Monday, February 1, 2016

February Update: An Anniversary and a New Piece of Fiction

It's a little hard to believe--and I had to do a little arithmetic to ensure I was correct--but February 1st marks three years for me in the weather game.

It was February 1st 2013 when I started at The Weather Network, leaving behind the world of print for the world of television. I spent 2.5 years at TWN and, of course, for the past six months, I have been presenting the weather for eight markets across the country for Global News.

Here's a clip from early January where I was able to work in a George Costanza reference into the Toronto newscast.


 
 
The new year has also brought a new challenge. I started sports anchor training over the past few weeks and I had my first on-air sports shift in January. My sports anchoring will be sporadic this year as I will be mostly working as a fill-in, in addition to my full-time weather shifts.
 
I am continuing to add new skills to my media toolkit. And speaking of that toolkit, I've been flexing some more literary muscle recently with the completion of a 15,000-word novella entitled, The Longest Drive.
 
The story follows the fictional exploits of 25-year-old Mark Madden and his ability, or lack thereof, to navigate life as a professional golfer.
 
While the sport of choice in The Longest Drive is golf--and how Madden deals with added pressures after winning the U.S. Open and being anointed the Next Big Thing--parallels can easily be drawn from what Madden faces to any professional athlete in any sport in 2016. 
 
In honour of my first in-studio sports shift (and the start of the PGA Tour's West Coast Swing) I've decided to post the story on my website. I will post one chapter every Monday, starting today and continuing for the next six Mondays.
 
Enjoy!