Journalism Research and Random Meanderings

Monday, March 22, 2004

Thank you Jerry Pournelle 

Mr. Pournelle,

I was just writing a cover letter for some clippings I was sending to someone offering editing work. This is part of what I said:

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Before graduating from the Centennial College journalism program I was a computer techie for 20 years... I started freelancing well before I finished school because I knew I was not interested in getting a job. I am going to live or die (in the metaphorical, professional sense anyway) as a freelance techno-journalist like I first dreamed about while reading Jerry Pournelle in Byte Magazine in the 1980's.
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I thought it was important to stop and express my gratitude for the inspiration.

Thank you,

Patrick Boake


P.S. Your essay on writing is right on but possibly incomplete. If we have to write a million words to become a writer, we should read five million.

Now that I have the diploma I am well on the way to getting through that first million words and becoming a writer. My head sometimes boils with ideas for the science fiction stories I eventually want to write and I jot them down in my Palm Pilot and then try to get back to work. Then I get distracted by ideas for articles that will hopefully make some politicians (and their media relations people) uncomfortable and other ideas for a publication I want to launch. I write them in my Palm Pilot too and then try to get back to work. Writing them down is the only way I have found to make the ideas leave me alone long enough to get anything useful done which I sometimes do:

Online Clipping Sample

The third one on the list is the most recent and one I am very happy with.