Interviews

I interviewed three people for my paper. I started with what I felt was my most important person and had a great time. I treated her to lunch and she opened up and I got to record her onto a little digital device that I could upload to my computer. It went really well and much longer than planned but I got so much information--almost two hours worth--as well as names of other key people. But I felt that I needed more variety for my piece so I did another two. One of them was a little awkward, maybe because I was less careful, but I think it was just the person not really trusting me. He didn’t want me to keep the recording after I was done with it. It must be very sensitive material that he is so concerned. The last one was great, though, as I am friends with the person and I found the discourse pleasant. In total it’s about three hours of recorded material with a few good quotes.

Failed Starts (an attempt to get into the subject)

I bike. Mountain bike, that is. Lately just at night. With friends. After work. Away from home. Every Thursday, we meet, at the Java Hut usually, in Fairfax, across from the brewery, in a large parking lot. Some of us drive there, few ride. But it’s ritual now. A coming together for pleasure, though sometimes it hurts. Weather is rarely a factor. We ride in the rain and the freezing cold. In the dark, or sunset, or full moon, we gather. Sometimes we ask ourselves, and each other, why we do this when we could just walk across the street and drink together, or stay at home where it’s warm and comfortable, and sometimes we do, but usually we make the effort to organize, prepare, and ride.
We follow a couple of rules; wait at intersections (for the last rider) and no Cliff bars. Not all riders travel at the same speed, and since our route is made up on the spot, we as a group, don’t always know which way to go, which invariably leads to someone getting lost on the mountain and cell phone reception is a little spotty in parts, so it can be difficult to reattach the lost rider. And the Cliff bar? Well, it’s a staple of the cycling community, a mix of carbs in a condensed package; the perfect food for the space-deprived cyclist. We hate that.

I’m having lunch with the president of Access 4 Bikes, Lisa Luzzi. We’re talking about the recent elections and if there’s going to be a change in policy regarding the allowance of mountain bikers on the much coveted hiking trails throughout Marin county’s beautiful landscape. Currently mountain bikes are only permitted on fire roads with a couple of exceptions, leaving a vast network of the worlds most wonderful single track trails unavailable to the recreational bicyclist.
Lisa knows this situation well as she has been mountain biking here since 1987 and after a few years of feeling what she calls “extreme discrimination” she became a member of the Bicycle Trails Council. She wondered what exactly her $20 membership fee actually got her, so she asked the president (of BTC) and was told they used to send out a newsletter but that stopped when they lost their editor. Lisa, feeling the need to contribute to the cause, offered to step in as a replacement, upping her status and beginning her role as a mountain biking advocate. Soon she became a board member and

Access 4 Bikes is a political organization and possibly the only one of it’s kind in the country.

Query Letter (first draft)

Dirt Rag Magazine
3483 Saxonburg Blvd
Pittsburgh, PA 15238
412.767.9910

Dear Dirt,

Resentment and hostility towards mountain bikers is a growing issue in Marin. The increasing demand for trail use by the mountain biking community has created serious opposition with hikers, equestrians, and law enforcement. These tensions have manifested both dangerous and criminal acts by both sides, including near guerilla-like warfare. The birthplace of mountain biking is suffering from a war between the status quo and the biking revolution and things are about to get ugly.

As a mountain biker I am apparently part of this problem. I have biked in Marin for twenty years and have seen an increase demand for bike-friendly trails as well as extreme opposition. I have many friends who are involved in the fight, from rogue trail builders to political committee members and am in a position to get these important perspectives written into an article for your magazine.

I can write an expository piece highlighting the issues from both sides of the argument in about 1500 words.

Thank you,

Brandon Cook
(address withheld)

Query Outline

Lead-- Illegal Mountain Biking (In Marin)

What‘s it about-- Conflict between mountain bikers and authorities (and anti-mountain-bikers)

Why this now-- Potential high-tech crackdown (infrared sensors?), Elections

Who-- Mountain-bikers, Anti-mountain-bikers, Advocacy groups, Authorities

Treatment-- Lots of interviews to show tensions

Why me-- I’m a mountain biker and I have access to others

Length-- 800-1200 words

Why I Can’t Write My Paper (excuse #1)

This is not an excuse. Trust me. I really can’t write my paper. And here’s why…
Firstly because I’m supposed to.
Secondly because I’m scared to shit.
I just fully realized this, that I was scared, this last week while I was supposed to be writing, but instead I was stalling, avoiding, evading what was to be my masterpiece of unprecedented standard. A triumphant entrance to the world of writing outside of academic requirements. I got so excited about writing that I erected a stone wall around my typewriter in order to set it apart from the rest of my failed life, and now I ’m having a difficult time getting to it. Whoops. The truth is that I’m lazy. Or unresponsive. Or bored. Or depressed, detached, apathetic, dispassionate, or stoned. Or all of it and more. The real truth is that truth is not what it seems to be. It is a word that represents a subjective reality that only you can decipher. There is no absolute truth, no clear and definable interpretation that we can all agree on. Truth and democracy are figments of the imagination that help us to fool ourselves into thinking that we can make sense out of blasphemy and disorder.

Magazine Titles (cont.)

Galvonic or Galvonique
Galvona
Ballana
Pentype
Pention
Typecast
Gravitas
Zeenalicious
Delicious

Book Review: the WAR of ART

ATTENTION!!! ATTENTION!!! All ye who search. I have found (on my teachers desk) a book, which miraculously appeared in my arms (I asked if I could borrow it), that unlocks life’s deepest secrets (seriously) and shines like the noon-day sun (not literally). The man who wrote this holly book goes by the name of Pressfield, but an avatar he is and should be called God.
But seriously, this book is so full of wisdom, it blew me away. I highly recommend it to everyone who can read English because for me it seemed the perfect distillation of all the important concepts in life--especially if you have ever thought that something was missing from your life or felt dissatisfaction. And it’s an easy read, not too wordy.

“Most of us have two lives. The life we live, and the unlived life within us. Between the two stands Resistance.”
                                                           --Steven Pressfield, “The War of Art”