Lucinda Gunnin: All About this AC Content Producer

"Nothing can stop you except you." She's right, y'know. She's also-Lucinda Gunnin:

DP: Please tell us a little about yourself; who you are, where you're from, etc.,:

I live in Illinois. Grew up in Colorado. And was born in Michigan. I'm a wife and a mom, an MS patient, a reporter, photographer and a writer. My husband is a writer and photographer as well, though, he currently does graphic design and photo retouching professionally.

I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in July, 2005, but the evidence suggests that I was simply misdiagnosed in 2001 when the symptoms first appeared. I thought for a short time that it was a death sentence, or in my eyes worse yet, a crippling sentence. My ophthalmologist, to whom I will be eternally grateful, forced me to see otherwise. Professionally, I am trained as a reporter, with my degrees in journalism, and public affairs reporting, but that is only a small segment of what I do now.

Journal-istically, I write for a local womens' newspaper. Twenty-seven other days a month I simply write.

DP: What type of personality type would you say you are?

Forceful. In high school I was painfully shy to the point that people assumed I was stuck up. In college, I forced myself to overcome that by putting on a mask to do my job. As I've gotten older, I've chosen that mask as a sort of permanent persona. I am boisterous and outgoing, though sometimes a bit snippy and more elitist than I mean to be.

DP: Please share with us a story about your favorite pet.

My cat Rain has me well-trained. With just a paw to the knee, she can get me to move the laptop to give her lap and at roughly six each night, she will come and meow for her dinner. I always find the fact that she has me so well-trained amusing because before she adopted us, I would have sworn that I hated cats. Kittens were okay, but they grow up into cats. Rain showed up one sunny October day, hiding under a towel, on the camp chair on my porch. She spent the entire day there, jumping down as I would come and go, and then returning to the spot under the makeshift blanket.

When I left to pick my husband up from work, she followed me to the edge of the porch and sat there waiting until we got back. Then, sensing he would make or break the adoption process, she started rubbing on his ankle. She was just under four pounds of kitten then, with an abcess on her back from another cats' claws. As soon as we opened the screen and asked if she wanted to come in, she walked right in, and has never tried to get out again.

Still, I knew that she was a keeper after her first vet visit. When I told my husband she cost us $160 at that first visit, he picked up the kitten and asked her if the mean old vet had hurt her.

DP: What do you like to read?

I'll read almost anything I can lay my hands on from old westerns to science fiction, though the more science the fiction the less I'll like it. I want to be Tom Clancy when I grow up, but not as dry. I think he and Michael Crichton are my current favorites due to the enormous research they put into their novels. They get the science and technology right. I am very fond of dystopian stories and thought The Postman was an excellent book and a rotten movie.

Romance novels are great for when I need to relax and not think and I have read almost everything written by Stephen King, Clive Barker and Dean Koontz. Also, much to the chagrin of a dear friend who considers his writing drivel, I've read most of James Pattersons work as well.

DP: What was/is your favorite subject in school?

My first college advisor asked me why I was getting a degree in English when it was my worst subject. My first love was math, but I could never figure out an interesting career to go with it.

DP: What has been one of your greatest public tragedies?

Greatest public tragedies, huh? Well, there have been a great deal more private than public ones, but I think my MS diagnosis may have been my greatest public tragedy. Once I started to come to terms with it, I developed a growing need to tell other people about it, to save them the trouble I faced. I've written about it, been interviewed about it, and even yelled about it at parties.

DP: What have you done in life that you're the proudest of?

Through more ups and downs that seems humanly possible, I've made my marriage work. We have been married for 12 years and together for 16. These days that seems like quite the accomplishment.

DP: If you could really truly get just ONE thing that you wish for; what would it be?

You know, every one of these interviews I have read (and I haven't read them all) has said something worthy of a Miss America candidate, usually about wanting the best for their children. I think that's a given for any parent. Given my personal situation and the environment my husband and I grew up in, my one wish would be for the financial freedom to help my children, regardless of their age, when they need it.

I want to be able to put them through college without worrying about loans, help them buy houses when they reach the appropriate age, whatever I can do to make their lives better.

DP: What would you call the 'dream vacation?'

Exploring somewhere I've never been before. I want to see the world and have about 15 states and oh, all but one country left to see, but I think that's a vacation for me seeing and doing things that I haven't done before with people I love. If I had to choose one place, right now, it would probably be Ireland, but that could change tomorrow.

DP: What is your earliest memory?

As a little girl, I always had this memory of playing with a big green and white ball in a fenced in yard. For years, my mom tried to tell me I had dreamed it because she couldn't place the memory. Then, we sat down one night and I described everything I could see in the memory. She eventually figured out it was from a visit to one of her friends homes when I was three. I'm not sure now if I really remember it or if I remember the memory.

After that, I have more compiled memories for several years, the kind where you remember it as though it were all one day, but you know that it is probably several days or even months crowding together into one thought.

DP: Who was your first real crush?

Kenny West in kindergarten. He was the cutest little blue-eyed boy in the neighborhood and told his mother he didn't want a birthday party if I wasn't coming. I think it was love!

DP: What is the first album/CD/Song that you remember purchasing?

Strangely, I honestly can't remember. It was probably country, but I do remember swiping my moms albums and sneaking into my aunts' room when we were at my grandmothers' so that I could listen to The Carpenters. I think that's why the remake of Close to You for Neil Gaimans movie MirrorMask appealed to me so much.

I also have vague memories of playing the Monster mash album on a Shaun Cassidy record player, but I don't like to admit to those.

DP: First word to pop into your mind please; what do you think of when I say: 'power?' Be honest.

Mutually assured destruction. As a child of the 1980's, I remember the days when we were all convinced that we were going to die in a nuclear flash. Those warheads are power.

DP: How long have you been writing?

Professionally, I have been writing for 17 years, though I took a few years off to work at sort of blah office jobs to make ends meet. After I got fired from the last of those in 2006, I decided that I could make it as a part-time reporter and full-time freelancer. I made $900 my first week as a freelancer (though I dont always make that much) and decided that I was sick of the rat race. The second year as a freelancer was harder than the first as I did a lot less stringing for the local paper and had to rely more on sites like AC. This year, I found a more steady freelancing job and do the reporting as just a sideline now.

DP: If you could improve AC in any one way; what would it be?

The longer I write online, the more I understand SEO and other so-called internet writing, but I wish there was a way to promote old-fashioned journalism better on the site. News articles are flash in the pan, but then count against you for long-term page views. There should be a way to remove the news item or at least stop it from counting in page views after its lifespan runs out. There is no way to make news evergreen.

DP: What made you choose AC?

I had never considered the idea of an online site paying for my writing. My background is in print journalism. So I wanted to see if you could really write online and get paid for it. I also get bored amazingly easily, so I really liked the appeal of being able to write whatever struck my fancy that day.

DP: Which genre do you prefer to work in?

I am most comfortable writing non-fiction news articles, so I guess that is currently what I prefer. Unfortunately, I think that has more to do with comfort zones and confidence levels than with what I want to be doing. I have two dystopian novels started and I know that they are great ideas, but I am really not confident in my follow through.

DP: Tell us some of your best AC titles please.

This was a really hard question to answer because I had trouble with the criteria. Best,as in best performers or best as in most well-written? Or best simply because they are nearest and dearest to my heart?

So, I chose a bit from each category.

First, is a story near and dear to my heart. Bekkah Henderson Thomas is the daughter of a friend and a soldier, Army reservist, fighting in Iraq. This is her story:

www.associatedcontent.com/article/676657/rebekkah_henderson_thomas_just_a_soldier.html?cat=7

Then, there is one of my highest performers, about my Rainy Day Kitty. That's RDK for short, or just Rain. This article was written as I suffered through her first heat:

www.associatedcontent.com/article/676657/rebekkah_henderson_thomas_just_a_soldier.html?cat=7

Finally, I chose the article that I needed to write, to come to terms with my MS diagnosis. I hope it is the best in that it helps others who are going through what I did:

www.associatedcontent.com/article/50696/my_mistakes_in_my_multiple_sclerosis.html?cat=70

DP: What do you want your Legacy to be?

I want the world to be a better place because I was here for one person or for all of them. I used to think that meant winning a Pulitzer or exposing corruption that was hurting people. Now, I realize it could mean just being a shoulder for someone to cry on or standing up for what I believe in.

I no longer care if the world knows my name, though I certainly wouldn't scorn it. I want the world to be better because I was born. That's my Miss America answer.

My AC name is the one on my drivers license, Lucinda Gunnin, but my friends call me Cindy. I'd love for you to be one of them. www.associatedcontent.com/user/11011/lucinda_gunnin.html

DP: Well, Cindy, I'm pickled think that you showed up and I'm glad you're working with me!