Inside The Weather Channel

Now that I’m about to pull the rip cord on my career as a meteorologist and float into retirement on my leaden parachute, it’s time to start thinking about taking my writing in a new direction. At least temporarily.

Brian Jay Corrigan, 2006 Georgia Author of the Year (The Poet of Loch Ness) told me last week, speaking of the publishing industry and new fiction, that it’s “genuinely harder right now to ‘break in’ than it was even two or three years ago when it was only nearly impossible.”

So, methinks, it’s time to return to my roots–nonfiction–and put EYEWALL on the shelf for awhile. I’ll return to it in a year or so, but in the interim, I’ll let my hero orbit in the eye of Hurricane Janet while I write a book about The Weather Channel.

Nonfiction is much easier to get published than is fiction, and since I’ve got five nonfiction works to my credit already, I’ve at least got a membership card to the club.

At any rate, the working title of my new effort is INSIDE THE WEATHER CHANNEL–BEHIND THE SCENES OF THE WORLD’S LARGEST PRIVATE WEATHER SERVICE.

I’ve got the first two chapters written and have begun work on a proposal package for the book. One nice thing about nonfiction is that you don’t have to have a completed manuscript to sell a book. You can make a deal based on a proposal. Getting a proposal into shape is no small task, but it’s a heck of a lot easier than grinding out a 300-page manuscript.

I’ll update my Website shortly to reflect my new focus, but first I want to get that proposal wrapped up so I can start bothering agents again.

Photo: On-camera meteorologist Nicole Mitchell at work in The Weather Channel’s new HD studio.
(Photo courtesy of Heather Tesch.)

1 Comment

  1. Fireowl on January 11, 2012 at 3:25 am

    Would LOVE to hear some truth on many things related to the weather. I too was in the Air Force (SAC). Which I believe is now supporting a different mission entirely.. somthing you could report on. Weather modification and the like. I watch the pilots (AKA skyspiders) spray heavily day after day. Heaviest it seems just before a front. I do believe this is at least in part do to the destruction of the ozone. During the time just before a front moves in the sun is almost crazy bright. I work EMS and spend alot of time on the road and we often talk about it. Not looking for confirmation… just your perspective.

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