Every once in a while, I’ll write a story that never runs. This happened twice last year — two of the pieces I wrote for Ultimate Northwest never saw the light of day because the magazine ceased to exist. I’m not surprised, as it was a very tough year for the publishing world and the magazine was getting slimmer and slimmer by the issue (inability to sell ads = inability to fill pages with stories). I’d love to sell the stories to another publication, but they are so localized … and there really aren’t a whole lot of Portland-based publications that would cover these topics. The good news is I have this blog-that-I’ve-barely-used attached to my web site, so I can just post them here! Not quite the same, but better than nothing (especially because one of the stories is about fashion, and I really would like to nudge my writing career in that direction).

With that said … I’ll be posting some of my homeless stories this week. Oh, and while it should go without saying, the content I post belongs to me. Nobody, and I mean nobody, is authorized to print or post my stories anywhere without my permission.

Coming soon (soon meaning before springtime if I can work it into the budget) … a re-design of dawnweinberger.com! My web site is now almost five years old, and it is time for a refresh. I’m once again enlisting the services of Angie at 420 Creative. She is a fantastic designer and a pleasure to work with, and I’m excited to see what she creates this time around.

I wrote the following stories earlier this year for MyRegence.com, on behalf of King5.com and KSL.com …

Going blind: Macular degeneration a real possibility for some seniors

The SAD Story: Seasonal affective disorder is more than just a case of the rainy-day blues

Couples get down on the couch — for counseling

Women and self-esteem

Pain in the neck (and back, and shoulders): Reduce or avoid back, neck and shoulder pain with tips from a physical therapist

For the past couple of years, I’ve been pitching stories about liver disease and organ donation awareness to lots and lots of different publications. I haven’t had a lot of luck placing them, which is sad to me because these are important health topics that people need to know more about.

A couple of months ago, though, AOL’s Lemondrop blog did publish a post I wrote about my personal experience with liver diseases (yay, finally!). Click here to read it.

Earlier this week, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer stopped printing. Honestly, I felt a little sad. Not so much because of the P.I. itself (although that is part of it — I grew up reading the P.I., and friends of friends worked there), but more so because of what this change symbolizes.

I don’t want to see print journalism die. I don’t want to be forced to read all my news online, and I definitely don’t want to surrender the career I love to so-called citizen journalists, opinionated news blogs and 250-word blurbs masquerading as feature stories. Sadly, I think (no, I fear) we are headed in this direction.

So, what can we do? We can fight back. We can let publishers know that we still want to read words on paper. We can refuse to accept pseudo-journalism as legitimate news reporting. And, we can put our money where our mouth is by subscribing to our local and community newspapers. Admittedly, I haven’t had a subscription to the Oregonian in years and, worse, I’ve never subscribed to the Hillsboro Argus (even though the office is located less than two miles from my home). Why? Well, because I spend most of my day in front of a monitor and, like so many other people, figured it was just easier to read the news online. I think it is time to change this. Yes, I’ll still read web sites, but I think it is time to go back to reading at least some news the old-fashioned way. And so, as soon as I finish this post, I will click on over to the Hillsboro Argus web site and subscribe.

I doubt my small gesture will save print journalism, but maybe (just maybe) it will help a little.

OK, so I am way, way behind on keeping this blog updated! I have a huge stack of articles that need to go in my portfolio (no, I haven’t been on vacation since March of last year!!), and that involves taking time to scan them and create PDFs and send them to my web designer. In the meantime, here’s brief rundown of a few of my recent projects.

I’ve been working on a lot of seasonal articles this year, including a holiday gift guide (set to publish on November 30th) and a story on how to make your Christmas a little greener. I also have a few recently-published stories on the web, including profiles of Lynn Nakamoto and Darius Hartwell in Super Lawyers magazine.

This month, I have articles in Your Dog and Ultimate Northwest. The Your Dog story is about the challenges dog owners and veterinarians face in diagnosing and treating dogs with Lupus. For Ultimate Northwest, I wrote about charitable athletic events, like Sail for the Cure and the Donate Life golf tournament. I also recently wrapped up some stories for MyRegence.com and Newsline, the employee magazine for Portland General Electric.

Check out my review of Insomnia Coffee Company on LivePDX.com. I also wrote a bridal registry gift guide and a story on wedding-day hair/make-up for Explore the Pearl’s January/February 2008 issue. Click here to read the magazine online.

Months have passed since I’ve added a new clip to my portfolio page. Lately, I’ve been writing for some print-only publications (like The Portland Physician Scribe) and web-based subscription-only publications (like MyRegence.com) so I haven’t had links to post. If you would like to see a more recent clip, please contact me and I’ll forward something your way.

Just wanted to let everyone know that I am starting to return to work after a two-and-a-half month break. My husband had a liver transplant on August 8th, so I took time off to help him recover. I will still keep my hours limited until he returns to work on January 2nd, but as of this week I am definitely available for assignments and projects. Also, please drop by our liver transplant blog where I have documented our journey for the past several months.