Editor Extraordinaire

My Life As A Professional

University teaching seemed like forever ago.

A decade after, halfway around the world, with a Master's Degree...

Master in English and Comparative Literature. Philippinensian Directory of Graduates: March 1971

Daytona Beach, Florida: 1976

... and a couple of sweethawts

... I started a new adventure - working part time as editor-in-chief of The Philippine Chronicle, a fortnightly folio in Chicago.

I knew that I was super-educated on parsing how events were built up to a climactic peak and that I could whip up learned criticisms of world literary masterpieces.

But writing original pieces... that others could critique and analyze!!? I didn't have any academic training on that, save for the adolescent pieces of writing and editing that I did in high school and church camp.

I was back to being a blank slate.

But here was the thing.

I loved journalism. I loved piecing words together to form a coherent thought. 

True, at that time, the technology was old.

(Aside: Those of you born after Publisher will have no idea what I'll be talking about, so I'll explain as I go.) 

I felt like the linotype proofs that I had to edit might have come with the Mayflower. And the Nina and the Pinta and the Santa Maria. 

Linotype is a composing machine that produced lines of words as single strips of metal. It is now rarely used.

I loved the ink smell of the old-fashioned printing press. I loved poring over galley proofs.

A galley proof is a version of a printed piece prepared for the purpose of editing and commentary.

I had to literally cut and paste columns to create page proofs that would then go to final print.

But in all this, I had a heart and a vision and a love of writing.

I loved thinking about what I was going to do for the feature article and how I was going to say it. And then I wondered if readers would actually read it and think like I did, that it was brilliant.

I wrote about my dog Nupling, Pares Puso, Halo-Halo, Christmases Past, etc. (the first two you may remember reprinted in previous blogs).

I wrote from the heart.

I simply wrote me.

(To be continued)