The October / November issue of Lake Superior magazine features a new version of my Old Man & the Inland Sea article. That's the story that won BWI's Grand Prize in 2008. It has a handsome piece of art to introduce the streamlined (by me) article. The cut went from over 6,000 words to about 4,500 words (Ensign article) to 2,500 for the Lake Superior piece. That took a lot of work to get it down to that word count, but the piece picked up a lot of drive and tempo with the cuts. Maybe I overwrite, but then you have to consider that the original "Old Man" story was published as a chapter in my book, Broken Seas. And that story was l-o-n-g. But that's the difference between a book, with its full, well bodied story with pix and maps and addendums -- and a contemporary magazine. Which is better? I like them all. Different strokes for different folks.
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