My Favorite Freelance Article Headline

Freelance writers don’t usually come up with headlines for their articles, although most editors welcome suggestions.  I always take a shot, but I think coming up with good headers is an elusive gift and I have, at best, only a partial gift.   However, I did suggest the headline below.  That’s why it’s my favorite – it’s the only one I’ve come up with that makes me smile every time.   

I wrote an article for Inside Hook about a four day mountain biking adventure with half a dozen friends in Utah.  We hired Escape Adventures to provide support and guides.  It was a great trip:

The “God of Moab” in the headline refers to our head guide, Roy.  Roy is one of those people that when the apocalypse arrives, you’d want to be in his tribe.  He has that quiet easy confidence of someone who is comfortable surviving in hard conditions and even kind of likes it.  He knows What. To. Do. 

I don’t recall the moment I thought of “god of Moab”, but I’ve spent time in both Israel and southern UT and the two landscapes have similarities.  The land of Moab also gets several Bible mentions.  And Moab is the spiritual center of southern UT mountain biking (and kayaking and RZR’ing and various other adventuring diversions).  And Roy seemed to know everything about those things and all the other guides looked up to him, so yeah, “god of Moab”, why not?   But not this guy. Or this:

When I sent the finished article and headline link to Escape Adventures, they posted it on their internal group chat. Gleeful chaos ensued as the chat blew up. Roy sent me a few screenshots of his fellow co-guides’ mocking adorations.  Here’s one:

To be clear, Roy was not the God, just a god.  But, always remember, Ray Roy, if someone asks you if you’re a god you say yes!

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