Today we’d like to introduce you to Monte Dutton.
Hi Monte, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I started writing because I was embarrassed by my ineptitude in typing class, so I started typing a diary each night after football practice. Since then, I’ve spent 20 years writing about automobile racing, written six books and edited another on NASCAR, one on Americana music and one on high school football, eight novels with a ninth on the way, and a volume of short stories.
The decline of newspapers — of which my career was a casualty — troubles me. In a world of almost limitless information, the world is getting dumber and dumber.
In my little corner of the world, I want to do something about it.
I own two local sports websites, LaurensCountySports.com and FurmanATT.com. Two employees have moved on to journalism careers. Now my only “employees” are students who work for me part-time. I enjoy teaching them how to write and take photos.
When I was a high school athlete, many years ago, my teams were extensively covered by daily newspapers. The local weekly was twice weekly during football season.
My goal is to restore that coverage for the young athletes of today. It’s more complicated than I thought. People, young and old alike, have gotten out of the habit of reading. I want to whet what remains of their appetites. It’s a job that never ends and shouldn’t.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
When Laurens County Sports launched in April 2020, most sports shut down due to COVID almost immediately, but I made do. FurmanATT (All the Time!) and Electric City Sports launched in 2021. The latter only lasted until the year’s end. It was wildly successful in readership, but we couldn’t sell enough ads to make it fly.
Advertising sales is really time-consuming, and it’s hard to find the time. I began with two full-time employees. Now I run the site with the help of part-timers, bright students, whom I edit and teach. They all fall in love with photography, but struggle in the actual writing. They improve, though. I get satisfaction from honing their skills. The two full-time employees, both recent journalism graduates (South Carolina and Connecticut), moved on to better jobs in journalism, one as a photographer and the other in sports television (at ESPN).
It is a constant struggle: two steps forward, one step back, but the progress is greater now that the world is more normal.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I authored a number of non-fiction books, but the last (True to the Roots), about Americana music, led me to fiction. I have written eight novels. The last is about to be republished, and the ninth, with a baseball theme, should be out in the spring.
I wrote a collection of short stories, Longer Songs, made up of short stories inspired by songs I wrote. I am a passable guitarist, and learning to play by ear fed my songwriting.
Journalism empowers my fiction because I draw on the experiences of writing about sports.
We’d love to hear about any fond memories you have from when you were growing up?
For my birthday, my dad took me and a carload to Atlanta, where we watched Hank Aaron hit his 715th career home run, which surpassed Babe Ruth, who then held the all-time record. It was my 16th birthday, so I’m not sure it qualifies strictly as “childhood.” When I was a small boy, he took me to the local theater to see Shane, with Alan Ladd, Jean Arthur, Jack Palance and Brandon deWilde because he thought every boy ought to see it.
Contact Info:
- Website: LaurensCountySports.com | FurmanATT.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/hmdutton
- Facebook: facebook.com/MonteDutton
- Twitter: twitter.com/MonteDutton (@MonteDutton)
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyi8WtOwXdOnitREqPEeVcA
Image Credits
DHK Sports
