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a production coordinator for Worcester Magazine , a small alternative mag azine not unlike the Village Voice or the LA Weekly , but in central Massachusetts. As far as I know, the only thing WoMag is known for is being the launching pad for sci-fi author Allen Steele, Industry Week writer and analyst Tom Mudd, and me, and we were all there at the same time.

Still.

It was eye of the hurricane time there, as well. As production coordinator, I needed to know not only what the publisher wanted, but also what editor Tom Mudd was doing, and make sure that the advertising team, and the production staff, and the in-house printers were all speaking the same lan guage.

Let’s just say it gives one an interestingly vital perspective, having one’s eye on the smallest detail and The Big Picture all the damn time.

Besides now running my own publishing house, that was my favorite job I’ve ever had. There’s nothing quite like having all the various departments all facing the same direction; having everyone get together and working towards putting out a publication and getting that thing in the trucks, ready for Wednesday delivery. I remember one Christmas Eve with Mudd and art director Tom Cronin, and putting the issue to bed with hours to spare and having a shot of Jameson’s in the editor’s office to celebrate and it was positively Dickensian… and, well… I think that’s when I fell in love with paper and ink. You can draw a straight line through cutting granite and producing tabloid newspapers to putting out quality trade paperbacks every month like clock work, where I have to lasso artists and writers and lawyers and printers to make sure you get a copy of our books in your hands… and it makes me think that if some froot loop in Orange County sitting in front of his com puter eating bon-bons and watching Entertainment Tonight thinks he knows what’s involved in producing comic books… And everyone got Big Wheels from Santa, that Christmas.

…well…

…unless he’s got a handle on every one of those irons in the fire…

…I gotta say no one on the Internet knows anything. Except me , of course.

Because I’m the one making sure everyone gets their Big Wheels from Santa.

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