Yes, sometimes journalism can still be fun

I took my first helicopter ride today. A commercial real estate developer flew me over the company's latest major project, an intermodal site in one of Chicago's suburbs. And, I can't lie, it was pretty neat.

I've flown in airplanes, of course, but taking off in a helicopter just has a different feeling. For one thing, you're surrounded by a lot of glass. You really feel the air rushing past you and the ground slipping away. I mean, when you're in an airplane you can imagine that you're merely in a really noisy house or apartment, long as you don't look out the window. In a helicopter? No way.

I even got to wear one of those cool headsets.

This is all just a reminder that sometimes working as a writer can still be fun. Yeah, I had to take notes during the flight. But I also spent much of it enjoying the view. That's not so bad.

It's the fun writing that's the most rewarding

A story of mine came out today in a major glossy regional magazine. You know the kind of magazine I'm talking about: The first 10 pages are ads for expensive hotels or cars. The magazine routinely runs "Best restaurants of ****" or "Top doctors in ***" stories.

Well, these are great markets to target. There are two reasons for this. First, many regional magazines -- especially those in bit cities -- pay well. Secondly, you can often write some fun stories.

For instance, in my story which came out today, I wrote about people who are hunting Bigfoot, chasing UFOs and looking to nab snapshots of ghosts. It was a fun story to write. And I got to talk to some truly interesting people.

The pay doesn't hurt, either. This story nabbed me a paycheck over $2,000. It's the most I've ever gotten paid for one story.

You can bet now that the story has hit print, I'll be sending more pitches to this particular magazine.

And speaking of fun writing, I might be writing a weekly column for a popular online comicbook site. This wouldn't pay nearly as well, but because comics are a passion of mine, I think this will be a great opportunity. And remember, sometimes you can get paid without making any money at all. My hope with the weekly comics column is to meet more people in the comics industry. Even though I've had a few short comic stories and series published, I don't really know very many people in the business. I'm hoping that writing for a popular comics Web site, where I'll undoubtedly interview comics creators, will change all this.

Anyway, we can file this as a rare non-cranky post from me. Tune in tomorrow, though; I'm sure I'll be ticked off about something by then.