Getting Back To My Roots As A Writer

Back in college at Central Michigan University, for two years I wrote for the school newspaper, the award winning CM Life. I was an editorial columnist - which meant I had the privilege of writing about whatever I felt like. Some of my material was funny, some serious, a few pieces were political - while others simply poked fun at campus life.

I got the job by walking in with two of three samples and asking. The editor looked them over and offered me the job right on the spot. For me it was a catalyst for my writing career. I got to try out new techniques and approaches to writing and the feedback was instant…simply walk across the campus and people let you know what they thought.

Just before graduation the editor commented, "we never see you in our Journalism classes," and I told him that was because I wasn't a journalism student. I was in the College of Business. Writing was just something I enjoyed doing.

From the basement of Anspach Hall I started to write science fiction products for BattleTech, Star Trek, and then branched out into writing business management books, Sci-Fi, horror, true crime, biography, and military history. I have been fortunate enough that my books are sold around the globe and I have thousands of readers.

This summer while doing a TV interview on my true crime book Secret Witness, the editor of the Culpeper Times and I talked about my early days. She did something remarkable. She offered me a job as an editorial columnist. I hesitated a little at first. When you write such a column there's bound to be people that disagree with you and I live in small community where my family might catch some of that flak. It was a job with no pay and I am always busy working on my next book - careening towards that next deadline. There were a lot of reasons to not do it - but a part of me wanted to touch that part of my youth one more time. 

So I agreed.

It has been a blast. Here's my latest http://www.northernvatimes.com/culpeper/article/pardoe-prepares-to-pick-up-the-pace-at-army-ten-miler tid bit. I have enjoyed doing it and the feedback has been great. That hour I spend every month writing these columns takes me back to the 1980's and writing for the CM Life.

They say you can't go back in time…let me assure you, there are ways!