How the Editor of Atlanta Magazine Guilted Me into Paying for a Subscription and Hollis Gillespie Made Me Write About It
The whole reason I became motivated to take my blog to the next level and become a professional, paid writer, is because Hollis Gillespie had sex with George Clooney. Who is Hollis Gillespie you ask? She is the very talented back page columnist for Atlanta magazine. If it weren’t for her writing, and Steve Fennessy, the editor in chief of the magazine, who guilted me into paying for a year’s subscription, you might not be reading this. But, thanks to Hollis and Steve, I am full of inspiration.
It all started at a class reunion in our small hometown in upstate New York where I gushed to Steve about how much I loved reading Atlanta magazine.
“Every time I am in a doctor’s office waiting for an appointment, I dig through the slew of tabloids and copies of Cosmopolitan to find the latest three issues of Atlanta, and then I read them frantically, beginning with your letter, absorbing as much as I can before I am called for my appointment!”
“Really, Karla?” said Steve, raising an eyebrow while taking a sip of his beer. “It’s like twelve bucks a year. You can’t pay for a subscription?”
I was ashamed. I had known Steve since third grade. We were in the same classes all through high school. I still remember the nickname our eccentric 11th grade English teacher gave him. The least I could do was pay for my own copies of the magazine to support my childhood friend in his literary success.
Today, when my paid issue of Atlanta arrives in my mailbox each month, instead of turning immediately to the letter from the editor, I now flip to the back page to read my favorite columnist’s latest belletristic masterpiece. What the editor in chief from my hometown has to say, now takes a backseat to Hollis Gillespie, because I aspire to write like her; to have her quick and biting wit (i.e. “Sold! One injectable procedure to the drunk in the red cummerbund. You’ll only feel a tiny little prick. I’m sure that’s nothing new to you.” – From Ms. Gillespie’s latest back page exposition entitled, “Eating Your Words: Humiliation is a dish best served cold.”)
One day after reading Hollis’s column, “When Hollis Met George” (May 2013) about how, according to a local Southern preacher, she technically had sex with George Clooney, I decided to check out her website. The next thing you know, I was signed up for a six-hour writing seminar spearheaded by Hollis and her colleague, Mike Alvear, columnist, author and co-host of HBO’s The Sex Inspectors. The seminar was fantastic and told me everything I needed to know about taking my blog to the next level, drinking champagne before noon, and how advertising is like sex. Mike even thought that my blog was about my hymen. (Note to self: Speak slowly when telling others the name of my website.)
After taking this writing seminar with Hollis and Mike, the very next day, I wrote my most-viewed article to date: “How Kitchens are Like Penises and Why Women’s Feet Keep Getting Bigger”. It must have been all that champagne before noon and sex talk that inspired me. So, I need to pay tribute to Steve, Hollis and Mike for inspiring me in ways that they are most likely entirely unaware. This has absolutely nothing to do with namedropping the famous Atlantans with whom I know personally, or with whom I email regularly. Just because they don’t always reply, doesn’t mean they aren’t reading them. My guess is they are logging on to their laptops to read my blog every time they are in a doctor’s office waiting room.
P.S. You can purchase books by Hollis and Mike from the right column of this website. Some day, you will be able to purchase my books from the side of their websites.