The Oil Spill Story, All in One Place

I've edited the three posts I wrote about my visit to the oil spill into one post.  If you were following the story this week, there's nothing substantive in the new post that you haven't seen.  Writing students might want to take a gander at it.  I wrote a new lead and cut out repetitive text that referenced things I'd said on previous days.  I took out the references to my grandson and my pathetic case of laryngitis/bronchitis.  (I got antibiotics, so I think I'll survive.)

I made the judgment call of keeping the style folksy, complete with the sad story of my citation for fishing illegally, although I could just as easily have converted the whole piece into something more journalistic.  Writing students can make their own judgment as to whether this was the right decision.

I've already reworked the basic information into something much more formal and significantly shorter, for submission to the New York Times Op-ed page.  It will stay in circulation, as I'd love to find a print home for it.  And I've begun submitting queries for an article in some form for one or more online venues.  We'll see if anybody bites.

In the meantime, I'd really like this story to find a readership.  Not as promotion for my books or my blog, but just because I think it's important.  If you're so inclined, feel free to tweet it or put a link on your facebook page or chat it up in your online communities or link it to your own blog.  If you're writing about the oil spill yourself, or if you know of related articles that might be interesting to people reading here, let me know, and I'll post them here.

I'll be out of town for most of next week, but I'll try to make sure there's relatively recent content here.  Thanks for reading.

Mary Anna