“The radio was tuned to 98 Kool, like always, when the Mother of God appeared at 4907 35th Street.”
I’m the main writer for The War Eagle Reader, there’s no way I’m not the best features writer the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal ever had, I used to write a whole lot for the Alabama Baptist, and I’ve written for a bunch of alt-weeklies. Here’s some of the stuff I have to show for it.
Award winnners:
‘Everybody liked Richard’: Cause of death doesn’t change compassion for homeless — Six weeks after I started at the A-J, I wrote a feature on the death of a homeless man that got real “Woodstein!” when I discovered he hadn’t died the way everyone thought he had; Morris Communications, the paper’s parent company, named it the “Best Writing of 2008.”
Wood you Believe: The sticky note on my desk said to maybe call this guy because The Virgin had shown up in a piece of wood. I called and drove out to see him and got a ticket for parking illegally and then came back to the paper and wrote this super quick. People loved it. People hated it. The Texas Press Association loved it: “Henderson’s writing in this story makes the entry the clear winner.”
Other stuff:
Bo and Me — Auburn Magazine told me I was going to interview Bo Jackson, but I didn’t interview Bo Jackson. I was allowed to post my original version on The War Eagle Reader.
Pat’s Dry Field — 3,000 word novella on Paul Conner, the man behind the magically draining field at Jordan-Hare Stadium for The War Eagle Reader.
Making a comeback: Pretty sure this was the last big story I wrote for the A-J. A story about a high school football player seriously injured during a playoff game. I made his dad cry with it. I make myself cry with it. Front page the day Michael Jackson died.
Pastor answers question: ‘Does God care about football?’ — this story on Tim Tebow’s impact on the Christian’s game day belief set – i.e. whether or not God cares about football – made Dan Shanoff’s SECCG Eve list of “great Tebow-related stuff” along with pieces from ESPN and ABC and various other big-time sports sites. So that’s cool. The original version appeared in the A-J.
Music stuff:
Freedom brings ‘sky’s-the-limit’ feeling for OK Go — OK Go’s Tim Nordwind and I kind of hit it off. Talked to him at the height of their video warehouse-filling Rube Goldberg Machine video. Hard to believe it’s been nearly a year. // Indianapolis Star — wrote another version for Orlando Weekly
Colorblind Soul — tedious piece for The Chicago Reader that asks whether soul revivalist Sharon Jones “needs to worry that her audience is full of white hipsters.”
Halestorm gets off on you — trusty girl-in-a-band angle with Lzzy Hale of Halestorm // Boston Weekly Dig.
The devil’s rejects: Making Christian hardcore fashionable — story on The Devil Wears Prada’s post-Christian rock Christian rock // San Antonio Current
Finding Neverland: Royal Bangs bows to the King of Pop — they were listening to Off The Wall when they got the text // San Antonio Current.
