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A Healthy Sense of Adventure: Ron LaFon
By Jason Crain
Ron LaFon's home is an unassuming one-story, two-bedroom in East Point, Georgia. Matching all the other houses of the neighborhood, the house is colored conservatively, but the front porch contains a tiny hint of what one will find inside. It is covered in pepper plants. This was the landmark my wife and I were told to look for as we cruised the neighborhood, wondering if we were still lost. Now I've never seen a pepper plant in my life, but even I could see the difference between a porch with more typical fare and a porch covered in tall, skinny plants meant to bear spicy goodness.
To be fair about this whole thing, I've been interested in the life and times of Ron LaFon for a couple of years now. I'm connected to the man through a bizarre set of coincidences including my wife's employer and Ron's life partner, William. For quite some time, my wife has frequently come home with intriguing stories about delicious baked goods, wonderful photographs, and vacations to distant locales. I also knew through other mutual friends that Ron was a writer for a technology magazine, a field I am intensely interested in. But the evening of November 12, 2007, was the first time I'd ever been to the home that Ron shares with William. And this was the first time I'd obtain in-depth knowledge of Ron's life as a botanist, astronomer, photographer, traveler, and writer.
Where Is He Now?
Ron is currently contracted to Questex Media Group, which owns and operates a variety of media brands, ranging from Travel Agent to Cadalyst, the brand for which Ron is a contributing editor. According to the Questex website, Cadalyst is "the most complete source of information about [computer-aided design] and related technologies." The magazine has 62,000 subscribers. The website receives over 150,000 unique visitors, and their email newsletters reach 70,000 people per month. Although Ron contributes a variety of things to the brand, his most notable work in this context is feature articles for both the print and online versions.
It is telling that the first thing my wife and I noticed was the giant--and I mean huge—ultra-thin and ultra-flat, computer monitor. It told Ron, as we marveled, that my wife and I are simple folks. And it told me, as Ron described that he was testing the monitor for Cadalyst, a bit more about what Ron does for a living. As a contributing editor for Cadalyst, Ron is responsible for reviewing a wide variety of computer-related gear. His featured review for November 2007 was an impressive round-up of software that allows companies to share three-dimensional models of parts and products with other departments. His featured review from October 2007 was a roundup of graphics cards that are vital to the quick and easy use of those pieces of software. As a contributing editor to the brand, Ron also does his share of editorial work on other pieces.
Ron also has several books under his belt. He has contributed to book projects as a photographer, editor, translator, and author. The topics of these books range wildly from botany to astronomy. More on these later.
Where Did He Come From?
Of course, Ron wasn't always contributing to a powerful industry media brand, and he didn't always have several books under his belt. Once upon a time, Ron had to make the decision to start writing about technology. And he had to make sacrifices to do what he loved.
To learn the ropes of technology writing, Ron started contributing to a free online newsletter. This opportunity taught him to work within the constraints of monthly and weekly deadlines. But he also had to learn about dealing with people--people within the newsletter organization and professionals within the technology industry. Learning to work with connections and contacts is vital for obtaining vendor information while working on a review, but Ron also had to learn to navigate the negative side of working with industry professionals in order to operate within the required ethical protocols of this field. Even though he was writing for a free newsletter, he was offered bribes for positive reviews--the most exciting probably being an exotic island vacation.
While working for this newsletter, Ron had to teach himself how to publish this work electronically. It may surprise some people to learn that, quite some time ago, web pages and emails were authored using a simple text editor such as Windows Notepad, or, for a Linux user, VI, Emacs, or pico. Although the technology was advancing and becoming available, electronic publishing was in its infancy, and there was no one within easy reach to answer complicated questions about publishing on the Internet. While figuring things out for himself, Ron came into contact with an individual working for a magazine focused specifically on electronic publishing. They agreed to send some work his way and, suddenly, Ron was being paid to write creatively in a field that interested him.
Granted, the money coming from these writing jobs was not enough to live on. Ron still had to work a more traditional job as a photographer, writing in his spare time. But the act of writing in an interesting field was worthwhile, and Ron was learning the skills that it would take to write, as we say, for a living. As his skills became increasingly refined, Ron received increasing numbers of paid writing jobs. Eventually, however, the magazine that had been paying him to do what he loved went out of business. Ron was able to rebound by following a set of connections he had created while working in the field, and he started working for Cadalyst magazine in the middle 1980s. He has been there ever since.
The And Factor
To get any realistic picture of Ron in your head, it is important to realize that Ron is not "just" a writer for a technology magazine. Writing in general is a major part of his life, and writing for Cadalyst is both his major source of income and a fulfilling and creatively satisfying job. But it would be disingenuous to imply that Ron writes for money. Throughout the entire interview, Ron made it clear that he simply does things that interest him, and writing happens to be one of them. Generally, these interests lead to lots of study and practice. If he eventually finds a niche that needs explaining, or a project that he feels needs doing, he just does it. Sure, reviewing hardware and software in the computer-aided design field may be the interest that brings home the bacon. But Ron is also interested in other fields in the technology sector, photography, cooking, theater, astronomy, and botany; and some of these interests have led to various contributions in a wide variety of publications.
The things that interest Ron LaFon are on display in his home. Just behind the gigantic monitor he was testing out was a sizeable bookshelf, crammed full with cookbooks. My wife and I knew we were being treated to dinner that night, but I had absolutely no idea what a treat it would be. It is unfair to call the salad, lentil loaf, homemade bread, and spicy brownies provided as merely "tasty." Although Ron has not compiled a cookbook, I, for one, sincerely hope that he and William get around to it one day.
As I began to look around a little more, I noticed a large-diameter telescope and some masks and art on the walls that appeared to my unworldly eye be wholly African in origin. But the things that really stole my attention were the plants. Underneath the window overlooking their street, a large collection of apparently finicky plants grow in and out of various containers, some with no soil at all, hanging from supports. The special natural-light lamp that kept them healthy served as perfect display lighting. As I stared in wonder I was informed that each of the plants comes from various places in Malaysia and Africa and traditionally has a symbiotic relationship with ants. Some have leaves that grow in such a way that ants can build a nest inside, providing the plant with a powerful defense mechanism. Another plant, on display here as a seedling, grows to be filled with hollow channels that the ants use to move about. As with the leafy plant, the ants build a nest inside, providing the plant with defense, among other things. Ron's interest in studying and growing plants is not just an idle pastime. He made a lengthy trip to South Africa to photograph the plants he was interested in. His lasting interest and scientific expertise in the field has led to his being senior editor of several botany books and the author of a ten-volume series of books called The Euphorbia Journal. Ron was also responsible for helping renowned botanist Werner Waugh record his decades of acquired knowledge. Ron was both translator (the author was multi-lingual, writing in French, German, and English), and editor of the work, having to ensure consistency of scientific units and phraseology. The two-volume set consumed five years of their time but will never be a commercial success. This does not upset Ron in the least. He found the project worthwhile, and this is recompense enough.
One thing Ron is not interested in doing again is technical documentation writing. At one point, Ron was hired to create a manual for a Canon brand printer. Though the work was easy, it held no interest. "It was dry. There was nothing... I was basically taking information from the company and putting it on paper." An ignorant observer such as myself might post that the manual writing is similar to writing for Cadalyst, but Ron vehemently disagrees. Cadalyst requires him to search things out, to interpret information and make a decision about the worth of an item. The printer manual required no search, no imagination.
The Writing Process
It is difficult to pin down "the source" of Ron's inspiration. In his work with Cadalyst, his inspiration is clea: he receives an editorial calendar, and he works on pieces two months in advance. For books and other publications, however, there is no one particular muse that Ron seeks out. Rather, he can find inspiration for a writing project just about anywhere. "I tend to have a lot of interests and because of that, I've met a lot of interesting people, and my life's been led in some very interesting directions." These interesting directions may or may not result in a publication, but one thing is certain: Ron can work on several different levels at once. The botany books mentioned above, for instance, were the result of a trip to South Africa to do photography work. While he was there, Ron was sure to make as much of the experience as he possibly could. He didn't know if he would ever be able to return to the area, and he wanted to make sure he took and contributed as much as possible. This hard work showed itself in several ways. Ron did his photographic work, he furthered his study of the plants, and he made connections with other botanists and plant enthusiasts. Throwing himself into the experience of his photography, Ron immediately began thinking about putting a book together. And, by throwing himself completely into the experience of collecting material for a book, he gained a wealth of information--both of plants and other people in the field--that helped inspire the creation of his subsequent publications.
Production inevitably follows inspiration, and it turns out that, again, the processes are very different for Cadalyst and everything else. As I mentioned earlier, the magazine is on an editorial calendar that Ron uses to schedule his efforts. As a deadline draws near for the magazine, Ron begins collecting his material--all of his material. He gets copies of software or test versions of hardware. He acquires names and appropriate contact information for vendors and experts. He uses this information to acquire technical specifications and high-resolution product images, among other things. As a contributing editor, Ron has the ability to pull a product from a review, should any of his queries go unanswered. After everything is collected, Ron does any review or benchmarking work needed on his end, records his findings, and creates an outline from his interpretation from the facts at hand. For Ron, once the outline is written, the article is pretty much written, as well. All he needs is some uninterrupted time to turn one into the other. Although Ron is a contributing editor, his work has to be edited by others at the magazine. Once they get done with the article, they send it back for corrections of complaints, and the product is considered finished. Ron says he has learned from the magazine that he should not edit his own work and has learned to balance his attachment to his own writing and the needs of the magazine.
Ron's books start out much more generally than the magazine work. He has no editorial calendar to work from, so he doesn't know for certain what is coming down the pike. Instead, Ron gets an idea from his various life experiences and starts tossing them around in his head, seeing what they bounce off of, what they cling to. For instance, he's currently cooking a vague notion having to do with returning to the South after spending 30 years living in California. He isn't sure if it will turn into a book, but he says he can tell there is an idea of some kind there, linked to his other interests, particularly butterflies, fireflies, and various other natural reminders of his childhood. One similarity to his magazine work is Ron's use of an outline. However, a book outline can change several times in the course of writing, as new information and correspondence come in. Ron also attributes this slight decline in structure to the fact that his book deadlines have been looser or non-existent. Without a definite time restriction, Ron is free to change things that strike him.
Advice For Aspiring Writers
Throughout the interview Ron made it clear that he was not a business-minded writer: he works only on projects that interest him, and he works on them regardless of the market. But Ron did acknowledge that an aspiring writer may need some help finding her way into writing projects. Writing seminars are something that Ron has never done, and he doesn't recommend them. He feels that showing up at a place filled with writers is a sure way to get lost in the crowd. Rather, Ron suggests venues focused on the interests of the individual. This way, everyone there knows that another person has showed up and is interested in, say, astronomy. A person interested in writing needs to make personal relationships with other people in the field. Any interest or proficiency in writing will eventually come out. In fact, almost all of Ron's writing work has come from knowing someone who knows someone who needs someone to do something. Don't go about trying to sell writing services. Just go out, meet some people, have a good time, and start up a conversation and some correspondence. Work together with these people and find a place that you fit in. Ron stressed that social gatherings are just as important as professional ones.
Ron's most basic piece of advice is simple: Follow your interests. "There is nothing to prevent me from doing projects that I think ought to be done. Now, obviously, I have to make a living..." Do a lot of different things, meet a lot of people, and learn as much as you can about the thing that interests you. If you have to hold down another job to fund these things, so be it. For Ron, life simply isn't the amount of money and energy spent between birth and death. For Ron, fulfilling, inspired work is far more important than money.
Links To Books And Writing Samples
Books by Ron LaFon at Amazon.com
Books by Ron LaFon at Glass House Works.com
Posted with the permission of Jason Crain and Ron LaFon. ©2008 Jason Crain.
