We recently connected with Dennis “Mitch” Maley and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Mitch thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. The first dollar you earn is always exciting – it’s like the start of a new chapter and so we’d love to hear about the first time you sold or generated revenue from your creative work?

I was in college the first time I made money from writing. It was 1997. I was an amateur boxer, and it was the early days of the internet when chat rooms and bulletin boards were very popular. I had written a post on some of the business dynamics of professional boxing. A guy messaged me and said he was in charge of curating the International Boxing Hall of Fame’s induction ceremony guide and would give me $25 to use my post as one of the articles. It turned out he was the editor for Boxing World, leading to more work and eventually a regular column in the magazine.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I’m primarily a journalist. I have a weekly political opinion column in the Bradenton Times and also do a lot of A&E work, ranging from theater reviews to travel writing. Over the years, I’ve had three novels and a short story collection published and I have to say that my greatest passion lies in writing fiction. That’s the work that I’m most proud of and hope to be remembered for. However, journalism has been a crucially important aspect of my development as a writer. I know I would not have become successful as a novelist if I had not spent so many years in a career where I had to write every day whether I felt inspired or not. It has instilled a discipline that has been very useful in my fiction and given it a journalistic aspect that I notice in other writers who’ve followed that career path.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

When I finished my first novel, I could not attract interest from publishers. After receiving more than a hundred rejections, I decided I would keep trying until my 40th birthday, at which point I would accept that my writing career was likely to be limited to journalism. One month before the big day, I finally sold the manuscript, got an advance, and was on a book tour seven months later.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

Well, in my case, I would definitely say read more. The endless scroll effect of social media has put an enormous dent in not only our available time but our capacity to focus on more substantial work. Both long-form journalism and novels—especially long ones—have suffered detrimental effects. I would also like to see book publishers return to investing in and marketing short story collections, which have largely fallen out of favor, but may be a much better fit if society continues in that direction.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.thebradentontimes.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DennisJMaley

Image Credits

Personal photo by Virginia Hoffman