No. 159: SPORTS ILLUSTRATED & DREW ORTIZ, SALT LAKE CITY & MEDICINE HAT II / After years of longing, the dream story was assigned. A single phone set the nightmare in motion.

Dec 05, 2023

∙ Paid

YESTERDAY, I detailed my boyhood obsession with Sports Illustrated and my many failed bids to score a freelance assignment with the magazine (or even so much as a polite form letter of rejection). If you missed it, have a look at it linked here: No. 158: SPORTS ILLUSTRATED & DREW ORTIZ, SALT LAKE CITY & MEDICINE HAT / The industry standard has crashed down like my dream freelance assignment years ago

At the end of the entry, the cliff-hanger: Sorting through my mail I found a letter giving me the green light on a pitch. In today’s entry—the second of what figures to be a weeklong self-flagellation—I lay out my story idea and my attempt at a course correction.

As always, what could go wrong beside everything?

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