Year Of The Dolphin

It has been one year since I started to write my Fish Out of Water column for the Dolphin Talk Paper out of Seadrift, Texas.

So for the upcoming column I wrote about how it felt to be kind of thrown into the fire of reporting right around this time last year.

Here is a little preview of the column:

“It was a cloudy day that threatened to drop rain out of the sky, and little drops could be seen on the folding chairs lined up in the middle of Main Street, which was blocked off to vehicle traffic for the dedication.

I had spent the day before at Wal-Mart of all places, trying desperately to find a shirt that looked professional. I was not out of my depth, but I was definitely about to take on another aspect of the craft of writing, head on.

As I approached the building, I saw the little white cat decoration on the front of the Johnstone Building, which I took as a good omen as for a guy I am a total cat nut(seriously, I have statues).”

“Recently I was talking to a friend I have known for years who is a visual artist. We were chatting about the kind of things people probably think artsy people talk about when eventually we touched on how some people can turn their talent into power trips. I quickly related this to how I felt about reporting for the paper. Although it was fun to be able to walk up to people and interview them and arrange and take photos to appear alongside the text, it was never a power trip to be able to do so. Rather it was one of the best feelings in the universe, to be doing what you loved and being respected for it to boot. To a man who at times in his past thought he would never be able to get anything out there due to a past of troubles, it was like a dream.

So I enjoyed every little problem, every little odd quote that you had to fit in to have a news piece but you had no idea how, every deadline looming (tomorrow) and every opportunity to make each article and column my own, to try and find a voice that would hopefully hold reader’s interest, as well as entertain and inform.”

I will try and remember to place a URL in this spot to the rest of the column once it is published.

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Random Poetry Breaks

During the Summer/Fall of 2012 I went through quite a lot. As a result a lot of the blogging/writing stopped as I faced facts and moved from TX to IL.

I published three random poetry thingys during that time on this blog that were therapeutic at the time, but deserve to be consolidated in one post…still raw as they were when I wrote them, but I dare not delete them either.

Women and the Internet

Today I was on Facebook and I was reminded of one the great truths of the modern miracle we call the internet. But it wasn’t about how much valuable information could be shared across the world or how many new avenues for business could be opened up via the web, but rather an ongoing observation that at times has me shaking my head in disbelief.

If you are a woman and put a picture or video of yourself in public, eventually some guy will come along and hit on you.

If you post it they will come.

Fanzines, the Net And Networking

As a person and an author I am not by far one of these writer’s that should be writing one of those wordy articles that tell you how to get it together and be published. Truth be told, I got my first gig because I was a huge Doctor Who fan and (Modesty modesty!) at least had some innate talent in writing the written word.

But that does mean I followed that one rule you see all over the how to write websites and books, that you have to write what you know and also be aware of the content of the place(s) you are submitting too.

Cult Britannia Arrives! (At least for me)

I am pleased to announce that I will play a large part in both the creation of content and the editing of the content on Cult Britannia.co.uk. I feel fortunate and excited about this opportunity to spread out from the Doctor Who and get the experience of working with other writer’s content and doing a little editing.

So far things have gone well as far as recruiting writers for reviews and articles on all things UK Sci-Fi, horror and all other f0rms of media that fall under the umbrella of “cult”.

If you yourself have a submission or would like to write for Cult Britannia, please drop me a line at this email:

thomasspychalski@hotmail.com