Fellow Medium Writers … A moment please

Letter to my Followers & Other Medium Writers

This story just popped into my head so I have to share it

I started writing on Medium a little less than four months ago, on August 4, 2021. At this moment, as I type this tonight, 329 people have chosen to follow me and for that, I am truly grateful. That tells me I have been busy. Once published, this will be my 43rd article and I have three others already written that must be refined before they will be ready for prime time. That will probably be this evening. Each article I have written has been curated through one of five different publications.

This also tells me that quite a few people have read my work. Again, I am truly honored that you have taken your time out of your busy day to read my crazy stories. I guess when we take a look at our lives, we all have these amazing interactions with others and if we take the time, we all have a hell of a lot of stories bottled up in us.

So please allow me to relate a story to you that took place many years ago that sticks with me today. I’m not sure why it sticks with me because it’s not like it was a bad thing; it was just a thing.

Storytime.

I was at a book signing and the author was going to be interviewed. His name was E. Lynn Harris.

This was many years ago, in the 1994–1996 timeframe. I remember it distinctly because in 1994, Atlanta hosted the Unity ’94 Conference. This was an event sponsored by the National Association of Black Journalists — and it was big. All the big-named news figures and anyone who wanted to be someone in media and black media in particular, swarmed upon Atlanta.

I was the Public Affairs Officer for Navy Recruiting in Atlanta, and was a writer myself. At this time, I created an internal professional journal that some might have referred to it as a newsletter. But that is such a minimalization of the effort. When you take all the pictures, write all the captions, write all the text, edit the entire product, do all the layout and design and are responsible for its distribution, ‘newsletter’ doesn’t seem to bestow the proper umph to the product. So I’m going to settle on professional journal. Throughout my career, I have always been the person who created these publications and they have never failed me.

Anyway, I was a pretty serious writer at the time. I was a 1985 graduate of the Defense Information School that was located on Fort Benjamin Harrison, Indianapolis, IN. It has since relocated to Fort Meade, MD.

From there, I went to the U.S. Naval Academy Naval Station in Annapolis, MD, as the public affairs specialist. There, I created all the command print media material, including the base newspaper, the command newsletter and all other outreach material. I hosted an evening radio broadcast servicing the Midshipmen of the Naval Academy and it was broadcast out of Bancroft Hall.

From there, in 1987–1989, I was the Associated Editor at Naval Aviation News Magazine. I wrote an article on Medium that featured the first article I wrote for NANEWS https://readmedium.com/the-long-and-twisted-journey-of-how-i-became-a-published-writer-9f37501b6712.

I left there and was assigned to the U.S. Navy’s newest aircraft carrier that was still being built. Once USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72) was commissioned, we sailed it around the tip of South America and had some pretty awesome liberty port visits on that trip. If I were to write them, the Lincoln would generate about 20 or more different articles just by itself. The Navy — about another 60 or more. I retired from the Navy after 20 years of service, 21 years ago, from 1980–2000.

I left Lincoln in 1992 and reported for duty in Atlanta. At the time, the Navy Recruiting Command in Washington, DC, had a publication named Recruiter Magazine. I was the most consistent contributor to the publication. I have many of those articles framed and lined against my closet floor at home today. But back in the day, I adorned the walls of our office with the stories I wrote and published so that whenever the command had visitors, they would see why Atlanta was the nation’s number one recruiting office. I too was the number one public affairs office in Navy Recruiting.

So when events came to Atlanta, I made sure our recruiters were involved. The goal of a Navy Recruiter was to let the community know that the Navy was still hiring. My job was to find creative ways to ensure the community knew we were there. That’s why we had Blue Angles flyovers, Atlanta Recruiters participated in the Super Bowl XXVIII halftime show where the Dallas Cowboys beat the Buffalo Bills 30–13. Heck, I even sang the National Anthem, in uniform, at the 1995 Atlanta Battle of the Bands in the Georgia Dome in front of a crowd of 60,000 people. So participating in Unity ’94 was a no brainer.

I had six years to go before I retired from the military, so I stuffed my bag with resumes and decided to participate in the job fair hosted by the Atlanta Journal Constitution newspaper. I remember clearly the guy sitting at the table wearing a old-style gray, elbow- patched blazer who said, “Your resume is impressive, but you don’t have any newspaper writing in here.” Disillusioned, I walked away thinking of ways I could immediately address my professional expertise gap. I was back in my office when I decided to give my services away for free. I thought I would volunteer for various newspapers so that I could close the gap in no newspaper writing.

I set out and called multiple newspapers and was gladly met with opportunities that have served me well even until today. I wrote for The Atlanta Daily World, The Atlanta News Leader, The Dekalb Champion, The Henry County Sentinel, and I wrote for newspapers in Douglas County, Gwinnett County and Clayton County. In fact, the Clayton News Daily offered me a position I couldn’t refuse. The editor wanted me to write a weekly column that ultimately became the seed material for the publication I started in 1996, Singles Magazine. My newspaper column became a hit and it was published in multiple newspapers as a locally syndicated column. I had finally closed the newspaper-writing gap.

So back to this book signing. As mentioned earlier, E. Lynn Harris was going to be interviewed. I approached the organizers and shared that I’m a fairly accomplished writer myself. How could I be featured in an event like this. She looked at me, stuck her nose up and said, “You haven’t written any books. This is for book authors.” Here we go again. Talk about being dejected. I don’t even recall staying around to hear from the author.

For so long, book authors have been the elite who are held in the highest esteem in our industry. If you are a magazine writer or a newspaper writer, yeah, you might get a little play, but it’s primarily reserved for those who author books.

THAT’S why I admire Medium so much. Finally, there’s a place where article writers are celebrated. I have nothing against our big brother and sister book writers. More power to ya, but Medium is a place where the real writers are finally acknowledged. (J/K). There are other websites that celebrate those of us who write material other than books, but Medium is where I hang my hat.

Thank you to all my fellow article writers, story tellers, poem laureates, magazine writers (near and dear to my heart) and of course the book authors who still make time for us.

About the author

Julius Evans has a Master of Arts degree in National Security and Strategic Studies from the U.S. Naval War College, Newport, RI; a Master of Arts degree in Strategic Communication and Leadership from Seton Hall University, South Orange, NJ; a Bachelor of Science degree in Mass Communication and Journalism from City University, Bellevue, WA and an Associate of Arts degree in Liberal Studies from Central Texas College, Killeen, Texas. He is also a graduate of the Defense Information School of Print and Electronic Journalism and Advanced Public Affairs. DINFOS was relocated from Fort Benjamin Harrison, Indianapolis, IN, to its present home in Fort Meade, MD.

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