Magazine Articles
Occasionally, clients have needed a presence in a trade journal or magazine catering to a specific profession and have hired me to write an article for it. In some cases, they want their name attached to the article; this ghostwriting is clearly designated below. Sometimes, it was more effective for me to write the feature article, using my own name, as a third party, and receive payment from my client rather than the publication.
Even when in the thick of my most intense advertising copywriting, I just can’t keep quiet about my own ideas. You’ll see a clip below that illustrates my own writing — just because I felt something needed to be said and no one, at the time, was saying it. Though the editor of this publication didn’t solicit my articles, she always published the magazine articles I submitted, usually with very little editing.
Sample Magazine Articles
July 1998 Boulder County Business Report
(This was a press release sent to this newspaper and five other regional newspapers.)
Copy: . . . . As he answered "The Big Three” questions, he sprinkled plenty of pungent bits of advice throughout the hour-long presentation. "If you’re a small-time inventor, concentrate on a simple concept you can sell to the industrial market; it’s the market with a rational engineer who signs the purchase order. It isn’t fuzzy and hard-to-get-your-hands-on like the service market, and it isn’t emotional, flaky, and image-dependent like the consumer market. Stay away from inventions that must be marketed to the service or consumer markets; they’re very hard to break into."
When asked about his example of a client-inventor currently encountering big-time troubles from big-boy infringers, Martin responded in his characteristic, back-east mode. "Sue, and sue fast when someone begins infringing on your patent. When you’re the little guy, they don’t know your resources — how much or how vigorously you can pursue them. While they’re trying to decide how tough an opponent you’ll be, hit hard and fast. Don’t start ‘nice’ or send lots of letters before you take action. One nasty letter or call is plenty; then we sue. When I answer the receptionist’s question, ‘And may I tell Mr. Big-Whig what this call is about?’ with ‘Bad news from a lawyer,’ they listen. Play tough – the sooner the better". . . .
December 1994 Motorcycle Consumer News
(ghost written for Rick Martin, Patent Attorney; rewritten for American Voyager Association Newsletter)
Title: Making Money from a Motorcycle Gizmo
Article Lead: Maybe it’s the ’89 Voyager I ride. Maybe it’s the perpetual windblown look. Maybe it’s the black leather jacket. For some reason, I seem to have attracted more clients interested in patenting some kind of motorcycle widget than the average patent attorney.
As a result, I have some interesting stories about motorcyclists who have patented (or are in the process of patenting) their gizmos, and some free advice for those who think they’re sitting on the greatest thing for motorcyclists since the padded seat.
A great example is an amazing client who has become a motorcycle-riding paraplegic. This man was so determined to ride that he bought his Harley 11 years after the snow-tubing accident that paralyzed him, deciding that “. . . if I had to sit here and look at it every day, I’d figure out a way [to ride it]. Just from the financial aspect, there were 11,000 reasons to learn to ride it!”
Those 11,000 reasons worked. The system he invented includes. . . .
December 1994 Out of the Blue
(magazine for former IBM-ers; ghost written for Rick Martin, Patent Attorney)
Title: Ready to Make Money on Your Invention?
Article Lead: Perhaps after spending who-knows-how-many hours in the garage, you now have a nifty little gizmo you think might make you some real money. Stop! Before going any further with your invention, get the straight scoop on the two most common patent myths.
You are a bright, talented person with great training and special skills. After all, that’s why IBM hired you in the first place. Now that you are no longer with Big Blue, you have some time on your hands, and the same set of abilities you always had. So why not invent something and get rich?
I can’t fault that logic, but logic doesn’t automatically translate into success in the marketplace. (If it did, presumably, IBM would not be in its present situation right now, and therefore neither would you.) What I can do is give you the benefit of what I’ve learned about the business of inventing.
I don’t know how Patent Myth Number One began, but as a patent attorney, I’d like to end it. Patenting your invention will not magically bring you sales and wealth. Marketing, the skill IBM taught me and my colleagues when I was a System/3 salesman many years ago, is what does that.
The other myth I’d like to end is that a patent is difficult to get. Au contraire. With persistence and hard work, you can even patent an invention by yourself. . . .The trick isn’t obtaining the patent. It’s getting it to hold up in court. . . .
May/June 1994 Christian Woman
(byline: Teresa Bennett)
Title: The Affluency Trap
Article Lead: We live in the richest country in the world. Our garbage disposals eat better than most Third World families. We are the world’s affluent.
Our two-car garages seldom hold two cars; they are too full of stuff. Those of us who can get our cars into the garage usually have a boat, an RV, a motorcycle, or something else with wheels that sits beside or behind the garage. The solution, of course, is to erect a bigger barn (Luke 12:18) — a metal storage shed where we can continue to collect stuff.
Most of us have closets bulging with clothes. We have fat clothes, skinny clothes, out-of-style-but-maybe-they’ll-be-back-in-style clothes, and clothes given as gifts that we can’t get rid of.
Yet, with all this surplus, we continue to work harder for more stuff. We want a new couch for the family room, a newer dishwasher for the kitchen, a new car to replace the four-year-old model in the garage, and the latest styles in ridiculously priced clothing for our children. . . .
May 1993 Paraplegia News
(byline: Teresa Bennett; rewritten for Independent Living)
Title: Faces and Feats: John Bevins
Article Lead: The wind in your face, the thrill of speed, the bugs in your teeth . . . it’s all exhilarating — and an obsession for some.
John Bevins, paralyzed from the waist down in a snow-tubing accident at age 20, wanted to ride a motorcycle since he was 16 years old. Now, at 31, friends recognize him by his black leather jacket, windblown hair, and bug-studded teeth.
. . . . Bevins . . . talked with friends, family, and coworkers, who supplied him with ideas for adapting the cycle that “were either dangerous, stupid, or just more complicated than I wanted to deal with.” Some, however, were good ideas that Bevins combined with his own. . . .
November/December 1990 Independent Living
(byline: Teresa Bennett)
Title: A Special Baby
Subtitle: Seating Designed for a Child with Osteogenesis Imperfecta Changed Her Life
Article Lead: When Julie Renteria’s obstetrician recommended a diagnostic ultrasound procedure near the end of her third pregnancy, he simply wanted to confirm the baby’s size and due date. Neither the doctor nor the parents suspected that they would find anything out of the ordinary.
Puzzled by the findings, however, Julie’s doctor sent her to the hospital where staff doctors, unable to find the baby’s legs on the film, took a series of X-rays and then told Julie and her husband Pepé, "We can’t see your baby’s legs because they’re in an upreach position. That’s probably because they’ve been broken several times and are simply staying in the position in which they were last broken. Your little girl has osteogenesis imperfecta." The Renterias, who had never heard of this rare deformity, were given a few pamphlets describing this congenital defect and sent home.
"We had one month to accept our unborn child’s defect in bone formation, educate ourselves, and get ready to care for our special baby," says Julie, so calmly that it is hard for the listener to understand what that month and the following months and years have meant for the Renteria family.
Osteogenesis imperfecta (OI) is a birth deformity producing brittle bones and imperfect bone formation. Although the cause is still unknown, there are four girls. . . .