Rockford Shout Out

First, a shout out to the Rockford (IL) Register Star for mentioning the release of The Interim in today's on-line edition.

Rockford and I have always had a funny existence.

When I was in college at Madison, I would zoom through the eastern edge of the Greater Rockford Metro Area, on my way back to Missouri. It can be a mind-numbing drive once you are south of Rockford. The 119 miles from Rockford to Bloomington-Normal test the patience and durability of both man and machine. So Rockford was the "last stop" before the rolling hills and dark roads of I-39 through Northern Illinois. Just bring 40 cents and 15 cents for the tolls.

Ten years ago as I was starting out, I tried like you wouldn't believe to land a job at one of the three TV stations in Rockford. There were no openings for sports or news reporters but my first, legitimate, post-internship offer was from one of the stations in Rockford, to be a news photographer, three months after I graduated from Wisconsin.

Of course, being the financial genius that I was at 22, I turned it down and moved to Topeka...for a quarter less an hour. Since then, I've had friends work in Rockford media and I'm always happy to steer young journalists there because it is a town that can make you grow up in a hurry.

My "nod" to Rockford in The Interim centers on Wilson Harrison, a Machesney Park HS graduate and a talented freshman at my fictional Wisconsin State, along with the main "plot turn", the plane crash, occuring just east of Rockford.

As I've discovered, you write what you know and I do know Rockford...at least downtown, State Street, where the TV stations are located and how much the tollbooths are charging when I'm rolling through.