Monday, November 26, 2012

Resume for a writer and editor


Web site: http://tom-gillispie.blogspot.com/
blog: http://tg-editor-proofreader.blogspot.com/
E-mail: tgilli52@gmail.com or nc3022@yahoo.com

QUICK DESCRIPTION

    •    Currently work as freelance editor and writer; have edited fiction and non-fiction books, articles, business writing, lawyer’s work, a doctoral dissertation, even an ebook on hand, feet and nail care.

    •    Good writer, better editor.
    •    Familar with Macintosh and PC systems and applications such as InDesign, QuarkXPress, Adobe Photoshop, Microsoft Word, plus basic HTML.

    •    Have worked on various newspaper systems ranging from Atex, SII, InCopy and more.

    •    Comfortable with telecommuting and deadlines.

    •    Self-starter; need little supervision.

 
FREELANCE EXPERIENCE

    •    Usually work remotely; my clients have included, among others, a lawyer from Virginia, a doctoral candidate from Canada, and an Australian businessman. I’ve also worked as an independent contractor for two Canadian businesses, a magazine and a comic-book company. I have even laid out newspaper pages remotely.

    •    Have freelanced for the  Metro, Sports, Features, Zones and Niche Publications departments for the Winston-Salem (NC) Journal. Among my stories: a man who survived the Battle of the Bulge; Olympic gymnasts/professional speakers Bart Conner and Nadia Comaneci; the best wine lists in Winston-Salem; a 19-year-old proposing to his girlfriend during a carriage ride at Tanglewood Park, and features on Olympic speedskaters Joey Cheek and Dan Jansen.

    •    Lately, have been writing for the Journal's Niche Publications department and for its Relish section. Also, have written for Winston-Salem Monthly, another product of the Journal.
    •    Have written three books (and co-wrote a fourth) and several comic-book scripts on auto racing. In 2007, wrote Angel in Black: Remembering Dale Earnhardt Sr. (Cumberland House, 2008). In 2012, updated Then Junior Said to Jeff... for Triumph Books.
    •    In 2006, wrote captions for MBI Publishing's book on Dale Earnhardt Jr.

    •    In 1999, wrote chapters for Beckett Publishing books on Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt Jr.

    •    Have written freelance stories for various magazines, among them Winston-Salem Monthly, NASCAR Scene, The Sporting News' 1999 and 2000 preseason auto-racing editions, Performance Racing News, Sports Illustrated, Racing for Teens, and Stock Car Racing magazine. For Sports Illustrated, I wrote a short basketball feature.

    •    Have written freelance stories for the Miami Herald (basketball), the Washington Post (auto racing), the Baltimore Sun (college football) and many other daily newspapers.

    •    Wrote stories for the Ultimate College Football Annual from 2003 to 2008.

    •    Freelanced for the Charleston (S.C.) Regional Business Journal and The Business Journal of the Triad.
    •    Wrote for the iRace, SpeedNet, Worth.com, Boaters.com, the Indianapolis Star's site, and other web sites.
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NEWSPAPER EXPERIENCE

    •    Have worked at nine newspapers as a writer, copy editor and page designer (and sometimes photographer).
    •    Was sports editor at three newspapers, most recently at the now-defunct Surry Messenger in Mount Airy, NC.

    •    From February to May of 2008, was the editor of The Racing Journal, covering short-track racing in the Piedmont of North Carolina and southern Virginia. Handled the writing, editing and photography; also did page design (QuarkXPress) when needed.
     •    Have worked as the sports editor for two non-daily newspapers — Seneca (SC) Journal and Easley (SC) Progress.
    •   Have worked as a sports copy editor and writer at daily newspapers in Hendersonville, NC; Wilmington, NC; Charleston, SC; High Point, NC; Winston-Salem, NC, and Mount Airy, NC (Surry Messenger).

COLLEGE

    •    BA degree in journalism (3.2 GPA), Radford (Va.) University.

    •    News writer for the college newspaper, junior and senior years.

    •    Writer, Radford (Va.) University Office of Information and Publications.

    •    Intern, Christiansburg-Blacksburg News-Messenger.

AFFILIATION

      •    Member of the American Copy Editors Society (ACES).
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Anecdotes by Tom Gillispie
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Thursday, October 18, 2012

What's going on with TG

This entry is a running commentary on what I'm doing as a freelance writer and editor. The newest entries will be near the top of this file.

 June 12: My Hickory Motor Speedway notebook this week leads with Ashley Huffman, who got his first Late Model win since 2007. The feature is on photographer David Allio, who has taken pictures at HMS since 1976.

 June 10: Arcadia Publishing has me collecting pictures for a photo book on Hickory Motor Speedway. NASCAR is heavily involved, and it should be published this fall.

 May 28: My notebook for the Hickory Daily Record led with the many hall of famers from the Hickory area. My feature was on Dale Jarrett and Jack Ingram, who were named to the NASCAR Hall of Fame last week.

May 18: The Winston-Salem Journal's Sports Xtra section will end next Friday, and I've already written four stories for that section. With luck, the section will resume 
again when school starts up in August.

 May 17: I'm editing an ebook on food and food allergies.

 May 16: My feature this week for the Hickory Daily Record was on Pete Stewart, the two-time Hickory Motor Speedway champion.

 May 10: My Hickory Daily Record story this week was on the late Benny Parsons.

 May 1: I just finished a story for Winston-Salem Monthly on Tim Brown, the nine-time Modified champion at Bowman Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem, N.C. I think the title will be King of the Ring.

 I also sent in my notebook and feature this week for the Hickory Daily Record. The notebook leads with rainouts, since racing at Hickory Motor Speedway was rained out last week. The feature is on Rex White, the hall-of-fame driver born in nearby Taylorsville.

 April 16: My notebook this week for the Hickory Daily Record led with 19-year-old Shane Lee, who got his first Late Model victory in his fourth try. The feature is on Scott Kilby, a former Hickory Motor Speedway champion and now the track tech man.

 April 10: I have two stories this week for the Winston-Salem Journal's Sports Xtra section. I talked to both athletes and one coach, and I'll try to get another coach tomorrow.

 April 9: I sent in a notebook and a feature for the Hickory Daily Record. The notebook leads with the health of former Cup driver Richard Brown. The feature is on Late Model driver Dan Moore, who races at Hickory Motor Speedway and has two children who also race at HMS.

 March 28: I also finished editing the copy for the Winston-Salem Dash advertising section that went into the Winston-Salem Journal.

 March 27: I finished the Chris Paul story after getting to talk to Chris's dad, Charles. You can find it here.

 March 2: I'm still working on the Chris Paul story, and I'm waiting for a high-school athlete for a story that was due Friday.

 Feb. 28: I've finished a Relish story on Chris Stamey, a musician who will perform at SECCA in Winston-Salem.

Feb. 19: Sorry, I've forgotten to post lately. Winston-Salem Monthly, a product of the Winston-Salem Journal, wants me to do a feature on basketball star Chris Paul, a native of this area. I've found three people who knew Chris back when, and I'm looking for others.

 I recently did a story on singer-songwriters Haley Dreis and Caleb Caudle for Relish, a publication of the Winston-Salem Journal.

 I'm still writing for the Journal's Sports Xtra section, and my story on young race-car driver Annabeth Barnes appeared last Thursday in the Hickory Daily Record.

 Jan. 10: I'm collecting photos for the Hickory Motor Speedway book that Arcadia Publishing is doing.

 Jan. 9: I just sent in a story to Relish (Winston-Salem Journal) on a comedy team that will come to Lexington, N.C., later this month.

 Dec. 20: I'm working on a story about Parkland High School's great wrestling team for the Winston-Salem Monthly magazine. It's for the February issue, but it's due next week.

 Dec. 19: I got a hurried email from the Hickory Daily Record asking if I could talk to Hickory native Wayne Auton, who just become the NASCAR Nationwide Series director. I emailed Wayne, we talked and I wrote the story.

 Dec. 14: Today, I wrote another story on Morgan Shepherd's annual Christmas trip to Stuart, Va. I'll send along a link when it's online.

 Dec. 13: I recently finished editing another novel for a man who found me last year. He's getting a lot better.

 Dec. 12: Arcadia Publishing wants me to do the writing and find pictures for a picture book on Hickory Motor Speedway.
Nov. 29: I have three stories to do this week for the Winston-Salem Journal's Sports Xtra section.

Nov. 22: I'm editing another novel for a man who found me last year. I spellchecked the book yesterday and started reading it line by line. Even though today is Thanksgiving, I'll read more today.

Oct. 29: My feature this week is on Dennis Setzer, a two-time track champion at Hickory Motor Speedway and a standout in the Nationwide and NASCAR Truck series. The HMS season ended last Saturday, and this is my last feature of the season, although I will write a Morgan Shepherd Christmas feature in December.

 Oct. 27: My notebook this past week for the Hickory Daily Record led with Hickory Motor Speedway's season-ending "event" that looks more like a county fair than a race program. The feature was on Dick Trickle.

 Oct. 18: My notebook this week for the Hickory Daily Record is a preview of Saturday's Rev-Oil Pro Cup race at Hickory Motor Speedway. My feature is on Mark Martin, the Cup great who made five Busch (Nationwide) starts at HMS in the '80s or '90s.

 Oct. 6: My feature for next week is already written; it's on Morgan Shepherd and Ned Jarrett sharing Oct. 12 as a birthday. Morgan says Ned is still important to him, more than 40 years after they met.

Oct. 5: I'm still writing two auto-racing stories a week for the Hickory Daily Record. My notebook this week led with Kevin Eby, this year's Street Stock champion at Hickory Motor Speedway. The feature was onZLOOP, the eWaste company that will sponsor the ZLOOP Challenge in 2013.

Oct. 3: I'm writing three stories a week for the Sports Xtra section that the Winston-Salem Journal does each week.

Oct. 1: The editor of the Winston-Salem Monthly magazine liked my story (The Numbers Game) for the City Guide and asked to run its own version.

Sept. 10: My notebook this week leads with Allen Huffman, who has a ministry and is trying to be a race-car driver. My feature is on short-track great Bob Pressley, the father of former Busch Series star Robert Pressley.


Aug. 29: I talked to former Cup driver Richard Brown and hall-of-famer "Iron Man" Jack Ingram for this week's feature on another hall-of-famer Bobby Isaac. Saturday, the 36th Bobby Isaac Memorial race will be held at Hickory Motor Speedway.

Aug. 23: My feature this week for the Hickory Daily Record is on the late Dale Earnhardt picking on Russell Branham, the former publicist for Darlington Raceway.

Aug. 22: My notebook for the Hickory Daily Record this week is on Landon Huffman, a 16-year-old high-school linebacker and a Limited Late Model racer at Hickory Motor Speedway. His dad is Robert Huffman, a two-time HMS track champion and a five-time Daytona Dash champion.

Aug. 21: The Winston-Salem Journal's Niche Publications office wanted me to use Scarborough Research and do a  story on people from Forsyth County. I'm curious to see how they use it.

Aug. 15: My notebook for the Hickory Daily Record this week leads with a woman (Tina Hedrick) who is looking for information about her late father, Richard Spears, who raced at Hickory Motor Speedway from 1977-80. My feature is on Taylor and Hut Stricklin. Taylor, 23, races at HMS, and Hut, a former Winston Cup driver, helps him at the races. 

July 25: Today, I learned that the Winston-Salem Journal will again have a Sports Xtra section during the upcoming school year. In the spring of 2011 and during the 2011-12 school year, I wrote profiles of athletes and coaches at Atkins, Winston-Salem Prep and East Forsyth high schools, plus occasional stories on Salem Academy and Calvary Baptist. It looks like I'll have the same schools this time around.

July 24: My Hickory Motor Speedway notebook this week leads with the Crash-A-Rama, which is coming to HMS this week. The feature is on Limited Late Model driver Zach Bruenger, who got his first two LLM wins in the last two races.

July 19: My notebook this week for the Hickory Daily Record leads with Marshall Sutton getting help from his friends; the feature is on Keith Bumgarner, who has five wins in his nine Late Model races this year.

July 16: We bought a new Mac Mini, and I'm still learning it. So far, it's wonderful. We managed to put our old computer's hard drive on here, too.

June 23: I'm writing profiles of North Carolina Olympians for the Niche Publications section of the Winston-Salem Journal. (NOTE: I sent the profiles in recently. I sent 30 profiles, then found six more N.C. Olympians to write up).

June 22: My notebook for the Hickory Daily Record this week leads with Cory Joyce, a young UARA-Stars driver who raced at Hickory Motor Speedway Saturday. The feature is on brothers Dillon and Ronnie (Jr.) Bassett. Ronnie will miss Hickory after a wreck last week, but Dillon is second in points. In fact, Dillon won the race, his first win of the season.

June 16: My stories this week for the Hickory Daily Record are on Shane Lee, a youngster who is leading NASCAR's national Whelen All-American Series Division II standings, and Anthony Anders, a Hickory Motor Speedway part-timer who is leading NASCAR's national Whelen All-American Series Division I standings. You can read both stories by going to Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/HDR-The-Inside-Line/311586675576125.

June 15: Our computer died two weeks ago, and I've been working on an old laptop that won't get on Blogspot. So I've been quiet here. We set up a new computer Friday.

May 29: My Hickory Daily Record notebook this week is on Luke Fleming, who is running various tracks this year in preparation for the Whelen Southern Modified Tour next year. My feature is on racing icon Tiger Tom Pistone.

May 28: I'm waiting for Triumph Books to send the cover art for "Then Junior Said to Jeff..." for my review.

May 23: My Hickory Daily Record stories this week are on Kyle Moon and Trey Gibson, who both race Late Models at Hickory Motor Speedway. Gibson is a part of NASCAR's Drive for Diversity.

May 17: I finished the galley proofs for "Then Junior Said to Jeff..." and returned them to Triumph Books.

May 16: My Hickory Daily Record stories this week are on teenager Brandon Atkinson, who races at Hickory Motor Speedway, and Landon and Robert Huffman. Landon is another teenager who races at HMS, while his dad, Robert, is a five-time NASCAR Dash Series champion.

May 1: My Hickory Daily Record stories this week are on  Shannon Myers, a tire changer for Mark Martin's team, and Smyle Media's collection of Hickory Motor Speedway photos.

April 14: I opened a HDR / The Inside Line page on Facebook to promote my Hickory Motor Speedway stories.

April 6: I haven't avoided this file intentionally. I've just been busy writing sports stories for the Winston-Salem Journal and auto-racing stories for the Hickory Daily Record, and I've been working on the book "Then Junior Said to Jeff..."

I finished sending in copy for the book on April 5, so now I'll have more time for my blogs and my web site. And I'm looking for my next book to write.

Feb. 24: I wrote my Wayne Auton feature back in November for the Hickory Daily Record series called The Inside Line. They finally ran it yesterday.

Feb. 23: I've been updating an auto-racing book that two friends of mine wrote around 2005. I've been adding my own NASCAR anecdotes to theirs, and now I'm looking for more up-to-date stories on Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch and others.

Feb. 22: I'm still writing sports profiles for the Winston-Salem Journal's Sports Xtra section, and I'm looking forward to writing stories Hickory Daily Record series called The Inside Line.

Jan. 28: I'm still writing sports profiles for the Winston-Salem Journal's Sports Xtra section, and I'm looking for people to profile for Hickory Daily Record series called The Inside Line. I already have Morgan Shepherd and Wayne Auton stories pretty much done, and I'm working on a feature about race tracks within 100 miles of Hickory. That last story will have a companion feature about the problems that promoters face (it's already written).

Dec. 26: I'll cover a high-school basketball game today. Carver and West Forsyth are playing at East Forsyth in the Frank Spencer Holiday Classic. 

Dec. 20: Hickory ran my Morgan Shepherd Christmas story, but the Wayne Auton story is in limbo. I don't know when it'll run; that'll probably be in February, just before Daytona. I suspect the second Shepherd story will be run about the same time.

Dec. 16: I'm waiting for a player from East Forsyth to call me for a Sports Extra story. I wrote two Hickory Daily Record stories last week. The one about Morgan Shepherd is online. The other, about Wayne Auton, will wait until they can run it.

Dec. 4: I'm going to do two Morgan Shepherd stories for the Hickory Daily Record. One is on his annual Christmas trip, and the other is on Morgan, a native of the Hickory area and a veteran NASCAR driver.

I'll be busy this week as I try to get coaches and athletes for nine stories for the Winston-Salem Journal's Sports Extra section. I think I've done two of the nine stories so far.

Nov. 30: Today, I talked to Wayne Auton, the director of NASCAR Camping World Truck Series.
Nov. 22: Normally, I write three stories each week for the Winston-Salem Journal's Sports Xtrasection. All are on athletes. This week, I'm doing four stories, since one is on a coach. They're all done.
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Nov. 17: I just finished a story on Cale Yarborough for the Hickory Daily Record's series of Hickory Motor Speedway stories. If fun is an indicator, it's one of my best stories in the series.

Nov. 16: I usually need to do three stories a week for the Winston-Salem Journal's Sports Xtrasection, and I talk to one coach and one player for each story.

I had been writing two stories a week for the Hickory Daily Record, but I dropped to one after Hickory Motor Speedway's season ended.

Nov. 13: My feature story this week for the Hickory Daily Record was on Annabeth Barnes and the TV show "Born to Drive."

Nov. 11: I covered West Stokes again, this time against Waxhaw Cuthbertson. West won 47-42 in one of the better games I've ever seen.

Also on Friday, I had four stories in the Winston-Salem Journal's Sports Xtra section.

Nov. 1: I'll cover a football game on Friday — Monroe Piedmont at West Stokes. It's my first Piedmont game and my first football game at West Stokes.

Oct. 31: Friday was my deadline for my Winston-Salem Journal Sports Xtra stories, and one of the athletes didn't call then or over the weekend. I talked to her Monday and sent the story in.
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My Winston-Salem Journal stories this week were on East Forsyth's Francisco Rocha,Winston-Salem Prep's Celia Tibbs and Calvary Baptist's Jared Garlow.

Oct. 22: My Shawn Ward feature came out yesterday, and my notebook led by Andrew Conklin came out today. The Ward feature is one of my better ones.

I also wrote a sports feature for the Winston-Salem Journal.

Oct. 19: Today, I wrote a feature on Shawn Ward, gas man for Matt Kenseth's No. 17 Cup team. The notebook lead is about Andrew Conklin, a Michigan driver who tested at Hickory Motor Speedway for an ARCA ride.

I also interviewed a coach for a Winston-Salem Journal sports feature.
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Oct. 16: I've been editing a novel -- it's a romance! -- and it's well written. Mostly, I've asked questions, and fixed punctuation and some typos. It needs work, but she's the second-best novelist whose work I've edited.

Oct. 12: My notebook for the Hickory Daily Record is done. I led it with Dexter Canipe Jr.finishing fourth in the big Late Model race at Martinsville. My feature story was on legendary drivers who raced at Hickory Motor Speedway. I told a few stories and enjoyed it greatly.

Also, starting today, I'm editing a novel for a woman who found me on Savvy Authors.

By the way, I just wrote a column for Savvy Authors called THE EDITOR: What I do when I'm editing.

Oct. 9: My deadline for my Winston-Salem Journal stories was Friday, and I finally talked to one of the athletes last night. I wrote the story immediately and sent it out in the morning.

Oct. 7: Four of my five stories this week are online today.

I wrote a feature on Sam Ard, the great Busch Series driver who is suffering from Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases, and a story on the widow of the man who is being honored with the 4th annual Dwight Huffman Memorial race at Hickory.

I also wrote three stories for the Winston-Salem Journal's Sports Extra section. Here are links to the stories on Gustavo Moreno of Atkins High School and Jacob Watts of East Forsyth (For some reason, the other story isn't online).

Sept. 27: I wrote a Bobby Allison feature for the Hickory Daily Record. I led my HMS notebook with a story on Austin McDaniel, the rookie of the year in Hickory Motor Speedway's Late Model division.

I've already done my three stories this week for the Winston-Salem Journal's Sports Xtra section, so I'm working on stories for next week.

Sept. 26: The Winston-Salem Journal needed me to do an extra Sports Xtra story on Glenn High School.

Sept. 22: My Tiny Lund feature is online today here. My Eric Wilson (pit-crew chief for Richard Childress Racing) story is online here.

Sept. 20: This week, I'm working on four Sports Xtra stories for the Winston-Salem Journal and two Inside Line stories for the Hickory Daily Record.
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Sept. 17: This month, I wrote a column on Powerful Writing for Savvy Authors.

Sept. 16: I covered the Reynolds at North Forsyth football game. I also interviewed people for my Winston-Salem Journal stories next week.

Sept. 15: Because my "schoolyard" story was held a week, I only had one story to write for the Hickory newspaper this week. NASCAR contacted me yesterday, and I talked to Keith Barnwell, the spotter for Martin Truex Jr.'s Sprint Cup team.

Today, I'm writing two stories for the Winston-Salem Journal's Sports Xtra section, and I finally got up with a coach and player for a third story.

Sept. 10: A novelist and I have agreed to work together, and I'm awaiting chapters. Also, a novelist friend of mine sent me her newspaper story for editing. It was pretty well written, but I improved it.

Sept. 9: I finished two Sports Xtra stories for the Journal today and am done for the week.

I learned yesterday that the Isaac story (Keeping watch over Bobby Isaac) is my most-read story for the Hickory paper, by far. I'm not surprised. It's easily my best story for them.

Sept. 8: Today, I've written two stories for the Hickory Daily Record. One is a feature on Hickory Motor Speedway being a "schoolyard" for young drivers. NOTE: I learned that they held the "schoolyard" story a week because of the deluge of 9/11 stories.

Sept. 1: Yesterday, I wrote a column for the Hickory Daily Record on drivers I knew when I was covering racing from the late '80s to the early 21st century. It reveals my favorite driver to cover. I also wrote a story called Keeping watch over Bobby Isaac; it's my best story of 2011, easy.

 I've already sent in two of the stories I owe the Winston-Salem Journal for its Sports Xtra section.
Aug. 28: My most recent editing gig was with a former school teacher who is writing his novel. We've gone through the manuscript twice. It was pretty rough when I got it; he's still not the second coming of Ernest Hemingway or Stephen King, but he's getting better.

In July, I began writing auto-racing features about Hickory Motor Speedway for the Hickory Daily Record. I'm six or eight weeks into the project, and I've featured such people as Mike Beam, Andy Petree, Dale Jarrett, Dr. Jerry Punch and hall-of-famer Jack Ingram. I also did a feature on the late Bobby Isaac (my best story so far).

Also, the Winston-Salem Journal has re-started its SportsXtra section for the fall. I generally do stories on athletes from Atkins, East Forsyth and Winston-Salem high schools, with the Salem and Calvary Baptist independent schools mixed in occasionally.

I also covered a high-school football game Friday night (Reagan at North Forsyth), and this marks my 33rd year of high-school football.

I blog fairly regularly at http://tg-editor-proofreader.blogspot.com/.

Aug. 27: Finally, I did a chat on self-editing with Savvy Authors. The writers asked a lot of questions, and I think it went well. In early August, I wrote a column for them titled Advice for be and would-be novelists.


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