Chris Ballard of Sports Illustrated on his Mike Powell Story "Man In Full"—And Way More

It's a good day here at The Blog. No, not because of Valentine's Day, which Katie and I totally loserishly do not celebrate, as is explained in my previous post. Not even because it's Tuesday. I actually kind of like Mondays. Well, most Mondays. Some Mondays are just ugly. But most are actually pretty okay.

Mostly though, it's a good day because today Sports Illustrated senior writer Chris Ballard joins us to talk more writing and journalism and his latest bonus story "Man In Full," which came out in last week's SI. We also talk dunking, fatherhood, husband-being, writing in bars, and how at 38 he can still dunk a basketball. 

If you haven't read "Man In Full" yet, I high recommend you click here and get started. It's a master class in in-depth reporting and longform story structure. It's also about 7,500 words long, so give yourself a minute or two to really dig through it. Trust me though: it's worth it. 

As always, I emailed Chris the questions and let him do with them what he does best: write. He got carried away. He wrote like 5,000 words total. He felt sort of bad about it. I told him he should feel the opposite, because I'm a vacuum for knowledge about this stuff, and I know lots of you are, too. So yeah, get comfy. If you want to print it out, click here. 

Also, if you have any questions for Chris, go on and drop them in the comments at the end of this post. You can also hit him up on Twitter, where he is @SI_ChrisBallard. (If you have questions for me for whatever reason, I'm also on Twitter as @brandonsneed.)

Finally, it goes without saying: enjoy. I sure did. 

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Thomas Lake on Pop Herring, How to Make It as a Journalist, Coffee, and Why You "Have To Get Yourself Good"

Today I am totally stoked to bring you this interview with Thomas Lake. Lake is a senior writer at Sports Illustrated. He is 31 years old. He wrote a good story in a recent issue of Sports Illustrated. ("Did This Man Really Cut Michael Jordan?") Only by "good" I mean "phenomenal" and other such over-the-top adjectives. I asked him some questions about it over email. Which was great, because it let Lake do what Lake does best, which is write, and he writes—as always—really, really well down there. Lots of smart thoughts, lots of good sentences. Just good stuff all around.

Since it's pretty long, I'll shut up now and just let the interview go. So ladies and gentlemen, Lake on making it as a journalist, coffee, how and why to get yourself good at what you do, and, of course, Pop Herring. I'd say "enjoy," but I know you will anyway, because Lake responded to everything just amazingly, so I'll just stop saying things and let you finally get to reading.

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A salute to the veterans

An American soldier, a veteran of Iraq, once told me, "You know, being a warrior’s not like the movies, that’s for sure." He continued,

"You know, it just goes back to the same – you’re not thinking about your family. Not thinking about what you’re doing the next day. All you’re thinking about is your guys, especially in a firefight. You’re thinking about their safety and how you’re going to get out of their predicament in one piece.

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Ed Thomas and Small Town, Iowa, and What They Know That We Sometimes Forget

Sports Illustrated ran this story in July 2009 about Ed Thomas, the beloved Aplington-Parkersburg High School football coach who was shot to death by a former player. Written by Lee Jenkins, one of the best sportswriters around, the piece is beautiful. I'd forgotten about it until tonight, when I watched the video  after a friend posted it to Facebook (available after the jump).  If you read the story and watch the video you'll know the full scope of why it moved me. It'll move anyone who watches it. The family of the downed coach stood up in front of their community and said that they forgave the family of the boy who shot Coach.What struck me, though, was something Aaron Thomas, one of Ed's sons, said toward the end of the video. 

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"Sneed is learning how to surf"

I'm starting to do more first-person experience features for the Wilmington StarNews. My first one is this one, about me trying to learn how to surf. As usual, it involved mass amounts of failure.

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Five Ways I Fight Writer's Slog

Some days, like yesterday, writing is hard. And some days, like yesterday, I really need writing to come more easily. This post explores five things I sometimes try to break out of writer's slog.

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