Three years ago, I asked my friend Kelly to build me a website — an online archive of my work that would make it easy for people to find stories they were curious about. She designed an elegant portal that divided my stories into categories that seemed to correspond to what people might be interested in: Hollywood Players, Famous People, Infamous People, L.A. Culture, etc… It was just what I needed as I started my job as a senior writer at Conde Nast Portfolio, the business magazine that debuted in 2007. But after Portfolio laid off its writers at the end of 2008 (and then, a few months later, shut down altogether), I became a full-fledged freelancer and realized I needed to make a change.
This new and improved site — designed, by the way, by Kelly’s brother, Keith — corrects the central flaw of its predecessor. Namely, it posts stories as they appear, letting visitors see my most recent work first. The categories are still there, and you can still search by publication (see list at right). But now, if you check back every once and a while, you’ll be able to catch up with stuff you might have missed because it’ll be right at the top of the pile.
This format gives me a place not just to post stories I’ve written, but also to sound off when I see fit. Anyone who followed the controversy after my November cover story in Wired about vaccines and autism knows that I took to Twitter to write about reader reaction (my tweets were later compiled into blog posts on Wired’s website). Well, starting now, this is the place I’ll air that kind of thing (without a 140-character limit). It is, dare I say it, my first blog. I plan to feed it with increasing frequency in the coming months.
But wait, there’s more: Finally you, too, can be heard. When you get to the end of a story, there’s a place you can add your comments. I hope you will take the time to tell me what you think.
So, welcome to Amy-Wallace.com 2.0. We’re still back-filling the years-old stories and adding new tags, so be patient on the truly archival stuff. But all of 2009’s work is there, plus this year’s stories and a whole lot more besides. Please sign up to follow me on Twitter (see tab at right). And if you like the format of what you see here, I have Keith’s phone number on speed dial and would be happy to share. Enjoy!
