(New Age magazine articles)

Magazine articles

Introducing.. The Book of Bek!

The Book of Bek

When I was old enough to type, not to spell correctly, but able to type and I wrote a short, smart article .. something about shopping carts..

 And from there, anytime I could get close to a typewriting tool, I was on it like a thirsty man finding water.. or a starving woman being gifted with a Godiva chocolate.. mmmmm.. yum!

 Much later in life, Dad got us a Commodore 64 and I typed on it all day long. The only problem was that no matter how profound I imagined it to be, I was only able to type onto our TV set and was never able to be recorded, since once you turned it off, your work was gone. Man, I would love to read what my simple mind wrote back then. How simple was my life then? And how I laboriously and continuously I recorded my thoughts of it. I’ll never remember. Bummer. But I did build up an incredible speed with my typing – even before I got to Mrs. McNeil’s typing class in junior high. 

Then in 1992, the earth as I knew it accelerated and changed. I was offered the gift of being publisher of an incredible magazine, The Conscious Voice, a new-age/metaphysical magazine for the gifting of information on alternative health and spirituality (Your SW Florida Guide to Holistic Living and Global Awareness), and I published it every other month for about 3 years. After being bored with publishing one type of magazine only every other month, I then decided to create, with the help of my bestest buddy, Vera Martin, another magazine that would and could be presented to the mainstream audience. (Vera was my intrepid Editor, and remains my cohort in crime/distribution and delivery/and eater of MANY fine lunches on the road/confidante.) And after some discussion, we decided to publish another magazine, which started out as CasualLEE – for just the Lee County, Florida. Then we were asked to branch out into Naples, Florida and then had to change the name of the magazine to CasualLIFE, since we’d busted out of Lee County and started spreading like hot maple syrup on a slick linoleum floor and into the world! LOL A couple of years later, publishing both magazines, and going to many Chamber of Commerce and city meetings, I kept running into another publisher of the Downtown Digest magazine, Renney Severance.

My motto is, there is no competition, there are only friends you haven’t met yet in the same business and we all need to meet, share ideas and thoughts, and exchange ways to do things better. So, I kept my eye on him and we usually sat together and conversed politely at whatever gathering we ended up attending. (My other motto is: I want it ALL; I want it NOW; Don't make me unwrap it, put it together or pay for it myself!) One day, Dominic Gertz, one of the movers and shakers of Historical Downtown Fort Myers, asked me about publishing a magazine for him that would be full-color and glossy. And I immediately told him that I knew HALF of everything about publishing, but that Renney knew the other half! And we’d get back to him. So, Renney had told me, in passing that he would be out of town on vacation for a week, but we’d see each other in some meeting somewhere when he got back. Well, after talking to Dominic, I called and left a message on Renney’s answering machine telling him I thought I got us both into a lot of trouble! (I didn’t tell him any more than just that, but you can guess that he called me immediately when he got in!! LOL)

When Renney called, in a panic, when he got back, we got together and put the numbers to paper after researching about full-color, glossy print media. It was incredibly costly. We took the numbers to Dominic and he totally agreed – after he regained consciousness! (He is now part of a consortium that has actually realized that dream and the magazine he helps to produce is gorgeous! Good work, Dominic! Another of your dreams have come true! But, I digress…Renney and I had worked very well together, so we concurred that it might be fun to work together. We crunched the numbers and only had three of the same advertisers. We decided to combine forces and take over even MORE of the county and advertising and gifting of witty, snappy repartee in print. We published together for two years, combining our magazines and calling it Fort MyersLIFE with a little logo at the bottom of each cover that said, "Get a LIFE!" We had a ball and I’ve missed working with him ever since. I left to go teach seniors at Riverdale High School and he has gone on to be the publishing god of Sanibel and Captiva Islands with The Breeze publishers. Good show, mate! I miss ya! AND TODAY...

Well, now you’re wondering why I’m putting this compilation of my writings together. Well, so many people loved my writings and thoughts and have asked for the archives of my old magazines, and Fort MyersLIFE just to read and re-read my articles, that I’ve finally found this venue to put my incredible profundities out to the world at large. Be afraid, be very afraid! And sit back and read and enjoy. Thanks, Pat, for teaching me so much!