LittleWritingMan.com
Good Stories, Well Told. My professional freelancing website. Use me for my wordsmithing skills. Hire me as your word mercenary.
Good Stories, Well Told.
I’ve always had a way with words – writing them, analyzing them, editing them, speaking them, & even performing them all across the country.
And after a decade of experience, I decided to go into business with my words – & a practiced hand – to help others create good stories, well told.
So use me for my wordsmithing skills. Hire me as your word mercenary.
I’m here to help you find the story you always knew was there, and then set it on its feet to walk out and win over the world.
And I promise you, it’ll go far. After all, I am a man of my words.
— Justin Barisich / Little Writing Man
[email protected]
(404) 590-3928
Good Stories, Well Told. My professional freelancing website. Use me for my wordsmithing skills. Hire me as your word mercenary.
Highlights of my copywriting and storytelling career (so far).
Copywriting - Web Copy
Making moving less stressful by helping customers connect their homes. Shop and compare phone, Internet, television, electricity, gas and home security.
Want the best deals on XFINITY Cable TV, Internet and Phone? We'll set you with an XFINITY package that meets your needs and budget! Get the best in entertainment today!
With its highly-advanced Spectrum service, Charter Spectrum brings you the most complete way to access all your entertainment across all your screens.
An Adventure Unlike Anything You've Done Before. Eat like a king and experience first-hand why we call Louisiana the Sportsman's Paradise. Hop aboard the F/V Peruga in its constant quest for the freshest and most succulent seafood available.
Marketing Campaign for "The Acorn: Hassle-Free Universal Fan Speed Indicator" Kickstarter Campaign.
Help send Atlanta Word Works to Brave New Voices 2014 and build a community of writers and performers who are redefining what it means to be young and talented.
Copywriting - Infographics and E-Books
E-BOOK: Overcoming the 25 most common management obstacles.
INFOGRAPHIC: Here are some of the finer things to look for in your next video conference so that you can avoid all the inevitable awkward pauses.
INFOGRAPHIC: Move-in day is fast approaching, and to make everything as easy and enjoyable as possible, we've got some great preparation advice for you.
INFOGRAPHIC: These methods of communication are trending, and here's what consumers think about them, as well as their preferences toward each method of communication.
INFOGRAPHIC: Gathered information on 7 popular streaming services and organized them in an easily digestible format for consumers' ease of comparison.
Copywriting - Email Marketing
Series of 3 emails designed to increase customers' purchasing of ADT Pulse Home Security Products
Designed to thank customers for signing up for Allconnect's emails and services.
Designed to encourage non-buyers who've signed up for our emails to purchase home utilities through Allconnect.
Copywriting - Press Releases
Composed to spread the word to about CrowdEndowed's creating of an annual Crowdfund Atlanta Conference.
Composed to spread the word about FundCaster's courses on designing your own crowdfunding campaign.
Composed to spread the word about The Acorn: Hassle-Free Universal Fan Speed Indicator Device.
Blogging
New TV streaming services such as Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Video seem to pop up nearly every day. And some of the best streaming services are still holding strong - and even getting better.
Whether you're moving into a new home or you just want to make the old one feel new again, these 5 resolutions will help get your home in shape - no matter what the future may bring.
What many politicians and pundits are ignoring is that the on-demand economy is an incredibly empowering force for the people they claim to serve: our nation’s workers.
Novel Reviews
In this sprawling, emotionally enrapturing and mostly autobiographical tale, a talented lad comes of age in the harsh shadows of Northern England's shipyards. Dominic Hall was born in a hovel along the River Tyne in the 1960s. His severe father is still embittered from fighting in World War II, and his kind mother always wanted more for her sweet boy.
In the magical, feuding lands of Norta, a poor young woman is thrust into the center of an elite world where she must hide her true self and discover her inner strength and power to survive. Seventeen-year-old street thief Mare Barrow has always understood the blood-based hierarchy of her nation: Unremarkable Reds serve the Silvers, who possess supernatural abilities to control metal, fire,...
In a world where all humans are born with two souls in every body, hybrids are the citizens who refuse to lose or sacrifice their second souls. Once We Were, the second book in Kat Zhang's Hybrid Chronicles, takes us deeper into the hidden realm of the hybrids.
Crisscrossing the American landscape, Let's Get Lost is an insider's view of one girl's epic journey to witness the Northern Lights and the stories of the lives she selflessly changes along the way.
Set within the historical Persian empire of Khorasan, The Wrath and the Dawn is an enrapturing tale of love, loss, loyalties and longing-and the stakes couldn't be higher. When 16-year-old Shazi offers herself up as the next wife to Khalid, the 18-year-old Caliph of Khorasan, many are baffled by her sacrifice.
I've read and reviewed over 40 novels for BookPage. Read all my reviews here.
Author Interviews
In a futuristic Earth where humanity has finally conquered death, humans only ever meet their true ends by one thing: the hand of a scythe. Unlike murderers from back in the "Age of Mortality," scythes are highly trained assassins that are both government-sanctioned and socially accepted-as there's nothing else to keep the planet's population growth in check.
Picking up immediately where Red Queen left off, Victoria Aveyard's Glass Sword throws us right back into the blood-feuding world of Norta, with the Reds and Silvers teetering upon the edge of civil war. With the help of Captain Farley and her Scarlet Guard militia, "little lightning girl" Mare Barrow and the fire-brandishing former prince Cal make a near-death escape from the...
Pura Belpré Award-winning author Guadalupe García McCall draws readers into the war-torn years of the Mexican Revolution with her latest novel, Shame the Stars. We spoke with the author about the heartaches of the two families at odds during this contentious period, the inspiration from her own heritage and more.
In her raw and eye-opening debut novel, A List of Cages, author Robin Roe draws from her real-life work of counseling and mentoring at-risk teens to craft this heart-wrenching tale. BookPage contacted Roe to discuss her new book and how even the smallest of kind gestures can save someone's life.
"Satire is useful to me because I can use humor to bring people to the table, get them laughing, and disarm them so that I can make my points more strongly."
"The Slant: So, drunken thoughts became your ticket to fame? Aaron Karo: Yes, that would be a good thing to tell the fans."
Feature-Length Magazine Articles
When Kat Zhang walked into her first class at Vanderbilt, her mind was set on medicine. Four years later, she carries a hard copy of her own novel and a signed book deal for a trilogy with HarperCollins.
Fresh off his retirement from the U.S. Navy, Keith Rawls moved to Nashville and masterminded the Nashville B-Cycle program, all while leading a health-conscious cultural shift in our own backyards.
He used to be a linebacker, middle school teacher, political organizer, and philosopher. Now, Steven Buhrman, the founder and CEO of Wannado, is pouring all of his experiences into one grand idea-right into the palm of your hand.
With over thirty years of publishing experience, Parnassus Books co-owner Karen Hayes is quietly reviving the dying art of the independent bookstore.
What do you do when something you create begins to take on a life of its own? For East Nasty Running Club founder and president Mark Miller, the answer is learning to let go.
Travel Writing - Atlanta
Even though it's camped sprawlingly inside of the "deep south," as a city of transplants, Atlanta boasts a surprisingly international side as well.
This is Atlanta for those who don't know that this city has a history. While a decent bit of it did burn down (twice) and other parts were swept out and under the rug, Atlanta was an integral site for both the historic American Civil War and the modern American Civil Rights Movement.
After living in a city for a while, locals earn the title of "local" because they learn and know where to go. But with Atlanta being such a massive and spread-out metropolis, the local's knowledge is more vital than ever for visitors, especially if you're already hungry from sitting in traffic for 2 hours longer than you'd initially anticipated.
For some strange reason, a lot of folks seem to think that all the arts in America are hoarded in New York City, Los Angeles, or Chicago. Not true, world. Though the arts scene here is smaller and/or younger, we run deep, stick together, and are often experimenting with new forms and media.
Sure, with the busiest airport in the world and one hell of an urban-sprawl problem, there are a lot of folks around Atlanta driving cars - with a lot of those cars stuck wasting hours and gas in traffic. But there's an easy, healthy, and enjoyable solution to this issue: ride a bike around town.
Travel Writing - New Orleans
While it may be physically located in the south, New Orleans differs immensely from any other southern city in America. As Chris Rose, one of the city's most famous journalists, once said of his New Orleans, " We dance when there is no music. We drink at funerals.
Known as the Voodoo capital of the U.S., New Orleans reserves a huge spot in its thumping heart for the supernatural, the occult, and the off-kilter. And since NOLA's a gigantic melting pot of Caribbean, African, and American Southern cultures, traditions, and religions, it's only natural that some of these gods, spirits, and practitioners would setup shop here.
With a truly unique combination of Cajun, Creole, French, Italian, Spanish, and good 'ole southern cuisines, New Orleans is easily the food capital of the south, if not of all America. And while it would be rather impossible for me to list every one the amazing restaurants this city has to offer, I can provide a select few spectacular ones that travel writers from afar may never discover.
So you just rolled into town on the MegaBus, carpooled with a few friends from college, or magically convinced your boss that you just had to stay in town those few extra days to complete that important work project before flying back home.
New Orleans is a vital American city; anyone who tells you otherwise is a fool. Just look to your history books. Handed back and forth between the French and Spanish in its early years before being sold in 1803 to the U.S.
Welcome to your new home away from home! We're really happy to have you at Tulane/Loyola/Xavier University and we know you're bound to experience great things here.
Restaurant Reviews
If you consider yourself an aspiring saucier - and when it comes to barbecue sauces, you've tried every one you've ever seen - then Fat Matt's needs to be your next stop. Even with all that past sauce tasting, you'll soon find your feet under Fat Matt's table at least once a month.
In general, you can judge the quality of a Thai restaurant by its main staple dish, and Little Bangkok's Pad Thai never disappoints. Actually, it's so well done that you may find it hard to even consider other items on the menu, but the rest of it is just as good.
With more than 500 folks in attendance to taste the meaty contenders dreamt up by the 15 famous chefs behind Atlanta's select restaurants, the first annual Atlanta Meatball Festival was a delicious success.
Ghostwriting
Let me start this by saying that there's been brine in my blood since before I was born. I am a third-generation commercial fisherman, the son of Croatian-born parents who settled in St. Bernard Parish and threw me into fishing by the time I was 8 years old.
For some products, the fact that they are made outside of the United States' borders is of little consequence. For others, it makes all of the difference for ensuring the products' quality and dependability. Yet, which products are produced in which countries all comes down to consumer demand.
What's best for your employees is often what's best for you and your company too. Keeping them happy and with purpose will also help them to be their most productive selves. So, just follow these mutually beneficial tips and help everyone return to doing the good work.1.
Academic Papers
English course essay addressing Ernest Hemingway's A FAREWELL TO ARMS, Jack Kerouac's ON THE ROAD, and modern themes of American masculinity.
History course essay analyzing Ida B. Wells (via her autobiography CRUSADE FOR JUSTICE) as a trailblazing, female and African-American political activist at a time when neither group had much political power.
English course paper that discusses two poems by Earle Birney, "Vancouver lights" and "Anglosaxon Street," both of which caution humankind about the future we are creating. (Paper selected for appearance in Vanderbilt's Undergraduate Writing Symposium in 2009).
Satire Articles
Satirical article written for The Slant, Vanderbilt's Humor and Satire Magazine.
Satirical article written for The Slant, Vanderbilt's Humor and Satire Magazine.
Satirical article written for The Slant, Vanderbilt's Humor and Satire Magazine.
Speech Writing
Original speech I gave at the Berger Family Scholarship Dinner in New Orleans, as part of the Opportunity Vanderbilt fundraising initiative.
In which I convinced a room full of people to close their eyes and reflect upon the most influential teacher(s) in their lives. Original speech given at the Peabody College Roundtable Donor Society Dinner.
Original speech I gave at the Berger Family Scholarship Dinner in New Orleans, as part of the Opportunity Vanderbilt fundraising initiative.
Personal Essays
The breeze urged us on, told us to dig deeper. That’s when I mentioned the dog.
Poetry Reader Justin Barisich muses on the spoken word form.
Well, they're actually pretty adept at defending themselves, but hell, I thought I'd try to help balance out the hate a little bit.
Written Poetry
The plump, elderly woman beside me sleeps with chin to her distended chest. She rouses from a road bump, spots me reading a book of poems, and assumes me to be educated.
May you remember like a child: the gulf’s bastard breathes in 11 today, and we’re still trying to wipe away her flood lines marking our sinking houses,
Wrap our cracking skin in deep-root truth. Wear our hearts out where sleeves should go - help whoever's trying to fathom them not need to remove so much.
A found/blackout poem I crafted from a TIME article titled “Taylor Strikes a Chord,” as written by Jack Dickey about how pop’s savviest romantic conquered the music business.
We sit on our stained sofas at home waiting with eyes glued to screens. For work. You remember what work was --
Doctor, how much fear and tedium should a soldier swallow?
Spoken Word Performances