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About a month ago, I bought myself a little Asus netbook. It’s wee, and blue, and I love it. I will love it more when I have to lug it around an auto show for two days and it doesn’t tear my shoulder apart like my five-and-a-half-pound laptop did, no matter what bag I used.

But if I’m not traveling, what use can I put this little guy to? As a freelance writer and editor working from home, getting out of the house is always nice. So I’ve instituted a new ritual: the Monday morning battle plan. It gets me out of the house and makes the rest of my week far more productive.

Here’s how it works:

• Throw tiny computer, Moleskine planner, pen, lip balm, and obnoxiously sparkly change purse into my backpack
• Head to a coffee shop, usually one within walking distance
• Order a cup of coffee (preferably one with at least one refill) or a pot of tea and find a table
• Check email — all four accounts — and my About.com Exotic Cars page
• Figure out what must be done that week and what I would like to get done that week, and write it in the planner, along with any firm deadlines, meetings, appointments, etc.

Ta da! This takes about an hour, maybe a little more. Without the distractions of home (the dog, laundry, podcasts on my office computer), I can see what I need to do, and give myself five days to do it. And if I plan it all out on Monday morning, I find that don’t usually add much to the list as the week progresses. It’s more about crossing things off than adding new items.

This week’s to-do list is short, which means more time to pitch new markets (Oprah, I’ve got my sights on your magazine) and add lots of new content to my About site. And, of course, more time to play fetch in the backyard.

I don’t usually do new year’s resolutions. I would rather fix what needs fixing when it needs fixing rather than make a list in the last week of December of things I’d like to do in the next twelve months.

But, of course, there are things that happen to need fixing right now — not the least of which is my sugar-induced near-comatose state. Fresh veggies! Stat! (The corn, celery, and carrots in the chowder we ate on Christmas day do not count. No veggie counts when the recipe starts with “fry a half-pound of bacon in the soup pot.” Some of you nerds out there may disagree.)

Here are the things I’d like to accomplish in the next few months:

• Finish my novel set in 1920s Portland, starring anthropologist Gunn Flagely
• Break into four new, well-paying markets
• Spend some time in New York this spring to meet editors and fellow writers
• Spend two weeks at a cabin in Eastern Oregon this summer
• Get the dog to stop biting my damn feet when we come up the stairs. Not cool

Best of luck on your to-do list for 2010. And if you’re in New York, maybe we can meet for lunch.

I went to SEMA in Las Vegas this year, and then the L.A. Auto Show a month later. The Lexus LFA supercar was at both shows, and I took pictures both times to share with my readers on About.com. I’m the Guide to Exotic Cars there, and a $400,000 exotic from Lexus is pretty newsworthy. So I took a lot of pictures. Like, a lot.

I’ve spent the last year getting comfortable with taking more pictures than I normally would so that I can edit out the blurry, dark ones and keep the bright, shiny ones. I’m taking pictures of cars, not noir film sets, after all. I’ve also learned to use some basic processing tools, like levels and saturation, to correct for hideous convention center lighting.

So I processed the latest round of pictures of the LFA and added them to the image gallery on my About site — and realized I had not one single image of the whole car. I’ve got rear end, front end, interior, close-up of the F logo, wheels … and not one full shot, nose to tail. Well, there is that one from a low angle, all artsy and stuff, but not a straight-up illustrative shot of the car.

Interesting is good, but especially for a reference site like About, I’ve gotta get one decent establishing shot. Lesson learned. But the pictures I do have look nice, anyway.

I landed in Los Angeles yesterday afternoon, way earlier than necessary. I figured I’d use my afternoon wisely and work in my room (at the Millennium Biltmore, which is lovely), but they wanted $10 per 24 hours for wi-fi. But, resourceful freelance journalist that I am, I noticed that the Central Public Library was right next door. Guess what? It has free wi-fi everywhere in the building. I found a table and set up for an hour of work, then saved a couple of web pages for working offline later. It was a slow connection, but it was free. Libraries FTW!

After taking a walk around downtown L.A., I returned to the Biltmore lobby for the lighting of the Christmas tree. There were carolers, cookies, and hot apple cider. I happened to stand next to a man who works in Texas governor Rick Perry’s office on automotive issues, among other things. We chatted for quite a while. Poor guy. If you ask me questions about new automotive technology, I’m going to tell you what I know. It takes longer than you’d think.

A couple hours later, I had an awful dinner of two oversized shrimp with the shells still on, feet and all. There was a yummy tomato sauce drizzled over the shrimp, but I defy you to get the meat out of the shells without making a tomato-sauce mess. Luckily, the bottle of Kirin was pint-plus sized, so that was really my dinner. Also luckily, the media breakfast at the show this morning was a full breakfast, with bacon and blintzes and the like. So it made up for my two big shrimp.

Bob Lutz just took his turn at the podium to open the show. He was a last-minute replacement for Fritz Henderson, who was head of GM until yesterday afternoon. It was an incredibly boring speech. Also, Ferrari, Maserati, Lamborghini, and Bentley pulled out of this year’s show, so I have a lot of time to myself this morning. I’ll go take pictures while everyone else is at the Chevy, VW, and Toyota conferences.

I’ve never been to Los Angeles, or to its auto show. I’m headed out tomorrow to check both of those things off my list of never-dones. Ferrari, Maserati, Lamborghini, and Bentley all pulled out, but Rolls, Aston, Porsche, and the Lexus LFA will still be there. So that’s cool, right? Right?

After three years with a freebie web site designed in about 30 seconds by a friend — who was kind to give it even that much time — I finally upgraded to something a little less out of the box.

It’s much easier to find my work now, and to find the latest Internet and print projects that I’ve written. I’m even taking more photos, so keep an eye out for some crazy shots from SEMA last week. Like a Corvette with a bubble top. Like as if it belonged to George Jetson.

So we’ll consider this a test post. I’ll add updates as interesting assignments come along. Thanks to LucentPDX for the new design!

It’s backwards day here at KHG HQ, but this article is for real. I wrote “5 Reasons Not to Buy a Hybrid” for HowStuffWorks.com.

I recently did an email interview for Main Street Motors’ “Ask the Experts” section where I waxed poetic on the future of exotic cars, the exotic car business, and which exotics are my faves. A few fellow Autos Guides from About.com have been interviewed as well, so you can check out their two cents’ worth while you’re there.

Went back for more racing. This time, the world’s fastest EV KillaCycle got several runs in, and a few of them were against a miniature RC electric version of itself. People from the Discovery Channel were there to film the tiny action.

Michael Kadie gave me a ride around the parking lot in his electric T-bucket — not the 2SSIC Daytona kit car he uses on the track. And one of the Tesla owners who came down to Portland International Raceway fell hard for drag racing. He’s got plans — big plans — for his roadster. And it sounds like everyone else’s, too.

You can see more images at my Flickr page.

I went to the Wayland Invitational electric drag races last night and took a zillion pictures. Approximately. You can see some of the best, including Killacycle, the world’s fastest electric vehicle, on my Flickr page. I’m going back to the track in about 20 minutes for the Saturday night edition of electric-vehicle racing.

After spending the night at a friend’s house in Eugene (keg of Ninkasi! giant chocolate cupcakes! hot tub!), I stopped by Grand Prix Imports in Wilsonville, Oregon, to see the new Lamborghini Murcielago LP 670-4 SV with its iridescent yellow paint. They had doors and engine hood up, and they even fired up the 12-cylinder behind the seats. I was surprised at the low note of the Super Veloce; the engine was quieter than the color scheme.

I’ll have images up on the Lamborghini Gallardo gallery page of my About.com Exotic Cars site in a sec.

I can’t believe I didn’t post this sooner. Last weekend, I had to (had to? please) take the train to Seattle to pick up a 2009 Aston Martin DB9 Volante at King Station and drive it back home to Portland. In case you aren’t hip to the Aston lingo, “Volante” is James-Bond-style code for “convertible.”

It was sunny and 71 degrees for the entire 175-mile drive. I brought my Maserati hat to keep the sun off my nose. It’s my favorite hat, and yes, I do realize that wearing a Maser hat while driving an Aston puts me in full d-bag territory. Whatever.

You can see pics of the car taken by yours truly at my About.com Exotic Cars site. I’ve got a review to write this week, too, but that’s proving more of a structural challenge. Ah, the life of the automotive journalist.

I’ve got a couple of new articles on HowStuffWorks.com (which is owned by Discovery), both of which have to do with hybrid vehicles. First, I did a Toyota Prius comparison of the second-generation Prius, the Prius Touring edition, and the new third-gen Prius. I also wrote up a piece on regenerative braking and kinetic energy, but I can’t seem to find it on the site. It’s there somewhere.

My latest article for the New York Times, this time on the Brammo Enertia electric motorcycle, made print yesterday. It came out just in time for the Enertia’s world debut in New York on Tuesday — though the bike is made in Ashland, Oregon.

Yesterday, The Square, local NBC affiliate KGW’s live news magazine, sent out a tweet looking for a Portland-based auto writer. Another journalist I follow on Twitter, who follows The Square, re-tweeted the post, knowing I was out there somewhere. I picked up on it, and emailed the station. A quick phone call confirmed that I was knowledgable enough to answer host Stephanie Strickland’s questions about the new CAFE standards, and I was slotted in for five live minutes at 7:10 p.m.

So, thanks to Twitter, I had my first experience being interviewed for my auto analysis skills. Here’s the clip, in case you’re interested.

My first post for the “Wheels” blog in the New York Times Autos section went up yesterday. Richard Chang is the guy in charge of the blog, and he even left in my favorite bit, about wide, American … roads.

The chicken mole at Seattle’s Hotel 1000 was lovely, but VW head Stefan Jacoby’s comments were enlightening. For instance, VW wants to triple its vehicle sales in the U.S. in the next decade, including sales of whatever full-sized sedan will be built at the factory under construction in Chattanooga, Tennesee. (Jacoby promised the car would “solve the cupholder problem” for the American market.”)

VW also sees clean diesel and refinements to gasoline engines as the most practical solution for the near future, Jacoby said, with fuel economy raised by as much as 50% and emissions reduced significantly. That said, VW isn’t complettely counting out fuel cell technology, second-gen biofuels, and some kind of battery-electric vehicle. But for now, it’s sticking with what it knows for mass-market vehicles.

Speaking of which, VW brought a Euro-spec 6-speed manual Golf TDI for short test drives in hilly Seattle traffic. It was only a few miles, but I really liked the feel of the car while I was at the wheel. Until, that is, I got stopped at a light on a 45-degree incline. Luckily fellow auto journalist Doug Newcomb of Edmunds.com was in the passenger seat to teach me a trick with the emergency brake that kept me from rolling backward and hitting the road-test Touareg behind me. At least I didn’t curb the wheel in front of the hotel (I’m looking at you, Bruce).

I paid the whole twelve bucks for two days at the Stumptown Comics Fest this past weekend. I stopped to say hi (and not much more — they were crazy busy) to my comic book purveyors of choice, Bridge City Comics. I learned about the Center for Cartoon Studies in Vermont, and made my own print at the Independent Publishing Resource Center table, which looked intimidating. It wasn’t.

I also picked up the hardcover “Beanworld” by Larry Marder. I’ve been meaning to buy this book for a couple months, and what better opportunity than to hand my $20 over to Mr. Marder himself. He signed my book and drew a little Beanworld guy on the title page in green ink.

On Sunday, I attended a panel on comic book editing that was aimed at creators who want to understand the editing process. Diana Schutz from Dark Horse was there, as was Bob Schreck, co-founder of Oni Press and Jeff Parker, a freelance writer (and sometime artist) for Marvel. As an editor who LOVES graphic novels and comics, I was interested to find out what the job entails.Turns out it takes editing skills, project managment chops, and a desire to see the creators’ best work get published. Check, check, and check.
The surprise was the number of up-and-coming creators at the panel discussion who felt they needed an editor but didn’t know how to find one. Were they ever in luck — I had a stack of business cards with me. Here’s to developing a second area of expertise in a shaky economy.

I went to the Oregon Electric Vehicle Association’s monthly meeting on Thursday (after an absence of many months — for shame) and met a couple of great guys. The first was Wade Patterson, who has a Zero X electric dirt bike that he demos around the Northwest. I’m going to interview him for an upcoming NY Times story, if I can ever pin him down.

At the same time, I met Bob Simpson, an electrical engineer and EV enthusiast who’s working to convert a 2003 BMW 325i to lithium-ion power — and beat John Wayland and White Zombie. A key supplier for the conversion reneged on a deal, so the project has stalled. Simpson won’t be able to take on White Zombie at this summer’s Wayland Invitational, but he’ll be there to watch the other Teslas, bikes, and conversions attempt to set records at Portland International Raceway July 24-25.

I was out of the home office yesterday (yay!) for a Ford Fusion event in downtown Portland. I have never been so glad to see a carafe of coffee in my life. Nancy Gioia from Ford gave a great presentation about the Fusion hybrid and Ford’s green plans for the future, but I had spent the entire morning without liquid fuel. Four cups later, I felt much better.

We got to take the Fusion hybrid for short test drives, and the LCD instrument panel is super geeky hi-tech. Apparently, the engineers’ first attempt was too much like a video game, and drivers in the simulation watched the gas-saving graphics more than the road. Much to the team’s dismay, that version was scrapped for the cool-but-not-too-cool production version.

Ms. Gioia also gave me an interview after lunch (sandwiches and cupcakes) for an article for HowStuffWorks.com on whether owners can recoup the hybrid premium. The article will be up on the site two weeks from tomorrow, I think. Her answer matches my math — you can definitely maybe make up that cash in incentives and hypermiling. But probably not. But maybe.

Wednesday night, Bridge City Comics in Portland, Oregon, hosted a release party for the Pacific Northwest College of Art’s graphic novel anthology, “Intense.” Since Bridge City is the shop with all my comic subscriptions (my box is on the bottom in the middle), I swung by to say hi and pick up my copy. Five of the authors were on hand, and I had them sign my book. Yay!

Apparently, last summer Jessica Abel and Matt Madden taught a three-day comic book workshop, and the students took their creations and published them. There were eight comics in the book, plus an intro by Abel and Madden and a bonus mini comic — all for the sweet price of six bucks. (Plus the books in my box, plus a copy of The Comics Journal. Whatevs.)

The two events I’m most looking forward to this summer (so far) are already penned into my calendar: the Northwest Automotive Press Association’s Run to the Sun and the National Electric Drag Racing Association’s Wayland Invitational IV.

NWAPA’s event involves driving 18 or so sports cars and convertibles through the mountains of Central Oregon for two days. Last year, it was sunny and beautiful — and the roads were plenty twisty. With my long hair and burnable skin, I’d like to again thank Deb from Maserati for the free ballcap. It would have been a shame to drive the Miata with the top up.

I won’t be driving anything in NEDRA’s event at Portland International Raceway, but I will definitely be there. The email invite I got says there will be production cars “from Teslas to Tangos,” plus all the home-built drag strip monsters like  John Wayland’s record-setting White Zombie. You can get a feel for the event by checking out the article I did for the NY Times a while back on NEDRA’s 10th anniversary.

I went to the press day for the Portland Auto Show yesterday — lunch courtesy of Ford, dinner courtesy of GM, and a talk in the middle from Chrysler’s rep and all-around good guy Scott Brown.

I didn’t learn anything at the Portland show that wasn’t said at the Detroit show less than a month ago, but I was surprised at what’s missing from the Portland floor. Toyota didn’t bring the latest Prius, Honda didn’t bring its resurrected Insight, Chrysler didn’t bring its ENVI cars or its GEM electric vehicles, and GM didn’t bring the Volt.

Some of these cars are at the big auto show in D.C. right now, putting on their best razzle-dazzle dance for the guys who hold the money, and several of those cars are one-of-a-kind concepts. But Prius and Honda aren’t getting any money from the U.S. government, and those two hybrid cars go on sale in a couple of months. Surely there’s more than one Prius and one Insight in existence. And surely they recognize the eco-minded auto market we have in the Pacific Northwest, right? Right?

After a week of SEO soul-searching (is it killing my writing? am I writing for people or an algorithm?), I’ve decided to join the 21st century and learn how to optimize my keywords. I even bought a book about it.
I don’t love SEO — this isn’t the natural, flowing language I’ve cultivated in my work over the last decade. But I will find a way to incorporate key phrases from metatitle to main text if it kills me. And it may. I’ll keep you posted.

I went to my first Detroit Auto Show this year; from what I understand, this was a real downer of a show. I wouldn’t know, have nothing to compare it to and no time to think about it while I was there. I’ve put images of the latest eco-friendly-ish cars on Flickr and created image galleries on About.com for the supercars.

Check out these links to the pieces I’ve written so far:

About.com

• Images from my first day, second day, and third day
• Guided tour of the Mercedes-Benz McLaren SLR Stirling Moss
• Blog posts about Bentley, Audi, and Fisker press conferences

GoodGreenCars.com

• The new Honda Insight vs. the new Toyota Prius
• Tesla’s deal with Daimler
• A test-drive of the Mitsubishi iMiev on the track in the basement

Flickr

• A set of images of the Prius debut
• All the rest of the dozens of pictures of green cars

As of today, my About.com site is live! Visit it at http://exoticcars.about.com/. The content is a bit thin right now, but I’ve got lots of articles and blog posts in the pipeline.

I’m at Mudfest in Auburn, Washington, right now test driving 22 SUVs over two days, so it’ll be next week before I get anything new and exciting up there. But check back often — I’m really excited about the site. And I’ll post something about Mudfest on this site, too. Winners will be announced next week.

After sitting out most of the summer with a mysterious gas leak, my Kymco People 50 scooter finally demanded that I fulfill my promise to fix it. I thought about pushing it up a piece of 2×4 into the bed of the truck and taking it to the shop, but instead went with my original idea to fix it myself. I used my new camera (a Canon A590 IS) to document the process in case I went wrong somewhere.
Though I didn’t need my digital breadcrumbs — it was an easy fix and an easy reassembly — I did post them to the Flickr account I’ve had for years and never used. You can see the six-step repair process here.

I headed all the way out to the Washington County Fairgrounds in Hillsboro yesterday to visit the Alternative Energy Show. It was small, but the Oregon Electric Vehicle Association had a presence, with an AC-powered 914, a converted Honda Insight, and a factory electric Chevy pickup. They even had a trailer of pop-up solar panels to use for charging, thanks to Oregon State University.

I spoke with OEVA members about the Chevy Volt’s chances of survival, and Ford’s lack of leadership in the alternative-fuel market. The show was small, but the vendors and information was useful. Zenn had a display as well, and there was a LNG-powered car, too, but I didn’t get a chance to talk to the woman manning that booth.

Here’s my latest article for the New York Times Autos section, about Electrathon America. I wrote it short, then it got long, then it went back to being short. But it turned out fine. It even made the rounds on the Oregon Electric Vehicle Association’s email list.

If you’d like to read it as a PDF, it’s on my “Clips” page, too.

I went to a lovely lunch last week with Dan Kapp, who’s been in Ford’s powertrain division for 31 years, ever since he got out of college. He spoke to the group of NWAPA members and local media for over an hour about EcoBoost, hybrids, clean diesels, Ford’s long-term plans … he really covered a lot of ground.

You can read my post about the press event at GoodGreenCars.com.

Got another last-minute assignment (actually, two) from Portland Monthly. This one required interviews with Mike Richardson, founder and president of Dark Horse Comics in Milwaukie, and Helen Spalding at the Portland State University library. Both were great interviews, and it reminded me that I needed to pick up my stack of comics in my slot at Bridge City Comics on North Mississippi. Don’t tell Mike, but there weren’t any DH comics in the stack this time.

In case anyone is wondering exactly what the difference is, literary agent Nathan Bransford was kind enough to blog about it last week.

I’m just finishing up the last rounds of edits for an article that will run in the September issue of Portland Monthly. I did a slew of interviews and test drove a Smart ForTwo to gauge the new-car market in Portland, now that gas is so ungodly expensive.

The magazine will hit metro-area newsstands around the first of September; I’ll have a PDF of it up on my Clips page as soon as I’ve got a copy.

I’ve been given a new blog all my own, though it’s still part of the RiverWired.com universe. Check it out at GoodGreenCars.com. There aren’t many posts yet — I heard about it Monday and it went live yesterday — but I’ll be posting more often here than I did on RiverWired.com.

The new blog is all cars and alternative energy, plus tips on saving gas. We’ll see how it goes in the next couple of months.

I just got back from driving a Maserati, a Dodge Viper, a C63 Mercedes-Benz tuned by AMG, and the Audi S5, among 15 others, through the mountains of Central Oregon. I drove faster and pushed harder through corners than I probably ever have, and the people on the rally were as nice as the cars.

Fellow auto journalists Jeff Zurchmeide and John Vincent put the route together, and it was perfect — right down to the clear, blue skies and 85-degree afternoons. Perfect for driving in the drop-top cars. I was glad that the Maserati rep brought ball caps, though, since I forgot to put sunscreen where I part my hair the first day and burned a pink line right along the top of my head. Cute.

Now I’m back in my office, catching up on emails and making appointments for interviews. I’ve got a story due for Portland Monthly next week that I’m looking forward to writing.

I leave bright and early tomorrow morning to join my fellow Northwest Automotive Press Association members on a two-day jaunt through Central Oregon in a string of fast cars. The organizers lined up everything from a Mazda MX-5 (that’s a Miata) to a Maserati, with the likes of Audi, Volvo, and a Dodge Viper thrown in.

The route is one of my favorite drives in Oregon, along Old McKenzie Pass. The bummer will be the wildfires raging near Mt. Adams in Washington. We’re supposed to drive home on the Washington side of the Columbia River, but it may be smoky and nasty, especially in a convertible.

I wrote this piece on Subaru tuners for Izmo Autos, a content site, over a year ago. A friend found it on the Internet and told me about it today, since he knew both the author (me) and the subject (local Subie enthusiast Tad Dinsmore).

Getting publication verification from Izmo has been a nightmare. I’m glad to see this one escaped the black hole and made it onto Portland’s local Fox station web site.

Mudroom section editor Kasey Cordell asked if I could do a 150-word piece on kind of short notice, and I said, “Why not?” I think it turned out well. The photo they used of Gary Mortensen is spectacular, which helps. Find it in the July issue of Portland Monthly in the metro area, or on my clips page.

I went to Pioneer Courthouse Square Saturday morning to check out EV Awareness Day, held by the Oregon Electric Vehicle Association. There were about a dozen cars and trucks there, from a squared-off Citicar from the early 1970s to a Prius converted to plug-in hybrid technology.

I overheard a woman tell her husband, “He’ll let me take a picture in it!” She led him away, so I followed. She was giddy at the idea of sitting in the driver’s seat of a little, green Fiat 500 that had been converted to run on DC power. They took pictures with the door open, with the door closed, with her leaning out, with her holding the steering wheel … she was really excited.

Shorepower was there, too. These are the guys making the charging stations that Portland General Electric will start installing around town soon. They had a charger/meter on display, which they explained to all comers, including a woman who works for the nearby city of Gresham who wanted to know how to get them in the budget and on the streets.
Even at 11 am on a Saturday morning after a late-night Jazz Fest on the waterfront, there were quite a few people checking out the cars from every angle and talking to their owners. Spectators ranged from guys in shorts and tucked-in polo shirts who crouched on the bricks to better see under the cars to skate punks with facial tattoos asking questions of the engineers who converted their Porsches 911s and Honda Insights to all-electric power.

Here’s a link to my latest New York Times article, about the Isuzu Trooper that runs on wood chips. I’ll get a PDF in my clips sometime in the next couple of days. It took almost a week’s worth of edits and rewrites and expansions, but I’m happy with how it turned out. What started as a 350-word sidebar became a full-fledged article.

I just finished (I think) the last round of edits for a story I did on Robert “Chip” Beam’s wood-chip-powered Isuzu Trooper. It’ll be in the Sunday New York Times, probably in just the metro edition. But you can always look it up online at nytimes.com/autos, and I’ll post it here on my Clips page.

I just got the latest issue of Ultimate Northwest in my mailbox, and there’s a piece in there that I wrote about usable SUVs. I finished the article in March and had almost forgotten about it.

Had lunch with GM honcho Bob Lutz on Tuesday in Seattle. It was interesting to talk to Mr. Lutz, as he’s on a kind of PR tour to counteract the negative image people have about the company. Also, the restaurant used fresh local berries in its desserts. Tasty. Read about Mr. Lutz’s comments (and not a word about the food) in my post on RiverWired.com on Friday, June 20.

Join me in welcoming myself to the twenty-first century: this site now allows for comments on posts on this very home page. Feel free to read the PDFs mentioned in the posts then come back here to tell me how insightful you found the articles to be. Just click on the title up there to be taken to the comment entry box.

After ten days with my eyes glued to the screen of my laptop, I’ve finally finished editing “Some Days Chicken, Some Days Feathers,” a memoir by Bob Ferguson. He’s going over the manuscript now and gathering the images he wants to use, then he’ll self-publish it this summer.

I had a quick-turnaround assignment recently from Portland Monthly to do a short, FOB piece on the National Combat History Archive here in the Portland area. The article was only about 150 words long, but I was fascinated by the work these two guys have done in creating the archive of film, digital video, and photographs taken by soldiers. I’m looking to get a longer assignment from another publication. In the meantime, check out the article in the July issue of Portland Monthly, if you’re in the Northwest next month.

I have a new email address: khg[at]kristenhallgeisler[dot]com. Please send all writing- and editing-related correspondence, including that seven-figure book advance for “Lightning in a Throttle,” to this address.

My latest piece for Portland Monthly’s Mudroom section is a short one, on Electrathon America, a race for electric vehicles designed and built by high school and community college teams. I started the first draft of the short article during a visit to Mrs. Peterson’s class at Spring Mountain Elementary School. I talked to the kids about being a writer and how many revisions are necessary, and they asked me to demonstrate a first draft — live and in person. I’m glad they did. I think it turned out well — four revisions later.

I spent all day Saturday — the warmest, sunniest day Oregon has seen all month — inside at the Oregon Press Women’s spring seminar. Luckily, the windows in our upstairs ballroom opened to let in fresh air.

The seminar asked four speakers to share their ideas on the future of writing and journalism, which ranged from changes in grammar and usage to newspapers in an Internet age. More importantly, I met other women who have been freelance journalists for much longer than I have, and they have no intention of quitting or retiring, either. Two years down, thirty or forty to go (if I’m not run over and killed by a silent EV before then).

I haven’t posted much here lately because I’ve been writing green-car blog posts at RiverWired.com. Topics range from hot cars like the Tesla roadster and forthcoming Fisker to decidedly not hot vehicles like hybrid garbage trucks from Volvo.

Here’s the link to the story I wrote for the Times on EV dealerships carving out space for a new market. Thanks to Steve Sharer at Ecomotion, Taryn Sokolow at EnVironmental Motors, and Darlene Kelly at Davis Motors for their time.

I have another article in the Sunday Times this week, this time on EV dealerships. It will run in the New York metro area edition, not the national edition, but it will be on the Web site, available everywhere you can get an internet connection. Oh, and I think you still have to log in. Check www.nytimes.com on Sunday (or any day after that) to read about the latest in auto dealerships.

The March/April issue of Ultimate Northwest is on newsstands in the Portland area today, with my article “The highway, your way” on page 74. I picked eight vehicles, from a Harley to the latest Town ‘n’ Country, for taking on the great American road trip in 2008.

Last night, at the invitation of fearless AROO leader Marty Schneiderman, I gave a presentation entitled “Sports and Collector Cars in the Eco Age, or Why You Won’t Have to Give Up Your Alfa Any Time Soon” to the members of the club. Marty warmed up the crowd for me by running the regularly scheduled meeting while the rest of us ate barbecue. It was a great time, I met a lot of new people (not all of whom shared with my interest in alternative-fuel technologies), and I wanted to say thanks to Marty and give the club a plug.

If you’re wondering how I got invited in the first place, you can read my article about Alfa’s 2009 return to the U.S. market, which was published in the December issue of Ultimate Northwest, here.

My latest article to reach newsstands is “Plug-and-Play 914s” in the March 2008 issue of Sports Car Market magazine. I interviewed fellow Oregonians Tim Kutscha, John Benson, and Otmar Ebenhoech about converting Porsche 914s to electric motors. There’s even a great picture of Benson, and a few images of Kutscha’s 914 in the garage.

Well, obviously not, since I didn’t know about this post on Autobloggreen.com until today. Since I’m now, as a RiverWired.com blogger, monitoring Autobloggreen’s every post, I’m happy to see that my article in the November 25 edition of the NY Times was worth a mention.

I’ve got a couple of new projects these days. The first is a new blog, RiverWired.com, that I’ll be writing posts for in the future. I’ve already written a couple, but we’re still working out the details. They tell me that I’ll have my own space to post green car news, which is exactly what I wanted.
This all dovetails not coincidentally with my second project: I’m working on a non-fiction book about racing electric vehicles (EVs). I’ve got the proposal and one chapter written (Chapter 6, actually), and I’m working on an intro now. I’ve got a short list of agents, so I’ll be sending out queries by the end of the month. Wish me luck.

I never did scan in the holiday decor article I did for Ultimate Northwest; on reflection, it was a last-minute assignment that was pretty far out of my area of expertise and not my favorite article that I’ve ever written. It’s pretty good for being an automotive writer tackling ways to make your home sparkle, though. (My tips for shining chrome didn’t come in handy, no.) If anyone is interested in seeing the article, it’s still on newsstands in the Portland metro area, or I could be persuaded to scan it in and post the PDF if editors clamor to read it.

In the December 9 issue of Ultimate Northwest, I wrote articles on holiday decor (”Breaking out of the tinsel trap,” p. 30), toy collecting (”Kidd stuff,” p. 35), home and garden gifts (p. 72), automotive gifts (p. 80), and the return of Alfa Romeo to the U.S. market in 2009 (”Alfa’s alpha car,” p. 107).
Now I just need to find the time to scan all these in and post the PDFs on my clips page.

I just got the PDF proof of my latest article for the New York Times, and it looks pretty good. I’ve been working on this article, about drag racing electric vehicles, for a couple of months, so I’m glad to see it hit print the weekend after Thanksgiving. Also, this article will be in the national edition, not just the city edition, so anyone near a big bookstore or Starbucks should be able to find me and some of the guys of NEDRA on page six of the Autos section.

The latest issue of Lloyd Life, one of the Oregonian’s many publications, has my story on model trains on the cover. I’m not sure where to pick up a copy, other than by being in the Lloyd District neighborhood; the paper sends me a copy. If you’d like to see the article, visit my Clips page for a PDF.

My next article for the NY Times, on the National Electric Drag Racing Association, is on the schedule for November 25, and the issue of Ultimate Northwest with several articles by me will be out December 9, it seems.

I’ve been writing for a new automotive newspaper insert called izmoAutos, and I finally got a stack of issues. I’ve scanned in the review I wrote for them and an article. Both are available on my Clips page.

The November issue of Portland Monthly has my piece about the Writers Dojo in Portland, and the trend toward community work spaces for traditionally solitary lines of work, like writing.

It only seems like I haven’t been working. I’ve actually been busy working on weekly auto reviews for Izmo Autos, a couple of articles in the November/December issue of Ultimate Northwest, and a book editing project. As soon as I have clips, I’ll post them to that page and stick a post up here on the front page.

I spent two days last week evaluating 28 SUVs for the Northwest Automotive Press Association’s annual award. Also during those two days, fellow NWAPA member Tom Voelk filmed me talking about women and SUVs. Tom produces Driving Northwest for Northwest Cable News. As soon as I know times and channels, I’ll post them on this page.

As promised, here is the link to the auto museums article in the August 12 New York Times: www.nytimes.com/autos. If you aren’t already logged in, you’ll need to do so, but it’s free.

I’ve got the official word: My article about auto museums and the clever things they do to lure new visitors will be published in the New York Times Sunday, August 12. As soon as I get a link and a clip, I’ll put them on this site.

The August issue of the Northwest Women’s Journal is about to hit newsstands, and my feature article “Women in the Automotive Industry” is on the cover, with a great picture of local mechanic maven Liz Dally. I also wrote a shorter piece for the magazine, “Women’s Influence on Auto Design.”

I just got my copies of the July/August issue of Ultimate, which has my article about the Ariel Atom inside. Also, my first bylined article for the New York Times will run on Sunday, August 5. It’s about the unexpected things auto museums do to lure new visitors and keep them coming back.

Friday, July 13, the new issue of “Explore the Pearl” will be available in the Portland, Ore., area. My article, “Season of Festivals,” showcases the festivals and fund raisers in the city’s Pearl District neighborhood. I’ve got an advance copy in here in my office; I’ll post a PDF on the Clips page when the article hits newsstands.

The summer issue of “Classic Style” magazine published a guide to Portland that I wrote for the dapper gent, including hotels, restaurants, and shopping. The five-page spread begins on page 49 of the issue.

I just uploaded the PDF of my five-page review of the top 10 cars at the Portland International Auto Show. You can find it by clicking on “Clips” to the right.

The new article is the latest Know + Tell Rides page in the June/July issue of Details. The clip is available by clicking on the link to the right. The one I forgot about was in the April issue of Ultimate magazine. I wrote about ten hot cars for 2007 after visiting the Portland Auto Show. As soon as I get a copy from my editor, I’ll post that clip, too.

I just found out that GQ Mexico has purchased the reprint permissions to a piece I wrote for Details; it will run in a future, as-yet-undetermined issue. And I am given credit for contributing reporting to the latest auto events calender in the New York Times.

I’ve been tapped to write the Know + Tell Rides page for Details for the next few months. The May issue, my first, hits newsstands in late April. Until then, here is a link to the web site. If you “click here for the slideshow,” the first slide is the 1929 Duesenberg that I wrote up.

In an effort to ease the burden of editors’ inboxes everywhere, I’ve added a page of clips. Click on the new “Clips” category in the menu on the right to find a page with links to PDFs of my work.

I reviewed three 50-cc scooters – Kymco, Sym, and Vespa – for the Oregonian’s DriveTime section. The article, plus a sidebar on motorcycle endorsement license requirements, appeared in the March 31, 2007 edition of the paper.

The February 25 issue of Ultimate magazine, a publication of the Oregonian, has an article and timeline I wrote about the new incarnation of Dutch auto manufacturer Spyker.

The February issue of PDX Magazine contains two gallery previews written by me – see them on page 48.

I recently had a short piece published in Explore the Pearl, a publication of the Oregonian , that featured several items for decluttering home and office.

The January 2007 issue of PDX Magazine has three short gallery previews that I wrote on page 52.

My latest publication credit is “Listen and Yearn” in the December/January issue of Ultimate magazine, a publication of the Oregonian. I also assembled items and wrote captions for three gift guides in this same issue of Ultimate, without published credit.

The new issue of SCM is hitting subscribers’ mailboxes this week, and the 1000-word profile of automotive artist Charles Maher that I wrote is on page 132.

The November issue of PDX Magazine is out, and my review of the BMW X3 is on page 51.

My latest clip is electronic – a B2B web site for the pet industry. See my first two articles here; I’ll be writing and editing for VerticalPet.com for the foreseeable future.

I have two one-page pieces in the November issue of Sports Car Market magazine: an essay on attending concours and races in Monterey, CA, this past August, and my final Neat Stuff column. I’ll have a new article, on auto artist Richard James, in the December issue of SCM.

The October 2006 issue of PDX Magazine, available for free throughout the Portland, OR, metro area, is out, and my review of the Maserati Quattroporte is on page 53.

I’ve just finished my first auto review column for PDX Magazine. My write-up of the Maserati Quattroporte will be in the October issue, available throughout Portland, OR, and online. I’ll post a link when it’s up.

I’ve been updating the automotive calendar for the New York Times for about six months or so; the latest version in print was published August 6, 2006. Previous print editions were under the title “Wheel Spin,” and were a half-page; as the season winds down, the calendar of events takes up less space. For the full calendar, which also includes submissions from readers, see the NYTimes.com Autos page.

Welcome to my web site. Please choose from one of the options to the right to learn more about my work history and availability.