In 2001 I was a stay at home mother looking to get creative. It had been almost two full years since I left my job at Ladies' Home Journal and I really needed to write. My sisters' and I were having our very first mega insane garage sale to benefit Cystic Fibrosis and it needed some PR. I sent a letter to Newsday. Newsday sent a reporter to cover it. I picked the reporter's brain on how to freelance. Days later I was being asked to drop off clips to an editor. Before I knew it I had what I call one of the best writing assignments a once creative writing turned journalism major could ever ask for. The column was called the LI Moment and it was exactly that. A "slice of life" human interest piece in which I caught up with someone, anyone, doing anything and writing a story about it. It could be about a little boy and his dad going fishing for the first time or a man shopping for an engagement ring for his girlfriend. I wrote it as it was happening and I loved it. The best (and most challenging) part, for me, was that I had to come up with the ideas. If it got approved, I got the assignment. For the 3 years that I wrote for the column I find myself in almost constant "moment" thought. Always looking for new story ideas. Sometimes they just came to me. Sometimes I actually never got to write them. As was the case with Pete (see my essay appropriately entitled... "A Moment).
Due to budget reasons The LI Moment was killed by Newsday and that was the end of my Moment writing, until now. You can read a few of my old Moment clips attached here on this blog. Or you can email newsday
li@newsday.com and tell them to: Bring Back The LI MOMENT
