writing fingers are so itchy right now, I better take some benadryl before I do something foolish.

Big Game Hunt Criticized

A new semester, a new class and new stories

SACRAMENTO, Calif. USA - The next generation of CSUS magazine writers are hard at work on their first stories and today I just asked them to create a blog so that they can have an audience - and support group - for their work.

When the blogs are created, they will be linked to this page.

The class has some great story ideas, some quite sophisticated. Of course, a few people want to write about world hunger or global warming, topics that are probably beyond them for now.

I am starting to pursue several stories myself this fall - one on the poisoning of Lake Davis, three hours north of Sacramento. The Department of Fish and Game is poisoning the lake to kill the Northern Pike (a non-native fish) that have take up residence in the lake. Of course, this will also kill every other living thing in the lake, originally created as a reservoir for drinking water.

It would be tragic enough, but the DFG already tried this several years ago, failed, and had to pay nearly $10 million in damages to the people of the area for the gaffe that cost them tourist dollars and a lot of anguish.

The Sacramento Bee has taken up the cudgel against these fish (which are prized in other parts of the nation as one of the best game fish in freshwater lakes). The rhetoric has been growing exponentially, including an editorial a few weeks ago that linked the situation at Lake Davis to the fictional town of Amity on Long Island.

Yup, that was the city from the movie "Jaws."

Time to invoke the '1-hour rule' for getting it all done

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - I think I devised this plan when I shifted from working as a newspaper editor to university professor, more than 20 years ago.

In the news business, using your time wisely was rarely an issue - your deadlines made it so that you had to write and research as fast as you could, no matter what. And external (news) events dictated your schedule.

Today, as a university professor with a multiplicity of responsibilities (chair of the university Faculty Senate, freelance writer, teacher, boat owner and, and, and...) I see that the nine things on my 'to do' list could easily send me into a day of furtive motion, which likely would result in nothing getting completed.

So today, I am invoking what I call the '1-hour rule' for the items on the list: each will get one hour of attention, though it's clear that I won't need a full hour for some. At least I hope not.

During the one-hour, I focus just on that one thing - in this case, updating this blog and sending out an email to my magazine writing class, directing them here. If I get done before 8:15 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time, great. If not, I'll move on to something else, but I will have put in a solid hour. But, like the news business, I have a deadline to get this done and I can see as I type a little too slow that I better get moving quicker if I want to be able to cross this off the list.

What's amazing is how much can be accomplished in an hour, if that hour is spent solely on one thing. It means no checking email, no peeking to see what today's high temperature is going to be in Tenacatita Bay, no calling anyone on the telephone to chat, no going out in the backyard to see if the fruit trees are still growing...

It does include getting another cup of tea, however, because the caffeine helps get things cranking.

The 1-hour rule works well for me and the people I've convinced to use it, say it helps them focus. One item on today's list is clean the patio. If I do give it a full hour, the place will shine.

But I can't start thinking about that yet, I have this to complete - which it now is, in just about in 22 minutes.

What's next on that list?