Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Links to TG's stories online

Back Up to Speed

When the Winston Cup Museum opened in May 2005, owner/founder Will Spencer said he wasn’t looking to make money.

 “I wanted to give something back to the city of Winston-Salem as well as preserve the 33-year history of Winston Cup racing because it had such a positive impact on me and my business,” says Spencer, a Forsyth County native. 

 Read more: http://m.journalnow.com/winstonsalemmonthly/back-up-to-speed/article_74694e8c-c153-11e5-b247-23f2362878ea.html?mode=jqm 

Hot dogs, heavy on the history

The joint was hopping at Pulliam’s hot-dog stand on a Saturday this summer. Cars and trucks were parked at all angles around the building with white-and-dark green vertical stripes.
People sat eating and drinking on the steps or on stumps under a tree, or in their cars. Some just stood eating under some shade.
Read more:
http://www.journalnow.com/spark/features/hot-dogs-heavy-on-the-history/article_538bd5e4-7db1-11e5-9a21-e738c797cd64.html

 Claim to Fame

 Though it exists in great obscurity, the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County High School Sports Hall of Fame is a place where excellence resides—and a place that’s worth a closer look. The hall opened in 1983 to celebrate standouts at the local high-school level, including players, coaches, administrators, even officials.

 Read more:
http://www.journalnow.com/winstonsalemmonthly/claim-to-fame/article_92091c98-4c04-11e5-985b-6b6150e80a73.html

 Training Ground

 Basketball star Chris Paul says he had long been thinking of opening a top-notch basketball/athletics facility in Winston-Salem. Earlier this summer, he did just that.

 Read more:
http://www.journalnow.com/winstonsalemmonthly/training-ground/article_e91cbf2a-7f72-11e5-ab1c-c7a3b009346b.html

 Beyond the X's and O's

 When people think of coaches, Knute Rockne comes to mind. The great Notre Dame football coach was full of rah, pumping his players up for the big game. But in 35 years of writing about high-school and college sports, coaches have often said that there’s a lot more to coaching than rah rah and X’s and O’s.

 Read more:
http://www.journalnow.com/winstonsalemmonthly/beyond-x-s-and-o-s/article_8ca28962-9cee-11e4-9caa-1b0852d4cc56.html

 Holiday Hoop-La

 By the time I first covered a Frank Spencer Holiday Classic game for the Winston-Salem Journal in 2000, the tournament had gone through numerous changes.

 Read more:
http://www.journalnow.com/winstonsalemmonthly/holiday-hoop-la/article_7884e2b8-6f67-11e4-81ea-03c46e56a1ee.html

 Follow the Leaders

 I wrote profiles of four Forsyth County high-school football coaches: Mike Springston of Walkertown, Josh McGee of Reagan, Laymarr Marshall of Mount Tabor and Todd Willert of East Forsyth.

 Read more: http://www.journalnow.com/winstonsalemmonthly/playmakers/article_745f5cd6-40ba-11e3-8ffe-001a4bcf6878.html

 Learning on the go

Cameron Hughes was working at a Terry Labonte auto dealership, but he wanted more.
He wanted a career in motorsports; he just had to figure out how to get it.

 The King of the Ring

 Tim Brown knows he came off as a villain in the TV show "Madhouse," but that was the plan. It looked like Brown and the Myers brothers, Burt and Jason, hated each other. But Brown says he’s actually friends with most of the drivers. He even does work on many of their cars.

 Read more: http://www.journalnow.com/winstonsalemmonthly/playmakers/article_f69ab4ba-c3bb-11e2-9f23-0019bb30f31a.html

 The Legend of CP3

 This spring marks 10 years since Chris Paul graduated from West Forsyth High School. Since then, “CP3″ has become a household name and a bona fide basketball icon. 

 Read more: http://www.winstonsalemmonthly.com/2013/05/01/the-legend-of-cp3/

 Harris and Singer weird, experimental and organic

 Stand-up funny men Jarrod Harris and Ryan Singer won’t say which one’s the star of “The Organic Comedy Tour.”

 “I think we both shine equally,” said Harris, who will join Singer in a show Saturday at High Rock Outfitters in Lexington.

 Read more: http://www.journalnow.com/relishnow/article_8253f9f4-65ba-11e2-a4b8-0019bb30f31a.html

'40-City Adventure' for Haley Dreis and Jacob Caudle

 The musical adventure begins when Haley Dreis and Caleb Caudle appear Friday at The Garage. The appearance opens a '40-city adventure'-Dreis' words-of the Southeast, Northeast and Midwest this spring. Caudle, whose parents live in Germanton, said the 40-city adventure will grow as they go along.
The two of them will be driving alone in Dreis' Volvo.
Read more: http://winstonsalemjournal.nc.newsmemory.com/pda.php?date=20130228&eid=0&sid=3&aid=365

 Winston-Salem Guide: The numbers game

See, I’d heard of Gallup polls for politics and even Kinsey’s polls for sex. (I don’t care about Gallup, but, sadly, Kinsey never contacted me.) But I’d never heard of Scarborough.
According to its website, “Scarborough Research™ measures the lifestyles, shopping patterns, media behaviors, and demographics of American consumers locally, regionally, and nationally.”

 Read online: http://wscityguide.com/the-numbers-game/

 In the rough: Clubs try promotions, amenities to draw golfers, families

Head golf professionals and general managers at golf courses or country clubs are going round and round, trying to overcome their problems. Fewer people are playing golf, and fewer rounds of golf are being played than a few years ago.

Read more: http://www.bizjournals.com/triad/stories/2006/05/01/focus1.html

SWEET TIMES: WORKSHOP ATTRACTING FAMILIES

CLEMMONS -- The children found a sweet situation last week during a gingerbread-decorating workshop at the Holy Family Catholic Church.

Read more: http://www2.journalnow.com/news/2007/nov/29/gingerbread-covered-with-icing-candy-ar-100215/

NASCAR legends: Benny Parsons

You can tell a lot about Benny Parsons from what happened in late 1973. Parsons was trying to win the Winston Cup title, but he got caught in a wreck on lap 13 of the championship-deciding race at Rockingham.

Focus on: Jazman Richardson

Jazman Richardson's greatest "weakness" would be a strength for many.
"Right now her weakness is that she's constantly pushing herself a little bit harder to get better," said Derrick Speas, the track coach at Winston-Salem Prep.


NASCAR story: Drivers and their fans

Mark Martin hopped out of his hauler into the trap. His face dropped; he didn't realize he was going to have to battle his way to his race car, which was sitting 50 feet away in the garage area of North Carolina Speedway in Rockingham.


Intrigue continues in Ellington-Marlin racing case

The intrigue continues in the Hoss Ellington-Sterling Marlin case. Will Marlin leave? Will he stay?

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EMAIL: tgilli52@gmail.com  BLUESKY: PROFILE



BLOG ENTRIES FROM THE AUTO RACING JOURNAL
(a book of great stories about the Intimidator)
(the book of great NASCAR stories)
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What I do when I'm editing

People ask me what I do when I'm not writing, so this seems to be a good place to tell them.

I do the obvious: I look for typos, misspellings and factual errors. But it goes far beyond that.

While editing and vetting a novel last year, I quickly realized that the author had an Army general using a rifle to kill snipers. I told her that it was her business, but a general would never be put in that situation. A colonel? Maybe, but not likely. A major? Possibly.

She laughed. It turns out that she knew that a general would never be caught with a rifle shooting snipers. She hoped that no one would catch it. If I caught it, she said, someone else would; so she turned the general into a major. The storyline immediately became more believable.

One of her characters was a double agent, and she'd use one name part of the time and the other name at other times. I found it confusing, and I told her so. I also reminded her to occasionally add that Joe is a colleague and Jim is a relative; in fact, it wouldn't hurt to give the full name, Joe Martin and Jim Bronson, or whatever the names are. In a 300-page novel, the reader needs help in remembering characters.

In another book, this one about ancient Egypt, she had a character whose name didn't seem to fit the time and place. She changed it.

Most of my work is grunt work, whether it's in fiction or non-fiction books, letters, web sites, term papers or whatever. I look for parallel construction, changes of tense, tangled sentences. If I find a 50-word sentence, I'll look for ways to convert it to a least two and preferably three or more sentences.

I look for the quickest and simplest way to say something.

I ask questions: Does the writer need "utilize" when "use" will do? Can we say this in 50 or 100 fewer words? Is this sentence clear? Can we make it crystal clear?

Is this comma necessary? Should it be a semicolon or a dash? On further review, would this sentence be better with a comma? Is the writer using too many exclamation and question marks?

The author mentioned above had trouble with punctuation. She'd have a quote with a question or exclamation mark AND a comma -- "We never eat out anymore. Why is that?," Martha asked. She didn't need the comma.

I've been pleased with her improvement. I find fewer typos and outright mistakes. Her copy's cleaner and easier to read.

Recently, I've been "Americanizing" British non-fiction books for sale in the Americas. I change "favour" to "favor," "maximise" to "maximize," and "behaviour" to "behavior." "Loo" becomes "toilet"; "solicitor" turns into "lawyer", and "lift" becomes "elevator." With the help of Google, British slang is translated, and when I can, I change soccer analogies to baseball, basketball and American football. It works better for U.S. audiences.

I do more than that, of course, but you get a flavour, no, flavor of what I do.

I remind the writer to proofread and edit his/her work a few minutes and a few days later, time permitting. I tell writers to always get a second or third pair of eyes on your work, and don't trust Aunt Jane or Uncle Bernie. A professional editor can make your writing sparkle and make you look good.

To be honest, my job is simply to help the writer and the reader. Like an offensive lineman in football, if I do my job correctly, you won't even notice that I've been there.

><

EMAIL: tgilli52@gmail.com  BLUESKY: PROFILE



BLOG ENTRIES FROM THE AUTO RACING JOURNAL
(a book of great stories about the Intimidator)
(the book of great NASCAR stories)
- No comments:
Labels: , , , , , , , , ,
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