Tommy Tomlinson on his story about the Toomer's Corner oaks and Harvey Updyke

Knew this would interest some of you around here. He talks about his process behind the story, how he approached the Updykes—Harvey in particular, naturally—as well as how he went about landing such a large freelance assignment for Sports Illustrated.

http://www.heygoodcall.com/journal/2011/9/6/interview-tommy-tomlinson-author-of-sports-illustrateds-some.html

 

Good pull. Thanks for posting it.

 

Yeah, what he/she said. I enjoyed reading how he crafted the story as well as how he landed it in SI (helps to have a contact there...duh).

 

Thanks for the post, though I think you were reading into the story a bit. Yes, Tomlinson humanized Updyke but only in so much as to explain what could have driven him to do what he (allegedly) did. I never got the impression that Tomlinson thought of Updyke as "just another rabid sports fan" and I think you kind of led him into an answer with that question.

 

Yeah, I see what you mean. I felt like it humanized Updyke beyond the evil guy he was made out to be, but I didn't mean to make it sound like I thought he was right or justified for doing what he did. I just liked that Tommy got into the human side of Updyke is all.

For what it's worth, I didn't intentionally lead him into an answer on that question or anything—I just didn't word that question very well. I thought about changing that for the published version of the interview, but I didn't want to be shady. Besides, Tommy answered it well. You'll notice he didn't agree with me, and I appreciated that.

I can't say enough how much I also appreciated his simply taking the time to answer ALL OF THAT. Tommy's a good dude and it's nice to see him get some of the breaks he's been getting lately. He also just had this nice piece on ESPN.com and appeared on Outside the Lines to discuss it: http://espn.go.com/espn/otl/story/_/id/6910393/do-games-watch-power-help-us-heal