FEAT URED CO NT RIBUTO R
Sonja Hegman
By Maralyn D. Hill and Sherrie Wilkolaski
T
his month we are featuring technology journalist, Sonja Hegman. She writes for media outlets such as
MediaBistro and The Motley Fool. She has an unforgettable style about her and she is someone you might think
should have been in the audience at an Elvis concert, his early years. Her favorite movie is Pulp Fiction and she enjoys Sangria
on Friday afternoons at her home in St. Paul, Minnesota. Her cat Fitz can be found curled up in her lap as she writes about
Twitter, Facebook and the latest in technology news. She brings a fresh and modern style to Luxe Beat Magazine and we
know our readers will enjoy Sonja’s take on the gizmos and gadgets, she discovers in her cyber travels.
How did you end up writing in the
technology space?
My specialty is tech, something I never I
expected to write about. My focus is primarily
on social media and new media. I think I've
always been a tech geek it just took me a long
time to come to terms with it. Growing up, I
was more interested in the pop culture of tech
gadgets than in celebrity pop culture.
Are you more passionate about writing or
photography?
That's tough. They've played tug-of-war a lot
throughout my life. Right now, I have a
renewed passion for writing. I lost it for a while
earlier in my career. But my passion for writing
truly started after I wrote a love story for
Valentine's Day in eighth grade. It was a hit,
and I became a writing machine.
What is your writing process?
For my own blog, I have a loose editorial
calendar. I say loose because some weeks I'm
inspired to write something completely off the
cuff. I rarely use outlines. The only time I used
one in recent memory was for my first book,
82
MARCH 2014 •LUXE BEAT MAGAZINE
and then I didn't follow it. I tend to layout my
articles and blog posts in my head before I write
them.
If you could be anyone else, who would it
be?
Hemingway, if only for his writing ability.
What motivates you to be a luxury
journalist?
I like seeing how high-end products and tech
eventually tickle down to the masses.
What is one of your favorite travel
memories?
My parents didn't fly, so we had a 1970s
Winnebago that we'd use for vacations. We'd
never go more than six hours away, which was to
a cousin's farm in central Minnesota. On one
trip there, I was probably 6, I saw as calf being
born. I remember it being the coolest (and
grossest) thing ever. It stood up almost
immediately, and I thought it was weird that
human babies couldn't do that same thing. I
named the calf, Pearl, and cried my eyes out
when my parents said I couldn't bring her home
with us.
SONJA
HEGMAN
Bio: Sonja Hegman is a
journalist turned author and
social media pro who can start
a conversation with anyone.
She has a bachelor’s in
journalism and thought she’d
be an ambulance chaser the
rest of her life. When she
realized the newspaper world
was imploding, she got out
before becoming a casualty.
She’s also been known to hum
while she works and creates
word combos like “Stymied
Skeptic” and “Writer’s Chat
Stew.” She currently writes
regularly about social media,
tech and business for
mediabistro, Luxe Beat
Magazine and soon enough for
The Motley Fool. She has
authored two books, “Trials of
an Entrepreneurial Virgin” and
“Moving at the Speed of
Twitter”. Sonja can be reached
at http://sonjahegman.com or
@ChiefWordsmith.