Until I found the following while sifting through old articles, I’d forgotten that “It’s Not All Gravy” had another life after the the newspaper stopped printing it. There was an online magazine for writers, Rhapsody, that sadly only lasted a few years and I was asked to contribute.
The pay was minimal, but at least they paid a little. So many start-up online newspapers and magazines couldn’t offer compensation.
This was my introductory column for the readers of the magazine.
IT’S NOT ALL GRAVY…
…MUSINGS ON THE WRITING LIFE
I almost forgot the first rule of writing a column. You don’t just throw stuff at folks and expect them to catch it. Since I don’t want to leave you scratching your head about why on earth I’m calling the column what I am, let me share the genesis of this title, and the reason why I want to waste a little bit of your time every month.
First, the title.
My initial break into publication was, gasp, over twenty years ago when I wrote a weekly column for a Dallas suburban newspaper. I did it out of desperation. I needed an outlet for the nonsense that went on in a family of seven with two-year-old twins. I was tired of collecting rejection slips. (A hobby with limited excitement value.)
And deep inside where the worst of our fears dwell, I wondered if I’d been kidding myself all those years of believing I was a writer.
I don’t know where the idea of a column came from. Maybe the sage advice, “Write what you know.” But for two weeks I slaved over a few samples in the vein of Erma Bombeck, then screwed up the courage to go to the local newspaper and ask if they’d consider them for publication.
Perspiration puddled around me as I talked to the editor, who promised to read the offerings and get back to me.
That would be the end of it, I thought as I nursed my old van back home. If he’s really polite, he’ll call or write to say, “Thanks but no thanks.”
If he’s typical, I won’t hear a thing.
Much to my surprise, he called two days later to tell me the columns were the best stuff he’d read in years. And not only did they want to run them, THEY WANTED TO PAY ME. Even Erma, God rest her soul, wrote for no pay in the beginning.
Note: I’ve since learned that isn’t true. Erma did get paid from the start.
After I spent the first six-week’s salary on long-distance phone calls to tell everyone I’d ever met the good news, I had to come up with a title.
When I finally decided, my kids asked why I picked “It’s Not All Gravy,” and I said, “How often do we have gravy around here?”
“Not very much,” they replied.
“See?”
They still didn’t get it, but readers did. The column enjoyed a seven-year run and fans wrote, or called, to ask if I’d been spying on their families.
The writing life is not much different from that craziness of family life. We get some ‘gravy’ now and then, but the in-between is where we live.
The frustrations.
The disappointments.
The plain hard work, with a payoff so elusive.
That’s why I thought of this title again when Catherine Edwards asked me to write a regular column for Rhapsody. Somehow it fits.
And like the kinship I formed with the readers of my other column, I hope some of what I have to say resonates with you.
I also hope that you will feel compelled to share some of your writing life with me. Nobody understands the wonderful, wacky business of writing like another person who reaches deep into his, or her, soul to create something. Through our monthly visits we can celebrate our victories, cry over our disappointments, rail against the stupidity in the marketplace, and, hopefully, find mutual support.
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If you’ve read this far, thank you. I hope you enjoyed taking this trip down memory lane with me. I’m a firm believer in the importance of looking at where we started as writers, and people for that matter, and connect it with a look at the people we’ve become.
Hopefully, the introspection reveals growth as a person and improvement as a writer.
The comments are open to anyone who’d like to share any reminiscing you’ve been doing about your writing life, or just life in general.
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That’s all from me for today folks. Here’s hoping the new week starts off well for all of us. Be safe. Be happy. And above all be kind.