Prince of Darkness, King of Horror

I got to do a fun story on how Stephen King not only sells truckloads of books, but he's a massive figure in television as well. 

The Stand just came out on CBS All Access, though I'd written and published the story months before. 

A couple shows adapted from King novels got cancelled after my story came out, including The Outsider on HBO and Castle Rock on Hulu. But another came back to life--Mr. Mercedes, which did not get past three seasons on Audience Network, but has shifted to streaming network Peacock. 

Many, many others came before, including Under the Dome on CBS and Amazon, and 11/22/63 on Hulu. 

Epix has a series based on a King yarn

coming up called Chapelwaite. Epix president Michael Wright said, “Stephen King is literally one of our generation’s greatest storytellers. His books are so wonderfully rooted in great characters and great storytelling.”

Covering Two Stories of a Lifetime

Journalists had what were essentially two stories of a generation to cover this summer, between the pandemic and the protests stemming from George Floyd's killing. 

I spoke with reporters from CNN, Fox News, CBS News, NBC News and other outlets about how they were holding up, and what they learned while covering these two mammoth stories. 

“I feel like we lurched from one story of a lifetime to another,” said Scott Gordon, a reporter at KXAS Dallas-Fort Worth with 35 years in the game. “I’ve covered a lot of big stories in my time, but I’ve never seen anything like this. The sheer magnitude of what’s going on keeps me going. I want to be there to document the history that’s unfolding.”

Florida Man Stars in TV Show

 I have a fun cover story on why so many TV shows are set in Florida, and how Florida gives a show a certain sensibility, usually a weird, anything-can-happen one. 

The story is called 'State of Shock.' Shows set in Florida include On Becoming a God in Central Florida, Florida Girls, Floribama Shore and Claws. 

Claws creator Eliot Laurence said he always had Florida in mind for the setting. “There’s insanity everywhere, but there’s something about the Floridian version,”
he said. Claws is set in Florida due to “my love of weirdness and my attraction to the state of Florida being the weirdest place,”
he added. 

Those in Mount Pleasant Can Now Watch 'Mount Pleasant'

There was a popular TV show over in England called Mount Pleasant.

I live in a town in New York called Mount Pleasant. 

And so I did a story about the show, and the town, for our local Westchester County paper.

A network wanted the show, but did not like the title. And so producer Sophie Clarke-Jervoise had to come up with a new one.

In the middle of the meeting, she looked around the office. There was a poster of a building in the Islington neighborhood of London, the Mount Pleasant Mail Centre. Owned by Royal Mail, it is where vast quantities of postage get sorted.

“I said, what about Mount Pleasant?” Clarke-Jervoise said.

There were smiles and nods, and the show had a title.

It was the Journal News' top story about Mount Pleasant for several days, until the Mount Pleasant town pool closed due to lifeguards having covid. 

The Mount Pleasant on the show is a tight community. 

Clarke-Jervoise describes the Mount Pleasant in "Mount Pleasant" as “a very close community” where everyone is involved, for better or worse, in everyone else’s business. “Everyone has keys to each other’s house — they look out for each other,” said Clarke-Jervoise. “There’s a real sense of community.”

U.S. viewers can watch Mount Pleasant on streaming service Acorn TV. 

Parked in the Park

I got to do a really fun story on abandoned cars hikers and bikers can see in the woods around Westchester. 
Entitled "Dude, Where's My Car?" the story looked at wrecked autos at Graham Hills, Cranberry Lake and a few other parks around Westchester.
Some of the cars are really old, like from the '50s, I learned. They're not going anywhere.
I'm always pleased when my reporting involves hiking in the woods.

New Gig For Megan Fox

I got to chat with Megan Fox about her new gig as host, and creator, of Legends of the Lost on Travel Channel.
Here's a little something Fox, who you may have seen in the Transformers movies, or in 40-Year-Old Virgin, said about the show.
I’ve always been really interested in archeological mysteries. Not necessarily the nitty gritty of the science of archaeology, but what archaeology can expose, what it can bring to life. I was like 29 and felt it was time to start doing what I love, and wondered how I could make it happen. I wasn’t really passionate about creating a scripted show or trying to write a movie. I realized I could probably make a documentary of some sort about these things. We pitched it for a couple years and we finally sold it.

Nice Cache!

Geocaching.
I learned about this pastime--using a mobile app to locate little boxed treasures hidden in the woods at a park near you--as a Cub Scout leader.
I wrote about it for the NY Times over the summer. 

Jeremy Jacobowitz and John Mitchell were on the hunt for treasure in Central Park. Mr. Jacobowitz consulted the coordinates on his phone as a misty rain fell. He and Mr. Mitchell were geocaching, and if past experience was any guide, they would most surely find something. In nine years as a geocacher, Mr. Jacobowitz has discovered more than 8,200 caches, as the treasures are known, ranking him very near the top of the heap among New York City players. Mr. Mitchell counts his haul at around 3,600.

If golf is a good walk spoiled, geocaching is a good walk enhanced by digital devices and GPS coordinates, where hidden treasures are in parks and other public spaces. “Treasures” may be a bit overstated. The prizes may be a sew-on patch, a Matchbox car, a piece of costume jewelry. Each cache includes a small notebook or scroll for the finder to log in their name and the date they found it. Then the cache is returned to its hiding spot.