by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
Somewhere in the multiverse, there is a version of me that is an assistant editor at The Richmond Times-Dispatch. I doubt this person would be “me” as I am in this universe, but they would probably have my name and a little of my personality and general drive.
I would have a half-finished novel in a desk drawer at home. I would daydream a lot. I would semi-loveless marriage and three kids. But I would, if nothing else, be a “success” relative to the traditional metrics that we all have to abide by.
But, here I am, in Earth Prime, just a drunk crank working on the third draft of my novel.
Given everything that has happened since I tried — to no success whatsoever, to work at The Richmond Times-Dispatch many moons ago, I have to say it all does give me something of a chuckle. Reading this book about The New York Times, I am again reminded about how naïve I was all those years ago when I wanted to work at the TD.
Jesus Christ. I was a ding-dong.
I just had no frame of reference for what I was getting myself into. I worked at the Virginia Press Association at the time at the TD was the center of our universe, so of course I wanted to work there. But, it just didn’t work out and it’s for the best.
But I did learn a lot about the newspaper business working at the VPA. And, if nothing else, my time trying to work at the TD did provide me with something of an…Easter egg…for the novel I’m working on. I’ve thought really hard about the nature of that Easter egg and I just don’t see why anyone would object. It’s just a silly wink and a nod to someone who was really important in my life a long, long, long time ago.
Yet I do think about that particular issue a lot.
Only time will tell.
