Steve Volk's Blog, page 23

4 Major Perks of Owning a Whole House Water Filter

Whole house filters are very useful in many ways. Even if they are quite expensive, they definitely worth the money. If you are thinking to get one as well, then you must know that this is a wonderful idea and a great investment. Here are 4 major perks of owning a whole house water filter.

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1. Your health will be improved

This is definitely the most important perk of all. Having a clean water means that your health will be improved. A device like that will easily remove most of the chlorine and contaminants that are usually found in the water, making it extremely healthy. Using an uncontaminated water at all times means that your skin will also look better. When having showers regularly with a contaminated water, you can also develop skin allergies or eyes irritations. This bad thing won’t happen if you install a whole house water filter. These are important aspects that you need to take into account and seriously consider getting a unit like that.

2. The appliances that use water in order to operate will be protected

Your household appliances that usually use water in order to operate, such as washing machine, dishwasher or coffee maker can be damaged in time due to the chlorine that water contains. This means that you will need to replace them shortly after you have bought them. In order to prolong the life of your appliances, you must get this type of filter. It is certainly a long-term investment which will bring you many other benefits.

3. No more chalk in your bathroom

Chalk is an extremely common problem for most of us, due to the water hardness. It is usually deposited on the tiles, bathtub, sink, and fittings. It looks absolutely horrible and in time, it can damage all of these items. This means a lot of money to invest for taking some new ones. Fortunately, this won’t be a problem anymore, in case we decide to install a whole house water filter.

4. The indoor air will be cleaner

Chlorine vapors are very dangerous to our health. They can be easily released into the air when having a shower, a bath, or using the sink. One of the 4 major perks of owning a whole house water filter is that a device like this will not allow chlorine to spread into the indoor air. It will remove it before you actually use the water, and therefore, you will be able to breathe a fresh and clean air in you home. Furthermore, those who suffer from allergies or asthma will notice a considerable improvement of their respiratory system.

What Makes a Good Golf Rangefinder

A game of golf can really relax your mind, while you get to have a lot of fun by playing it as well. It gained a lot of popularity worldwide, and due to its peaceful nature, many people would rather play a round of golf with their friends than go play soccer or any other team sport that tends to get loud and dangerous.

No matter if you play for fun with your friends, you want to make it as a professional, or you play by yourself to alleviate all the stress that you accumulated, a good golf rangefinder should be at your disposal to make your game better and more pleasurable.

Golf rangefinders can considerably improve a person’s game due to the fact that they provide you with an accurate yard range, making you decide easier on how to handle a certain hole.

If you want to buy a golf rangefinder for yourself and you want to know what makes it good in order to buy a quality one, you should read the following lines to find out.

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Range and accuracy

Usually, the maximum range coverage of golf rangefinders varies between 800-1600 yards, and when it comes to accuracy, most of them claim to have it within +/- 1 yard.

A good golf rangefinder will combine the two perfectly, having a big range coverage, and a decent accuracy, therefore you should go for this kind of model to actually feel an improvement in your game, even if it will cost you more than other models that can’t offer the same range coverage.

Magnification

It’s important to pay attention to the rangefinder’s magnification power, because magnification makes the object seem closer than it actually is, making it easier for you to see the target, and increasing your chances of actually hitting the target.

When it comes to magnification, golf rangefinders can have none of it at all, or they can have magnification as high as 7x.

To make sure that your golf rangefinder is a good one, you should buy one that has high magnification, being the only way in which you can enjoy the game and improve yourself.

Features

As many other gadgets and devices out there, golf rangefinders are being constantly updated, and newer and better features keep appearing that make them even better than before.

Generally, it’s better to go for a model that has a lot of extra features, because these features make playing golf an easy and fast task, helping you improve your game considerably.

One of the most important features available for rangefinders and that you should definitely look for if you want to have a good model is the Slope technology. This feature aids the measurement of pins that are placed uphill or downhill, calculating the distances more accurately due to the fact that it takes in consideration all the elevation changes on the golf course that are on the path to the target.

Another great feature to look for if you want a good rangefinder is the Pinseeker technology, which basically senses and points to the flagstick accurately, while ignoring the background clutter that may have signal strength.

How to Pack for a Business Trip

Lots of us who usually travel due to our job have encountered at some point the same problem when it comes to packing our things. We don’t know exactly what to put in our baggage in order to have with us everything that we need. For those who find themselves in this situation, here is how to pack for a business trip.

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Knowing the destination, you will know what clothes to take with you

Once you know where you are going, you will know what clothes to take with you as well. You will probably think that since you are going in a business trip, it doesn’t actually matters the destination because you are going to take office clothes with you. This is not true, because if you are going in a very warm area, then you certainly can’t wear a thick suit, and vice-versa. The idea is to take office or smart clothes which are right for those temperatures. Another important thing is that you need to take with you one outfit for every day, plus an extra one.

Don’t forget your toiletries

Some hotels offer you shampoo, conditioner and soap. You don’t know exactly if you are going to have these toiletries at your destination, and therefore, you should take them with you from home. In order to save some space in your bag, you should buy a set of small plastic bottles which are specially created for travelling. Get some shampoo, conditioner, and shower gel. You must not forget about perfume and deodorant.

Get the right luggage

Many people make the mistake to take a voluminous luggage even if they don’t have too many things to take with them. Carrying a luggage like that through the airport can be quite uncomfortable. In order to avoid this sort of situation, you must make sure that you have the right bag for your things. Moreover, you must also make sure that you have one with wheels. It will be much easier for you to maneuver it in your trip.

You will also need a handheld steamer

When travelling, one of the most important things that you need to take with you is a handheld steamer. A device like that will certainly be very useful, due to the fact that you will need to have all of your clothes perfectly ironed for your meetings. It is uncomfortable to take an iron with you and it is a bit too hard to use it as well. Therefore, a better solution would be to take a handheld steamer which is usually very lightweight and extremely easy to use. Fortunately, you will find in the shops a large range of models to choose from, and they are quite affordable as well.

How to Turn Any Room Into a Cool Home Cinema

We all need to relax and have fun once in a while, and one of the best ways to this is by watching a movie, but going to the cinema to see one can prove to be not only a bothersome experience due to the fact that you have to leave the comfort of your home, but it costs more than it should, and there will inevitably be at least one loud person in the cinema who likes to laugh a lot and give spoilers.

To avoid all these things, you should turn one of your rooms into a cool home cinema, having the advantage that you won’t deal with strangers anymore, being able to pause the movie whenever you want, and what might be the best part by far, you can sit in your pajamas when you see the movie.

If you want to find out how you can turn any room of your house into a cool home cinema, read the following lines to see what steps you must take, and you definitely won’t want to leave your home ever again.

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What you need to buy

To make a home cinema, you need a movie projector, a screen on which to project the images, a good sound system, and some comfortable armchairs to replicate the cinema experience perfectly.

A movie projector generally costs between a couple of hundreds of dollars to as much as $3000. These devices have come a long way over the past few years, modern models being able to handle a wide variety of multimedia content like photos, games, films, and documents, and they offer clear images that will amaze you, newer models having the resolution as high as 4000 pixels.

Turning a room into a home cinema might cost you as much as $5000, or even more if you invest in top quality items, but it’s worth every penny if you think about the advantages of having cinema experience in your own home.

To make the room look really cool, you could fill the walls with movie posters, and place coffee tables in front of the chairs on which you can place your food and drinks, or on which you can put your feet if you’re having a lazy day.

Set it all up and enjoy the experience

After buying everything you need to make your own cool home cinema, you just have to set them up as you like, and then you can finally start enjoying the perk that is having a cinema at your disposal.

In this awesome and amazing room, you can enjoy a romantic movie with your significant other, you could see a Disney movie with the kids, or you could have your friends come over to watch comedy movies and make a party out of it. All in all, no matter how you intend to use it, it’s worth investing in a home cinema, because there is only to gain from having one.

Say Goodbye to Speeding Tickets with the Best Radar Detectors

When it comes to saving you money from speeding tickets, nothing can beat the highly-efficient radar detector that warns you about the places where speed cameras are installed. These smart gadgets help you stay away from tickets and also improve the quality of your driving by offering you road information and keeping you safe, which is why they are so popular among drivers. With the following advanced radar detectors, you can say goodbye to speeding tickets and enjoy a safe and comfortable trip.

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Valentine One

This radar detector uses a radio antenna in the back and one in the front so it can detect both radar and laser signals from all four bands and it allows you to select which of the bands you want it to detect in order to reduce the false alarms and increase the accuracy. Its screen only shows the band, the strength of the signal it detects, the number of assailants, and the direction of the signal, but you can connect it to a smartphone and enlarge the screen so it will display more information. The Valentine One is an advanced version of the previous model and you can sense that by the $399 price tag.

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Cobra SPX 7800BT

If you are looking for an affordable radar detector that offers excellent results in detecting police threats, you should look no more. This Cobra model is a device that can receive signals from the latest radar guns and includes an iRadar app that lets you connect it to your phone so you can maneuver the rotating map it has memorized. You will be able to visualize the road ahead and the possible radars placed along the way, plus live traffic information for busy streets, road blockages, and any other traffic interference. There is also a community where Cobra users can update the maps and the traffic info, and all for the low price of $170.

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Escort Passport 9500ix

Coming from the top name in radar detectors, this device couldn’t offer less than maximum efficiency in receiving data related to police guns placed on the streets. It can detect signal on every band and it also has a laser monitoring so you are sure to stay aware from speeding tickets. The smart technologies it uses allow it to detect a signal and decide if it’s a threat before you get too close and offers it access to a database of camera locations that is being constantly updated. This radar detector is available for purchase at a cost of $349.

The Advantages of Working Out on the Treadmill

Working out is extremely important if you want to lead a healthy and balanced life, and using a treadmill can help you improve your aspect and your health in many ways. If you aren’t aware of all the advantages that working out on the treadmill is offering you, discover them in the following article.

It’s comfortable and practical

From all the fitness equipment you could think one, the treadmill is the most practical and the easiest to use that can offer excellent results after using it for half an hour every day. The best part is that you can use it at home while you watch TV or you can opt for a treadmill desk that allows you to finish a work report while you exercise. You can use the treadmill any time and the results won’t last to show.

It strengthens your bones and joints

The treadmill is recommended for people of all ages and with any physical condition because it is a great way to strengthen the bones and joints. Being similar to jogging and walking, using the treadmill puts the right amount of pressure on your feet and requests your joints and bones while offering them support.

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You can lose weight fast

It’s very easy to lose weight while using the treadmill because it allows you to monitor your heart rate and to get it to the “fat burning area” which is between 70% and 95% of your usual heart rate. Controlling your heart rate while jogging will be very hard because you don’t have the necessary gadgets, but the technologies used by the treadmill offer you the specific information.

You tone your entire body

While you walk or run, many muscles in your body strain, starting with the feet that support your body weight and all the way to the thighs that move your feet and up to the arms that maintain the balance. Therefore, working out on a treadmill can help you work many muscle groups in your body while performing a simple exercise similar to the common walking and running.

It protects your heart

Cardio exercises are among the most beneficial types that help you protect your heart and improve its condition. The medium-intensity workout strains the muscles around your heart enough to strengthen them without endangering the health of your heart. Moreover, considering that the treadmill uses the most advanced technologies that allow you to monitor your heart rate and blood pressure, you are sure to be safe during your treadmill exercising.

Best Skin Lightening Creams for Hyperpigmentation

If you have a good skincare routine you can achieve an even and glowing complexion quite easily. However, trying to fix certain skin problems, like spots caused by hyperpigmentation can be challenging sometimes, but with the right products you get amazing results in a short period of time. The key is to choose products that were specially made for this purpose. Skin lighting creams are affordable and gentler on the skin. Here are the most popular skin lighting creams to deal with hyperpigmentation.

Juice Beauty Green Apple Peel Sensitive

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This skin lighting cream only costs $39 and it is worth every penny. It makes your skin look radiant and more healthy and it helps you deal with your hyperpigmentation problems. The alpha hydroxy acids gently exfoliate your skin and reduce the appearance of discoloration and dark spots. It also help fade acne spots or spots caused by too much exposure to the sun. In order to get best results, we recommend using this cream twice a week until the results are beginning to show.

Zenmed Skin Eraser

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For just under $30 you can make your skin look more glowing than ever and even out your skin tone. Customers seem to be very pleased with the Zenmed Skin Eraser and some reported that the product have helped them get rid of discoloration spots and reduce the appearance of acne spots and dark circles. The ascorbic-Glycolic-Lactic acid treatment exfoliates the top layer of the skin minimizing hyperpigmentation and many other skin imperfections.

Meladerm skin lighting cream

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The Meladerm skin lighting has been specially created to lighten hyperpigmentation caused by age spots, frekles, melasma etc and it’s used to even out your complexion and give you a more youthful look. The cream costs $50 and it directly addresses a number of pigmentation issues, from dark circles to melasma. By using the Meladerm skin lighting cream you can get great results in 2 weeks. What’s important to mention here is the fact that this specific lightening cream doesn’t include harmful chemical substances that can cause adverse side effects, such as irritation or causing acne problems. The Meladerm lighting cream contains natural and safe ingredients such as alpha-arbutin and kojic acid.

Kiehls Line-Reducing Eye-Brightening Concentrate

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What we like most about this product is the fact that beside brightening the appearance of hyperpigmentation, which is your main concern here, it also diminishes the appearance of wrinkles and make your eyes look brighter. So, if you are looking for a product that can act as a hyperpigmentation cream and eye cream, the Kiehls Line-Reducing is the perfect choice for you. It costs almost $40, so you won’t regret making the investment.

How to Choose a Quality Infrared Heater for Your Patio

To be able to use your outdoor space even when the weather starts to get cold, you have to invest in a quality infrared heater for the patio. This way, the chilly weather won’t affect you as much as it did, and you will be able to enjoy sitting on your porch for two or three more months than you would normally do this. When it comes to the top-rated electric heaters, the infrared units are the most popular ones.

Read the following lines to find out what makes a quality infrared heater and how to choose an appropriate one for your patio, prolonging the time you can spend in the extension to your house that is the patio.

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Styles you can choose from

The most common types of infrared heaters that you can choose from are standalone, tabletop, or mountable.

The standalone type of infrared heater is the most common type of outdoor heater, being generally tall, which makes it ideal for decks and patios.

The tabletop models can be used for patios as well, but they aren’t the best choice, because there are certain safety concerns to take in consideration with them. A person who isn’t paying attention could accidentally hit the infrared heater, and might damage it or even hurt themselves.

Last but not least, the mountable infrared heaters are perfect for patios not only because they send the heat directly on you, but they save a lot of space and they look very stylish as well.

How to choose the appropriate power

The power of the heater and the number of heaters necessary to provide heat to the patio should be decided by taking the size of the patio itself in consideration. Instead of buying one powerful unit, to add style to your patio, go with two powerful infrared heaters which you will mount in front of each other on opposing sides, this way ensuring that there won’t be problems with the heating, that you won’t take up any space, and that no one can harm themselves by bumping into them.

Features to take in consideration

As with any modern device or appliance, infrared heaters have many features which make them more tempting to buy, and after all, you can’t say you have a quality infrared heater without it having a useful extra feature at least.

The top-rated electric heaters feature electronic controls which make it easier for you to adjust the heat of the heater, the automatic shutoff that practically turns the heater off if it gets too hot to prevent any unpleasant incidents, and the tilt-over protection for standalone and tabletop units to ensure that when the unit gets accidentally knocked over it automatically turns off the heating element.

Is it Worth Investing in an Expensive Electric Shaver?

Top of the line products tend to cost considerably more than most models, and this is due to a series of reasons which may include the fact that they have more features to offer, and that they are produced by manufacturers which have made a name for themselves for having high quality products. To make sure that it is worth investing in one of the finest electric razors, you should read the following lines to make the decision easier for yourself.

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Fast shaving

The finest electric razors offer the user the advantage of choosing a dry shave, which can be a real time saver for those who are in a hurry and can’t afford to waste any time.

With dry shaving at your disposal, you can get a shave in a matter of minutes without needing anything else than the shaver itself to do it, meaning that you can shave even when you’re in the car on your way to work if time is really pressuring you.

After all, we need to be as efficient as we can to have free time on our hands in which we can enjoy different activities that relax us, and making any time consuming activity last less time than it normally does is nothing but a heaven sent for the people in this busy and chaotic generation.

Less irritation

Increased efficiency in electric shavers does wonders for your skin, because it means that you will be able to finish shaving with only a few strokes.

Insisting on certain areas of the face because the hair isn’t removed can irritate the skin, and the only way to avoid this annoying irritation is by going with a model that is placed higher on the price scale.

With electric shavers, as with most products out there, a bigger price implies a better quality, therefore you should invest in this important item if you want to have a quality shave that will improve your appearance and leave your skin unharmed.

Higher price, better features

The higher the price, the better the features, therefore you might want to think twice when you are tempted to buy a $30 electric shaver just for the sake of saving money, because once you will understand what a model that costs $300 dollars is able to do, you will see why it’s worth the money.

For example, higher priced models usually flex and pivot in more directions to give you a smooth and risk free shave, hugging the contour of your face and neck.

Other great features with which most expensive electric shavers come with are the fact that these models use special solutions to clean and sterilize themselves, they recharge themselves after every use, and they are able to lubricate and dry the shaver’s blade to give you a safer shave.

Conclusion

Our advice is to go ahead and pay the extra money on a high-end electric shaver, because it offers great quality, it’s definitely more durable than lower priced models, and after all, you are using it on your face, therefore you should go out of your way and spend some money on yourself, at least when it comes to the important products that you use very often.

Writer Justin Heckert: The Generalist Interview

I first became aware of Justin Heckert through that old writerly emotion: jealousy. I noticed that he’d won not just one but two Writer of the Year titles at the City and Regional Magazine Awards. When I read his stuff, I saw why. Justin is one of the most lyrical writers working in magazines today. I’m quite pleased to publish my own interview with him about three stories he selected for discussion, but would be remiss if I didn’t also point people to the insightful, behind the scenes Q&A he wrote about “The Hazards of Growing Up Painlessly,” a great story he wrote for the New York Times Sunday Magazine.

 The Generalist: Can you talk to me a bit about your origin as a writer? From what age did you get interested in writing? You attended the University of Missouri Journalism School. To those of us in the field, that means a lot. Can you talk a little bit about your experience there and what it’s meant?

Heckert: Well, I’ve wanted to be a writer as long as I can remember. A few years ago I came across a small bound notebook assignment I’d been given in grade school. The teacher had asked us students what we each wanted to be when we grew up. The notebook contained the answer for every student in that class, along with an explanation. Along with mentioning a disdain for Umbro shorts, I wrote, “I want to be a writer.” It’s just always been the case. I still want to be a writer, when I grow up. My mom is a writer, a published writer. She has also been a teacher of English Lit to kids and teenagers for nearly 45 years—she started teaching when she, herself, was a kid, at 19. It all stems from her.

The journalism school at Missouri was an accident. I didn’t apply to the university thinking I’d major in that. And unlike pretty much everyone in the J-school there (they come from all over the world), I’m actually from little ole Missouri. I knew I wanted to write but I didn’t know what to major in, or how eventually I might end up practicing writing. I had interest in art and creative writing—at one point in my life I also wanted to be a cartoonist, or an illustrator. I had never written an article before I was accepted into the J-School. I had never read a “literary magazine story/newspaper story” at all. I met some amazing people in the J-school, some really competitive, talented people, who I still call my best friends. I saw what they were doing, and eventually started reading the kinds of magazine and newspaper stories I wanted to try and emulate. Mostly everything for me had to do with that group of people, the atmosphere it fostered, and how much I was reading. I feel lucky in that for me it feels like it was a matter of being in the right time and place.

The Generalist: I remember I had a professor at the University of Florida, Bill McKean, who had us read Timothy Crouse, The Boys on the Bus, Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing, Tom Wolfe, The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby and Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood and spun my whole head around. Any particular authors, books or pieces you remember having that kind of effect on you? I remember being stunned that journalism—something I equated with newspapers—could be so moving. And, ever since, I love getting a hold of interns at Philadelphia Magazine and saying, “Hey, have you ever read ‘The Silent Season of a Hero,’ by Gay Talese,’” to which their answer is usually, but still shockingly, “Who is Gay Talese?”

Heckert: It’s really hard to pick one thing. I’ve been influenced, in a way, by everything I’ve read, good and bad. But, for example, I do remember very early on reading the Mr. Rogers story by Tom Junod and The House That Thurman Munson Built by Mike Paterniti—two of the first magazine stories I was given to read in J-school—and having my eyes opened that journalism could be like that.

The Generalist: The three stories I’m linking to deal with autopsies, a tornado and a father and son, lost at sea. Can you talk a little about how you came to each story, or how each story found you?

Heckert: I reported and wrote “And In The End” when I was 25, and I remember wanting to write about people who deal in death. The people who have to see it every day as part of a job, and what that does to them, how it affects them, if they ever get accustomed to it. I ended up seeing a lot of dead bodies for that story. And hanging around a morgue at odd hours. And was present at crime scenes. The story contains, in spots, some of my best and most lyrical writing, still. But looking back I wish I’d focused on one case, all the way through, instead of just random scenes from different cases. When I was working at a city and regional magazine (and Atlanta is one of the truly great ones), most of my ideas came from just taking a big topic, and finding a local angle. Not finding a specific story that I wanted to do, but, for instance: if I knew I wanted to write about AIDS, or the National Spelling Bee, I just had to find a local way to focus those ideas. Writing for national magazines has been vastly different because it’s impossible to just pitch that you want to write about a big idea, without knowing a specific story as a focus.

“Lost in the Waves” happened because I saw a blurb about Walt and Christopher and their epic night at sea. My wife (Amanda Heckert, EIC of Indianapolis Monthly) actually sent the blurb to me. I did some reading around and found that there hadn’t been a big story written about them. So I pitched it around (somewhere Mediabistro did a thing about the pitch), and waited. While I was waiting, I received an email from an editor at Men’s Journal named Terry Noland, out of the blue. Asking for ideas. At this point in my career I was 28 years old, three years into my job as a contributing writer at ESPN The Magazine. But they never seemed to have a problem with the idea that I wanted to do non-sports stuff for other magazines. So Terry assigned me that story.

In 2011, as part of research for a story about zombies in Atlanta and The Walking Dead, I was riding along through the woods far south of the city with someone from the show’s production staff. Near the studios in Senoia where they make the show, we took a wrong turn that led us through an obliterated portion of the woods. It was where an entire little town used to be, now gone. “This was Vaughn,” the production guy said. I made a mental note that I would come back there. One person was rebuilding a house at that time. I’ve read a lot of stories about tornadoes, some good and some not—but I didn’t ever remember reading one about an entire place vanishing.

The Generalist: You know, finding the Vaughn story (“The Town That Blew Away“) that way is so instructive. That was about staying alert, about being open to something beyond the story you were there to pursue. When I read over the three pieces you’d suggested, I was re-reading one of them and seeing two others for the first time. What struck me about all three is that I feel like you head straight for the existential. I mean, these stories all deal with areas of life and/or the sorts of dark events that, not to be too dramatic about it, cause people to question the meaning of life. To what degree is that what drew you to them? If those sorts of stakes aren’t in play, is it harder for you, as a writer, to warm to a piece and give it the same level of attention?

Heckert: Ha, I dunno. Maybe it’s just those three stories. Some of the best stories I’ve done have nothing to do with those very high stakes, nothing to do with darkness, or death. Some of my favorite stories that I’ve done are about happier things. No matter what it’s about, you have a few paragraphs to hook me, which is how I’ve always been as a reader—so, when I’m writing, that’s where the drama comes from; I always try to have some tension in every story.

The Generalist: Now I have one specific question about each piece. Your story on the Fulton County Medical Examiner’s Office is almost a kind of anti-journalism. There was “no reason” to do this story, at that time, at least in the way reporters traditionally think about these things. The story isn’t tied to a scandal, a political maneuver, or a particularly compelling and current criminal case. The last line of the subhed that sells the story is “…the men and women of the Fulton County Medical Examiner’s Office have a lot of work to do.” And frankly, I think we need more journalism like this—a peek into a world we normally don’t get to see, merely because that place is intensely interesting. Still, how the hell did you convince an editor to buy this piece?

Heckert: I was good at coming up with a lot of ideas, and my editor at the time, Rebecca Burns, let me go out and see what I could find. She trusted me as much as anyone ever has. I never really had to do my best to convince her about anything. The work I was doing then was speaking for me. If I was passionate about a story idea, she usually at least let me see what I could find. And I don’t want to paint her as someone who said yes to everything—it wasn’t that easy. But this particular story came at a time when I was on a bit of a roll.

The Generalist: Your MJ story, on the father and son who get dragged out to sea, is one of my favorite things I’ve read in the last few years. I don’t want to give too much away, but what surfaces over the length of the piece is this sense that the episode at sea is really a metaphor for their relationship, in general. The boy is autistic, and he and his father have developed a kind of communication over the years but the difficult nature of their bond really comes into play during this crisis. Did you realize this part of the story—the thing that really gives the story its power—was in play before you pitched the piece? Where, along the way, did you discover this? This is kind of a selfish question on my part. In fact, I ask because I have to confess, more often than not, I pitch a piece based on what turns out to be some very superficial or obvious appeal. Then, pretty deep into the process, there is often a moment where I am doing the Homer, slapping my forehead and saying “This is what the story is really about!”

Heckert: My pitch (gleaned from the few things that had been published about their experience) was about a heroic dad jumping into the ocean and trying to save his son. I knew their relationship would be a huge part of the story, but “Lost in the Waves” really turned out to be nothing like my pitch. Not about a heroic dad trying to save his son. Unless you’ve reported the story and written it on spec before you pitch it, I find this happens after every pitch. The story just always changes, sometimes significantly so. I didn’t realize how much the story would be about the family, and what it’s like to try and raise this boy. Someone I really admire emailed me after reading it and said this: “It managed, I think, without saying so, to link the enormities of the sea to the enormities of family love.” And I just use that any time someone talks to me regarding what it’s about. Because that’s what I was trying to get at. It’s so much more than a story about being lost at sea. And yeah, I completely agree with your last line there. That’s just what happens.

The Generalist: Your story on a tornado that swept through Vaughn, Georgia is one of my new favorites. The challenge here seems primarily structural to me and what you arrived at moves with such great pacing that I can only imagine you wrestled with it and cried over it and pulled a few muscles. In sum, you go 1. Aftermath, then you take us through the tornado itself in sections 2, 3 and 4, then we get the Immediate Aftermath in 5, and finally bring us back to essentially where we started (and beyond) in the final sections. I think a lot of people would have been tempted to start with the storm, but to take us back to my question about how you arrive at your ideas, and your existential bent, you chose to start in the aftermath, which I think in some ways, as you make clear, is every bit as challenging, if not more, than surviving the storm itself. I’ve written a lot here—too much. But please, tell me about how you landed on this structure and perhaps anything else that occurs to you from what I laid out here.

Heckert: Nothing nearly as involved as that. It’s terribly simple. I wrote the words “Vaughn, Georgia” on a blank page and just let them percolate there for a while. I liked the way the name of the town sounded in my mind. Then I just went from there, sentence by sentence. Writing one—reading it, then writing another, then reading the two, then writing another, reading the three, and so on. That’s how I write. It has to build that way. I knew I wanted to use a metaphor in the story about doves and pigeons, and how people choose to look at things. Other than that, I didn’t spend a lot of time thinking about structure. I wrote the story, more or less, in a day or so.

The Generalist: I caught a tweet from Thomas Lake, about “Lost in the Waves,” in which he noted how hard you worked on the lede for that story. That opening section is just epic. Is there any story for you to share about writing that?

Heckert: I spent a while on the beginning of that piece because I had a friendly deadline, about 10 days to write. But no matter the deadline, the same could pretty much be said for most every story I write. I am usually dealing with tighter deadlines. No matter how much time I have to write—a day or two, or a week—I spend it trying to figure out the best and most compelling way to start a particular story. I can’t, like, start in the middle. I have to get that first sentence right. So, right now and for the past few years, I’ve been fighting through this phase of trying to write perfect first drafts. Self-editing and polishing to a microscopic degree, hoping the editor will be really pleased with what I turn in and not have to do a ton of work. And to the point of either banging out a rough draft or polishing it until you think that it frickin’ gleams—I see so much advice that I either completely disregard, or vehemently disagree with, I don’t want anyone to take this as the way it should be done. Whatever works, you know. And this has worked for me.

The Generalist: I am addicted to hearing about the process writers I admire use. And here, I really am talking about the very basics. Is there a particular time of day or night you tend to write? Do you write a story straight through, till you get to the end, then start fiddling with the words? Or do you go line by line, re-reading all that came before as you progress? Do you have an office at home? How’s it set up? Give us a sense of how you work.

Heckert: Line by line. Write one, read it, write the next, read the two, write the third, read the three, write the fourth, and then read all of them again—until I have a graph. And all the way through like that, through the whole story, mostly, while I’m writing (If I’m 5000 words in and have more to go, I’ll stop doing that if I can). And usually my writing hours are the hours of the graveyard shift, because I hate getting up early to do anything. I feel like epiphanies come to me easier in the quiet and dark of the night. And I don’t write with music, because the words themselves have to be like a type of music in my empty head. And as I get older it gets harder to grind through the night like that. I do work from home. And actually, while I was writing recently about a clown, I actually tried listening to music, and it turned out pretty well. I’m open to change.

The Generalist: Finally, anything to add? I am going to point journalism students toward these writer interviews on a regular basis. What would you tell them? No pressure. Just a few lines…

Heckert: I’ve always been high-strung. And a perfectionist. And supremely disappointed when even the tiniest break didn’t come my way. And I’ve taken a lot of things personally when dealing with editors, because of the effort I put in on every story, when I just shouldn’t have taken the shit personally. It’s just the business. My only advice to younger writers is probably to just chill out, and let it all roll off your back, and just put your head down and write as much as you can, no matter the place. I’ve been doing this professionally since I was 23, so I’d probably go back and tell myself to just chill the fuck out.

Because the story wasn’t available online, Justin generously provided it for readers here:

And In The End