Adventures as a Freelance Writer

2026Freelance1

Looking Back:  Adventures as a Free-Lance Writer

(Author’s Note:  I thought it might be interesting to look back at my time as a free-lance writer, which started, I was amazed to find, 35 years ago.  I hope it will be of interest to some readers).

    I retired after 27 years as a research analyst for the State of California at the end of 1990  when I was 61 years old.  Shortly after, I started a second career as a free-lance writer, first for an “alternative” weekly paper, the Suttertown News, and then for the Neighbors Section of the Sacramento Bee.

     How did this happen?  Looking back, it was through an accidental series of events that I’ll try to briefly describe:

Event No. 1:  I was all set to retire at age 59.  The head of my unit was one of those neurotic women the State seemed to feel compelled to appoint to supervisory positions.  I tried to do my work and ignore her as much as possible but looked forward to putting my retirement papers on her desk and saying good-bye.  Then I was offered a transfer to another agency, which provided services to children, whose chief was a competent (and sane) woman, a pediatrician, that needed someone to fix their shaky data system.  I took the job.  After two years I thought the data system was sufficiently repaired and retired, as stated above, at the end of 1990 at age 61.

Event No. 2:  My retirement lunch was in the first week of January 1991.  I was surprised that it was at an up-scale restaurant, The Firehouse, in Old Sacramento.  I was also surprised at the gift card to a local department store.  I’d sometimes thought that in my farewell speech I’d talk about the shortcomings of the State but decided this wasn’t the occasion and simply said “Thank you.”

 Event Np 3:  My wife Beverly had been an aide to a teacher, Phil Z--, who’d opened a gift shop in downtown Sacramento.  The shop hadn’t done too well and Phil was having a close-out sale.  After the lunch, I drove over there and while Beverly looked around I talked to Phil and asked what she’d be doing now.  Phil was super-energetic and I knew she’d be doing something.  She said she knew Tim H---, who put out the Suttertown News, and would be doing something there.  She asked me what I’d be doing and I gave her my standard answer, that I’d be playing a lot  of tennis.  She asked if I might be interested in doing something with the Suttertown News.  I said I might be and she said she’d give my name and number to Tim H---.

     You know what usually happens in cases like this, nothing.  A few weeks went by and I’d almost forgotten about it but then, surprise, Tim H--- called.  I told him I knew a lot about working fr the State.  He said he wasn’t interested in that but that I should write something and send it in.

     California was then in the midst of one of its periodic droughts so I called the Carmichael Water District (we lived in Carmichael, a suburb of Sacramento), said I was a reporter for the Suttertown News and wanted to do a story about how they were coping with the drought.  I made an appointment to see the District head, a Mr. McG---.  Nobody asked me for any credentials.  Mr. McG--- told me more than I’d ever want to know about water.  I took notes in a stenographer’s notebook, wrote my story and mailed it in.  (This was long before e-mails).  My story was printed and my career as a free-lance writer was launched.  I should mention that being a writer for the Suttertown News was a volunteer job; no pay, just a byline.

     Event No. 4.  Shortly after this, Beverly called my attention to a feature in the Sacramento Bee called My Story, where readers wrote about some interesting or amusing incident in their lives and if it was printed got the princely sum of $25.  Since I was now a writer I wrote about a hitch-hiking incident when I was 18 and sent it in.  Someone called; they would print my story and wanted some information, such as my social security number.  I asked if the Bee took free-lance articles.  He said No but their Neighbors section might and gave me the name and number of their assignment editor.  I called and she said to write a couple of stories and send them in.  I did, one about a group of seniors, of which I was one, who played tennis in Carmichael Park, and one about a neighbor who’d started an anti-drug organization.  She liked them and she assigned a story to me.  My two stories later appeared in the Carmichael Neighbors and my hitch-hiking story was eventually published in My Story under the headline, Aside from the Dynamite and the Drunk Driver the Trip was Uneventful.  This began a 15-year association with Neighbors that lasted until they were discontinued. Oh, did I mention, they paid $50 an article plus travel expenses so I was now a paid free-lance writer.  Also, the Suttertown News was discontinued after I’d been writing for it after three years.

     Event No. 5:  At the end of 1997, with our three sons out of the house, Beverly and I moved to a Del Webb retirement community. Sun City Roseville, just outside of Sacramento.  Community  residents received by mail a senior monthly paper called Sun Senior News.  After being there two years a writer for Sun Senior News came to interview me because I’d started and was first president of a New Yorkers club.  When she found out I wrote for Neighbors she suggested I might also write for the Sun Senior News.  I contacted their editor and wrote a piece I called Observations After Two Years in Sun City.  It was printed and this started a monthly column called Observations which, after 27 years is still going on.  I also started a column called Favorite Restaurants as eating out was a favorite thing with retired couples whose wives were tired of cooking.  This lasted until Covid, when all restaurants closed and, being a really old guy by then, I chose not to continue it.         

     I suppose that the first article I wrote, about the drought, had some significance as, it wasn’t printed, that would have ended my free-lance writing career then and there.  Of course I knew nothing about writing for a newspaper but somewhere read that the first sentence should be a hook, provocative enough so that the reader would continue reading.   There was a popular movie called “Never on Sunday” so I started the drought article with:  “Never on Monday, or on any other day.  This is the prospect for outside watering facing homeowners in the Carmichael Water District if the worst possible scenario occurs this summer.”

     My second article for the Suttertown News was about a Russian family visiting a family in Carmichael.  I opened with:  “You say potato/And I say khatophil/You say tomato/And I say parmeedohry.”  I then proceded to describing the Russian family and the American family they were visiting.

     The first story I was assigned to by Neighbors was about a newly opened McDonald’s in Sacramento, not the usual McDonald’s but one with a retro theme.  I opened my article with:  “Elvis has been seen in Sacramento; no, not Elvis Presley but Elvisaurus, the eight-foot tall dinosaur figure, green, with a purple shirt, complete with microphone and guitar, who sets the theme for the unique McDonald’s at Arden and Howe.”

     I soon learned that most people were happy to talk about themselves to someone (me) who would listen.  I also got into the practice of starting my interviews by asking the subject where they were born, what did their parents do, where did they go to school, etc. to get them started.  I did this even the interview wasn’t strictly about them, thinking this would put them at their ease.

Another Author’s Note:  I think this is going to be a pretty long piece so will stop here and continue Sometime later, hoping it’s not going to be long and boring).