One thing I can’t do is lay out articles so they look appealing. Lisa, Lenie, and Annie do all the layout. I can visualize how I want it and do up a rough sketch, but I’m unable to pick the proper font, its size, or any of the other myriad attributes fonts need to catch part of the essence of the article, and I can’t do much with photos. I realize that no amount of training will ever make me good at these things. You either have it or you don’t.

Annie, in particular, has an extraordinary talent for layout. She is our “go to” gal each issue for the lead article and other key articles. Tonight I worked with her on John Silveira’s article. It’s a long historical piece with lots of black and white drawings by Don Childers. Since she is 3,000 miles away, we texted back and forth on our jabber tool while she layed out the article. The end result was this magnificent 10-page display of great writing and great art. Really beautiful to behold. If I had layed it out, it would be a mass of grey print with art interrupting the grey paragraphs. Annie is a BHM blogger too.