Publication name change!
This Substack endeavor is quite new to me and a work in progress.
Initially, I intended to use it only as an archive for my Tuesdays With Torbee column, which is published by Hawkeye Report as part of the On3 Network. However, I have been doing more freelance work lately - particularly for the print-only Big River Magazine, so I figured I’d post some of those stories here as well. (Look for the first one tomorrow.)
If my (currently free!) subscriber base grows, I’ll likely begin mixing in some cultural and political commentary, food and music writing and other observations.
As for the name, “Brecht’s Beat” was the title of my first-ever professional column, for the North Scott Press, when I was a young-and-dumb cub reporter who by all rights should never have been given his own column. My publisher Bill Tubbs and editor Scott Campbell, however, believed in me (and probably needed copy to fill space) so they generously gave me a weekly spot on the Editorial page. I’m still proud to say in my first year writing it, I was named an Iowa Newspaper Association “Master Columnist” in the weekly division.
I figured why not come full circle now that I’m out of the “real” news business?
Storytelling was important to me as a 20-something upstart whose ego was larger than his talent (my, how some things never change) and it remains important to me now as a 50-something.
So let’s find some stories to tell . . .