If you care about tracking down and reading print articles I’ve written (in which case I probably call you Mom or Aunt Ruth), this is a great month to support your local newsstand: I have good-sized articles in the March issues of Shape (a feature! Also available here but go support your local newsstand!), Health (also here) and SELF (three distinct one-pagers, PDFs TK).

On a related note, I’m loving being back on the other side of a story, editing full-time at Whole Living. I totally lucked out: The staff is amazing and I’m genuinely fascinated by every article we run. Even my silly concern that going back into an office would give me SAD was quelled by the sunny Martha Stewart offices. (Yes, that actually crossed my mind when I was still freelancing. Related: Freelancing makes you kind of weird.)

The trip wasn’t just a vacation, but rather a last hurrah before I rejoin the ranks of nine-to-fivers. On Thursday, I’ll take my post as Whole Living‘s new senior editor, health and nutrition. (That’s right, my title includes a comma.) I’m as surprised as, well, many of my friends (“…but you love freelancing!”) to find myself leaving the writing life behind — for now — but I’m also so, so very excited to dive into this new position. I love the magazine, love its focus on holistic health and mind-body medicine, love its beautiful layouts and emphasis on green living and every single editor I’ve met there. If I weren’t dog-tired and strapped into an airplane seat, I’d be bouncing around in excitement right now.

That means the next, oh, two days will be spent tying up freelance projects. I’ll update my CV section as more magazine clips roll in in February, March and April; I’ve worked with some incredible editors and am psyched to see these stories in print. On that note, time to turn this tray into a desk and complete some articles.

Also: My big sis, Julia, whom you may know from her blog Book Stalker, is up for a Pushcart Prize! The literary magazine InDigest nominated her for her short story, Disease. Read it through and feel disturbed for days. That’s the Bartz promise.

Happy belated Thanksgiving! The first thing my dad asked me after picking my sister and me up from the airport was a jovial, “So no one’s hired you yet?” My (admittedly acerbic) answer: “Lots of editors have. For stories I’m writing for them. It’s going really well, thanks.”

And it’s true, freelance writing has been a blast; I love working on a range of stories for an array of editors, and I’m having fun flexing my pitching and reporting chops for topics other than psychology (although my Rolodex of psychologist sources is as well-thumbed as ever).

I’ve written about such diverse topics as bohemian Wall Streeters, “Perry-phasia,” seasonal dating habits and grooming your way to a promotion; in print, expect to see my byline in Women’s Health, SELF, Health, Martha Stewart Living, American Baby and more in 2012.

One drawback: It’s 11:42 and I’m up and tapping away at a complex health story with a Tuesday deadline. Now, back to that.

I think I’m well-positioned to work on science writing (thanks to Psych Today), women’s service (thanks to SELF) and humor/pop culture (thanks to Stuff Hipsters Hate), plus whatever other fun assignments stretch my limits (I’m current working on an article for The Fiscal Times, for example). ‘Twill be an adventure!

One other spot of fun news: Stuff Hipsters Hate is cohosting a CMJ showcase on Friday, featuring some rad musical acts including Max Burgundy, Not Blood Paint and Golden Pony. This will be the first SHH event in Manhattan but we promise it’ll be worth crossing the bridge for.

And with that gaping preposition, I’m out.

• My title at Psychology Today was recently bumped up to senior news editor! I’m excited and grateful for the nod to my abilities after I took on more sections and began handling larger pieces. A 3,500-word well story that I conceived, assigned and edited will appear in the November/December issue, and it’s looking great.
• Speaking of features, the full text of the one I wrote about Highly Sensitive People in the July/August issue is now available online. The feedback I got on it was super gratifying. It often revealed just how sensitive the reader was — several told me my piece “brought them to tears,” and one was offended by the “girly and obviously insensitive font used throughout the piece.” HSPs, I love you!
• Brenna and I recently did a popular and (apparently) contentious mini-series on CNN.com about online dating messages and profiles. Enjoy the gamut here, here and here.

In other news, I delivered my first feature in the current issue of Psychology Today! You can see a preview here. I’ll eventually get a PDF on my clips page. Ah, it’s an uphill battle.

Lastly, your daily dose of nostalgia: Two years ago yesterday, Stuff Hipsters Hate was born! And three years ago tomorrow, I moved to this fair city. New York, you’re crazy and unpredictable and spastic and I love you.

Second, good news in the family: My big sister Julia, who writes the brilliant blog BookStalker (whereby she attends multiple readings a week and reports back on them for all us lazy lit-lovers) had a short story published in the quarterly lit mag In Digest! You can read it here. As if that weren’t exciting enough, Fiction Daily chose it as their “long” lit pick of the day! You can see that here! Holy cow, congrats, sister! The story is a chapter in her almost-complete novel-in-stories, which is itself an incredible read. A few years from now you’ll all be seeing it on the bestseller lists.

Third, shout-out to my first commenters! Friend-since-I-was-a-newborn Jesse Eloranta, who writes Behind the Willows, just got new pigs on her farm and makes me want to hightail it to Wisconsin to play with them. Pal Sammy Davis, proprietor of Sammy Davis Vintage,  loves talking site design. Thanks, guys!

Lastly, a quick CNN recap (although our editor swears the archives page will be up and running soon, making my manual documentation obsolete). Last week B taught us exhibitionist way to freeze-frame your life: Capture summer memories with these photo apps Then I got real, real picky (and, yes, a bit arbitrary) about thank-you-note-iquette: When It’s OK to Say Thank-You via Email. I couldn’t solve the age-old enigma of whether it’s polite or annoying to answer a helpful email with nothing but “Thanks!”. Discuss.

Our CNN column this week was, once again, thinly veiled self-berating: How, and Why, To Do a Facebook Detox. It’s amazing how 40 minutes between deciding to go to bed and slamming my laptop closed can slip into the Facebook black hole. Apparently 1,200+ CNN readers agreed — enough to share the story on their walls, heh.

Tomorrow morning I’m speaking on a two-person panel at the ASJA (American Society of Journalists and Authors) conference about pitching health stories. It’s all the way in Midtown West at 8:30, so I very much hope people show.

Hey, just for those of you keeping track at home:

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#notwhining

Also, I wanted to point to our last few CNN columns, as requests for an archives page have proved futile:

The Do’s and Don’ts of Job Hunting Online (4/20)

Don’t Be Offended by Online Dating Rejection (4/13)

Beware, Ninjas, of How You Name Yourself Online (4/6)

Alright, /whining into a blog entry field. I’m settled in at Modca with four novel-writing friends, all tapping away steadily, and I’m determined to hit page 70 on my screenplay. Wish me luck.