I had the privilege of being the subject for the cover story in the August 2, 2016 edition of Style Weekly, which is no longer available online. It was written by Jackie Kruszewski. This was a learning experience which was filled with both enjoyment and anxiety.
Last December, I self-published my book, “You Arrested Me for What?”. After it was featured on Richmond Biz Sense, I soon received an email from Jackie Kruszewski, a freelance writer for Style Weekly, suggesting a story about bail bonding in the Richmond area.
We met to discuss the book and bail bonding, she pitched the story to her people, and they approved it for copy. For a couple of months, I arranged for Jackie to ride-a-long on bonds. Although many of the cosigners of the bonds declined to have a reporter come along for their misfortune, we managed to get a couple of them to approve, which was enough for Jackie to write the story.
In short, it took almost seven months from inception to print. Part of the reason was my story was classified as “evergreen”, meaning it can be run any time. Other “non-evergreen” stories, which were relevant to a season or event would bump mine.
The enjoyment was in the process of working with Jackie and advancing what I believe to be an important issue for our state. The anxiety was in having no control over what would be printed about me or the issue I care about. Besides that, I was concerned that I might come off as pretentious since I’ve only been in the business for five years and there are more experienced and knowledgeable than myself. I would rather be respected by my peers than have empty notoriety. I just hope I retained the first part.