Richard Wall
Richard Wall, Author
Author of novels, versatile writer, editor, TV producer and nice person
In my novels I write about big issues important to society – not in a preachy manner but as one element in character-driven stories about people striving to make something of their lives. Blue Green deals with the influence of sports as demonstrated in a historical event. I will soon finish another novel, Drive Nice, about an eco-vigilante group that tries to enforce driving civility in San Francisco. I may or may not resurrect and rewrite Fools Poll, my first novel, but politics is so uncivil now I am not sure I want to go there again.
I am a lifetime sports participant and fan, and consider myself to be a Blue as a supporter of Manchester City Football Club in the English Premier League, whose team color is light blue. My apologies to Gaius Galen, the hero of Blue Green who is a diehard Green.
I have been a freelance writer, reporter, magazine editor and television producer for more than 20 years before taking the editorial position I have now. Over the course of my career, I’ve published hundreds of articles and many hours of cable TV.
As a reporter for the small-town Roane County News in Kingston, Tennessee, I once covered a rape trial and wrote a story on it. The next day the sister of the victim called and said I had done a good job presenting a fair story. A little later the mother of the convicted called to also compliment me on a good story that was fair. Made my day – twice. This was a fascinating job, probably the most interesting job I have ever had for the variety and learning about government and courts.
Most gratifying article
Best article I ever wrote
I’ve published hundreds of articles, but some of the most fun ones were for Folio Weekly, the alternative newsweekly in Jacksonville, Florida, under editor Anne Schindler. From railfans who go train spotting to the ongoing battle between surfers and pier fisher people, they were fun, long-from journalistic features. My best story was one I really didn’t want to do at first. But as a professional, I dove in, became absorbed in the subject and sources I tracked down (particularly Alice Denham, bless her departed soul), and did what I think is my best journalistic writing (Anne wrote to me that it was “extraordinarily good,” a damn fine compliment for sure). The World’s Most Expensive Male Prostitute was picked up by the Daily Beast.
In the ’90s, at the invitation of my former co-worker and soccer competitor Charlie DeBevoise now of NorthSouth Productions, I entered the world of television production. It was quite a switch from being a freelance writer working alone mostly, to being on a set or location working with a crew, talent, navigating an amazing number of potential and real frustrations, and all that goes into production from concept to finished video.
I worked on TV series and then four documentaries, all done in Las Vegas. I decided to leave TV after I was threatened by a casino owner, sabotaged by a co-worker, and later found myself angrily yelling across the Las Vegas airport terminal at my sound man about something I can’t even remember now.
Most interesting career shift
Editor in chief
I currently work as editor in chief at the medical marketing company Vanguard Communications in Denver. I write and edit doctor’s blogs, patient stories, media pitches and patient information webpages on everything from polycystic ovary syndrome to immunotherapy for cancer.
Nonprofessional me
I enjoy reading history and fiction, finding new music, paddle boarding, boogie boarding (surfing until a shoulder injury), bicycling, beach walking, swimming, playing bad golf, listening to history lectures, and explaining that you are not throwing your vote away when you vote for a third-party or independent candidate, no matter what every political pundit in the country says. I believe it is most important that we are all nice to each other, respectful and supportive – in any way we can be, with everyone, at all times. I often fall short of this, but will keep trying.
I graduated from the University of Tennessee with a BA, majoring in history. I live in Atlantic Beach, Florida. I enjoy bike rides with my wife, Brenda, and playing mediocre guitar and singing worse while she plays soulful harmonica to songs by Queens of the Stone Age, Coldplay, Leonard Cohen, Rag’n’Bone Man and various others.
Most thrilling moments
Thrilling can mean a lot of things. It was thrilling for my son to be born at home. And it was thrilling to screw up a skydive, which was caught on video by Hayden, my instructor at Mile-Hi Skydiving Center in Longmont, Colorado. So when Hayden says, “Don’t look down when you jump out of the plane,” don’t look down.
