When I first started in journalism -- now, sadly, 15 years ago-- I was a local sports reporter. It was a fun job (though not as much fun as people tend to think, but still entertaining). The best part, however, was when I started a regular column.
The column was a bit of fresh air. Generally speaking, sports is a cool beat, but it's not terribly creative. It's basically the same thing over and over again. But a column? I could take it anywhere. And I did. I wrote about all sorts of different topics, still vaguely connected to sports, but with pop culture references and at least a stab at humor. It was called, "Nobody Asked Me, But..." which I felt reflected the nature of my comments. You probably didn't ask to hear what I thought about obnoxious parents at Little League games, but I'm going to tell you anyway.
Eventually I killed the column when I started having more responsibilities at the paper, and moved on from that publication. It wasn't until I worked for the South County Chronicle on a freelance basis that I got some version of it back. There the column was called "Critics Corner," and I was allowed as much freedom as I wanted. I could, and did, write about music, movies, video games and books. It was a great outlet for me and I really enjoyed it.
But, sadly, the paper folded earlier this year--another victim to the new digital age. I focused on my full-time job and my novel-writing and pretty much forgot about it. But I missed it.
So when I published a novel and everyone told me, "Make a blog, make a blog," resurrecting the old column was the first thing that popped into my head. And here it is. I can't promise to post every day or even every week, but I will try and keep things interesting and fun.
Dec. 11, 2011
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