It’s been a while
I have not posted any writing here in some time. I took a short break over the holidays to lose myself in the joy of Christmas with my kids. Then the storms rolled in and only stopped just yesterday.
Now I am back at it. I have not been writing much as a big story I was working on at the end of last year and early this year has gone to press. You can read it here. It is about the rewilding of a wildlife refuge in northern Nevada.
What was taking my time? Studying for the Part 107 UAV Certification exam. Which I took and have passed. Now I can legally fly drones for my journalism and storytelling.
Next up for me is the story on coffee origins. Reno has dozens of coffee shops and they are all doing things a little bit differently. This story is going to look into where each shop (or roaster) sources the coffee and how they strive to stand apart from the crowd.
I’ve interviewed three locations. One shop uses wood-fired heat to roast the coffee. One prides itself on the customer experience and serving a quality cup of coffee. The last one owns three coffee farms, growing the coffee they roast and serve.
The goal of the story is going to be a story map that will be part consumer guide and part informational. Coffee does not grow in our region so it has to travel thousands of miles to get here.
I am also writing daily haikus this year. It is something I have done in the past but this year plan on studying the form more and cultivating a collection of haikus that I will try to get published somewhere.
Each haiku is about something that happened in my day or left a mark on me. They are usually one or two stanzas, sometimes more. Already, I feel that I have composed some good haikus. For me, it is a moment of zen to take pen to paper and find the perfect 17 syllables that summarize the day.
Here is my favorite one so far:
a short lived drama
aflame, in the morning sky
broken clouds, at last
saturated land
mountain snow and valley rain
will the drought soon end?
time will only tell
if it warms and the snow melts
or, stay and revive
I am also taking on more video editing clients. In honor of that, I’ll leave you with a short video I made with my drone showcasing a beautiful winter landscape.
