Jerome Bear joins the drumming circle celebrating his Swearing in Ceremony in becoming Mayor of Dorchester.

Up until last spring I wrote for The Times and Transcript doing local news and features for the daily paper published out of Moncton. It was a great gig and I enjoyed it.

The job began more than 10 years ago when I made a ‘cold call’ to the paper’s news editor saying that I was looking for work. We had just bought our house in Baie Verte and I knew that I did not want to drive for an hour to get to my call center job.

As an aside, an hour commute for rural people is not the same as an hour within a city. It is not just the cost of gas but the challenge of driving though major snowstorms on highways that may not be cleared.

But back to my employment story, I ended up scoring the Council Reports for three villages outside of Moncton (Hillsborough, Petitcodiac and Salisbury).

I was very happy with that even though I had to get my husband Joe to drive me to the meetings because I had foolishly let my Driver’s Licence lapse!

In later years, I took up three more villages closer to home and added freelance reports from my coastal position that included reports on new businesses and events from Sackville, Dorchester and Port Elgin.

I also began to write feature pieces for Leigh Williams, the editor for the Life section of the Times and Transcript. I really enjoyed those longer pieces but you do not want to know what you are paid for a three interview, 1000 word feature article.

Then the big cut came, a terse and unapologetic email from Brunswick News telling us that freelancers were no longer needed. They were going in a different direction, they were moving to more of a 24 hour on-line presence.

Which was fine. Well, not really, it was a kick in the teeth, but what can you do? And I went back to my Library Studies and finished my Certificate.

But in the meantime I have been asked many times during the last year to write on a subject that someone wants published. I have been asked where my articles are, and when I am returning.

And bit by bit I have begun to recognize that there is a desire for my local writing, and that I can fill that void.

If the Times and Transcript can go on-line, then so can I!

In my writing I covered everything from municipal politics to theater reviews. I enjoy writing about entrepreneurs, artists and business take overs (they happen in small towns).

I have recognized a need and identified a market, and I have already placed myself on the map as someone who can and will write about the local news and events with clarity and enthusiasm.

So I am going to start my own on-line news site called Tantramar News.

By the fall I plan to have my own website and a subscription base, however humble, of my own.

To start the ball rolling, I traveled to Dorchester to cover the swearing in ceremony for the new First Nations Mayor, Jerome Bear.

Check out Tantramar News at:

http://megdedwards.wordpress.com/2012/06/10/first-nations-mayor-of-village-of-dorchester-nb/

Jerome Bear joins the drumming circle celebrating his Swearing in Ceremony as Mayor of Dorchester.