Meet Brittany

I’m so lucky! Another of my talented writer friends, Brittany Boyd, has agreed to contribute to Chatterlines. Brittany will give blogging a whirl in the coming weeks.

I met Brittany, like Anne, when she was hired as a reporter for the Loudoun Times-Mirror. Brittany was brought on board to write features for the brand-new Friday Times, a standalone lifestyle and entertainment newspaper. I liked Brittany from the start because her copy required almost no editing. She’s a precise writer with a fluid, hip style, a sharp eye for art and design, and cool, eclectic tastes in music.

Eventually, Brittany transferred to our sister paper, The Fairfax Times, to take over as editor of the entertainment section. In frequent e-mails she’d tell me how much she liked the staff -- and more important, how much I’d like them. Roughly six months later, she lured me over to what LTM’s executive editor gloomily called “The Dark Side.” Brittany and I struggled together over content and deadlines for bridal guides, holiday gift guides, theater guides and more.

For the last year, Brittany’s been working as a Web producer for Universal Sports , an Olympic and lifestyle sports Web site and TV network partnered with NBC. A University of Colorado grad with a penchant for the outdoors, Brittany covered World Cup skiing over the winter.

I’ve missed the day-to-day contact with Brittany that allowed me to witness her refreshing take on life. I’m excited that she’s joining our writers group on Chatterlines so I can hear her point of view again. Reading Brittany’s stories is like sailing on clear, pleasantly lapping waters. The flow of her prose delivers you from one side of the lake to the other in a totally delightful ride.

Welcome aboard, Brittany!