Tag / Year in Review

by Frank Maduri

The Year in Review 2016

The calendar has flipped and 2016 is now over, with a New Year ahead I always reflect on the achievements of the past year with a focus on the present and how I can continue to improve in all aspects of my life.

I am incredibly grateful for the support and encouragement provided by my readers and for your continued committed and dedicated time in reading as well as sharing my work with others. I am truly blessed and completely humbled and honored to have reached some new audiences in different parts of the world.

I have been recognized for my work in the area of sports writing, news writing, and for my work in Catholic media. My contributions have been well received and well circulated, for which I am very grateful.

This past year also marked the publication of a collection of my poetry on Amazon. I am still awestruck by the support and the kind feedback that collection of creative work has garnered.

Last year, on Frank’s Forum I put together a Year In Review and it was really successful in connecting with new readers and committed readers of my writing work as well. I have reprised this concept for 2016 but with a format change to highlight the months to make it easier to follow.

January
The start of 2016 brought with it the first of many (which I am so completely blessed) well received articles for the Catholic media. This piece, on Our Lady Untier of Knots was shared over 2,000 times between Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and other social media sites:
http://www.catholic365.com/article/3323/our-lady-untier-of-knots-a-personal-reflection.html

The month of January also brought with it a continuation of my quest to raise awareness on GMOs in food products with this piece about Campbell’s Soup:

Know If It Is GMO: Campbell Soup Label Disclosure

In staying with the theme of environmental issues, this article was very important to me personally – it was produced for Medium about the Flint, Michigan contaminated drinking water tragedy:
https://medium.com/@FMaduri/tragic-decision-flint-drinking-water-disaster-ac5f2e485cdf#.me52jlwy0

February

It is generally a shorter month and one where I was working on many projects in the creative writing area while producing some news writing less frequently.

This article about Super Bowl 50 made it as a front page featured story for Sportsblog.com which has tens of thousands of writers submitting content to the site, so I was incredibly honored that this was selected and distributed globally via Google News:
http://fjmaduri.sportsblog.com/posts/12659956/super-bowl-50–manning–cam—-the-cult-of-personality.html
This article for Medium continued the environmental awareness work that is important to me – it was a piece on the level of plastic pollution and what that means for our ecosystem:
https://medium.com/@FMaduri/plastic-pollution-projections-world-economic-forum-report-7270ec6d0539#.7m3fr1pti

March

I know that many of my devoted readers have read in the past that my poetry is the most passionate work that I do, I am very connected to my poetry and it is very important to me. That being stated, this poem was shared over 750 times via social media platforms:
http://www.catholic365.com/article/3752/poetry-battlefield.html

This sports business article on the new stadium process for the Tampa Bay Rays made it into international distribution to multiple countries through Google News and was so well read that I earned an award from the site for the MLB division which was a great honor and achievement:
http://fjmaduri.sportsblog.com/posts/14699523/tampa-bay-rays–the-new-stadium-quest.html

My push for continued awareness of the GMO issues with our food supply was the topic for this article:

Senate Rejects Anti-GMO Food Labeling Bill

April

One of the most well received poems I have ever been blessed to write:
https://allpoetry.com/poem/12422884–Refugee–by-Frank-J.-Maduri

An important change to rules regarding cable television and providing choices to the consumer:

Cable Unboxed – President Obama & Consumer Choice

May

The article below was one that is close to my heart and that I heard from many readers via email how it resonated with them:
http://www.catholic365.com/article/4320/remaining-open-to-the-holy-spirit.html

A big news story in the GMO debate regarding an industry report and the reaction it caused:

Tainted: Academies of Science GMO Report

June

I have had success in writing articles about mergers and acquisitions and that continued in 2016:

Mega Makeover: Mondelez / Hershey Merger Proposal

This article for Medium was about the major changes Applebee’s made to their restaurants:
https://medium.com/@FMaduri/big-gamble-applebees-bets-on-menu-reboot-f4ebd7cd08c5#.f2bn0wo64

This article on the NHL expansion to Las Vegas was very well regarded which I am grateful and humbled by:
http://fjmaduri.sportsblog.com/posts/20362375/follow-up–big-gamble–nhl-expands-to-las-vegas.html

July

This article for Medium was on the collapse of the honeybee colonies which is a huge issue in our environment and for our society:
https://medium.com/@FMaduri/colony-collapse-disorder-honeybees-pesticides-1d3c1d1b8769#.41fk1dhzz

This article was very personal to me and it was an honor to produce:
http://www.catholic365.com/article/4783/the-jericho-road-moment.html

August

This was a huge news story – the EpiPen price increase:
https://medium.com/@FMaduri/extreme-need-extreme-greed-big-pharma-the-epipen-price-gauging-debacle-dc43f2c8fa25#.2csqm9c3c

This piece for my blog was a very important one that I gained some very insightful feedback and was circulated to a variety of veterans groups about the military veteran suicide rate:

Twenty Two Tragedies A Day: The Veteran Suicide Rate Spike In America

September

Summer turned into Autumn and I was honored to write this piece for Patch on the development of my local Mall and the residents’ concerns:
http://patch.com/new-jersey/longbranch/monmouth-mall-redevelopment-debacle

This piece was also an honor and a blessing for me to produce and it was also distributed globally which was a huge blessing for me:
http://www.catholic365.com/article/5207/reflections-on-the-passion–victory-and-salvation.html

October

The month of October came with the news that Sears was rapidly failing. My article on that iconic American retailer was met with some very compelling interactions with readers about the state of the future of retail shopping:

The Inevitable Demise of An American Icon: Sears

I am very fortunate to have readers who are so loyal and they have provided me feedback in the past that they enjoy the “roundup” type sports articles – so I included this NFL article of that format which was well received and for which I am grateful:
http://fjmaduri.sportsblog.com/posts/27016064/nfl-roundup—–four-weeks-into-2016-season.html

November

This article is on a topic that I feel is going to be integral to our future – water being traded as a commodity:

The Commodification of Water

Over the course of the past few years I have covered the issues facing the San Diego Chargers and their future in that city as well as in the NFL’s race to put a team in Los Angeles. This article was particularly well regarded by others in the sports media:
http://fjmaduri.sportsblog.com/posts/29049372/follow-up–san-diego-chargers-ballot-initiative-for-stadium-funds-fails.html

This article was shared close to 2,000 times across various social media platforms and I am blessed to have my name associated with it:
http://www.catholic365.com/article/5542/the-power-of-prayer-the-holy-rosary-of-the-blessed-virgin-mary.html

December

I was honored to join the website community, Varsity Views, which is owned by USA Today, to produce sports content for their site. This piece did really well and was selected as an editor’s choice:
https://www.varsityviews.com/community/frankjmaduri/charged-up-the-nfl-and-l-a-the-saga-continues/c/58470c9c21c3640400ab6024?bust=y5i

This piece was especially well regarded and was an inspiring story to produce:
http://www.catholic365.com/article/5645/our-lady-of-kibeho–marian-apparitions-in-rwanda–the-chaplet-of-the-seven-sorrows-of-mary.html

Thank you all for your continued support in 2016 and I look forward to continuing to bring forth content in 2017 that will inspire and uplift those in the audience. Happy New Year!

by Frank Maduri

2015 Year In Review

This year was certainly a very busy one for me both personally and within the writing profession. I embarked on some new forays into different types of writing, took on some interesting projects, and met some fascinating new people along the way.

 

In the days following Christmas, I started to look back on all of the content I produced, not only for Frank’s Forum but for other entities, and I compiled a look back at 2015. The best manner to do this type of piece is to share the links to the work and some of the back story behind it. The overall theme being that the support and encouragement I get from the readers is the true indication of what I have truly achieved in my writing work. I am grateful and blessed to have your support.

 

The amazing aspect of writing is that no matter how long you have undertaken it; there is always something new around the corner, so to speak, it is constantly evolving. It is true that after some quantity of years each writer “finds their voice” which is certainly true in my case.

 

However, I found that challenging myself to take on new projects or new types of writing (song lyrics was the challenge in 2015) it helped in my overall growth as a writer and changed my perspective in approaching older projects that had been tabled for a while. The saying “everything old is new again” comes to mind in this regard.

 

I am proud to share my writing with you, the audience, and I have been surprised and overwhelmed by the way that my work has resonated with you. I am pleased to share this year in review with you and appreciate the generosity of your time in reading the words that I have produced.

The beginning of 2015 in January began with the culmination of a large project I was working on revolving around a series of articles I researched and wrote about an auto-immune disease known as Scleroderma. The articles were all really well received and were picked up by various medical type internet based news sources. The link below is to the series for the Medium website which gained pretty widespread exposure for this important and to some extent obscure disease:

https://medium.com/@FMaduri/scleroderma-suffering-in-silence-part-1-2729b5ae6259#.2awlnmbph

 

I have also included below the link to Part 2 of the series for Medium which is the conclusion to that series of articles. I am currently in the research phase for another article on Scleroderma which focuses on some new treatments for this disease:

https://medium.com/@FMaduri/scleroderma-suffering-in-silence-part-2-631acdd2134f#.9huv5v8g3

 

Most of you know that a portion of my writing involves sports writing, and as a staff writer for SB Nation covering the New York Red Bulls, an article that I wrote in January 2015 was very well received. It involved the sudden firing of Head Coach Mike Petke and summed up the emotions from the perspective of the fan base:

http://www.onceametro.com/2015/1/8/7508301/the-fallout-from-the-firing-of-mike-petke

 

In a link back to this site, I wrote a follow up story to an article series I had done previously on a very important topic: homelessness in the American military veteran population. The initial series garnered some significant readers and the follow up report was something I felt I had to include here:

http://frankmaduri.com/follow-up-homeless-veterans-in-u-s-cities/

February brought the idea for an article in another area where I have gained publishing credits over time, Catholic media, with an article on Candlemass Day:

http://www.catholic365.com/article/708/the-light-of-the-world-candlemass-day.html

 

A big local story that hit close to home for me was the campaign to save Mater Dei Prep, the high school attached to my parish. The article I did for the local Patch site really resonated with readers, and in the end, the school was saved from closure through the generosity of donations as well as a concerted fundraising campaign:

http://patch.com/new-jersey/rumson/mater-dei-prep-campaigns-save-school-closure

 

The winter of 2015 was one of the coldest in history and that served as an inspiration for a work of poetry I published in March called “Winter Sky”. Many of you who have followed my work over the years know that my poetry is where I produce some of the most uninhibited content to evoke emotions in my readers. If you are new to reading my work I hope you will take the time to read my poetry:

http://allpoetry.com/poem/11946822–Winter-Sky–by-Frank-J.-Maduri#share

 

In April, along with the arrival of Spring, I delved into a new area of writing: song lyrics. I had been told for years by people closest to me that read my poetry that it could very easily be translated into lyrics. One of the most incredible moments in my writing career was opening the envelope in the mail from the U.S. Copyright Office with all of the certificates to copyright my published song lyrics. I have included the link to them below:

http://frankmaduri.com/song-lyrics-by-frank-j-maduri/

 

This next work of poetry was shared by readers on Facebook for a total of 1,300 times which I was very grateful and humbled by:

http://www.catholic365.com/article/1356/poetry-blessed.html

 

The month of May brought a special report on the food industry, where I concentrate a specific focus on based on my prior industry experience. This article came about in response to a growing trend I picked up on which the food companies were making ingredient changes to appeal to the natural foods trend. This piece ventures into that topic and the debate over whether it is all just a savvy marketing technique:

http://frankmaduri.com/fast-food-recipe-changes-smart-science-or-smart-marketing/

 

The summer brought me into other projects which did not involve news writing or creative writing being published. However in the late part of July I did publish this piece for Sportsblog.com which I recently received the honor of having one of the top blogs covering the NJ Devils hockey team. This article though was on the NBA and it combined my understanding of sports, marketing, sports finance, and politics. It gained an enthusiastic response to which I am grateful:

http://fjmaduri.sportsblog.com/posts/2933778/chess-game–the-nba–milwaukee—-the-new-bucks-arena.html

 

A poem I wrote a while before I published it became the highlight of my work in August. It was originally written while I was covering a news story on the drought in California:

http://frankmaduri.com/poetry-by-frank-j-maduri-drought-conditions/

 

I have held a position with UPI (United Press International) for a few years now where I produce commentary pieces for them in certain topic areas. I have been blessed and fortunate to have several of those articles become published internationally through their platforms. I wrote a piece which did very well in October on the merger of two huge brewing companies and explained the implications on a larger scale for consumers:

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/Analysis/Outside-View/2015/10/14/Whats-Brewing-The-InBev-SABMiller-Merger/2191444694279/

 

The environment and environmental stewardship is a large component of my writing for this site and for others. I will share with you a piece I did on an environmental issue that was alarming to many readers:

http://frankmaduri.com/below-the-ground-fracking-wastewater-irrigation/

 

In addition I have written many articles on business and finance in the past. This article in particular was the topic of some very kind and positive feedback from a small business group and was even read by my sales rep from my website hosting company who called me to tell me he was really impressed by my knowledge of this topic which was very gracious of him:

http://frankmaduri.com/strong-bucks-the-strength-of-the-us-dollar-the-impact-on-small-businesses/

 

I had a crossroads in my life this summer and this blog post was the result of a confluence of those factors and reflections on recent years including Hurricane Sandy which I did a substantial amount of reporting on in recent years:

http://frankmaduri.com/return-to-the-playground-the-stalled-recovery-of-union-beach/

 

I leave you all in this year in review with an article that was one of the most read pieces I had the blessing and honor to produce this year for Catholic365.com – it was shared close to 2,500 times on Facebook and received over 3,000 link shares across all social media platforms overall in the metrics I keep. I hope it will provide you inspiration and hope for the year ahead in 2016:

http://www.catholic365.com/article/1303/the-3-oclock-hour-the-chaplet-of-the-divine-mercy.html

 

Thank you all for your continued support of my writing work. I am blessed and appreciate all of your encouragement. Happy New Year and May God bless you all in the year ahead!