Gun for Hire

My job is listed on the left as "Freelance Gaming Journalist" and I guess that requires some explanation, so here's a little bit of information about my writing career. Three years ago I realized I was a fairly decent writer. I started out innocently enough, ragging on my buddies on our fantasy football site. It was a blast to do and after football season was over I wanted to keep on going. I had a little writing experience (I worked as a reporter and editor at my college newspaper) but no professional experience. I started out by writing a newsletter with my brother. I had a hard time trying to think of a name but settled on Colorado Joe since I was writing about topics the average Joe would talk to his pals about. It was a one page, front and back newsletter with pictures and short stories that covered everything from games to sports, politics to pop culture. I had it placed in bars, restaurants and liquor stores around Colorado Springs. Soon I started a website for it, the now defunct coloradojoe.net (are you getting the theme here). Eventually my brother couldn't keep up and I ended up doing it myself.

Emboldened by the success of the website and newsletter I decided it was time for me to reach a bigger audience. I emailed the Sports editor at the Gazette, the local newspaper in town and told him I was interested in writing for him. To my surprise he responded, had me do a few practice stories and the next thing I know I'm covering a minor league soccer game. I did that for awhile and it was fine but writing sports stories was kind of boring. They're very formulaic and don't really allow for any creativity, you just tell the 5 W's and that's it. Any moron could do that. So I went to the Entertainment editor and started talking to him about writing for his section. Being a huge gamer I managed to convince him into letting me write a video game column. Since the column was brand new, I had to do a ton of leg work. I had to contact every gaming publisher and developer so I could receive games and get the lastest news. It worked out great! Over the last two years I've made tons of great friends, acquired a number of reliable gaming contacts and have interviewed ESRB Prez Patrica Vance, GameDaily's Eli Shayotovich, PSM's Chris Slate and OXM's Fran Reyes (twice). I also earned an invite to this years E3 and I'm really looking forward to the trip.

The freelance part of my job title means I don't just write for the Gazette. There's another local paper, the Colorado Springs Independent, that I'll be working with from time to time. I'm also up for a of Contributing Writer position at a well known website and a top tier gaming mag (wish me luck). Since I like to keep frequent readers of mine up to speed, I have a gaming blog (www.springsgamer.blogspot.com) that I update about 3 times a week. I also recently started a podcast with my brother where we ramble about all sorts of stupid things.

So where do I want all this to lead to? Working for a gaming mag (OXM, Game Informer or EGM would be cool) is my ultimate goal but I think I'd also enjoy working the PR side for a gaming company. Will it ever happen? I have no idea but that's what I'm hoping for. I think the late, great Casey Kasem said it best, "Keep your feet on the ground, but keep reaching for cigars"...or something like that.

Terry "coloradojoe" Terrones