Confession: I'm a frustrated novelist.
At the age of 15, I secretly submitted a 210-page bodice buster to Random House, hoping to rake in lots of dollars and fly to New York for all those wonderful book signings.
The editors at Random House never acknowledged my submission. I did, however, fly eventually to New York. Other authors held book signings.
The next best thing on my list was newspaperwoman. I'm not talking about your modern talking-head types that show up neatly coifed on Sunday morning talk shows to analyze somebody else's work.
I'm talking about the down-on-the-street-get-the-facts kind of reporter. You know the type: Ida Tarbell, a muckraker who brought down Standard Oil Co.; Elizabeth Shepley Sergeant, who suffered wounds while covering the Western Front during World War I; Elizabeth Cochrane (Nellie Bly), who worked in a sweatshop to reveal conditions there, and Ethel Payne, who went undercover in U.S. Army service clubs in Japan to write about the experience for the Chicago Defender.
Helen Thomas, the dean of women journalists who covered the White House beat for 57 years, has always been a role model.
I guess it's because of Thomas - reading her and watching her all these years - that I get an extra surge of adrenaline this time of year.
You know.
January to April.
Jackson.
My eyes glaze over and my hands shake a little with the thought of all those politicians who claim not to be politicians covering up the parking lot at the Capitol, invading quiet restaurants and turning them into raucous debating halls, and taking some of the best apartments the city has to offer.
That's before they drop the first bill into the hopper and start needling old enemies or pumping up old friends.
The Mississippi Legislature comes together, and it's hard to figure out what's what. The rumors fly fast and furious at home about who's doing what and who'll get what.
Tracking down a lead here and a lead there provides daily highs and lows, depending on the relevance of the search.
But more than the rush of reporting, there's the joy of telling the news about the Legislature to readers.
That's what we aim to do this session. You'll see we've begun covering the session with a specific eye on our legislators from the Commonwealth's coverage area.
The other day, on the telephone with one of the lawmakers, I found out that constituents don't call a lot and talk about issues.
Sometimes, there's a call to ask about a bill, but no suggestions and not many opinions come this lawmaker's way.
Still another said some people call, but not a lot are interested.
That stuns me.
Each day we publish, and the Legislature is in session, we'll give you the news of that day.
We also are publishing the names and telephone numbers of area lawmakers, so you can get in touch with them.
If key votes are taken during the week, we'll publish how our area legislators voted.
We'll keep our eyes open, but we need our readers to stay alert, too. Read the bills or at least the synopses. We'll provide the bill number for you in italics at the end of our stories. You'll find it easy to search on the Web site (http://index.ls.state.ms.us).
Let us know how the laws affect you. Let us know what you want out of legislation, and how it will help or hurt you.
Now, excuse me as I grab a notebook and ease over to the Web site to see what happened today.
