Dick Sheffield MPA '81 (Journalist & Author, LASSO THE MOON)

By D. Dona Le '05

"If you’re a glutton for punishment, take up writing,” says Dick Sheffield MPA ‘81.

Sheffield has done just that. Despite working as a full-time journalist covering politics for ABC News (since 1983), he has also nurtured a writing career, dividing his time between New York and his home state of Texas.

Born to two public school teachers in Fort Worth, Sheffield attended the University of Texas at Austin, where he studied Finance and got his first taste of politics during the time of the Vietnam War. Following graduation and living in Dallas, Sheffield frequented a neighborhood bar named the Stoneleigh P, where he regularly read the Sunday editions of the New York Times and Washington Post that arrived every Wednesday.

However, reading about the news was not quite enough and in 1975, Sheffield packed his car and drove to Washington, D.C. Armed with a handful of letters of recommendation, he rented a small apartment behind the Supreme Court and gave himself a thirty-day deadline to find a job.

Congressman Charlie Wilson (D-TX) hired him and during the next five years, Sheffield also worked on the staffs of Senator Edward Kennedy and Ambassador Allard K. Lowenstein. In 1979, he joined Kennedy’s national presidential campaign, where he worked as an Advanceman and began keeping a journal of those days.

"I eventually used parts of that journal in a short story,” he said. "Someone had given me a blank book during the campaign and then I stumbled upon this interesting book written in 1932, BECOMING A WRITER, by Dorothea Brande. That book as much as anything helped to train me about the habit of writing and I started writing in a journal every day.”

After Reagan’s victory in 1980, however, the Republicans took the Senate, and job opportunities for Sheffield in DC dwindled. Sheffield spoke to a friend, a Yale graduate, who mentioned that he would be attending Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government in the fall. Sheffield promptly called the Admissions Office and learned that three spots in the incoming class were still available.

Sheffield completed the application, wrote his admissions essays and, three days later, found himself on a train to Boston.

After graduating from the Kennedy School of Government, Sheffield "wandered into ABC News” for an interview and joined its Political Unit the next day. Thirty years later, Sheffield is still at the same company. His team provides political analysis and editorial support for ABC News' election coverage, which includes network election broadcasts, all television and radio platforms, as well as Internet and digital productions.

"I’ve always been interested in politics, and as a journalist, you have a great vantage point of the world. It’s totally absorbing work, and ABC has been a tremendous organization to work for; they’re very loyal and so am I.”

Sheffield has witnessed firsthand how technology and the manner in which people consume the news have impacted journalism during the last couple of decades. However, some aspects of journalism never change.

"You must present the story as best you can, all of the facts, and you must source it well, and then you let the reader, the viewer, or whomever decide what they think.”

Sheffield credits his journalism experience with enhancing his daily writing practices. "Journalism and politics taught me about attention to detail and meeting a deadline,” he said. "They really complement one another. Journalism or writing is not glamorous – ultimately you have to dig it out."

In the early 1980s, Sheffield began writing short stories, one of which is "Maere Tungol,” a third-prize winner of the 2010 Hackney Literary Awards. He describes following an "eclectic approach” to publication, tirelessly sending his works to writing contests, fellowships, and grants, while also searching for an agent.

What distinguishes Sheffield, however, is that he proactively sought advice from such well-established authors as Robert Penn Warren (ALL THE KING'S MEN) and John Irving. He wrote letters to both asking what they thought of maintaining a journal-writing habit and whether he should apply to MFA programs.

"Warren said, ‘You never know where you can make a living writing, so for god’s sake, keep your job because it’s a good one.’”

Irving recommended that he apply to the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference; Sheffield did so and was admitted in the summer of 1985. Being in the company of like-minded writers encouraged Sheffield. He continued writing and began working more independently, particularly in the late 1990s, when he remained with ABC News but left New York to return to Texas and "take a little chance.”

Settling in Marfa, Texas, Sheffield served as writer, reporter and managing editor of the Big Bend Sentinel and Presidio International, two weekly newspapers. He also met his wife, Anita, and joined her in running a bed and breakfast that she began in 1994. He and his wife now live in San Angelo, Texas and New York City, so that he can balance writing with his responsibilities at ABC News. He is fortunate to be able to work remotely from his NYC office at certain times and these days Sheffield adheres to a regular writing schedule while preparing for the network’s 2014 election coverage.

"The journals I keep help create a habit of writing. I still write about 300 to 400 words in my journal every day; I never miss that. It’s a debt, and it’s got to be paid, like Hemingway said.”

Sheffield also spends parts of his day keeping fit, learning Spanish, and—most importantly to him—reading as much as possible.

Last year, Sheffield’s first novel, LASSO THE MOON, was published and is now available via Amazon in Paperback and Kindle editions. The book made the 2013 Harper’s Bazaar winter reading list.

LASSO THE MOON describes the journey of a San Francisco attorney who returns to his hometown in Texas and connects with two important women who radically change and renew his perspective of life. One of the women is a professional golfer and instructor, and in his initial research, Sheffield reached out to golfers of both genders with his questions—much as he did Warren and Irving for his writing-related questions.

"Originally the master teacher in LASSO THE MOON was going to be a man, but the letters I received back from the women were much more soulful. So that is when I decided two of the three main characters in the story should be women.”

Correspondence and journal-keeping figure prominently in Sheffield’s works. In fact, his next novel—to be published this year—is called CABLES FROM A RESTLESS HEART, and the current draft opens with the main character’s journal entries.

"[CABLES] is about our public versus our private lives and often the gulf between what we say we want and what we want; between what we officially admire and secretly desire, and in the greatest sense, the people we marry and the people we love.”

In addition to completing and publishing LASSO THE MOON and CABLES FROM A RESTLESS HEART in such quick succession, Sheffield also has a collection of short stories, "White Butterfly and Other Stories." And yet, he is reticent to call himself a writer and considers himself first and foremost a journalist.

Sheffield explains, "I just want to make sure I’m honest with myself each day, grateful for having the chance and the time to write, and I don’t want to take that for granted. I don’t hang out with a lot of literary people or anything like that; I just want to do the work.

"It’s like somebody says, ‘If you’re focusing on what you did yesterday, you’re not doing too much today. So you’ve got to get on with it.’”

Learn more about LASSO THE MOON and other writings from Dick Sheffield at dicksheffield.com.