Name...
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| Terry L. Estep
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My name is Terry Lee Estep, which is an object lesson in itself about my parents' levels of creativity. It's Dad's first name and Mom's middle name. This probably explains why I have no sense of family history beyond my grandparents' names and why my mother was bribed to name my sister "April Dawn."
Setting...
I'm a 30-year-old gay atheist. If conflict is the heart of drama, I've got that whole "man against the environment" thing locked down tighter than a six-year-old at the Neverland Ranch. I used to live in a wide spot in the road called Orgas, but now I'm making a life for myself in Parkersburg, located in the Mid-Ohio Valley.
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Education...
Unlike most doctors, I spent seven years in college and didn't earn respect for the length of my stay. My original intent was to become an English teacher and spend the rest of my life beating my head against the wall because the kids thought conjugation was something they did in the back of a van. One of my professors kindly explained that I didn't understand the meaning of "dangling participles," and I changed my major to journalism at the very last minute. I graduated from Glenville State College with a B.A. in English (Professional Writing) with a minor in History.
During my time at Glenville, I became involved with each of the three campus student publications. I spent most of my time and energy working at The Mercury, which is GSC's student newspaper. I held many positions at the paper and loved every second of it. I ran the literary magazine for three years and worked as a photographer and index guru for the yearbook. I also discovered the joy of photojournalism.These experiences culminated in my current job as a paginator for a daily newspaper.
What I Do For Money...
I work at the Parkersburg News and Sentinel as a copy editor/paginator. The reporters and photographers give the pagination crew the raw materials, and then we turn them into easy-to-read pages.
In addition to designing pages (see my online portfolio), I color-correct photographs and add each day's stories to our electronic archives to aid the reporters' research.
On an unofficial mascot level, I serve as comic relief, roving tech support, and free-range agent of chaos.
I've recently started writing a weekly column for the more liberal of the two papers. I've written about being gay, support for same-sex marriage, and removing "under God" from the Pledge of Allegiance, but I still haven't received hate mail.
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