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| My first appearance as a freelance writer |
I confess that I'm currently toying with the possibility of doing some freelance work. It is merely an idle notion for the moment, born of the idea that I think I might be able to work up something for a magazine I currently read. I'm thinking about it. There's no offer on the table, and I suspect the editor of the magazine has never even heard of me. But I'm thinking about it. We'll see.
For now, the notion got me thinking of my professional freelance writings credits. It is, admittedly, a pretty slim resumé, but these are the outlets that have given me money for words at some point in my meager writin' career.
Amazing Heroes
My first paid freelance sales were to Amazing Heroes, a comics fan magazine published by Fantagraphics. In 1984 I wrote a piece called "The Call Of The Mockingbird," which was a history of the 1960s DC Comics series The Secret Six. AH's then-editor David W. Olbrich bought it, and I was a freelancer. Yay, me! I followed that with "When Worlds Collide!," an article speculating about a shared DC/Marvel Comics universe. I later wrote a history of the Charlton Comics superhero E-Man ("Positive Energy"), a piece on funny superheroes ("Up, Up And...Oh, Well!"), and a very well-received A-Z annotation of 26 obscure DC Comics characters ("Who's...WHO?!"). I also wrote a brief quote-collection blurb called "The Camp Knight Returns!," about actor Adam West's expressed interest in returning to the role of Batman (to which AH's then-editor Mark Waid--now a star comics writer himself--added the line, "Get real, people!"). In between, I think, the DC-Marvel thing and E-Man I wrote a history of DC's 1970s character The Sandman ("Sweet Dreams Are Made Of This"), which Olbrich rejected.
Around 1986 or so, Waid accepted "The 53rd Card In The Deck," my massive history of The Joker; because AH had just published a big Batman issue, Waid told me he wanted to hold on to my Joker history for use the following year. But when another Batman issue finally appeared, it included someone else's Joker history instead of mine. In that interim time frame, Waid had split (with much acrimony) from Amazing Heroes, and allegedly (probably) trashed all of his inventory on the way out de do'. I called Fantagraphics to complain, but Kim Thompson (who was acting as AH editor following Waid's sudden departure) had no idea who I was, and brushed me off. I scrapped a history of Justice League-Justice Society team-ups ("The Never-Ending Crisis") that I was planning, and never again submitted anything to Fantagraphics.
Comics Collector and The Comics Buyer's Guide
In 1985, while still toiling away happily for Amazing Heroes, I wanted to branch out to other publishers. I had begun subscribing to The Comics Buyer's Guide, a wonderful weekly tabloid put out by Krause Publications, and edited by Don and Maggie Thompson. When Krause announced that the Thompsons would also be editing a newsstand magazine called Comics Collector, I sent them a query, touting my AH experience and my interest in writing for them. Most of my contact with them was through their assistant, Kim Metzger, and after an exchange of missives we agreed that I would write a retrospective of the 1966-68 Batman TV series ("Same Bat-Time, Same Bat-Channel!") for Comics Collector. Over and above money, that article scored my very first fan letter! I subsequently wrote two or three pieces for CBG, but I don't remember what they were. Somewhere in there, though, I do remember receiving a note from Metzger, stating that Don wanted me to know what a pleasure it was to work with a writer who knew how to prepare a professional manuscript. Ah, flattery will get you...whatever you want, actually. In the early '90s, CBG agreed to let me write a review of my friend Dave Murray's book House Training Your VCR, but the review was never published. No hard feelings from me; I enjoyed writing for the Thompsons, and I thought the world of them. In 1994, when I read in CBG that Don had passed away, I'm not ashamed to say that I cried.
The Buffalo News
This stretches the concept of professional writing to near-absurdity, but I got paid, so it counts. In the mid '80s, the daily newspaper The Buffalo News offered a brief, sporadically-appearing feature called "Critics At Large." This feature invited readers to submit reviews of TV shows, for which we'd be paid the princely sum of $10 each upon publication. Awrighty. Ten bucks would buy some comic books, some beer, some tacos, and/or some records, so I was in. I reviewed Remington Steele and the 1985 GRAMMY Awards.
Goldmine
The connection of working for Krause's Comics Collector led me to try to break into rock 'n' roll journalism with Krause's tabloid for record collectors. The twenty years (1986-2006) I spent freelancing for Goldmine will likely always be my biggest writing credit. This blog has already offered a snapshot of my Goldmine experience (connected to a 2014 This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio playlist), as well as a full-length reminiscence called The Road To Goldmine. I loved writing for Goldmine until the late '90s, and grew progressively less enchanted with the experience after that. But let's be clear: I am not some kind of disgruntled former freelancer; Goldmine meant a great deal to me, and I continue to wish the magazine success (and besides, my friends John M. Borack and Ken Sharp still write for GM, so go, team, go!).
The Syracuse New Times
The above-mentioned House Training Your VCR author Dave Murray got me in with The In Crowd at Syracuse's long-running weekly tabloid The Syracuse New Times. My penultimate Goldmine piece (2006's Rock The Coin Right Into The Slot: The Definitive Rock 'n' Roll Jukebox) began its mutant existence as a rejected Syracuse New Times piece, originally co-written in 1991 by Dave and me. New Times editor Mike Greenstein hated it. Nonetheless, I began selling occasional bits to the New Times, usually to Music And Events editor Russ Tarby. Over a span of maybe a decade or so, I wrote reviews, Idle Chatter music news bits, and articles about The Flashcubes, The Pop Tarts, the late '70s Syracuse new wave scene, alternative radio, and rock 'n' roll outta Rochester. I don't remember when I stopped, nor do I think I had any specific reason for stopping; I just stopped. I still participate in the trivia team Albania (with Dave, Mike, and comics writer Tom Peyer, among other New Times alumni) every now and again.
DISCoveries
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| The Skeletons |
Poptopia! Power Pop Classics Of The '90s
My first and only big liner-notes gig. In 1997, I received a surprise phone call from someone at Rhino Records, offering me the job of writing liner notes for one of three forthcoming power pop compilations under the group title Poptopia! Jordan Oakes and John Borack had already snagged the assignments for the 1970s and 1980s sets respectively, leaving me with the '90s by default. I'm not positive, but I think Ken Sharp may have recommended me; whoever it was, I remain grateful. The Rhino rep apologized that the job wouldn't pay much, but I blurted out I'll take it! before he'd even finished his sentence. Savvy negotiator? That's me! I drew bits from a power pop history I'd recently written for Goldmine, worked up commentary on the disc's individual tracks and contributors, wrapped everything up in pretty virtual paper and sent it off to Rhino. This was a great gig, and the payment wasn't even all that paltry. I later rewrote the whole thing into The Kids Are Alright!, a sprawling power pop history published in John Borack's book Shake Some Action.
Warner Brothers Records
This was just weird. I interviewed Joan Jett for Goldmine in 1994, and her management later hired me to re-purpose my intro from that published article for their use as a Joan Jett press bio. Cool! I sent them what I thought they wanted. They asked for corrections. Fair enough, so I did the corrections. They asked for corrections on the corrections. What the...? I corrected the corrected corrections, and I think I did one further correction of the corrected corrected corrections. That was enough. I was directed to invoice Warner Brothers Records for payment, and my Joan Jett press bio never did see the light of day.
MusicHound Rock
My first book appearance was in two volumes of a CD buyers' guide called MusicHound Rock. These were A-Z collections of artist overviews, telling potential new fans of, say, The Spongetones which CDs to buy and which to avoid, with individual ratings (WOOF! to Five Bones, awful to fantastic) offering specific guidance. I normally hate writing graded reviews--Goldmine's switch to letter grades in its reviews was one of the reasons I stopped writing reviews for Goldmine--but this was a good opportunity, so I made the most of it. I was in the first volume in 1996, and wrote a bunch of additional and updated reviews for the revised edition in 1999. I believe that revised edition was the first time Gary Frenay and Cockeyed Ghost were ever included in such a buyers' guide. The entries paid something like ten bucks a shot, but I wrote enough of them for the revised edition to pay for my wife and daughter's round trip plane tickets to Florida that year.
BMG Europe
I've already written here about Bubble Gum World, my ill-fated effort to compile a Buddah Records bubblegum collection for BMG Europe. When the project was cancelled, I was paid for the work I'd done. I still wish it had played out differently, and I wish I'd done a better job with it.
Bubblegum Music Is The Naked Truth
My next bubblegum gig went better (but paid a lot less). For the 2001 book Bubblegum Music Is The Naked Truth, I allowed editors Kim Cooper and David Smay to create an edit of my 1997 Goldmine bubblegum history, I re-wrote a history of The Bay City Rollers ("Rollermania: A Hard D-A-Y's Night") that had been my first feature article for Goldmine in 1987, and collaborated with writer Gary Pig Gold on a new piece about The Monkees. I also wrote essential-listening recommendations for the Monkees and Rollers, and contributed ideas for the book's superswell Bubblegum 100 (including such essentials as "Pop Rocks 'n' Pepsi," "The Go-Go's In Their Underwear," "Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots," "Special Guest Bat-Villains," and--of course!--"The Ramones"). It was enormous fun to be involved with this project. When the book was released in August of '01, I drove down to New York for the East Coast book release party, and met writer Becky Ebencamp and musicians Tony Levanthal (of The Mockers), Mark Bacino, and Eytan Mirsky. Just missed a chance to meet The Smithereens' drummer Dennis Diken because I was too shy to introduce myself.
I remember leaving Beauty Bar, where the book release party had been, and driving past a sign for the World Trade Center. The sight of that sign stuck with me for some reason. A few weeks later, the World Trade Center was no more. Some time after that, in the miserable aftermath of 9/11, a radio station downstate wanted some lighter fare to divert everyone from the gnawing ache we all felt inside. So they did a phone interview with me about the book and its frothy subject matter. It was as close to being a star as I'll ever get.
More than 33 years since my first freelance writing sale, I don't have any money to show for it. But I've written. Really, I've written more in the nearly two years since this blog began than in any comparable time span before it. I haven't quite given up on the possibility of writing for money. In the mean time, though, I'll write for you here, every day. I'm sure there's a tip jar around here somewhere.
HEY! Speakin' of money: You can support this blog by becoming a patron on Patreon: Fund me, baby!
Our new compilation CD This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 4 is now available from Kool Kat Musik! 29 tracks of irresistible rockin' pop, starring Pop Co-Op, Ray Paul, Circe Link & Christian Nesmith, Vegas With Randolph Featuring Lannie Flowers, The Slapbacks, P. Hux, Irene Peña, Michael Oliver & the Sacred Band Featuring Dave Merritt, The Rubinoos, Stepford Knives, The Grip Weeds, Popdudes, Ronnie Dark, The Flashcubes,Chris von Sneidern, The Bottle Kids, 1.4.5., The Smithereens, Paul Collins' Beat, The Hit Squad, The Rulers, The Legal Matters, Maura & the Bright Lights, Lisa Mychols, and Mr. Encrypto & the Cyphers. You gotta have it, so order it here.
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