Two New Editors - 4x Forward

The New Guys
You'll know it if you read the masthead, or maybe even when you notice a different name on some new story you're reading. What's that? Yup, 4-Wheel & Off-Road has two new feature editors for you to gripe or groan at, and their slant on 4x4-related things will be coming your way next month. For those of you who haven't noticed, Feature Editor Wendy Frazier has left to pursue greener pastures in the teaching field, while freelancing a story now and then, and Technical Editor Christian Hazel has flown the coop to live and breathe Jeeps at our sister publication, Jp.

Now of course you wonder, who are the new guys? We start with a face that you might not remember, but you would definitely remember his byline from the summer of 2000. Jerrod Jones came to us as a fresh intern back in the days when we had such a thing, and we tried to wring him out and make him squeal all summer. Jerrod wrote features and departments and did much of the grunt work that goes on around here, and still survived. Since we couldn't break him and he still loved us, he left to return to college and refine his trade. Two years later a position opens up here and, lo and behold, this man defies all reason and asks for a job. We try to talk him out of it, citing all of the negatives we could come up with, such as having to relocate to Los Angeles, but he simply grinned and said, "Sign me up!" Now that's dedication.

Our second entrant to our hallowed halls is much the same epitome of perseverance. We first learned about Fred Williams four years ago as a young upstart trying his hand at freelance writing while traveling cross-country living out of his FC170. He made a few contacts in the industry while sleeping on tailgates and such, and then submitted stories of events and features for review. By dang, the boy could do the job, and he got published and paid for it! After a few years of such participation, his craft has been honed to the point that he now enters the ranks of the professional, where actual wheeling all but ceases and endless hours at the office are the norm, not the exception. He too was warned of the long hours, low pay, loss of weekends, and living out of a suitcase on the road. Nevertheless, he also simply said, "Sign me up!" He will make his debut next month in these pages.

It's also true that we had many more applicants for the jobs, and most were as enthusiastic as these two, if not more so. However, experience, ability, and perseverance paid off for these two, and I hope you welcome them into our ranks as you meet them on the trail and at other events. I feel we'll have these two around for quite a while to help round out the staff of Technical Editor David Kennedy and myself as we move 4-Wheel & Off Road magazine along in the direction of real-world wheeling.-Rick Pw

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