The Writers
Meet the 50 writers who tell Ami’s story.
Carly Blustein (Massachusetts/Sweet Home)
Carly became obsessed with the idea of taking a cross-country road trip after driving from Tampa, FL, to Boston, MA, in June 2010, crossing through 12 states on the way. She has seen a lot of great American cities and sites from taking trips to more than 25 of the major league baseball stadiums with her father. She is determined to visit all 50 in her lifetime, but unfortunately, we all can’t be like the Rehnquist family and ditch our obligations to travel for a year. For now, she thought it would be best to have 50 people who have mastered their own section of the US to help tell a unique American story. She chose to write about Massachusetts because she recently moved there and is excited to explore the New England gem through Ami’s eyes. Hence the lobstahhh pic!
Maggie Lawrence (Oregon)
Maggie chose to write Ami’s tour through the state of Oregon following an inspiring trip to Portland and the Pacific Northwestern coast in the summer of 2008. Most of the locations and scenarios the Rehnquists encounter are based on Maggie’s similar experiences while traveling through Oregon. A recent graduate of the English and journalism programs at the University of Florida, Maggie plans to pursue a career in book publishing, specifically managerial and production editing.
Sergio Sempertegui (Washington)
Sergio is a student at Florida State University. He is a diehard Seminole fan and wants to travel the United States after college. He enjoys music, cooking, the sciences, and football. Go ‘Noles! A little too young to remember most of Washington, he does recall his love of the nature in the area, with the varied landscapes and protected reserves. Since his time, the state has seen a boom in industry and talent that shaped everything from how people surf the Web to how they shop.
About seven years ago, Michelle packed three suitcases and got on a plane to move to Idaho, a state she had never even visited, for nine months. She arrived at the airport in Spokane, WA, and made the short journey to Coeur d’Alene, ID, on September 29, 2003. As it turns out, the Inland Northwest has this way of causing a person to forget about a nine-month commitment, and seven years later, she is now living in Spokane, WA, with a bit more than three suitcases’ full of belongings. (She even has furniture now!)
Alex Record (Montana)
Alex was born in Wichita, Kansas, and moved to Florida after legally emancipating himself from his parents at the age of four. He started writing in a failed attempt to pass the first grade and currently lives in a maximum state penitentiary. His interests include, but are not limited to, smuggling undesirable candy (i.e. licorice) and Gladys Knight cassette tapes into his cell block. The only comfort Alex took throughout his childhood was watching old Westerns and Evel Knievel stunts. He always told himself he would travel out west and live a simple life among mountainous landscapes where the air was clean, but his current situation makes it impossible. Using the prison’s Internet, he took the opportunity to describe what he hopes his dream state, Montana, would be like.
Matt Kamer (Wyoming)
Matt wrote about Wyoming because he feels that it is one of the few states that retains its old western heritage, especially in the towns of Cody and Cheyenne. Growing up, he always aspired to become a cowboy with a horse named Sphitzil (and still does to this day). Writing about Wyoming allowed him to live his dream of living a true western life for a week. Words of advice: “Remember to always drink upstream from your herd and don’t squat with your spurs on! YEE-HAW!”
Kate Kennedy (Nebraska)
Kate “Kate Dogg” Kennedy was downright slap-happy at the thought of being able to thrust a fictional family into The Twilight Zone that is Nebraska. After countless trips to see her relatives in Lincoln, Kate has accrued an arsenal of strange and embarrassing family experiences that were in danger of disappearing into a tornado of voluntary memory loss. However, as not to scare people away from Nebraska, many autobiographical elements were toned down per the request of the Chamber Association of Nebraska Tourism. For “Nebraska Gone Wild,” the uncensored version, you’ll have to wait for Kate’s tell-all memoir, due out in April of 2053. Kate now lives in Tampa and works for a children’s hospital, doing nothing related to writing or journalism. She enjoys laundry, puppies, intravenous drips of café con leche and jokes about Sarah Palin.
Franco Alvarado AKA “G-Franc” is a foreigner and no one knows why he’s writing about this country of which he is not a citizen. He enjoys writing, Star Wars, caves, and adventures, which is why he decided to sneak into this country and write about it. He was disappointed, however, that Iowa had no caves. Catchpress.net documents Franco’s masters thesis project, starting a print-on-demand e-publishing company.
Todd Epp (South Dakota)
Brittany Werch (Minnesota)
Andy Dost (Wisconsin)
The roads north from Andy’s Chicago birthplace are paved with memories and cheese curds. On holidays as a kid he’d be in Kenosha, Wis., where Grandma cooked everything with extra butter and a side of salt. On breaks, Andy walked the starry paths outside his best friend’s cabin near Ripon, Wis., where he could find heart-rending ButterBurgers at a Culver’s Restaurant and the fishless water of Green Lake. Now that Andy lives in Massachusetts as an Emerson College publishing grad student, he seldom sees his Midwest landmarks. But being wayward is a part of Andy’s life, and Boston is now just as much a second home to Andy. (Though one must admit that New Orleans, another favorite destination, provides stiff competition if you’ve noticed Andy’s picture.)
Robert Klimowicz (Illinois)
Robb is the founder and editor of humor site Blogington.com and sports blog Unassisted Sports. It’s ironic that he wanted to write for Bloggin’ America considering that before June 2010, he had never been on an airplane! But alas, he did travel to Chicago on that fateful flight and now wants to eventually explore and travel the world, one Google Earth coordinate at a time. Writing about Chicago and Illinois was a way to relive that experience. Follow his insights and semi-serious attempts at comedy on Twitter @RobertK42 and @TheBlogington.
Damen Muller (Indiana)
Originally born and raised in Chicago, Damen traveled throughout the Midwest, mostly for sports such as baseball and wrestling. He got the pleasure of riding throughout the state on various occasions and based his stories on experiences that had taken place while there in Indiana. As a junior in high school, he moved to Florida to follow his dream of playing baseball. Throughout his passage attending different colleges and playing baseball, he eventually ended up at the University of Florida. He is now a grad student at UF and plans to continue onto vet school. Damen’s interest in writing stems from his ongoing poetry work and in writing a collection of short stories.
Pat Killingsworth (Michigan)
Guest writer Pat Killingsworth and his wife, Pattie, lived just outside the UP in the lake country of northern Wisconsin for eleven years. They often took their “his and hers” dogsled teams up to Michigan to find more snow. Both Pat and Pattie are cancer survivors. Pat’s bone marrow cancer, called multiple myeloma, makes it hard for him to stand the cold—so the couple moved to Florida a few years back. Pat is now an author and medical writer. He writes two daily blogs, www.HelpWithCancer.org and www.MultipleMyelomaBlog.com. His lifelong expression is, “Feel good and keep smiling!”
Ryan Winget (Ohio)
Keith Dvorchik (Pennsylvania)
Richard Blustein (New Jersey)
Richard was born in Trenton, New Jersey, six months before Bobby Thomson hit the shot heard round the world. Although he only lived there for three years and one year in Irvington (near Newark), he has always been proud to call New Jersey his home. His father’s family was brought up in the Passiac area and always considered it the best years of his life. So Richard is proud to join his two musical heroes, Bruce Springsteen and Frank Sinatra, and call the great state of New Jersey home. In addition, in 1846, the first organized baseball game was played there.
Matthew Di Paoli (New York)
Matthew received his BA at Boston College where he won the Dever Fellowship and the Cardinal Cushing Award for Creative Writing. He recently finished his MFA at Columbia University for Fiction. He has been published in the West Coast Journal, BlazeVox, Ascent Aspirations, and Post Road literary magazines among others. Currently, he is writing a novel entitled Idol of Id and teaches in the Advanced Creative Writing Summer Program at Columbia University.
The Bloggin’ team
Site concept, design, and editing: Carly Blustein
Flash USA map design: Robert Klimowicz
Cover art and banner design: Lauren Light
Call to action:
Bloggin’ America is looking for some more writers to help tell Ami’s story. Each writer will share Ami’s experience in a different state. If you are interested in being a writer, please contact Carly Blustein at carlyb28@gmail.com.
