Conway journalist Tim Bullard's article on Dr. Jeffrey Wigand, the tobacco company whistle-blower and protagonist of the movie "The Insider," was recently published in Savannah's (Ga.) Coastal Senior magazine. Wigand now lives in Folly Beach and is waging a battle to ban smoking from restaurants and public places in Charleston.

Bullard, a Laurinburg, N.C., native, has written for newspapers in the past and has been freelancing for The Catholic Miscellany for eight years.

His tenacity and creativity have made him an example for writers who need encouragement as they write and seek places to have their work published. He uses the annual "Writer's Market" book and Internet site to find publications to publish his work. His Internet site includes his resume, some of his articles and photos he has taken or had taken with him in them, such as one with President Bush.

One photo is of a lone candle burning during the funeral of one of two siblings who died of AIDS in their 30s. At 47, Bullard says that story affected him emotionally more than any other he has ever written. At the time of the first death, he was working with the mother of the young man and woman who died.

The story he is most proud of is an an expose about a bordello, written before he moved to Horry County, that is now the subject of a book he has written but is not yet published. While working on the story, he received a death threat, and the newspaper he worked for, which he said was in litigation in another matter, would not publish the article. He sent the story to a newspaper in another city, and, when it was published, the newspaper he was working for fired him for freelancing. The article led to the arrest of an ex-mayor and several raids on the business. It created hard times for Bullard, but it also won him commendation plaques from the S.C. House of Representatives and Senate for investigative reporting.

"Sometimes I don't know if I'd do it again," he said, "but, when I look at those plaques, I think I'd probably do it again."

Bullard said he has trouble now trying to sell tourism articles about any place in South Carolina, because he says most editors of tourism publications don't seem to want to encourage people to visit the state with the conflict about the Confederate flag flying on the Statehouse grounds.

Bullard loves his work, but the most important things to him, he said, are his wife, Dianne, his family and trying to live a Christian life.

For more on Bullard and his work, visit his Internet site at http://www.timbullard.com/.