Our Life Logs - A Short Bio - Freelance Writer Joshua Allen

For as long as I can remember, I always wanted to be a writer. Since I could hold a pen, I’ve been writing. As soon as I got out of college, I started with a newspaper as a journalist, so for about the last decade, I’ve been a writer. However, whether a writer or not, I have not always been a storyteller, and, quite frankly, I’m still becoming one. I think that may be the best part — becoming. Writing is a technical thing that anyone physically able can do to some degree or another. Terrible writing is still writing. It’s the narrative, the story, the telling of the story that is the art, that is the heart, that is the thing that separates art from the technicality.

Though I was born in Dallas, I grew up in rural northeast Texas. I went to a fairly small public school, graduating with just over 75 others in 2006. I managed to do that with honors and in the top percentage of the class. I had good parents and a happy, humble raising. I was taught to think and to read as much as I could. I was taught to never stop learning, never stop asking questions. I’ve been a skeptic ever since.

Before writing professionally and before and during college, I was a musician. At first it was a hobby (during high school and for years after, I had a semi-serious band of friends, and we played semi-routine gigs for poor pay), but by the time I graduated high school, I was a full-time contract guitarist. I had a manager that managed my gig times and equipment and an agent that obtained me deals or contracts for work. I toured with several bands, and eventually signed a contract with Armed Forces Entertainment. That job put me with a band touring U.S. and British military bases for the soldiers in places such as Japan, Singapore, Diego Garcia and Costa Rica. Following that stent of touring, at the age of 20, I moved to Boston, Massachusetts where I joined a different band and began a series of tours all over the United States.

I had done many college hours while in high school and online while on tour. Eventually, though, I quite touring and essentially got out of the music business. I finished a technical degree in audio engineering and production at MediaTech Institute in 2010.

I was 22. I then was offered a job to cover culture and the music scene in Paris, Texas as a journalist and photographer by a fledgling startup online newspaper. I’ve never stopped doing that since.

Throughout that time, I’ve worked for eight or so publications in Texas and Oklahoma, honed my journalism, writing and photography skills and even won a couple of statewide awards for news photography. I’ve also continued college studies in English and philosophy at Texas A&M University-Commerce and a short spell studying theology and religious studies at Arlington Baptist College.

I am currently a full-time freelancer.

I live and work mainly in Oklahoma. I have four current annual contracts (1) doing political public relations and campaign management for a mayor and a district attorney candidate, (2) social media management and public relations for a municipal consultation company called Retail Attractions, (3) teaching English and composition to Chinese students for a company called VIPX (Lewaijiao) and (4) court and news reporting for a small, local Oklahoma newspaper about 80 miles away from my home called the Okemah News Leader.