Allan Duffin - Writer/Producer

"Towman Down!" new article in Towing & Recovery Footnotes

The October issue of Towing & Recovery Footnotes has my new article, "Towman Down!," on the front page. I've written about business, technical, medical and marketing issues for Footnotes, but this article deals with an entirely new angle: towing specialists who suffered horrible injuries on the job — and with great courage and determination recovered and came back to work as quickly as they could.

The stories of Jason Cooke and Jarrid Mikel are quite moving, and it was a privilege for me to pen this article. Their bravery reflects the best in all of us. Here's a short clip from Cooke's portion of the article:

Jason Cooke pulled his tow truck to a careful stop near the sinkhole. He surveyed the scene in front of him. The excavator — which weighed twice as much as Cooke’s 50-ton wrecker — was drenched in mud, its left track buried in a pool of muck.

Cooke attached four lines on the driver’s side and one line on the passenger side. Another line was fastened 18 to 20 inches behind him. As Cooke began to tighten up the rigging, his equipment suddenly failed him.

“A brand-new 5/8” alloy chain broke,” he recalls, “ and a 12-ton snatch block came flying off the machine and hit me in the left leg.” Cooke was thrown 30 feet from his truck and landed hard in the middle of the highway.

The other members of the recovery team, including Roland Russ and Cooke’s boss Phillip McCorquodale, rushed over to Cooke’s crumpled body. His leg was bleeding all over the pavement; his femur (the thigh bone) was cracked and sticking out. The towers cut through Cooke’s pants to get to the wound, then pulled off his belt and sliced it into a makeshift tourniquet. After wrapping the belt around Cooke’s damaged leg, Russ continued to provide first aid until the paramedics finally arrived.

The EMTs did their best to stabilize Cooke, then rushed him by ambulance to Duplin General Hospital in nearby Kenansville. “While this was going on,” says Cooke, “Phillip made a phone call and got a helicopter in the air.” McCorquodale had grown up in the area and knew that Duplin General would be unable to handle this type of trauma case, so he arranged for a medevac chopper to transport Cooke somewhere else. As the ambulance carrying Cooke pulled into Duplin General, the helicopter was landing nearby.

View clips from this article here.

Mourning American Heritage

Freelance writing requires constant pitching and self-marketing. If I'm not actively pitching story ideas to editors, I'm researching and writing new pitches, plus getting the word out by doing things like writing this blog. I spend the remaining hours of the day actually writing writing. It's a delicate balance. I'm still pushing for the 36-hour day: that way you can spend time with your family, do your work, and still get at least eight hours of sleep. I'm not sure why people look at me funny when I explain it. Hmm.

While I've been pitching story ideas to various magazines (print and online versions), I learned (and am embarrassed that I didn't know about sooner) that American Heritage, the venerable history magazine, suspended print publication with its April/May 2007 issue. This is tragic news for history writers and readers alike. I was fortunate enough to talk to James Parton, one of the founders of American Heritage, when I was researching The "12 O'Clock High" Logbook a number of years ago. Parton was one of the original group of U.S. Army Air Force officers who set up VIII Bomber Command in England during the early days of World War II.

The New York Times ran a story about what happened to American Heritage. Here's a brief explanation from the company's press release:

American Heritage, a bimonthly, was founded in 1954. It was bought by Forbes Inc. in 1986 and has suffered financially in recent years amid hard times for magazines in general. Forbes put it up for sale earlier this year and has not yet found a buyer.

Fortunately, the online version of the magazine is still active. Here's hoping that someone forks over the dough to keep American Heritage going.

Traditional media, including print publications and broadcast television, have been dealing with rapidly changing terrain for a number of years now: the new generations of readers are switching to online methods of obtaining their information and entertainment. For those of us who cherish holding a fresh newspaper or magazine in our hands, who knows how much longer we'll be able to enjoy that experience? Technology is supplanting the seemingly old-fashioned methods of information interchange. I'm a big fan of new tech, but I'm also a writer who pens a lot of history pieces. So one eyeball is on the future while the other is on the past. It's hard to see straight sometimes!

"The Bombing of Bly" in the new Military Heritage Magazine

The October 2007 edition of Military Heritage Magazine features my new piece, "The Bombing of Bly." It's a heartbreaking tale of how war can affect innocents in even the most remote of locations. On Saturday, May 5, 1945 — three days before the end of World War II in Europe and just three months before the Japanese surrendered — the small Oregon town of Bly lost its minister, his wife, and five children to an enemy weapon that took them by surprise:

The U.S. government immediately shrouded the event in secrecy, labeling the six deaths as occurring from an “unannounced cause.” But in the close-knit atmosphere of Bly, many of the locals had already learned the truth: Elsie Mitchell and the five children were victims of an enemy “balloon bomb,” held aloft by a gigantic hydrogen-filled sphere and whisked from Japan to the western seaboard of the United States. The contraption had alighted on Gearhart Mountain, where it lay in wait until the fateful day when it found its victims — the only deaths from enemy attack within the United States during World War II.

The article was edited by Roy Morris, Jr., and is my second piece in Military Heritage. Click here to view the clip of the article. I have another article — about another frightening military experiment of WWII — that will appear in the magazine next year.

Two articles in the new DramaBiz Magazine

The July/August 2007 issue of DramaBiz Magazine has hit the streets. In it you'll find two articles I wrote. In "Theatre Flooring: It's Not Just for Standing On," explore the surprisingly fascinating world of floor surfaces, from vinyl to Marley:

Your most useful tool in choosing a new floor is to talk to those who will use it the most. Of course, opinions will vary depending on whom you’re asking. “Lighting designers like non-reflective floors and generally like black,” says Randy Swartz of Stagestep. “On the other hand, dancers usually prefer gray flooring, which gives them a horizon.” Renae Williams, the director of dance presentation at the Los Angeles Music Center, took a democratic approach to choosing a new stage floor for her facility: “Our Technical Director researched several different options and also spoke with the production staff from the companies we present. We want our visiting artists to feel comfortable and well taken care of while here.”

After that, check out "Attracting a Younger Audience with Web-Savvy Marketing Techniques," which contains many hints and secrets that can apply to all businesses, not just theatre-related ones:

“Like many theaters around the country,” says Susie Falk, director of marketing for California Shakespeare Theater in Berkeley, Calif., “we were concerned about the national decline in subscriptions.” To attack the problem, Cal Shakes launched its “New Generations” program, targeted to individuals in the 18-to-35 age group. The program blends low-tech marketing tools—discounted tickets, pre- and post-show parties—with high-tech methods like Web-based message boards, blogs, podcasts and video presentations.

Summer's here! Upcoming magazine articles

Lots of great reading coming up in the next several months! I have articles scheduled for publication in Military Heritage Magazine this October (Roy Morris, Jr., editor); DramaBiz (2 articles in the July/August issue -- Joel Dorr, editor); and Towing & Recovery Footnotes (multiple articles during the next several months -- Bill Candler, editor).

Also coming up: A short piece for Air&Space/Smithsonian Magazine (Linda Shiner and Pat Trenner, editors); a new article for AMVETS' American Veteran Magazine (Jonathan Agg, editor); and still more in Military Heritage.

I've been asked why I usually list the editors' names along with the articles. Well, when it comes to creating and fine-tuning a piece for a magazine or newspaper, the editor is the boss, and I'm very fortunate to work for a lot of great ones. So I like to list their names in appreciation, and because I think it's good for readers to know who drives these outstanding publications.

I'll post more about these articles as the issues appear on the newsstands in the near future. Stay tuned!

New article in DramaBiz Magazine: costume troubleshooting

Check out my new article for DramaBiz Magazine, "Costume Troubleshooting," in the just-published May-June 2007 issue. The article deals with last-minute costume emergencies that occur during theatrical shows. Here's a snippet:

Many last-minute costume crises revolve around rips, tears and misplaced items — “zippers failing, buttons popping, costumes falling off,” says Schenz. Adds Catanese, “I’ve had costume coordinators tell me that they broke zippers or the whole crotch of a pair of pants came apart.” Even worse: actors who become enamored of a wardrobe item, take it home, and forget to bring it back.

You can visit DramaBiz Magazine at www.dramabiz.com. A journal of the theatre industry, DramaBiz has great tips, tricks, and advice in every issue. The editor is Joel Dorr.

Website for Hot Psychology Magazine, version 3.0

A monthly online and PDF publication, Hot Psychology Magazine has an international staff of writers and editors who produce a great batch of solid, thoughtful articles on subjects as diverse as current events to sports to dating. The magazine's mission is, as its tagline reads, "discussing the issues that make us human." The editor in chief is Jim Idema. Over the last several months we've been working on a new design for the site, which just launched yesterday. Hot Psychology will hold its first conference in Chicago from September 6-8, 2007. Check out the new version 3.0 design of the Hot Psychology website here.

"Home, Home on the Road" in Towing & Recovery Footnotes

I have two new articles in the May 2007 issue of Towing & Recovery Footnotes, the journal of the tow truck industry. "Home, Home on the Road" is about the difficulties in rescuing disabled luxury recreational vehicles (RVs). That Winnebago might be a great home-on-wheels, but if it dies on the road or is involved in a traffic incident, it can be a real challenge for the tower. (Imagine having to upright a small overturned house using a winch and chains, and you have a rough idea of what's involved.) My second article in this issue of Towing Footnotes is "A Change of Place," about the business of exporting American tow trucks and towing equipment to Central and South America. It's a $4 billion annual business and was interesting to research, especially given the development of the "global economy" and the outsourcing of certain American industries to other countries.

New article in American Veteran Magazine

Check out my article "Desert Derby," just published in the Spring 2007 issue of American Veteran, the official magazine of AMVETS. Editor of the magazine is Jonathan Agg, who is AMVETS' national publication editor. The organization, based in Lanham, Md., provides counseling and claims assistance for veterans and their families, lobbies on Capitol Hill for veterans' benefits and services, and sponsors community service programs that provide scholarships, counseling, youth leadership training, and assistance for homeless veterans. As a veteran myself, I appreciate what organizations like AMVETS do for past and present military personnel.

Writing: the thorny issues of verifying and fact-checking

This is what some of us look like when it's time to double-check what we've written. It's time-consuming, tedious -- and absolutely necessary. I'm currently wrapping up four magazine articles and three sidebars (short complementary pieces that appear to the "side" of the main article). No matter how busy I get, I always follow my final step in the writing process: to verify quotes and information with the people who participated in each article. It's amazing how many people I've interviewed who have told me, "I was in another article a few months ago, and the writer made me look like an idiot." Why? Because the writer -- or whoever was shepherding the article to press -- didn't thoroughly verify what he or she had written. (For an eye-opening look at corrections and retractions in publications around the world, check out regrettheerror.com.)

In the rush to print (or post), people make mistakes; that's a given. But taking a few additional minutes to ensure that you've penned an accurate piece is always worth it. You might not catch everything, but you can save yourself the embarrassment of being called on an error that could have been avoided. It also makes your editor happy -- and you owe it to the publication for which you're writing. After all, they're paying you to do a good job. On top of it all, I like to check back with my interview subjects because it shows the proper respect for their time and effort. I figure it's the least I can do for their having spent their valuable time helping with my article.

Besides, good things come back to you. Last week I wrapped an editing job on a client's 400-page memoir. The story was engaging and wonderful to read, and it was a real pleasure to help polish the author's work for future publication. How did I get the job? Several months ago I interviewed the author for a magazine article I was writing. After we'd worked together on my project, he asked me if I'd be interested in helping with his.  You never know where things will take you!