Happy 2014! Two Top Ten stories for 2013 in NatGeo!



From what I hear I’m the only person who was a little wistful at seeing 2013 go. 

It was a bit of a bipolar year - high highs, low lows - but for me all the awful bits were lavishly seeded with totally surprising bursts of comfort, even luxury, like if you had to move a whole house across town by hand,  but every 20 minutes someone offered you a break to drink champagne and watch old Kids in the Hall for an hour or two in a posh hotel suite. It really was like that. The crappiest predicaments were mined with benefits, like the time it took me six weeks to be able to afford to get my car back on the road - but a large part of that time was spent house sitting a lakefront mansion I never wanted to leave anyway. Again - it really was like that. 

I won’t tell you everything  - a writer giving away all their stories in one pop is like a stripper
walking on stage naked - but there’s no question about what the best part of the year was: .getting to write for National Geographic. When I turned my attention to science writing - well into the 21st year of my writing career - I never ever thought I would end up writing for what is arguably the most venerated outlet in the world and couldn’t be happier. Best part: the year ended with two of my stories hitting #1 on two of NatGeo’s Top Ten lists. My “Animals That Regrow Their Body Parts” story was the Most Shared News story of 2013 and my new best friend - that weird fuzzy bug from Sri Lanka photographed by Trond Larsen - was the #1 in the Top Ten Weirdest Animals of the Year. 

My favorite part about ‘fuzzy bug’  was that so many readers sent in pictures of bugs they had photographed, some of which were similar, some of which were just strange and/or beautiful. It was exciting to have so many people share the explorations, some very exotic, some from their own backyards…some, of course, were both. 

Who wouldn’t miss a year that had things like that in it? I never thought they could get so good - which means they could get even better in 2014. Pass the champagne. 

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