Business and creative writing
Where I work and play … along Montana’s spectacular Yellowstone River, longest undammed stream in the lower 48 states.
Thanks for visiting my web site. I’m Dennis Gaub, a journalist and book author based in Billings, Montana. My credentials include nearly four decades of professional writing, about 25 of that for daily and weekly newspapers in Montana and elsewhere and the remainder of that in various business communications roles for my corporate employers.
Nowadays, I feel called to practice a different type of journalism than what’s been the norm for me and most of my colleagues. This no longer new style of writing goes by various names: longform journalism, narrative journalism or creative non-fiction, to name a few.
For our purposes, let’s use “narrative journalism” as the label. It involves using standard journalistic techniques – solid interviewing, reporting to get the facts of a story and analytical thinking – and then using the result to craft a narrative of an event. This results in articles or books that soar beyond writing based on the Five Ws and One H (who, what, when, where, why, how)/inverted pyramid structure that U.S. newspapers relied on throughout the 20th century.
With that in mind, I took a fresh look at two pivotal events involving Montana history or Montana residents. And they’re not musty subjects. One, a World War II occurrence, occurred a few years before I was born and was the subject of renewed national discussion in February 2013, while the other was a special sports story that happened when I was a senior in high school. My first two books, both non-fiction, resulted from interest kindled by those topics.
Yes, I’m a practical guy looking for a market for my work. But there’s a labor of love involved in both narratives. I’m a Montana native, live in this great place by choice and have been fortunate enough to make a living here for most of my career. Sharing stories about the fascinating people and lovely places I’ve come to know across this great state … that’s a passion.
Enjoy – and please share your thoughts!