Farewell and also hello

Kids, today the d-news ran a farewell column, a tremendously gracious act on their part. Last week I handed in notice and will begin a new column this Saturday in the Salt Lake Tribune. I'm truly excited about this opportunity and grateful to the Trib for taking me on. I'm also kind of scared and nervous, too. But oh well. When am I not a nutjob?

Here's today's column.

I remember when we first got caller I.D. about thirteen years ago. Mostly I loved it! But sometimes? Not so much.
In those days our boys had three paper routes, and if one of them screwed up on the delivery front, you better believe we heard about it. Apparently some people just don’t appreciate it when you run late or deliver their paper to the wrong address or accidentally throw their paper onto the garage roof. Apparently some people expect to get what they pay for.
SERIOUSLY! WHAT IS WRONG WITH SOME PEOPLE?
But whatever. The point is that certain names made me nervous whenever they popped up on the caller I.D. And nervous is how I REALLY felt when the words NEWSPAPER AGENCY CORP showed up one afternoon. I stood there in the kitchen and listened to the phone ring while having an intense little conversation with myself. Should I pick the phone up? Or should I just pack my bags and hop on the next train out of Dodge?
In the end I manned up (even though I am not a man) and said a testy “hello.”
The caller identified herself as Lisa Bowen, John Hughes’ secretary. John Hughes, as you’ll recall, was the editor of the Deseret News, and he wanted to speak to me. Would that be okay, Lisa wanted to know.
I said of course! Great! But inside I was all REALLY? My kid threw some dude’s paper onto the garage roof and THE HEAD EDITOR is calling to chew us out? Shouldn’t head editors be busy editing instead of calling with complaints about the occasional careless product placement?
Only as it turned out that’s not why Mr. Hughes was calling. No, indeed. Instead, he graciously asked if I’d be willing to write a column for the Deseret News similar to the column I’d written for ten years at the old PARENT EXPRESS magazine.
Well! How can you say no to a charming offer like that? And I’ve been writing happily for the Deseret News ever since.
Kids, it’s been a great ride. Getting to work with features editors like Chris Hicks, Kathryn Clayton, Angelyn Hutchinson, Todd Curtis and Aaron Shill has been good for me as a writer.
But hearing from YOU, the readers, has been the best part of all—even the readers who start their e-mails with lines like “I’m not a regular fan of your columns as they deal mostly with insignificant subjects.” Truly, your feedback has both encouraged me and kept me on my toes. Thank you.
By now you can probably see where this is headed. Change happens. I’ve always hated that about life and have often worked hard to resist it. But as I’ve grown older I’ve learned (sort of) to view change as an ally, a comrade-in-arms eager to make me try something different, something new.
So I’m saying good-bye with gratitude for all the lovely things that have been and excitement for the journey that lies ahead.

Scott Westerfeld

Okay, so I meant to have Geoff post a link to my d-news column yesterday BUT OOPS! I didn't get it done. So maybe you can go on over to the desnews website and take a look at the winners of our mock Bulwer-Lytton contest. You won't be disappointed.

In other news. I spent Saturday in Provo at the first Teen Book Festival sponsored by the library there (shout out to Gene Nelson and Courtney Lowe for organizing the event). Anyway, I REALLY enjoyed Scott Westerfeld's (UGLIES, LEVIATHAN) completely awesome presentation. He talked about the history of books and interior illustration--even adult books back in the day had illustrations because there was this huge illustration industry. Illustrators worked for newspapers, magazines and catalog-driven companies like Sears (loved that Westerfeld called the Sears catalog the world's first internet). Because of this pool of readily accessible talent, it was easy for publishers to drop art in a book.

And then came the camera.

Of course I'm interested in the way industries change because of my connection to newspapers. No one quite knows where we're going with those but (of course) the news industry will continue to morph into something else, and we'll all get used to that.

Anyway. One last Westerfeld-related item. A young fan asked why some books take off and others don't. This is a question writers ask themselves ALL. THE. TIME. (Me: "Dude. Why am I not Stephenie Meyers?") Good question, right? Westerfeld thought about this for a moment, then said that books that give people something to talk about are the ones that make it.

And I think he's probably right.