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click here if you want to see Steve's resume
Steve Wingate is the author of more than 70 short stories and articles on a variety of subjects, concentrating mostly on humor. He has also written numerous NASCAR commentaries, two of which eventually made it into print, and has also dabbled in writing automotive commentaries. He is currently working on several new humor articles as well as a book about all of the various things he's screwed up in his life. To help keep this short (and to keep from boring everyone into a coma) we'll start our journey in 1987, when he was 18 years old
Steve started classes at the University of Alabama at Birmingham in 1987, and chose to pursue a degree in English. He quickly set himself apart from the other arts and humanities students by openly professing a love for NASCAR and fast cars. He was (and probably still is) the only liberal arts student to ever wear an NRA hat to class. During his years in college, he worked as a retail clerk with a well-known chain store. He spent most of that time mopping up spills and bodily fluids, pushing shopping carts, and stocking the feminine hygiene aisle. Doing these menial tasks helped to buoy him through the difficult times at school, because he knew that some day soon, he would graduate college and be done with such drudgery forever and spend the rest of his days wearing tweed jackets with leather elbow patches and talking to other like-minded people about important works of literature.
No.
What happened was this: When he graduated college, he went into retail management. Really. And found himself doing some of the same menial tasks he did as a clerk, or telling other people to perform these tasks, despite the fact that he had an English degree from a reputable university hanging on his wall. Realizing that he now had to actually go out and make a living, Steve put his dreams of academia and the great American novel on hold.
Over the next few years, life moved pretty fast as it usually does when you stop going to school. He met his wife Jennifer in 1993, married her in 1994. They now have two children, Virginia and Isaac. Let's fast forward a few years and skip all the stuff about changing diapers and eating really cheap food. Even though there's some really funny stuff in there like the story about his son Isaac, who was an accomplished projectile vomiter by the age of three months. This one time he whoopsied his cookies and hit his Aunt Barbara's cleavage from six feet away, and.... ahem. Okay, on with the story.
In 1999, choosing an unconventional medium to launch his writing career, he began writing NASCAR commentary for racingangels.com. In 2000, he started his own website, "The Car Guy of Benchfield" as a means to showcase his writing and his love of automobiles and of NASCAR. The site grew at an alarming rate, reaching over 300 pages within two years of being online. In late 2001, he was chosen by Mike Calinoff (spotter for the #17 Matt Kenseth NASCAR team) to write for stockcarcity.com. However, by 2002, Steve had become quite disenchanted with NASCAR for various reasons, (the single biggest one being the death of Dale Earnhardt in 2001) and wrote his last NASCAR article that Spring. He decided that it was time to concentrate on his humor articles and work on the automotive content of his website.
In 2003, Steve met musclecarcalendar.com webmaster Greg Capes and the two became fast friends. Steve began contributing material to Muscle Car Calendar. In February of 2004, Steve was appointed to a moderator position on the MCC forum, and in July of that same year, was appointed webmaster of "Modern Muscle", which was to be the sister site to musclecarcalendar.com. "The Car Guy of Benchfield" was closed later that year so that he could devote all of his time to modernmuscle.net. The results of his work can be seen anywhere you go on this site.
On May 24th, 2006 Steve left the wonderful world of retail management for good with a solemn vow never to return. He has chosen a less stressful line of work and is continuing to write in his spare time. Steve wishes the very best for all of his former employees and wishes the same for most of his former supervisors with the exception of a few whom he wishes bad hair implants and crippling halitosis.
As of February 2008, Steve is at work on a work of fiction that he hopes to complete by year's end and is working on two freelance projects.
PS: Steve also enjoys writing about himself in the third person.
For more information on Steve, check out his resume.