Angels, Housewives, Wonderfalls, Teen Tips, High-Tech, Typography & More
Do Angels Exist?
DH’s Nosy Neighbor: Murder, She Solves?
Wonderfalls: Too Good for TV?
Do Taffy's Tips Still Fly?
Just How True-to-Life is Soap Opera Amnesia?
A Taste of Funny
The Princess of Pine Valley
Gays and Reality TV
Technology Watch
Type & Design
How'd They Print That?
The Lows of Being High
Text © 2012 by Michael Karol; pictures copyright their respective owners.
What follows is just a small slice of the non-Lucy-related writing I've done for various magazines and newspapers over the years. Click the pictures, or the headline links below the pictures, to access the stories.
This story centers on whether or not the heavenly messengers we call "angels" do, in fact, exist in our world. Plus: A Talk with Angel 'Expert' Dr. Doreen Virtue. Both are slightly longer versions of the ones that appeared in the Spirit Guide, a special digest-size magazine about spirituality that my company published, and was on newsstands in winter 2004-'05.
Kathryn Joosten is one of those solid character actors whom you see on TV or film and think, “Where did I see her before” In Joosten’s case, it could have been any one of more than 20 films and 75-plus TV series. But most people these days know her as neighbor Karen McCluskey on Desperate Housewives. Here she talks about her role as not-just-the-nosy-old-neighbor, and the series’ upcoming finale. [This is the uncut interview; a shorter version ran in the May 26, 2009 issue of Soap Opera Weekly.]
An exclusive interview with the co-creator of the late, lamented TV show Wonderfalls, Bryan Fuller, ran in my daily gig, (Soap Opera Weekly) but the full version never made it to print. Now you can celebrate this quirky, engrossing, too-quickly-cancelled TV series on DVD and explore Fullers' original vision. [Fuller is still making TV magic with Heroes.]
This story never made it to the "tween" magazine my company publishes every other month, Pixie, but it's a fun look at the way things change — or don't change — in the unique world of adults and peers giving advice to troubled, or just plain frustrated, younger teens. [Get a copy of the original book, pictured above, if you can; it's a hoot.]
As the show runner for All My Children at Soap Opera Weekly, I mostly got to interview celebrities and actors. But occasionally, when the storyline warranted, we could explore issues related to the plot, such as: Could Ryan really get amnesia from a hard blow to the head? I went to Dr. Jordan Grafman of the NIH for some answers.
If you're at this page, you likely know that I love Lucille Ball. Hell, I've written five (5!) books about her and the influence of her comedy and landmark sitcom, I Love Lucy. And on rare occasions, I've even managed to slip in an article or two about Lucy in my day jobs. This piece was a memorial/look back after she died for a sister magazine of mine at the time, Video Business.
I've interviewed daytime diva Susan Lucci many times, but the first was as a freelance writer doing a piece for Valley magazine in California. We met at the Cafe des Artistes (now gone, unfortunately) on Central Park West in New York in winter, and I discovered Lucci was diminutive only in size (her fur was bigger than her!); in every other way, she's a classy, intelligent and very likable lady, nothing like her alter ego, Erica Kane. It's called acting.
While I was copy chief and show runner at Soap Opera Weekly, our company published four or five special issues a year just to test the newsstand waters on a variety of subjects. One of the best received was Reality Check. This was one of several articles I wrote for it.
As an online and e-mail editor for TheDeal.com, I got to write about all kinds of high-tech products and gizmos. Here's a sample, about the types of wrist-wearable computers and other gadgets coming out at the time.
Here's one of the monthly columns I created and wrote, as Managing Editor of Graphic Arts Monthly. It featured one of my favorite topics: how type is used to create a visually appealing element on the printed page.
One of my favorite writing assignments at Graphic Arts Monthly was this column: "How'd They Print That?" In addition to instructing our readers about various print techniques that could make their next job stand out, the column won The Cahners Medal of Editorial Excellence and was a finalist in the Jesse H. Neal Awards for editorial excellence, given out by American Business Media.
There's nothing right about being high in the workplace. It has ramifications that exceed an individual's own personal problem, ranging from medical treatment to lawsuits against the company. I gave the topic a thorough look, and the story won a Certificate of Merit from the Jesse H. Neal Awards for editorial excellence, in addition to being a finalist in its category.