Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Nancy Ruhling. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Nancy, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

A freelance reporter/photographer, I created the weekly blog, Astoria Characters, to give back to my community.

Since 2009, when the blog debuted on the home page of the New York section of The HuffPost, I have profiled some 600 “characters” in Astoria, my Queens, New York City neighborhood.

Astoria, which Archie Bunker and the Steinway & Sons piano factory call home, is the most ethnically diverse neighborhood in New York City, and when I moved here 18 years ago, I became fascinated with the people, nearly 50 percent of them immigrants, who were walking up and down my street. I wondered what their stories were.

In the tradition of Mark Twain, I, a transplant from the novelist’s “Show-Me” state of Missouri, assumed the role of an “innocent abroad.” I set out to paint a portrait, in words and photos, of the actors in this wonderfully eccentric working-class neighborhood, where the same old ladies who throw cardboard pizza cartons into the street rush out with their brooms at the first blush of spring to save the pavement from the kiss of falling rose petals.

It was my intent to create a vibrant documentary-style tableau vivant that would serve as a historical snapshot of life in Astoria in the first decades of the 21st Century.

My premise was that every one of the 182,000 residents in this northwest Queens neighborhood 15 minutes from Bloomingdale’s flagship in Manhattan has a singular story that deserves its own 15 minutes of fame.

To date, I’ve written some 600 profiles on people who come from around the world — Belgium, England, Thailand, Greece, Guyana, Italy, Nepal, Nigeria, Scotland and Spain – and around the country – California, Missouri, Delaware, North Carolina, Alaska, Virginia, Hawaii and Texas.

The stories I’ve been told – of hard luck and hard work, of determination and dreams – have been a revelation to me and have resonated with readers around the world.

Astoria Characters has helped people in the community make connections that have changed their lives and propelled their careers. Recently, the owner of a new bakery and the owner of a new restaurant were introduced to each other because of the blog and are collaborating on events that involve the community. Another recent Astoria Character, a carpenter, received a significant commission because someone saw his story in the blog.

The series has led to my creating a website, AstoriaCharacters.com, which archives all the articles.

Nancy, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Growing up, I fell in love with the words of Mark Twain and Charles Dickens, who honed their craft as journalists before writing novels. Inspired by their stories, I took my first journalism class in junior high school with Homer L. Hall, an award-winning teacher who continues to inspire me. I was hooked on the storytelling, and I decided to major in journalism in college. After graduating from the University of Missouri-Columbia’s top-ranked journalism school, I worked for daily newspapers in St. Louis and New York. As a freelance journalist, I have written for more than 50 online and print publications, including The New York Times and Vogue.

I also work with a variety of companies and educational institutions, writing and editing and helping them get their messages across.

What else should we know about how you took your side hustle and scaled it up into what it is today?

During my newspaper career, I was an editor, but on the side I started writing freelance articles. My first articles appeared in the publication I worked for, and I used them as leverage to start writing features for magazines. I started out writing subjects that were of a particular interest to me. One of my first, and one of the best articles I have ever written in my career, was on Mark Twain’s house in Hartford, Connecticut.

From there, I kept expanding my subject area, starting with antiques, which I had been collecting since childhood. Then I added other subjects that seemed like a natural outgrowth — art, interior design and real estate.

I just kept making my circle of expertise larger and larger, and now editors tap me to write just about every subject.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

I like the idea of writing stories that inform and entertain people and even change their lives. Throughout my career, readers have told me that my stories inspired them to change their lives or reach new goals. That’s the most rewarding part of my work.

Contact Info:

• Website: NancyRuhling.com
• Instagram: nruhling
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nancy.ruhling
• Reddit: u/astoriacharacters

Image Credits
Credit on Headshot: Mister Astoria; all other photos by Nancy A. Ruhling