My snazzy life, one chapter a week

Steve Terrell's disjointed autobiography

Above: Great books in my collection

I suspect everyone reading this knows who I am. I’m a retired newspaperman, who worked for The Santa Fe New Mexican for more than 30 years, and two other papers — The Albuquerque Journal (Journal North bureau!) and The Santa Fe Reporter — before that. Throughout that career, I covered crime, courts, government, politics, and of course my first love, music. (And for almost 30 years I’ve been doing a “freeform weirdo radio” show for KSFR, 101.1 FM in Santa Fe.)

In December 2020, my daughter gave me a subscription to a strange service called Storyworth, which basically asks you a question about your life, your history, your philosophy, your complaints,  every week for a year. Each of these becomes a chapter in an actual book. Basically a vanity-press kind of deal. 

I did it.

It was fun.

I finished up two days after Christmas 2021, and in early 2022, I got a hardcover hard copy of my book. Titled Just Answer the Question: Snazzy Tales from My Life, 1953-2021, it explores various parts of my life, from early childhood, through my follies as a young adult, through parenthood, my journalism career and onto my retirement. My hopes, my dreams, my disappointments, my Sputnik Monroe story … all that stuff.

No, it's not commercially available. But I tell you what I’m going to do:

For my family, friends, curious bystanders, stalkers or whoever else wants to read it, I’m going to publish a chapter a week right here on Substack.

And, yes, it’s all free.

Actually one of these chapters — in fact the longest chapter, which was about my favorite concerts, from The Everly Brothers through The Mekons — was previously published on my music blog a couple of years ago. (You can cheat and read it HERE)

So I’ll start here on Monday with Chapter 1. Please subscribe, and nag your friends, wake the neighbors and report it to authorities.